Ernie The Attorney

Jazz Fest 2008

The festival got some rain a couple of days, but not when I was there.

Hey music business! What up?

Seth Godin's thoughts on the mistakes made in the music business is spot on.  Apple is one company that has actually benefited from the switch to digital music, or so they say. That seems right.  When I bought my first iPod, about four years ago, I had an 'Ah ha!' moment.  I re-discovered my love for music, an epiphany that paved the way for me to switch my computing life completely to Apple.  Yes, Apple completely understands our love for digital music. 

Or does it?

A few weeks ago my brother visited me from Panama.  One of his goals was to buy an iPod and open an account on the iTunes music store.  He already had an iPod that I'd given him, and which I had loaded up with all my music.  Even though the iPod had 40 GBs of tunes he quickly became dissatisfied.  He wanted to buy his own music.  But, because Apple doesn't allow people in Panama to use the iTunes music store, he had to resort to using illegal services like Limewire.  While it was free, he wasn't satisfied because the quality of the files he acquired wasn't always good, and it was too cumbersome to transfer the music to his iPod.  He wanted to buy music legally, but he simply couldn't do it.

So I set him up with an account that has my U.S. based credit card.  Now he can buy music (which I pay for, although he claims he'll pay me back).  :)  And so now he's happy. He says he's re-discovered his love for music.  Too bad his friends in Panama (or the rest of Central and South America) can't do the same.

Meanwhile, as my brother was buying a new iPod nano, I was buying a satellite radio. It was an impulse purchase so I really had no idea how much I would like it. The quality of the sound is great, and I now have a steady stream of new music pouring into my house. I am absolutely blown away.  As soon as I hear something I like I walk over and look at the display to find out who the artist is and the song name.  At first I was tempted to buy every new song I liked, but I kept myself in check.  Why buy the music?  I already own lots of music.  As long as I'm hearing lots of new stuff I'm perfectly happy.  As long as I'm in the United States, that is.

The satellite radio won't work in Panama when I go down there to visit my brother.  Oh well, maybe one day the music industry will be all smoothed out and we'll be able to have our music wherever and whenever we want to.

How death came to visit the music industry

Dick Morris is a big player in the music industry, but like many music executives he had no vision  whatsoever (or maybe it was lack of initiative).  Wired Magazine explained that he liked to "rail against criminal-minded college students and low-life punks who steal the music that his artists work so hard to create."  But he "admits to being fairly ignorant about technology" insisting that his job was to nurture the creative side of the business.

Yep, and Nero's job was to fiddle while the flames rose.  What a stupid statement: Complain about what you don't control, while you say that the one thing you could control is completely incomprehensible to you. No wonder the music industry is in shambles.  But, I am glad. 

If there are two words that don't belong together it's "music" and "industry."

Easy online listening. Maybe too easy.

Simplify Media purports to make your iTunes library available to you (or any of your 'friends') online.  And it works with both Macs and PCs. 

How well does it work?  Not sure because I haven't tried it, but if it works too well it might face a legal challenge.  And if the online music service suffers death-by-litigation then perhaps someone say (paraphrasing Othello) that Simplify Media connected people with music --"not wisely, but too well."

New Orleans music - A national treasure

Jazz Fest brings some amazing acts to town, which results in a lot of spur-of-the-moment jam sessions.  Like the one that John Mayer describes in this great article (in which he says he likes Jazz Fest precisely because he can stretch out and be a musician rather than a 'pop star').  Back when the Talking Heads were still together I remember seeing David Byrne standing among the throngs at Tips checking out a local band.  And that was just on some random weekend, not during Jazz Fest.

Anyway, Jazz Fest 2007 is officially over and so all of the out-of-town musicians have left.  But that hasn't diminished the output of great music here one iota.  New Orleans is always overflowing with great musicians.  Hell, a lot of them perform on street corners.  Dan Baum's post about Loose Marbles gives the background on a group that I've often run into while strolling in the French Quarter. 

Stumbling across bands like Loose Marbles is one reason I'd find it hard to ever leave New Orleans.  Dan Baum also has a great post about the O. Perry Walker Band Trip, which provides an inspiring peek into how we produce our great musicians. New Orleans may not be at the forefront of business and industry. But it's the premier breeding ground for every form of jazz music, and has been for a very long time. 

Even colossal disasters can't take that away from us.

Jazz Fest 2007

The weather was great for the first weekend of Jazz Fest.  On Saturday, Becky and I rode our bikes from Uptown and toward the end of our 6 mile trek, as we were huffing along the Jeff Davis path, Phil Radecker came up behind me.  "Get out of the way Svenson," he said while maneuvering around me like a man on a mission.  Last October Phil's mission was enduring chemo treatments for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  He's fine now and obviously focused on returning to a balanced life, which in New Orleans means attending Jazz Fest.  As soon as we parked our bikes, Phil put on his special shirt, bid us goodbye and made his way into the crowd. 

Becky and I had no formal battle plan, but we did have a pocket sized program.

Jon Cleary and Rockin' Dopsie were at the Acura stage, which is where we met up with Ray Abadin, a law school classmate who practices law in Miami but comes to Jazz Fest every year with his wife Kim for musical redemption and spiritual rekindling. We also met Mike the Fireman from Chicago who comes here every year.  I didn't see this guy, but I know he was somewhere in the throng.

