Bela Fleck and the Flecktones have released a new album entitled "The Hidden Land"

I was fortunate enough to see Bela play with Mike Marshall in Manhattan Kansas a few years ago.  Both of them are amazing  performers and musicians.

Bela is a truly unique force in the contemporary music scene.  He crosses genres successfully and with ease.  He challenges and re-formats conceptions of musical styles and compositions and creates new traditions.

There's a great Associated Press interview with him regarding the new album and his career.

I need to pick up the new record.  I've really enjoyed their recent collaborative efforts.  The new record is just the Flecktones.

I've seen the movie, but I haven't read the book

One of the main themes of the movie High Fidelity is  top 5 lists.  I'd rather not list my top 5 breakups (have I even dated 5 women?) or top 5 missed opportunities.

Instead, I'll do some top 5 music lists.  Comments encouraged.

Top 5 musical artists making music in my lifetime:

1. Bruce Cockburn – Incredibly prolific, stylistically diverse
2. Prince – Symbols notwithstanding, he can play anything
3. Patty Griffin – Diminutive woman, gigantic talent
4. John Leventhal – Amazing producer
5. Johnny Cash – Legend

Top 5 number 6 tracks: 

1. Someday – Steve Earle (Guitar Town)
2. Cry Like An Angel – Shawn Colvin (Steady On)
3. Get Up Stand Up – Bob Marley and the Wailers (Legend)
4. Day After Day – The Pretenders (The Singles)
5. Fat Man and Dancing Girl – Suzanne Vega (99.9 F°)

Top 5 songs to leave on repeat:

1. Train in Vain – The Clash
2. Happy Time – Daniel Johnston
3. Long Hair Man – The Horsies
4. Once in a Lifetime – Talking Heads
5. Saturday They'll All Be Back Again – David Wilcox

I have, for some unknown reason, had more songs than usual stuck in my head the past few days.

So far:

• Lorelei – Styx
• There's no business like show business – Ethel Merman singing
• Release – Pearl Jam
• Jolly Holiday – Mary Poppins
• Radio, Radio – Elvis Costello
• Three Little Birds – Bob Marley

Time to put The Weepies on and get the earwigs out.

Buck Owens died on Saturday.

Like a majority of people my age, I learned to know Buck Owens through the abomination that was Hee Haw. I seriously wonder sometimes what my parents were thinking when we used to watch that show as a family.

It wasn’t really until the apex of Napster that I actually heard any of Buck’s hits. The “Bakersfield Sound” is one that I really like for reasons I’m not entirely aware of yet. They had a sound-bite from an interview Buck did with NPR on this morning and the gist of it was an explanation of the sound. Basically, Buck said he liked the straight-ahead guitars and driving drums. He also had a heck of a lonesome voice.

I’m going to have to try and track down some more of his stuff.

Thanks for the tunes Buck.

I’ve been in kind of a musical rut lately…

I don’t think I’ve put any new music on my iPod in months.  And, I know I haven’t changed out the cds in my truck since I bought it last summer.

I have deceided to search out new artists.  One of the people on Fark.com sent me a great link to the South by Southwest Music Festival coming up in Austin.  I’m fairly sure I won’t be attending, but there is a comprehensive list of the artists performing at the festival on the site linked above.  We’ll start going to concerts again soon.

So, I spent part of today looking through the list and downloading tracks.  There is some great stuff in there.  Pink Nasty (yes, the site is safe for work) actually hails from Wichita!  Check out her site and listen to some tracks.

I also heard The Weepies last night on The World Cafe.  I was very impressed.  Deb Tannen has a great voice and the songs I heard had great composition both lyrically and musically.

So, hopefully I’m on track to get out of my musical rut.  I still love listening to all the stuff I currently have and am excited about some of the new stuff I’ve found.

Next up is going through all of my CDs, ripping, and effectively cataloging them…