Joe here. Little update for you guys. I haven't gone dormant or anything like that. There are a couple projects that I have been working on, but due to added responsibilities at work, my free time to devote to writing has been very limited. I hope that within the month, things will reorient themselves and I will have some more free time to write. As a taste of what hopefully is to come, let me share a few of the ideas I have been working on as well as some music I have been listening to.
- A collaborative project attempting to hone in on the appeal of new music in older styles vs. simply listening to the old formative "classic" albums. Hint, the "newness" factor ranks highly.
- An observation that when it comes to evaluating production, we need to be aware of the biases that our listening medium. For example, consumer bass boosted headphones can make music sound congested and muddy. Don't blame the producer when the bassline is so emphasized you can barely hear the vocals, blame your earbuds. Or at least be aware of the bias it introduces.
- A casual piece with different people sharing some of their favorite albums and how they discovered them.
Some music I have recently listened to and enjoyed:
I have been greatly enjoying Pat Green's new album. His best in a very long time. A great mix of Texas country with that blues rock edge and distinctive vocals that makes Pat Green so easy to listen to.
Palmer Anthony released an album entitled Western & Roll that I think was solid, but more importantly, sounds to me like an indicator of the direction the more youthful side of Texas country is heading. If you want to hear the future, check this out. It isn't ground breaking but it packages the current trends into a cohesive sound that I think already is starting to define the under 30 year old crowd’s paradigm of Texas Country.
On the non-country side, The Goo Goo Dolls (you know, the guys who sang Iris) put out an absolute banger of an album. It is called Chaos In Bloom and it has been on repeat for me ever since it dropped. Yeah, I Like You is shaping up to be one of my biggest guilty pleasure songs of the year.
On the classic album side of things, I finally gave Conway Twitty's 1970 album Hello Darlin a listen and it is the first time that a Twitty album has really clicked for me. I was most familiar with hs late career material and that really was not my jam. This in contrast was excellent. The writing and storytelling really stood out to me.
Until next time,
Joe