One of the greatest moments this year was on the opening Friday.  They held a jazz funeral for Ed Bradley, the reknowned reporter for 60 Minutes, and a longtime fan of the Fest.  The funeral was attended by Bradley's widow, Jimmy Buffet, Rita Coolidge and other musicians.  An official memorial to Bradley will now be a permanent part of the yearly event, as it should be.

This morning I went to the Camellia Grill for breakfast.  To my happy surprise there was a notice on the window that Harry Tervalon was back for a two day appearance.  I met a woman in the line who had come to town to do volunteer work for a couple of weeks (and, of course, go to the Fairgrounds to hear some great music). She said her employer back in California was happy she could come to help out for a few weeks. She seemed pretty happy about it too.

Last year's festival brought a lot of wonderful people to town, but it seems like this year the good vibes are even stronger.  Maybe we're further down the road than we realize.  The Army Corps of Engineers is still struggling, but apparently the "Corps of Mindlessly Joyful Dancers" seem to be doing quite well:

 

Welcome home Monk

The Times Picayune reports some outstanding news: The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance is relocating from Los Angeles to New Orleans. 

New Orleans' Jazz Festival will rock, swing, juke and jive..

The New Orleans Jazz Fest schedule is up for this year, and it includes some major headliners such as Van Morrisson, Steely Dan, Brad Paisley, Norah Jones, Counting Crows, and Harry Connick, Jr.  The Fest takes place over two weekends: April 27 - 29 and May 4 - 6.  Check the official website for more information.

Music Recommendation - Rebecca Fontane

Check out my friend Rebecca's My Space site, and listen to her song Santa Fe.  Rebecca is an amazing singer/song-writer.  She's living in Austin now because of the whole post-Katrina thing.

Music Recommendation - Free Monica

When I was at the Louisiana State Bar meeting in Destin, Florida I had a chance to hear two acoustic guitar players named Ben Friedman and Kyle LaMonica.  Their band is called Free Monica and they have a website and, of course, a MySpace site where you can hear a few songs from their latest CD, Egoliath (what a great name!).  Listen to Leave the Light On.  It's sort of haunting and, for some reason, it resonates for me in some weird way.  The whole CD is great; if you get a chance to hear these guys live (you'll have to be in Destin) then jump at it.

Legal Guitarist - Doc Schneider

Doc Schneider is a great litigator and a great guy.  He's also an excellent guitarist and songwriter.  I got a copy of his CD a few years ago and have enjoyed it tremendously.  Just today I found out he has a website and you can check out his songs (download them, even) free of charge (but you should buy his CD from CD-baby if you can).  Choices and Chances is a great song, but I know a lot of lawyers will like Legal Guitarist too.  Doc lives in Atlanta, but travels around the country practicing law.

Jazz Fest Lineup Announced

The N.O. Jazz Fest is going to take place on two weekends this year: April 28 - 30 and May 5 - 7.  The announcement of artists was released today, and it appears that Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffet, Paul Simon, Keith Urban and Bob Dylan will be among the big-name acts that will be appearing.  Obviously, the real draw is all the local talent that will be on hand.  Fats Domino comes to mind, along with others too numerous to mention.

The musical baton was passed to me

Ray Ward has passed me the musical baton.  He asks the following questions:

• what is my total volume of music
• what is the last CD I bought
• what song is playing right now
• what five songs do I listen to a lot because they are special to me
• five people I'm passing the musical baton to

I'm going to respond, but in an extended post, so feel free to click on the 'continue reading...' link if you want to read my responses.

First, let me say that this exercise is good because it caused me to reflect on how much music has meant to me over the years. As a young kid the Beatles were a big deal. I saw them on TV and was obviously familiar with their music; same with the Monkees.  So I started out buying the small records, which are now archaic, known as 45s.  The first song I really went nuts over was Windy by The Association.  I listened to to it over and and over, memorized the lyrics, and sang along with it constantly.  Then I figured out how to play it on the piano, and gleefully showed my piano teacher --thinking she'd believe I was a musical prodigy for being able to learn a song by ear rather than relying on sheet music.  She wasn't impressed.  She reprimanded me and told me not to do that anymore.  She told me to keep working on The Magic Froggy.

The Sixties were all around me and that was the only magic I was aware of.  My friends older brothers and sisters were listening to The Rolling Stones.  I Can't Get No Satisfaction was their anthem.  They were all kind of edgy and liked the rebelliousness, which was scary to me in some way (I was ten years old then).  But the rebelliousness was everywhere.  Politicians and public figures like Martin Luther King were getting killed and there was rioting.  The Vietnam war was going on and the evening news had scary war footage and lists of people who were dying.  (Cue Buffalo Springfield's famous song)

Still, when my dad would take my brother and I to the park it was filled with colorfully dressed people strolling around slowly muttering phrases like 'hey, peace man.'  What was up with them?  My dad whispered to me that these people were known as 'hippies.'  Apparently, they didn't want to go fight a war in Vietnam.  So, even though they looked kind of weird, I decided that I liked them.

