Bah Humbug

Tis the post title, only a little tongue in cheek.  Sorry folks, I'll fake a lot of things but this year I'm just not in a Christmas mood.  I wish I were but, I'm going to let it ride and wait until next year.  I have however been nostalgic lately for the "guitar god".  "There is no guitar god" you say?  Oh ye of little faith. For this post I have two goodies. The other day I attempted to make a list of my top 10 favorite guitar solos OF ALL TIME but, I failed. Because I could never narrow it down to 10 I ended up with almost 18 minutes of some of the greatest moments in music history. I hope you enjoy that, if you have the patience (pun). My other goodie is the guitar god that I speak of. There are humans that are extremely proficient at the guitar these days but, I would not call them gods. I call them guitar heroes. A wise and awesome movie once said that, "Heroes are remembered but, legends never die." The guitar gods...legends, may not have played as many notes as some of the new guitar heroes but they somehow took the notes that were available to everybody else and played them like nobody (not even the guitar heroes) could play them. They changed volume knobs forever (car & home stereos, Walkmans, Discmans, iPods, etc). There haven't been many guitar gods/legends in the last 20 years but I'm convinced that Derek Trucks is one. Here is another great example of one of the guitar greats. The guitar solo fun is at the bottom but only in flash for those that aren't slaves of the evil apple mobile empire.

The Derek Trucks link on Youtube was removed

Link to guitar solos mix

It is that time of year and for the first time in a long time I have been enjoying some Christmas music. Last year She & Him came out with this album and I have been waiting to break it back in this year. It has quickly moved up my list of favorite Xmas albums. My first of course being Bing Crosby's Christmas Album. I can see Papa Jarrett right now singing along to Bing. Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!
Cheers!
Clint.

'tis the season

So, I'm obsessed with Christmas in general, but particularly with holiday music.

Off the top of my head, in no particular order, are my top 10 (and note that they change every year...)

White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen
The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
Merry Christmas From the Family - Robert Earl Keen
All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey
Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi (and the Peanuts kids)
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano

The worst Christmas Song ever? That is easy - 12 Days of Christmas

Now, for your enjoyment, is the Christmas song that gets me most pumped up. It starts out hilarious and ends in full rock mode. Come for SNL, stay for Julian Casablancas...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!


i wish it was christmas today by workprint

A running timebomb

There's nothing that is more important to me during a run than having a good playlist. There are really no rules for which songs work and which ones don't. It's kinda like the supreme court justice's definition of porn, "I know it when I see it."

So, there's no explanation of why this song gives me the boost when I need it, but it does.

Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine

Hola Hombres!
I have enjoyed listening to the mashup lately. There is some great stuff we have on here and it make me glad to be a part of it.

I recently posted something by the Ting Tings and stated that I haven't been listening to much music and haven't felt inspired by any in forever. That was true until a few weeks ago while I was in FL for a meeting and a guy I was working with turned me on to Gillian Welch. At first I couldn't place it, but I knew that I knew her and couldn't for the life of me remember where. Naturally I turned to the world wide interweb and realized that she is a badass Grammy Award winner for none other than one of my favorite soundtracks, Oh, Brother Where Art Thou.

INSPIRATION!

I know you guys don't like folk and bluegrass as much as I do, but her catalog of music is outstanding. Most of her Singer Songwriter stuff is a beautiful downer. They should sell the albums with a rocking chair and a porch.

Listening and researching Gillian lead me to her music partner Dave Rawlings who has a band called Dave Rawlings Machine. Here is a bluegrass cover of To Be Young.

Cheers Mates,
Clint.

Sometimes you just need a little Wu

So I'm doing the Music Mashup version of not watching any episodes of a great show all year, then buying the season on DVD and knocking it out in a weekend. Lots of good stuff coming in, but it makes me sad to see the posts that express feelings of not being inspired by music lately. I hate to see that ever happen, so I have some words of advice. When you feel like nothing is really speaking to you, like nothing is being released that means anything to you, says something that you feel is important, or makes you simply want to dance... ...reach back to the 90's. Even better, the mid-90's. Even EVEN better, mid-90's rap.

Shameless, unabashed, raw, and awesome.

 

ZZ Ward - Put the Gun Down

ZZ Ward's album came out today.