Okay, so I commute to work for about an hour in the morning, and again in the afternoon to get home. That's 2 hours of radio time to fill each day. In general I am a music fan, and appreciate songs/pieces from many different genres, spanning many different eras. I've even taken the time to program the car stereo in order to maximize my options - I have 7 music stations preset on the radio - one classic rock, one rock (which is more classic than anything new), one new music (tends to be hip-hop/club dance), one current pop, one current rock/pop, one 60s/70s/80s pop, and even one country station just to round out the mix. So, with all that programmed into the stereo, you'd think that my daily commutes would be filled with enjoyable tunes to make the drive fun, that in fact I'd be overwhelmed with good music to choose from, wouldn't you?

Well you'd be wrong.

One hour and 10 minutes of driving this morning, and I listened to approximately 5 minutes of decent music - the last minute of Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes, the last minute and a half of My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars, 30 seconds of Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani, and 2 minutes of a Rush song that I can't remember the name of (Rush, now that's another post waiting to happen!). The rest of the drive was me trying to avoid 15 repetitions of the same news items, 45 weather updates, 672 traffic updates, 9000 commercials, a whole army full of DJs talking loud and saying nothing, plus an infinity of bad music or overly-played songs that noone on Earth other than radio-computers can take anymore!

Now, I'll be the first one to admit that I love 80s music, but even I find it hard to believe that the best music on 7 stations over the course of an entire hour was comprised of the the tail-end bits from two different 80s tunes. Add to that the fact that Informer by Snow keeps getting played on my afternoon drive home along with who-knows how many awful Nickelback songs (well its probably just the one song seeing as how I can't tell any of that bands crap songs apart from one another) and let's just say I'm a little bit frustrated and disgusted with the state of music radio these days.

*Sigh*. Can I make that into frustgusted, and at least salvage some enjoyment of my day by creating a new (albeit never to be used by anyone) word out of the whole situation?

Tags: music, radio
Current Location: in the car
Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: not much worth listening to

Just a couple of words on some music I've enjoyed recently. First off, my wife and I went to see J.P. Cormier and the Nova Scotia Symphony Orchestra on Friday - truly amazing! We've seen JP a couple of times, and were quite impressed, but those were only brief performances and/or the tail end of a tv program, so I don't think we got a real sense of the actual talent to which we were being treated. I mean it was great, and led to us buying these tickets, but still. Now, after a full performance of Mr. Cormier's, I know!

For those who don't know (and that should be none, as I'm pretty sure I know everyone who's reading this right now), JP is a large man - a very large man. I don't have any exact measurements, but let me assure you that he could easily enter the world of professional wrestling and not go unnoticed. That being said, his musicianship is truly gargantuan - I'm sure that any guest performer playing with an orchestra is supposed to be the centre of attention, but when said performer's effort eclipses the orchestra so much so that you almost forget they are there...

The speed with which his fingers move upon the guitar/mandolin/banjo/fiddle (he plays them all, and all brilliantly) is jaw-droppingly phenomenal, with nary a note missed (yes I said nary, there was some literature presence in my nerd profile if you recall). He played a mix of original pieces with some Gordon Lightfoot songs and at least one Chet Atkins tune (which was apparently originally done by someone else originally but the name was Italian or Spanish and I can't for the life of me recall it correctly). I may be recalling the evening poorly, I'll consult the program when I get home and make corrections if necessary, but I think this was the piece title the New Century Hornpipe, and it was crazy-amazing! Some bizarre (but awesome) conglomeration of hornpipe, flamenco, and who-knows-what-else. The conductor, Scott MacMillan, joined in on a couple of tunes, this being one of them. JP introduced him as one of his guitar heros, and well let's just say no one was surprised at that once they began to play. I had noticed the extra guitar on stage earlier, and was wondering to myself why it was in such an odd position - it never occurred to me that the conductor might be a guitar player. In fact, one of the absolutely last instruments I expect a conductor to play is the guitar, it just doesn't seem very conductor-like to me. Piano, violin, those are conductor instruments, but guitar? We all have our preconceived notions of the way of things, and it was cool to see this one of mine dismissed so powerfully. I'll be looking for a couple of Mr. MacMillan's CDs now, that's for sure.

Three brief last notes on that evening: 1)JP is hilarious on stage;
2)many of his original pieces are very poignant and emotional, regardless of tempo. The tales he tells through his songs are beautiful, tragic, and moving;
3)both my wife and I uttered a not-quiet-but-not-too-loud "woo!" when JP first pulled out the banjo. At intermission, she informed me that 'our trailer is showing'. Well I can't help it - the banjo may have a hillbilly-redneck reputation, but to me it just sounds cool! And when it is played that fast and well, it's hard not to let loose a "yee-haw" or two :D

Okay, time to switch gears (this post is going on much longer than I thought it would, and definitely much longer than you wish it was).  I popped my Blackest Sabbath CD into the car stereo yesterday for a short while, and played it all the way during my morning commute today.  Ah, good ole retro-metal!  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this CD- it's a compilation of 15 songs from 1970-1987, I suppose you could call it a greatest hits album.  Anyway, what a way to start the day - I haven't been this energized at the beginning of a work in a long time! 

Tags: cormier, music
Current Mood: happy