About this time I bought my first LP, actually it was two LPs: Alice Cooper's Killer (because my friend Manny liked it and he was cool) and Elton John's Madman Across the Water (because it was the unofficial soundtrack album for every party that I went to).  I discovered lots of other music, but most of it was the stuff you'd figure a kid would listen to.  Eventually I moved to Panama where I was exposed to a lot of new music.  Not really stuff I liked, but it was around me so I absorbed it nevertheless.  And I started playing the guitar because I found out that you were allowed to play songs by ear.

I moved on to looking for weird music that my friends didn't know about, like a band called Crack The Sky.  But I liked regular stuff too and I was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.  I wore the grooves out of Born to Run.  But then I went to college I was craving new ideas; fortunately there were a lot of people to help me find them.  I went to work at a record store in New Orleans called New Attitudes and spent much of my paycheck on records.  I discovered jazz music.  My roommate, Kemper, and I would spend a lot of time at a local jazz club called Rosy's, and we heard people like Albert King, Roy Buchanan, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, and Dave Brubeck. 

My dad loved jazz so he was eager to fan this flame of enthusiasm.  He took us to jazz clubs and we wound up hearing a group of local jazz musicians that are now legendary: David Torkanowsky, Johnny Vidacovich, James Singleton and Steve Masakowski.  I somehow managed to take guitar lessons from Steve Masakowski and learned that not only was it okay to play music by ear, but it was also very hard and required a lot of discipline.

So I still love Jazz music and all the other stuff I listened to when I was growing up, but I also love finding stuff that is off the radar.  I have some great musician friends and they are a great source of recommendations.  But my kids have been my most recent musical advisors.  For example, last Saturday I went to go listen to a couple of my musician friends play and one of them, Danny, mentioned that he heard something by a talented new  kid:  Tyler Hilton.  Danny said his stuff was amazing.  I called my 13 year old daughter, Charlotte, and asked her if she could find out more about this guy. 

She sighed ("that is so yesterday").  Charlotte's favorite 'under the radar' music now is Graham Colton Band.  When Charlotte starts her own music blog you'll have the up to date music recommendations you really need.  Anyway, that's my story about how I came to love music, and so, to wrap this up, here are my answers to the 'baton' questions:

Total Volume of Music:
Probably about 100 CDs, which I rarely buy any more.  My computer has 4280 songs or about 18.52 GBs, which is not my entire collection.  The rest is backed up or scattered around on other computers.

The Last CD I Bought:
I'll translate this to 'last album download'.  That would be Kenna's New Sacred Cow.

Song Playing Right Now:
Round Here by the Counting Crows (It came up on iTunes random play)

Five Songs I Listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me:

1. Cry of a Tiny Babe by Bruce Cockburn
2. Unsung Psalm by Tracy Chapman
3. All Blues by Miles Davis
4. You Don't Know Me by Ali Lefevre (made popular by Ray Charles)
5. Old '55 by Tom Waits

Five People to whom I passing the baton:

1. Denise Howell
2. Marty Schwimmer
3. Dennis Kennedy
4. Tom Mighell
5. Rick Klau

I hope these guys don't mind, but I chose them because over the years I've gotten some good musical recommendations from them here and there and so I'd like to see what they have to say to the 'musical baton' questions. 

Chris Cortez CD-Release Party this Saturday

My good friend Chris Cortez is having his CD-Release party this Saturday night at Dos Jefes Cigar Bar here in New Orleans. His new CD is called 'Mum is the Word' and features some catchy originals and  some covers like "Everyday I Have The Blues, Georgia On My Mind, Sweet Georgia Brown."   The CD has already gotten a 5 star rating from eJazz News.

The festivities kick off at 9:30.  Chris is going to have a killer 6 piece band that promises to rock the house.  Admission is free, and there will be lots of cool prizes and giveaways, including some of his new CDs.  His old stuff is available at Apple's iTunes Music Store at this link (requires that you have iTunes installed on your computer) if you want to check out what his stuff sounds like. Check it out and then come to Dos Jefes and look for me in the back.

My friend Chris Cortez' album is on iTunes

His last album, Hold It Right There, is now available on iTunes Music Store. (my top song recommendations? Benny's from Heaven, Hold It Right There, and All Right, Ok, You Win).  His next album, Mum's The Word, is being released at the end of this month, and hopefully it will be available on ITMS soon too. 

Chris is a really wonderful musician, but he depends on the kindness of quasi-strangers (i.e. people who hear him play live) to make an immodest living.  His records are completely self-produced, so please give a listen and, if you like what you hear, buy his stuff and then relentlessly recommend it to friends and strangers.  I think it's really great that he has managed to get visible on Apple's music site.  Hopefully, it will lead to more people discovering his music.  He's someone who really deserves a wider audience.

Listen to Chris Cortez on WWOZ

My friend Chris Cortez is going to be on New Orleans' local radio station WWOZ this Friday (tomorrow).  He'll be playing  his guitar from 6 - 8 pm CST on Friday Nov. 19th.  You can listen in on their web stream if you aren't in New Orleans.  He'll be playing with my friend Vincent (guitar) and a great percussionist named John Wooton; and he will certainly play some stuff from his new album Mum's the Word.  Definitely check it out.

