Category: Music

My Favorite Records: Bob Woodruff – Dreams & Saturday Nights

This is the eighth part in my series of favorite records.

I remember one night back in the mid-nineties I was channel surfing and came across a guy I didn’t recognize singing an awesome country song. That guy was Bob Woodruff and I promptly went online and bought the perfect country record.

woodruffj-776045

Dreams & Saturday Nights is that record. Like a lot of guys who do alt. country (myself included) Bob comes from a rock and roll background and a place far away from Nashville, having played in rock bands while growing up in New York. This record is about the best mix of country/alt. country (being country with harder rock edge, as opposed to the other way around like most alt. country) I’ve ever heard.

Hard Liquor, Cold Women, Warm Beer is a perfect country song. The title track is a fine restless drinking song that will sound like a soundtrack for anyone who went to college in the South in the 70s or 80s (and maybe even thereafter). That the song references Neil Young, Marvin Gaye and Patsy Cline in the same line tells me that Bob listened to the same broad selection of music that I did growing up.

All of the other songs on this record are absolutely great. The music alternately makes you want to chug a beer, dance or cry. Great writing and fine playing. I wish Bob would do another record. To my knowledge, he only has two albums out- this one and the follw up from 1997.

Technorati Tags:
,

More Holes in Sony’s Foot

Mark Russinovich has another post on the Sony BMG spyware debacle. The folks that make the spyware for Sony responded and challenged four points Mark has made about this unwanted software that installs itself on your computer when you play a copy-protected Sony CD.

Mark responds point for point and concludes:

By not coming clean they are making clear to any potential customers that they are a not only technically incompetent, but also dishonest.

I doubt that Sony is being dishonest. I think it is simply trying in vain to stuff the cat back into the bag and using a questionable approach to do it.

It’s time for someone important at Sony to step up and end this mess. Tell the truth. Say that the cat running around makes you nervous. Say you made a mistake by doing this. Say you’re sorry and fix it. Then, but only then, will everything be OK.

Technorati Tags:
,

RanchoCast Beta 3

I’m starting to get the hang of this podcasting business. First a word for those of you who don’t know a podcast from a forecast…

Podcasts are audio files that can be downloaded and played on iPods or other portable music players. You can also listen to the podcast over the web (e.g., at your computer) by simply clicking the Listen icon on the podcast page (see the link below).

If you are new to podcasts and want to try to take one on the road, you need a software program to download the podcast and transfer it to your music player. I recommend iPodder, but there are lots of other programs that do the same thing. Remember, you only need this program if you want to listen to the podcast on your portable music player. To listen while working at your computer all you have to do is click on the Listen icon.

In that regard, I have done Beta 3 of our new RanchoCast podcasts. On this one, Cassidy and I play 7 songs, including a rocker by the Drive-By Truckers, some Richard Buckner, the song Cassidy is named after and a live John Prine song that will blow your socks off.

All in all, I’m pretty sure I can make some good podcasts, as I get more comfortable behind the mike. What I don’t know is whether there’s an audience for this sort of thing. Time will tell.

A word about the music files: I am a songwriter and musician, and I have no desire to take money out of anyone’s pocket. To the contrary, I am trying to promote some great music that you likely won’t hear on mainstream radio. These are low bitrate MP3s, and none of our podcasts are archived. In fact, the only RanchoCast that will ever be available is the current one. In other words, I am experimenting with this technology as a way to promote alt. county music. Stated simply, please don’t let your record labels sue me.

Will Microsoft Exterminate the Sony Bug?

Ed Bott has called for Microsoft to include the removal of Sony BMG’s spyware in the next update of its Malicious Software Removal Tool, which is updated every month. He admits it’s a longshot, but this is a rare chance for Microsoft to be viewed by all as the good guy.

Mark Russinovich, the guy who discovered Sony’s spyware, has analyzed Sony’s so called patch for this spyware and reports that the patch is more menace than medicine.

Whoever is the decision maker for Sony on this issue is a walking bad decision.

Technorati Tags:
,

Jukebox, Annotated

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play. Each week, I add a little commentary about some of the artists, songs, albums, etc.

Secret Dan – The Name Droppers (Across the Great Divide) (1)
Hills of Tuscany – Bill Morrissey (You’ll Never Get to Heaven) (2)
Frank’s Theme – Tom Waits (Frank’s Wild Years) (3)
Howling at Trouble – Richard Shindell (Sparrows Point) (4)
One by One – Billy Bragg & Wilco (Mermaid Avenue) (5)
One Thing in Mind – Amy Allison (Sad Girl) (6)
Ballad of Easy Rider – The Byrds (Ballad of Easy Rider) (7)
Fallin’ Out – Robert Earl Keen (Gravitational Forces) (8)
Get Outta Here – Robert Cage (Can See What You’re Doing) (9)
For the Pleasure of You – Lloyd Cage (Bad Vibes) (10)

(1) A good song off of the Jo Carol Pierce tribute album. I don’t know anything about the band- it may be a one-off deal by some other people, but the song is pretty Good stuff. funny.

(2) I don’t like this record nearly as much as I do his first four, but this song sounds pretty good now. Maybe I should give that record another listen.

(3) Similarly, here is a song off of a transitional record from Tom Waits- the transition from his excellent work up to and including Heart Attack and Vine to his virtually unlistenable work beginning with Bone Machine. Not a bad record, but start with Nighthawks at the Diner.

