Archive for the Music Category
The album Raising Sand, a collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, came out in 2007. It wasn’t until today that I started actively listening to it. Wow! This is some of the very best music I’ve heard in a very long time. There’s real magic between these two singers and though I’ve been a Zeppelin fan for years, it’s refreshing to hear Plant sing this material. I’ve respected bluegrass artists but thought the genre isn’t really my thing - but after hearing Krauss’s singing here, I have to surrender. She’s fantastic.
Songs like “Killing the Blues”, “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” and “Stick With Me Baby” were easy on the ears during the very first listen. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.
Here’s a video of Plant and Krauss performing live the song “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On).”
Here’s a Charlie Rose interview with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett about the album and how it all came together.
I read a bit of an interview with Moby that was posted over at CNN’s site. I am not hyper-knowledgeable about Moby’s music but I liked the way he made a specific point about different kinds of working relationships:
If I work with a really well-known, established musician, you have to deal with their lawyers, you have to deal with managers and agents, and you have to book flights and hotel rooms and studios. And if I have a friend come over to sing, they come over, we work in the studio for a couple of hours, we make spaghetti, we go see a movie. The whole process is just a lot more fun.
In the interview he also discusses a site he’s created that makes his music freely available for use by filmmakers. Overall, I thought it was a pretty cool interview and I liked what he had to say.
This interview with Stewart Copeland was a fun read. I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he rips on jazz musicians. I’m not saying I agree, it’s just funny to read what he says on the subject.
Now I’m very curious about this Oysterhead band he was in with Trey Anastasio and Les Claypool. It’s outrageous to even imagine and I had no idea they even existed.
I’m a bit of a weirdo and sometimes it embarrasses my wife.
For example, I take a bit of interest in street musicians. I like to stand close to them and listen to what they are playing. Sometimes, given the chance, I’ll start up a conversation and ask the musician some questions about what he/she is doing. It’s the starting up a conversation with a total stranger in the subway station kind of thing that might lead my wife to stand ten feet away from me on the platform.
Well, this morning I read an article that made me feel a little bit vindicated. It seems that most people are so intent on where they are going that they refuse to listen to the music that is playing. Even if it’s Joshua Bell playing his Stradivarious violin.
[hat tip to aldaily.com]
I’ve added some songs to the radio blog. You’ll find Amon Tobin’s “Creatures” and The Who’s “Boris the Spider.”
However, most of the added songs are from Monty Python productions. There is “The Song That Goes Like This” from Spamalot and also “All Things Dull and Ugly,” “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “Bruces’ Philosophers Song” and “The Tale of Sir Robin.”