And check out WWOZ anytime if you want to hear great New Orleans music.  WWOZ is one of those rare independent music stations that we all need to nurture in any way we can.  Hey, Jazz Fest only happens once a year and you've got to come here to enjoy it.  WWOZ is on all the time and you can listen to it from anywhere in the world if you have an internet connection.

Music Recommendation: Maroon 5

My sister-in-law is in town visiting along with her sister, Michelle.  We've had fun listening to music at my official new neighborhood bar (Dos Jefes), and in the course of one of our conversations Michelle told me about a band I'd never heard of: Maroon 5.  She said I had to listen to She Will Be Loved (iTunes Link) and she was right.  Great song!  The next day another friend of mine emailed me to tell me that her new favorite song is Sunday Morning, also by Maroon 5. 

I can't believe I hadn't heard of this band before.  Oh well, that's what friends are for.

Social Software, Music & Laptop Karaoke – a Musing in G# Major

Using technology to collaborate in new ways has been a hot topic for years. My work E-mail program is called 'Groupwise.' It's mostly used in our firm as an E-mail program, but you can see that Novell intended for it to be a more robust collaborative tool than just email. These days you hear the term 'social software' bandied about a lot. People are still trying to create applications that allow workers to share information. But workers are busy trying to hoard key information (not share it), or they are trying to learn the basic shortcuts for simple tasks that they do everyday (quick test: how many people know what ALT+TAB is a shortcut for?) and don't have time or motivation to learn about 'social software.'

Meanwhile, in the non-work environment social software is taking off. For example, Napster was one of the most successful social software applications ever written. Why is that? Was it because the application interface was easy to understand? Was it because Napster spent a lot of money on advertising and user-training?

No, it was because Napster allowed people to get free music from other people on the Internet. People like music, and they like free music even more (it's why people used to listen to the radio, before it became...well, completely useless). But, the free music boondoggle is mostly over now. Napster was shut down and then transformed into a for-pay service that's not doing so well (surprise, surprise!). KaZaa flourished but then the RIAA started filing lawsuits and the software became a Petri dish for spyware and pop-ups, all of which combined to make the music-sharing experience there not worth the trouble. One bright spot occurred when Apple created the iTunes Music Store, which made it easy to get music easily at a reasonable cost over the Internet.

So is the 'Social Software' boon of music over? Who knows? Certainly the free music file-sharing era is on the downcycle. But what about the fun (and perfectly legal) act of recommending music to your friends? The Internet could somehow still be good for this, right?

[if you are reading this in a news reader there is more to this post; if you are reading this at my website click below on 'continue reading...']

Apple's iTunes Music Store, which is an Internet music tool, allows the creation of iMix lists, which lets users discover new music based on the recommendations of others. And emergent services like MusicPlasma allow people to discover new music based on music that they already like. But, somehow these Internet tools aren't really getting us to an exciting new place in the field of recommending new music to folks.

I think that eventually the Internet will find a way to create a model that does work so that people can find new music. But, for now, the record companies are more interested in locking down their content with DRM technology (i.e. 'digital rights management' software), so the odds are low that a viral music recommendation system (which is needed to popularize new artists) is going to evolve on the Internet anytime soon.

But I have an idea for how it can happen on a smaller, more intimate, network than the Internet. And the music companies won't even mind. (Well, theoretically). So, as as Miss Ann Elk would say, here is my theory.

Let's say you have cool bar in your town. One where young people and eclectic people hang out and listen to live music. There's a pool table in the back so, even when there isn't live music, people still come in to hang out. Or they serve great coffee and have a lending library of books and couches where people lounge around. The atmosphere is such that people are inclined to strike up conversation with people that they've never met, but whom they see are regulars at this bar.

In New Orleans, I'm thinking of a bar called Dos Jefes as my example. It has all the stuff I just mentioned, plus more (e.g. it's a cigar bar). But there is one thing that is missing from Dos Jefes: it needs a wireless network, and it doesn't even need to be connected to the Internet. Why not? Isn't the whole point of an establishment having a Wi-Fi connection that it brings in people who want to surf the web for free?

Yes, and maybe those are the sort of patrons that the bar wants to attract. But then again maybe not. It doesn't matter. I'm talking about music and social software. Remember?

So, here's the concept. You create a wireless network and allow people to use their computers to tap into the house sound system and play music on that system from their computers. Obviously, you do this during slow hours and when there is no live music playing. After awhile, you start to get people coming in to hear new music that is 'recommended' to them by the people who are using their computers to broadcast to the house sound system.

How, technically, could you set such a system up? Easy, use Apple's Airport Express/AirTunes system. I've used this system in my home and, trust me, it can do the job (cost: $125). The slightly trickier part is the social management of the system, as opposed to the technical one. The bar owner will have to have a way to let people 'take control' of the sound system that prevents the system from being monopolized by one or two people. Perhaps, you have a Conch Shell that you pass around that represents who is currently allowed to access the system (remember Lord of the Flies'?). The social system that will evolve will vary from bar to bar and from community to community. But the key is to create a system that makes it fun for people to go to the bar and share their music. I guess the best analogy is that it is a Karaoke bar without the live singing.

If it evolved correctly and became manageable you would start to have people sharing their music with other people in their immediate environment. If you play a really cool song that no one has heard of they are going to come over and talk to you to find out more about the artist. Hey, for a few minutes you're the hip one at the bar, and you're not even in a band.

