The Eclectic Songwriter

hmmmm - I certainly like lots of different styles of music - jazz, classical, blues - and whatever you call what people like Jimmy Buffett and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks and Randy Newman and people like that do - and cabaret and Kurt Weill and and and....... - meaning I know bits and pieces of lots of styles, and not much about any one. Sigh.

Warmth is something I like in music - and really good singing - (cannot bear those electronically enhanced and altered voices so common now - instant turn-off for me) - and wit and irony and stuff I like to sing (blues and jazz and such-like) - and idiosyncratic and political (LOVE the Weavers and such) - and rapture - like Mozart and Bach.

I guess I am ignorantly eclectic.

Tibetan Bowl music will probably never make a best-seller, but who cares. Criticism of your musical leanings are to be expected, especially because so few people really "get" any form of music that requires them to extend themselves.

Dlowan... hey, if that's ignorance, let me bathe in it. It sounds like you listen like I do. Funny, since my last post I got an email from a radio station in Texas, asking for a copy of my last disk. They were interested in my tune Cowboy From Boston... but the guy who sent it said something funny. He said he'd visited my web site and downloaded a random mix of my tunes, and he thought it was like reading a novel, and all the different kinds of tunes were like a zoo of characters. He asked for a disk with a richer mix than Butterfly, which was mostly Cowboy music and Western Swing. I'm sending him the Big Blender Mix Disk, my new recording Waltz with the Widow, where anything goes from classical to mexicali to reggae (;?)... hope he survives the encounter!

Hi Gala. The Tibetan Bowl ensemble I was in was organized by a composer named Raphael Mostel. We put on a huge solstice performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine here in NYC. There were twenty bowls, twenty percussion players (ten western, ten eastern), and a woodwind quartet. It was a long, rich piece and we were afraid it would overwhelm the audience. But the stuff was so amazingly pretty that people stayed with us through the two hour, uninterrupted performance. We didn't use any electronic amplification, just designed the production to capitalize on the astonishing acoustics of the room.

Aside from being one of the bowl players, my particular task was to organize and lead the extended rainstick and bird call sequence in the middle of it all.

That was a lot of fun...

Beedlesqoink, I would go to the performance you've described, and I would probably have left performance with a sense of well being. It would reaffirm my sense that world is not the constant bombardment of one dimensional piffle. Depth and rich variety, what a relief.

Some musicians that interest me- Dan Hicks, (thanks for the reminder dlowan) Richard Thompson. Samuel Barber, John Coltrane, June Tabor, Bach's Goldberg variations.

I recently been introduced to New York Band called Hem- I haven't ordered the CD yet, but am wondering if you've listened to them.

Some of my most favorite songs are those sung by Atahualpa Yupanqui (folklores of Argentina (1900(?)~1992)).

I like all kinds of music as well. My favorite is country music, although the new style of country, rock, pop is winning me over. I like oldies, soft rock, some of the classic rock I use to listen to as a teen, some classical music, very little bluegrass stuff, etc... At the moment my favorites are the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. I never got into jazz, rap, alternative and I'm sure there's more. Some songs I focus on the lyrics and others because I love the sound of the music. Usually, I have to like the music before the lyrics.

Best music of the moment is The Vines, The Strokes, Black Rebel Motorcycle CLub, Queens of the Stone Age and the White Stripes. Keith Urban is really good too and the Dixie CHicks are great - 2 of them are sisters, 2 of them are mothers.

Thanks for responding any and all.

Satt_Fucusable: nice to bump into you in this forum (guessing your the same satt_FS I encountered to frequent enjoyment at abuzz)... on your advisement I've ordered some of that Argentine music from the Lincoln Center Library. Sounds much to my liking.

Gezzy: I'm much like you. Music and the sheer sound come first. I liike music that flows, and doesn't seem too deliberate or self conscious. Don't care about style as long as the music leaps from the heart of the musician.

Gala, you're the second here to mention the inimitable Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. What a great band! If you find yourself liking that kind of thing I'd suggest you find a disk called Rolling with Bob, Asleep at the Wheel's tribute to Bob Wills. That Western Swing music is a tasty and little appreciated offshoot of American music. A much heartier variety of country than commerical Nashville, I think. In any event, great dance music.

Goa, I appreciate your input. Meaning no disresepect, I have to ask: do you think that it's important to care only about the newest sounds? Now I've gone to hear the Stripes twice, and I have to ask you: what makes them good.? That girl can't play drums to save her life. The music is all raw and disorganized. I asked some people round here who are always into only the newest trends, and they explained: "Theyre brother and sister" (So?); "They dress neat." (So does anyone with a little money to waste...); "She's a girl drummer." (Oh my, is this a first?) I'm baffled. If it doesn't sound good what's the point? So many young people I speak with about this subject seem to think that only the new ones deserve our attention. Is there some reason why someone who's been playing a while, and gotten better as musician as a result, should be discarded? Is it only about trends?
This is the longest paragraph in this posting, and I guess that's because it goes to the heart of my question.

Again, Goa, please respond. my probing on this is not meant in disrespect. I'm just trying to understand why music has gotten so fickle and inconsequential.