Author: mystro2b

Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana.

Shout out to the home town Seattle based grunge band.

Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy.

One of the most lovely voices ever recorded. From her website:

Eva died in 1996 from melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Her music was little-known during her 33 years of life, but today her soul-stirring voice is reaching people all over the world.

Takin’ Care of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

A great blues inspired classic rock tune. Grab a guitar right now and play along. It’s just 3 chords. Instant rock guitar hero guaranteed.

Stepping stone by AM

What a Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers.

Lead vocals by Michael McDonald. That is all you need to know.

Through Being Cool by Devo.

This is not the first song I heard by Devo (or the last for this blog…) but I claim it as the Anthem of the Nerds- a complete 180 from yesterday’s track. The title invokes a Death Metal anthem with lots of angry screaming and guitars wailing. Instead it’s a sardonic silly drum machine groove, monotone voice and zany keyboard jam. March around as you listen and get your nerd on.

All Blues by Miles Davis.

Miles defined so many genres of jazz with his iconic muted trumpet (extra points if you know the type of mute he used). This graphic from the Miles Davis website shows the span of his amazing career and the genres he pioneered:

Kind of Blue is considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. And on this day as we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I’ve included an excerpt from a speech he wrote in 1964- I think Miles would agree with Dr. King’s insights:

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Check out the entire speech from Dr. Matin Luther King

Destiny by Zero 7.

Most downtempo music is just a nice instrumental wash of background music for relaxing and not really listening. This track with vocals by Sophie Barker and Sia Furler is worth a thoughtful listen.

Another Kind of Green by John Mayer Trio.

John Mayer is better known for his pop songs than his incredible guitar playing. This song and the entire album shows off his blues guitar chops.

Brand New Angel by Gov’t Mule.

I think I got this song from a SXSW music playlist in 2005? The opening grungy guitar riff is one of my favorites. This track was released when I was preoccupied with the electric guitar. There is this thing that happens to guitar players when they hear another player’s sound that causes them to exclaim- “Whoa! How did they do that? What combination of amp, pedal and voodoo did they use to get that sound?” For me, this fascination obsession with guitars started on my 40th birthday; not in my garage with my buddies, jamming all night and pissing off my neighbors, but in my office with headphones and a digital effects modeler. I would spend hours trying to “dial in” the right combination of distortion, compression, reverb etc. on a goofy Zoom G2 pedal. Midlife adolescent crisis? Ask my wife…