At some point people start competing to showcase truly unknown music (think of the indie artists here) because the 'cool factor' is all about offering good music that no one has heard of, or at least that most people have not heard of.

I think it would be most cool if, eventually, many, many bars evolved that had this model. And better yet would be if most of them developed a simple rule: the only music you could play is stuff by people who hadn't signed with a major record company --only music by lesser known and independent artists. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world? I think so, and I hope it happens soon.

Meanwhile, if you want me I'll be over here reading Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity.

Apple AirTunes & Airport Express

Steve Crandall has some thoughts on using Apple AirTunes. What's AirTunes? If you have the new Airport Express gizmo you can stream music from any home computer that has iTunes. Steve has been using the new system in his house for 2 weeks and calls it revolutionary (although he also sees room for improvement).

I've only been using it for about a week, but I completely agree with his observations. My wife had a party for her law firm at our house last weekend and we used it to play music during the party. People were shocked when they were told that the music was coming from the iMac in the kitchen. The ability to call up any song at a moment's notice from the vast library of digitized music is something that has to be experienced first hand. The other morning my wife used my laptop to pull up the song she wanted to hear while she was getting ready for work.

The funny thing is that she played a song that wasn't on my laptop. How did that happen? Well, iTunes uses a special technology that allows any computer running iTunes to see the music on any other nearby computer and to play that music. So my wife was using my laptop to wirelessly communicate with the downstairs iMac, which then wirelessly sent its music to the Airport Express that was attached to the stereo that uses wires and connects to various speakers through the house. And all this amazing stuff doesn't just work on Macs; it works on PCs too.

Anyway, the net result of this amazing technology is that I now can easily listen to music on my home stereo. It was too hard before so we never used the stereo. Now that it's easy we listen to music almost all the time. Nice.

Music News from New Orleans

Last Friday night I went to the Smoke 'n Blues BBQ music club to hear my friends Chris Cortez and Vincent Marini play together (well, actually Vincent was sitting in with Chris' band). Two amazing guitarists playing acoustically, along with drums, keyboard and bass, and it was electric (mixed up metaphor intended). But then out of the audience steps this blonde woman named 'Sera' who launches into a heart-stopping rendition of 'Red House.' Turns out she has a recently-released record that was produced by Gary Katz (who produced some Steely Dan stuff), and she has a very impressive website. I hope she gets more recognition; she obviously deserves it. If you have a chance to hear her perform grab it.

But back to Chris for a second. His last album (Hold it Right There) is a great CD. He has a new CD coming out soon, with some great original songs, including one called 'Bad Attitude' that is a great acoustic blues tune with really clever lyrics. You can regularly hear him perform on Wednesday nights at the 'Open Mike' deal at Smoke 'n Blues. But he also plays a lof of real serious gigs with his various musician friends around Slidell and New Orleans. So, if you have the chance to hear him play, you shouldn't pass it up. The thing about talented musicians like Chris and Sera is that, while their CDs are great, their live performances are where the real magic happens.

Let's hear it for Harmony

Partisanship bores me to no end. I’m tired of hearing debates between people who are steadfast members of the ‘blue team’ or the ‘red team.’ I was reminded of this when I was reading the Summer edition of Jazz Improv magazine, more specifically, the interview with Chris Cortez (a local guitarist that I’ve had the good fortune to be able to take some lessons from). I particularly like this passage from the interview where he was invited to comment on his overall philosophy of life:

"My general philosophy is one where we embrace things that bring us together and reject what separates us. Race and religion, gay or straight, republican or democrat, nationalism. These are examples of differences. In the overall scheme of our evolution, it’s what we have in common that moves us forward. The differences become scapegoats for the little minds who need to blame someone for their own failures."

Amen to that, brother. Maybe we should all learn more music. Why is it that we appreciate harmony so much in music and yet we crave dissonance in politics and social commentary?

$56 for a CD?

I went to play music with my friend Ched last week. He's got a little club in Slidell, which is a suburb of New Orleans (about 30 miles out of the city). After everyone left he locked up and we sat in the bar area playing guitar and talking. He started playing this song that I'd sort of heard of. He didn't know the name, but the key words in the song were 'Magnet & Steel.' He wanted to show me a harmony part but it was late so I told him not to worry about it; I'd just get the song online and then learn it.

So a quick Google search for 'magnet and steel lyrics' pulled up the song lyrics and the name of the artist, Walter Egan. Apparently, Walter Egan was a musician friend of Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac fame) and he recorded this album called 'Not Shy' and that's where the song 'Magnet & Steel' appeared. I couldn't find the album or the song on iTunes. So I checked Amazon and it appears that the CD is out of print, but there were some used ones selling for $99 and up. Yes, that's right, ninety-nine smackeroos. For the cheapest one. One copy was selling for $150.00.

I just checked eBay and there is one copy of the CD that is currently up to $56, with one day left on the bidding. Apparently, that's a great price. Still, for some strange reason I'm sort of reluctant to enter the bidding. After all, I just want to get a copy of one song.

So I guess my question is: if this out of print CD is so popular and sought after maybe the record company should re-release it. Assuming all the record companies' executives aren't too busy figuring out how to get into their lifeboats.

