Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Well I downloaded some of YHF by Wilco from Aquarium Drunkard along with some Loose Fur and and other odd bits and pieces. Also on another there was a bunch of Replacements and Paul Westerberg bootlegs and outtakes.

I really like these. Funny thing is that having played in bands for so long one of the luxuries I had to dispence with surprisingly enough was music and stereo equipment. Of late I have tried to do some catch up by putting together a system listen to music with, apart form my car stereo. Having basically reduced my TV watching to a scant two or three hours per week I needed some entertainment. I know that is hard to believe. How does one reach 40 something and not be listeing to music. Well I was....mostly in the car...or live. The old Scott stereo reciever died back in 1990 or so and was never replaced and the AR-1 speakers were sold at a yard sale.

So now my iMac is tied into my Pioneer stereo with newer AR bookshelf and 62' vintage Elac speakers, a pioneer PL-112D turntable and old Sanyo cassette deck. I put a 20 gig drive in this old defunct iMac aloing with a new motherboard. So now it sits in my stereo rack slashing out the iTunes visualization and music to the AUX input on the Pioneer.

Any way. Today I've listened the cuts YHF for the first time, twice. And have digested a lot of Loose Fur as well... I first became a fan of Wilco when I first heard a Ghost is Born. I personally count that as being one of my all time favorite albums. Where have I been...in a hole? Of sorts....no doubt.

The ten years I spend playing bluegrass and Americana has left me a bit naive to the developments of modern rock over the past decade. Unlike the keyboardist, Fisk who is very up to speed on all things new in music. I was kinda there in the early 90's but after burning out on rock nad getting a banjo I was soon lost to the world of Earl Scruggs, Alan Munde, Tony trischka, Bela Fleck and JD Crow. Along with all the great bluegrass bands old and new, I absorbed all that like a sponge. Jim And Jesse, The Clinch Mountain Boys practicaly the entire catalog of ROunder Records...Plus I spent a lot of time simply playing bluegrass with people, regular everyday folk...I guess that is why they call it folk music.

Now...it is all water under the bridge....but I found a disk of some recordings of several orginal tunes I recorded with Handful of Grass and I'll post those up when I get them encoded. Including a D.A.M. Cd from the heady days of MP3.com way back in 2000. Seems like an eternity. Any way I'll post some of those too. I had a number one hit in country that came up from the Americana genre for a while and actually got a few checks from MP3.com back then.

But anyway. I am having a wonderful time "discovering" some music that I have a very close affinity with. So much great music coming from so many directions. All I can do is join in an jump into the fray. That reminds me I saw the Fray with my daughter the other day. Good show...but that is another post no doubt.

So if you are reading this don't forget to stop by http://soul-amp.com/freebies and grab our early takes on songs we are working on. Most other them are also found as posts here too...just hit go back in time and you will find them.

So I sit and listen a lot now. there are lots of things that are the same and some new sounds. But one thing still shows through and that is emotion. When it is in the music it is good. I don't care what genre it is.

Sometimes I hear a new young indie-pop band from one of the blogs and I wonder what the musicians will be doing in 20 years and what strange paths will they take...if they have as interesting of jounrey as Tweedy....it will be interesting for sure to keep listening.

Note: When you write crap late at night it is pretty much crap. I had to edit this for stupidity today...haha - IDRGAC