Music for 22 April, 2008

Listened to Joni Mitchell's 'Hissing of Summer Lawns' a couple of times today. To think I first owned these songs on 8-track and am now hearing them on my iPod. That's just nuts.

There's a reason why this album is just not as good as 'Blue' and 'Court and Spark'. She has equally good musicians, but it becoming a bit self-indulgent, I believe. Some of the lyrics are still excellent: 'Jonah and the ticking whale', as well as ' A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof like a dragonfly on a tomb'. Excellent imagery, but somehow less compelling than the efforts on her earlier work.

There is much more sophistication of music an lyrics, but it is just less fun. Every musician can learn and listen from Joni, and this is no exception. It's just not her best work. I remember reading in 1975 in Creem magazine or something that the Zeppelin boys had Joni Mitchell's 'Court and Spark' tape in the machine a lot when they were on tour. Seems like an odd juxtaposition, but they had good taste anyway. I wonder if they would have had 'Hissing ...' in as well after it came out.

Today's Music - April 21 2008

Just listened to a Mick Taylor cover of the Thin Lizzy tune 'Jailbreak'. The arrangement is a pretty straight reading of the tune, but Mick plays both leads originally handled by both Gorham and Robertson. He has some interesting departures on these lead breaks, but nothing revelatory. I always did like Mick's guitar and amp tone - it sort of established the late 60's early 70's alternative standard to Page and Clapton. It could be more meaty like the Thin Lizzy boys themselves.

The tune comes off the 'This is Guitar Gods" CD, and is not the best tune on that compilation, but it is credible, if not inspiring. This is a disc to add to your collection if you are an avid guitar fan - it's mostly music for other musicians.

Today's Music - April 14 2008

I have been catching up on a lot of Leigh Nash's music since I played a cut for my wife and she really liked it. The cut is from her 2006 release "Blue on Blue". The cut is called "My Idea of Heaven".

It is a catchy tune with her talented vocal stylings and I like it a lot. I do have to admit that it is a bit predictable, however. She is extremely good at tugging heartstrings, but she and the others in Sixpence seemed to do it more effortlessly and subtly than is in evidence in this tune. Given that, the fans of Sixpence should like it a lot, and many seem to have voiced that opinion on Youtube. On the other hand, it may not win her a lot of new fans, although it should. I hope she does continue to make good music.

Cheers.

Why the title?

Years ago, I worked for a large aerospace conglomerate and sat in a cubicle. My team lead, a good friend, engineer, and musician, would stop by every morning to talk about music before the day began. It was therapeutic for both of us to discuss something that we love. We have talked about a site for self-published music by independent musicians that may still come to pass.

Until then, feel free to make this your morning music stop. I plan on providing reviews and clips as well as links where available. I suppose that I am more a musicologist than a musician, so I listen to a lot of music of a fairly eclectic nature. I also have an in-house recording studio that I use for recording musician friends as well as video post work in support of friends' projects.

Cheers.

Startup Recovery Mode

Welcome to the inaugural post for the Morning Music Stop blog.

I'll have more to post on why it's called that later.

The past week:
Wed-Thursday: I spent some time evaluating some work done on a senior project at Brigham Young University that my company sponsored. The students on 4 teams developed an application to run on an ad-hoc network that detected and located a dog that had a radio tag attached to her back. I have some photos and video, so I'll see about posting that later.

All other days: We are working like dogs around home to get things moved around so the carpet layers can come in and put down new carpet in the house next week. Packing, moving, painting, all sorts of stuff. Last night we went to dinner as a mild restorative and when the check was paid, I found I could not stand up. My right knee would not straighten. Eventually the extensors relaxed sufficiently so I could walk. What a geezer.

Music options yesterday: AOR on the radio, Sixpence None The Richer and Leigh Nash on the MP3. This past week rediscovered the goodness that is Coltrane.