Country Meets Rock - CMT 'Crossroads'

I recently found out about Country Music Television's innovative show called Crossroads, which brings together two music artists, one from Country music and another from the world of Rock/Pop, who perform onstage together. For example, the one I saw last featured Ray Charles and Travis Tritt. Other shows have paired Brad Paisley & John Mayer, Ryan Adams & Elton John, and Lucinda Williams & Elvis Costello.

This is a great idea, which naturally isn't on one of the big networks. Kudos to CMT for creating this great music program. I highly recommend it if you know a bit about the aforementioned rock/pop stars, but want to learn more about country music (or vice-versa). For information on showtimes click here.

Gatemouth Brown - Guitar Legend

I've told my story about encountering Gatemouth Brown. Now it looks like Spike Lee will have his own Gatemouth Story to tell.

Jazz Music Recommendations

I've been taking jazz guitar lessons from this really great local musician, Chris Cortez. The best part of the lessons is when we listen to great jazz music and he points out some amazing thing that the performers are doing. But, even without the commentary, I savor his recommendation of great jazz artists and albums.

Pat Martino is one of those great artists, and Chris recommended that I listen to an album called 'Joyous Lake' which is not available on iTunes, but is available from Amazon as a re-released album called First Light. Another great recommendation was Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin's album 'Play,' which is available from iTunes. You have to buy the whole album to be able to get 'Autumn Leaves' which is worth it. When you listen to 'Autumn Leaves' closely and are amazed at out 'rehearsed' it seems to be remind yourself that it probably wasn't rehearsed because that song is one of those standards that jazz musicians are expected to be able to play from memory. Last, but not least, check out Bill Frisell's version of Chain of Fools, available from iTunes.

By the way, I highly recommend Chris's own albums, especially his last album 'Hold it Right There' which you can find on Amazon. And if you are in the New Orleans area this Friday you can check him out at the Smoke 'n Blues BBQ in Slidell (30 minutes outside of New Orleans), which is located here. The music starts at 10:00 pm but the drinking and eating start as soon as the sun goes down.

N.O. Jazz Fest kicks off today

The 35th Annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival starts today. The first wave of music & events is this weekend (Fri — Sun) and then it starts again next week, but lasts 4 days (Thus — Sun). Here's today's lineup of musical acts. The Jazz Fest website has more information on what's happening and when it's happening.

Also, if you can't make the Fest you can still listen to the music that was played there. Go to this link within a few days of the performance, and you can download the music (for a fee, of course). You can even download a CD case insert.

iTunes Music Recommendation

My brother, who lives in Panama and therefore hears more latin music than I do, recommended that I listen to a fellow named Juanes, and in particular, his song entitled Es Por Ti (the link is to iTunes Music Store). I really like this song, and I'm glad it was available on ITMS. I can't wait until the iTunes Music Store is available in other countries so I can start getting more recommendations for International music from people who live outside the U.S.

First the college kids are music pirates and now it's the prison inmates

A privately run rural jail in Louisiana has an interesting prison work program: illegally copying music CDs. According to the story,

"the list of CDs for sale at the jail offered CDs and tapes for $3 each, with genres including soul, blues, rap, country, new age, heavy metal and jazz. Hundreds of CDs were available by artists including 50 Cent, John Tesh, R. Kelly, Conway Twitty, Marvin Gaye, Nirvana, Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Rolling Stones.

Okay, I have one question. John Tesh? That's the kind of music they listen to in prison? Now there's a crime that should be investigated more thoroughly.

Wirelessly the music crept thru the house, and then...

One day my wireless network will stream music throughout the realm, and it will be good.  Forsooth, we're close but not quite there yet.  I had well thought that the SqueezeBox player might do the trick, and so hastily and with wanton bloodthirst (e.g. desire to live on the 'bleeding edge' of technology) did I order it over the Internet.  But, alas, it does not stream non-MP3 files so well --and I, having been a foolish knave, had ripped all my CDs into the Apple AAC format.  Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Oh well, another failed technology initiative.  Still, the good news is that I have sampled the future of wireless music.  I have heard it streaming through my abode and noted that, were it not for the halting sound that an AAC file makes as it wirelessly fights its way (like a desperate digital salmon) toward the Squeezebox, there is great promise in the idea of streaming music thru the home.

One day, in a future land not far off, I predict that Apple will release the "iPod of Wireless Home Music Devices." It will be an sleek thing that people will crave just for it's award winning design.  But it will be easy to use and highly functional.  The iTunes music program that you have on your Windows PC or Mac will communicate very nicely with the futuristic gizmo (e.g. it will allow you to create playlists in iTunes that the streaming music device can read easily, and you will be able to control the device from any computer in the house).   And it will even let you play protected AAC files that you've downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.

I know that Microsoft and its Clone-Army of Developers are working on this too.  But, for the record, let's be clear about what we are supposed to be working on: a device (not a full blown computer) that attaches to your home stereo and wirelessly gathers digital music from computers in the house and plays it to through the stereo.  I want to be able to control this device remotely from any computer in the house (e.g. increase volume, create playlists on the fly, schedule 'sleep' timing and alarm wake up events).

Okay, now that you know what you are supposed to do.  Go out and create this thing, and --for God's sake-- make it ridiculously easy to set up and use.  Is that too much to ask?

