OK, a new blog for me to fiddle with…

I was gabbing with a friend yesterday and we were talking about the fact that I post a song of the day on Twitter and she was wondering how I come up with the songs… Well, I will be really honest, I hit the random selection button on iTunes or my iPod and that is how it all happens. I will say that about only 1/3 of my music collection actually resides on my computer, so it doesn’t do a totally unbiased selection. I will probably get a little more ambitious and choose songs from cds that are stacked around the house at some point.

So this blog is going to be about my general opinions and thoughts on music… It is a good stress relief for me… and maybe somewhat entertaining for the rest of you. The caveat being, I have no formal education in music and I am most assuredly not a true music critic (I am not cool enough or bitter enough, yet) so you are largely going to be reading ramblings based on my general preferences. If there is something you think I should be listening to and want me to comment, send me a link.

Another point to consider is that my general taste runs very eclectic… I tend to pick music to listen to based on the “skatability” (skating coach) or general listening for painting or quilting (fiber artist) so maybe not to everyone’s taste. Usually, there is a little something for everyone in the mix though, or as my brother put it to me in the days when you bought albums, tapes or cds, ” I would love to be a fly on the wall after you made your purchases…it must be a ‘what the hell’ moment for the clerk.”

So today’s song of the day is ” Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin…  at some point I will add links to the music… I would like to do this without incurring the wrath of the riaa or the musicians in question so I will figure it out just not tonight.

I also wrote a really short album review based on a random iPod selection… on my myspace… so I just copied this over…

It landed on Shaw/Blades “Influence”.

I really like this album. At first, I thought I would not particularly like it. I am not a huge fan of either Jack Blades or Tommy Shaw solo and I had not really listened to their other efforts before this. I think the guys harmonize really well and the tunes that they chose to cover are some of my favorites. I probably own all of the original versions of what was covered and some I still prefer the original, but this album really grew on me. The tunes are fairly true to the originals, but do have a nice individual flair. One of my favorite songs on the album is “Lucky Man” originally done by ELP. Another favorite is “For What its Worth” originally done by Buffalo Springfield. It is on those tunes that they seem the most seamless. That also applies to “Sounds of Silence”. I love that they covered “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan as well. That was one of the few tunes that Donald Fagen did not sing…

Shaw/Blades are successful in their own right and have been involved in various bands as well as having done solo work. Both have really nice voices… kind of a medium tone and overall really pleasant. The combo of acoustic and electric sound is also great… So if you are looking for a relaxing and overall really pleasant album, this is one to acquire. Rumor has it that there may be another of these in the works… if that is the case, I am looking forward to hearing it.

Just remember, I am your average, uncool, overweight housewife who loves listening to music, all kinds of it…

have fun, I usually do,

mathea