Update: The Register has this review of the Squeezebox and apparently the choppy audio for AAC files isn't a deal breaker for them (even though they give as an example that the AAC drops a 1/2 minute from a 4 & 1/2 minute song!!??).

New Orleans Music - Recommendations

If you are in town for a few days you should get out and hear some New Orleans music. It's not hard to do, but don't just confine your 'sure-to-be-successful' search to Bourbon Street. First of all, you want to check out the list of current music. For jazz music you want to consider going to Snug Harbor or the Funky Butt, among many other places.

On the non-jazz front, if you see Lenny McDaniel on any of the lists consider going to see him; he's got a soulful singing voice and he is a virtuoso piano player and guitar player (oh, and harmonica too).

Another guy I think highly of, but who is not someone you'd necessarily know of, is Chris Cortez. He is a consumate musician and entertainer, and if you get a chance to listen to him you won't be disappointed (you'll be elated). Check out his website for sample music, tips on how to perform or play, and other stuff. I'm taking lessons from him and I can tell you that, of all the people I've taken music lessons from, he is by far the best.

Soundtrack is a fun little toy

For my birthday I got Soundtrack, which an amazing audio toy. I can see that there is a lot to this program. After playing with it for a few minutes, I futzed up this little mish-mash (It's designed to be listened to with headphones).

God, I love the Mac.

Open Source Music School

Long before I wormed my way into law school, I pondered the notion of becoming a professional musician. I didn't worry about the fact that I had no skill; I figured if I could just get into the Berklee School of Music that I'd be fine. Now I see that Larry Lessig's Creative Commons project has found its way to Berklee. The "Berklee Shares" website promises "free music lessons that you can download, share and trade with your friends and fellow musicians."

Hopefully, this will give wayward occupation-seekers a way to learn a skill which, upon one's engaging in it, leads to applause and joy. Congratulations to Larry Lessig on his very valuable Creative Commons project! It more than makes up for the fact that his profession is the training of would-be lawyers.

What's in your iTunes music catalogue?

So this is kind of cool: a $10 program called iTunes Catalogue lets you create an HTML version of your iTunes music, which you can upload as an HTML file for your friends to share. And if you click on an album or artist it will take you to the iTunes music store.

For what it's worth, here's a partial catalogue of my music. The version I used is a "trial version" so it doesn't create a complete catalogue, but at least you can see how it works. Unfortunately, the program only works with Mac computers.

The Pepsi Generation meets the Digital Music generation

According to this press release, Pepsi and Apple have partnered for an iTunes music promotion that will kick off on Superbowl Sunday. Beginning February 1st Pepsi will put 100 million winning codes in random bottles of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist. People who get a bottle cap with the code can go online and get a free iTunes download.

Will this work? Most bottle cap promotions require a cumbersome redemption process. But this one features a simple online redemption for downloadable music. All the kids will have to do is buy a Pepsi instead of a Coke. And use iTunes instead of MusicMatch or some other music service.

How to end 'music piracy' on University campuses? Easy; switch to 'analog'

N.Y. Times: "Keith Winstein and Josh Mandel drew the idea for their campus-wide network from a blend of libraries and from radio. Their effort...which is backed by M.I.T. and financed by research money from the Microsoft Corporation, will provide music from some 3,500 CD's through a novel source: the university's cable television network. The students say the system, which they plan to officially announce today, falls within the time-honored licensing and royalty system under which the music industry allows broadcasters and others to play recordings for a public audience."

Larry Lessig calls this idea brilliant: "using the cable network to distribute analog content, and thereby taking advantage of the existing analog blanket licenses covering music."

Update: Big surprise! Someone in the music industry objects to this scheme.

New iTunes Music Site - "Daily Tunes"

Daily Tunes is cool site if you are an iTunes user. The basic premise of the site is to bring together people with varying interests in music. Readers are encouraged to submit songs they like as recommendations to the community. Songs they submit are then added to their personal "Recommendation List". This list is browsable by other users. Daily Tunes even has an XML feed.

PopTech - Chad Hollister

Chad Hollister wasn't an official part of PopTech. I met him in a bar where he was playing music, and I wound up talking to him at length about lots of stuff. Mostly music stuff, though. He started out as a percussionist and was influenced by people like Santana. It didn't take much to prompt me to buy his latest CD, which is entitled --simply enough-- "Life." Really great stuff! Highly recommended.

Chad lives in Burlington, Vermont and has played with, or opened for, a lot of well known bands (Phish, Tom Petty, Blues Traveller, the Spin Doctors etc.). He has a really nice website where you can find MP3 samples of his songs and learn about him and where he is touring (mostly Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut). Check him out if you can, and buy his CDs if you like his music. Not only is he a great musician, but he is helluva nice guy.

Music Recommendation: Bjork

PopTech had some amazing interstitials (i.e. short clips between programs), and one that really captivated the audience was based on a song by Bjork called All is Full of Love.

I would even more strongly recommend the music video of the song which is available from Amazon for about $10.00. The video was directed by Chris Cunningham who is quite talented and has an established reputation. The DVD is only $9. If you like futuristic stuff you won't regret buying it.

PopTech - Jonathan Coulton

I just met Jonathan Coulton in the street during the lunch break. He played guitar and sang at PopTech and was simply outstanding. I asked him for a link to his song Future Now, which is the one that he did for the audience yesterday. He gave me the link to the MP3 version (see above) that he put up on his website. The words to that song are very appropos of a world with increased obsession about technology.

Jonathan is a friendly and engaging fellow; he doesn't play music fulltime (I think he's a software engineer in NYC). Anyway, he said that his dad, who is a lawyer, advised him to be careful about making his music so easily available. Jonathan's theory, however (which is a good one), is that if someone steals his music and profitably uses it in an advertisement or something like that he'll come out ahead (either because they'll pay him, or he'll have a pretty easy lawsuit against them). More importantly, he just wants to make his music available to the widest possible audience. So feel free to go to his website, and check out these songs too. Two other songs that he performed to great applause at PopTech are Gambler's Prayer and Mandlebrot Set.

Like I said, he wants you to download the songs and share them with people so please feel free to pass them on to friends. One thing I should emphasize is that his lyrics are very well thought out, and deserve special attention. So close your eyes and listen closely.

A copyright holder on RIAA lawsuits

Award winning science fiction author Orson Scott Card has some interesting things to say about the recent RIAA lawsuits against music file-sharers. He makes his money off of copyright protection so perhaps you think you can guess what position he will take.

Look out iTunes here comes MusicMatch

I just got an E-mail from MusicMatch telling me about their new download service. It requires an updated version of MusicMatch software, and it's in beta-test for now. Well, when they do get around to launching at least they won't get sued by Apple. I wonder who will sue them?

Warren Zevon - Great musician and great man

Dave Barry pays tribute to Warren Zevon. David Letterman paid his tribute last night on his show. Letterman played the cut where he asked Zevon if he had learned anything from his encounter with a fatal illness. Zevon thought for a bit and said: "yeah, enjoy every sandwich as much as you can."

I didn't really follow Zevon's career, although I had heard some of his better known songs. Apparently, he didn't take himself too seriously even though he was an accomplished musician and highly respected songwriter.

No sign of RIAA suits in Louisiana

I just checked the online federal court docket records (PACER) for sign of lawsuits brought by the RIAA and I didn't see any. I didn't look past the names of the parties (in suits filed from last Friday til today), but I didn't see any listings with RIAA or a music company. So it looks like for now the people of Louisiana have been spared.

More on the RIAA lawsuits at this link.

RIAA files suit against music file-swappers

The recording industry filed 261 lawsuits today in courts around the country against people they accuse of illegally downloading and sharing songs over the Internet. NY Times article (reg req'd)

Excuse me while I jack into your iPod

Neighbors meeting neighbors and offering their iPods to one another. That's good old (or is it new?) fashioned file-sharing.

Woe is the Music Indusry

Philip Greenspun has a great post on the sad state of affairs in the music industry entitled Music CDs are dead. Why did it take so long?

I didn't know (and I'm assuming it is true since Philip is an MIT professor) that CDs could carry greater audio fidelity than they currently do. Well, I guess there are a lot of things that one can learn about the music industry. I'm not in that business so my ignorance is excusable. What excuse do the people in the industry have?

Music Recommendation: Tracy Chapman

I'm not what you would call a big Tracy Chapman fan, even though I've seen her twice in concert. Both times I saw her I was mildly disappointed for reasons that are hard to explain (e.g. I am sick of hearing her big hits like "Fast Car" and "Give Me One Reason"). I think one reason I was disappointed is that in neither show did she really do more than one or two songs from the album that I think is one of the best albums I have ever heard: Telling Stories.

Unsung Psalm, which is a simple little tune (basically just a guitar and Chapman's vocals), is one of the most moving songs I have ever heard in my life. The words are disturbing in a way that sends chills down your spine, unless you are somehow emotionally resistant. Every other song on the album is unique, well-performed and superbly recorded. When people ask me the old 'what five albums would you choose to have if you were stranded on a desert island,' this is one I'd always choose. If you are a Tracy Chapman fan then you probably know about this album. But if you aren't a big Trace Chapman fan you might want to listen to Telling Stories.

Music Recommendation: Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn (last name pronounced "Coburn") is a Canadian born songwriter who is probably most famous for the song "If I had a rocket-launcher." It's a lefty song about rampant militarism, which sort of tells you where he comes from politically.

Politics aside, though, his music is really amazing. I highly recommend that you get the album "Nothing But a Burning Light" (see graphic on the right sidebar). Every song on that album is outstanding, and yet each is very different so you won't get bored listening to tunes that all have the same tempo or style. If you click on the aforementioned graphic you will be taken to Amazon's site where you can listen to a few of the songs on the album (his stuff is also available on Apple's iTunes site). Check out the song "Dream like mine." To fully appreciate that song you have to put on the headphones and focus on the outstanding arrangement and perfect recording.

And if you ever get the chance to see Cockburn live do it. I saw him a few years ago in New Orleans and he only had a drummer and a bass player with him. I was disappointed, because the arrangements for many of his songs involve multi-track overdubs of simple, but intricately interwoven, guitar parts. Well, somehow he was able to produce a very close approximation of his recordings and I was totally blown away. In other words, in addition to being a great songwriter and arranger, he's also a very accompli