(4) One of the many excellent songs off of the same record as the first song on the current RanchoCast podcast. Excellent song, excellent record. Buy it now.

(5) Great song off the Woody Guthrie songfest. This is a fine alt. country song.

(6) Mose Allison’s daughter’s voice is somewhat of an acquired taste, but she writes sad twangy songs, which are my favorite. I really like this song.

(7) As I’ve said before, no band (even my beloved Allman Brothers) influenced me as a songwriter and musician as much as The Byrds. This very mellow folk number is my favorite song on the record.

(8) Robert Earl Keen shows why he is the King of Americana. A fine song on a fine record. There are a lot of folks who try to sound like him, but very few who can write a song like him. The real deal.

(9) Robert Cage rocks, period. If you (like me) dig Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and authentic blues, this is a guy you should check out.

(10) So You’d Like to Save the World is the song to start with on this record, but this is a good, stripped down alternative pop song. Part of the album is sort of British rootsy and part of it rocks.

Technorati Tags:

What Ed Said

rootkitAfter I posted the update below, I read Ed Bott’s excellent takes on the Sony spyware issue here, here and here.

I think Ed nailed it, although I don’t think Sony’s lame attempt at placating consumers by issuing the patch that isn’t really a patch is much of a step in any positive direction.

Sony is going to continue to get slammed about this until they do the right thing. This will be an interesting litmus test of the power of bloggers to generate a policy changing buzz. I hope we succeed.

Technorati Tags:
,

Sony Tries But Not Hard Enough

Update to my earlier post about Sony BMG installing spyware on computers.

It seems that Sony has noticed the wave of bad press it is deservedly getting over this mess. In response, Sony has issued a patch to antivirus software makers. The problem, however, is that the patch does not delete the wrongfully installed software- it simply reveals the previously hidden files, allegedly making them less likely to be exploited by viruses.

Consumers who want the software removed? They are forced to “contact [Sony’s] customer support service for instructions.”

Not good enough. My boycott remains in effect.

Technorati Tags:
,

RanchoCast Beta 2

When it rains it pours. I did another beta of our RanchoCast podcast tonight.

Update: Here’s the list of the episodes that survived.

This one actually has a discernable theme- great songwriting. It has songs from Steve Pride, The Star Room Boys and others. It even has a musical history lesson about Jesse James.

So far it’s just me on the mike, but Cassidy has promised to do a podcast with me this weekend.

Feedback is welcome- if the sound is bad, let me know. If I sound like an idiot, I already know that and am working on it.

No More Sony CDs

rootkitI love Sony products. Other than my plasma TVs, both of which are Panasonic, I generally buy Sony electronics. My DVD players, my tube TVs, my digital camera- all Sonys.

But I will not buy another Sony BMG CD as long as they continue to put spyware-like DRM on their CDs. If that means forever, then forever it will be.

As Dwight Silverman and Download Squad reported today, Mark Russinovich at software developer Sysinternals discovered that a Sony CD installed a rootkit on his computer. A rootkit is way for someone to hide files and even programs on someone’s computer without their knowledge. It is a way for malicious spyware and other unwanted programs to hide on a computer.

The bottom line is that the Sony BMG CD appears to have installed a rootkit on Mark’s computer without his permission or knowledge, all in the name of limiting his ability to play (these CDs can only be played on a computer using the program that comes on the CD itself, not with Windows Media Player, etc.) and copy the music he paid for. A rootkit can be used by virus writers and other unauthorized interlopers to control a remote computer or steal or destroy the data on the computer. In other words, this is bad mojo that should have never been installed on his computer without his knowledge and informed consent.

To make bad matters worse, the software was difficult to uninstall- there was no uninstall utility (the “uninstall” option that usually appears either in Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs, or as an option in the program’s Start Menu folder. When Mark removed the software manually, it disabled his CD drive- making it totally unusable.

Howard Hoy, one of the readers of Dwight’s post, contacted Sony and asked for instructions on how to remove the wrongfully installed software. He was told to install a program made by the same company who created the rootkit for Sony- a program that could potentially do even more damage to his computer (Howard has a photo of the install screen here).

Here are my suggestions:

1) Boycott all copy protected music CDs. Most of them have a notice stating that the disc is sopy-protected. Amazon has started identifying CDs that are copy protected (as pointed out by Howard in a comment to Dwight’s post).

2) Disable autoplay on your computer.

The way to solve this growing problem is to create enough media buzz to perhaps get Congress involved and to vote with our pocketbooks. My pocketbook votes no.

Technorati Tags:
,

My Favorite Records: Blue Mountain – Dog Days

This is the seventh part in my series of favorite records.

One of my favorite alt. country bands is Blue Mountain, lead by husband and wife team of Cary Hudson and Laurie Stirratt. I think all of their records are excellent, but my favorite is still the first one I ever heard, Dog Days.

This is one of those all too rare records that has nothing but excellent songs on it. I’d love to list my favorites, but they’re all great songs. Soul Sister was the first song that grabbed my attention, reminding me of more than one girl I knew growing up:

First time that I saw her was the summer I turned 14. She was sitting on the hood of a car, at the drive in show. I saw a tear roll down her face, as she gazed up at the screen. And her black hair in the wind began to blow.

Let’s Go Running is a mid-tempo guitar driven rocker that would be a standout on almost any other record. Here, it’s just another excellent song.

Wink is a wistful acoustic number about a letter and a loss- like many songs, it’s about a woman who’s gone, but like the good ones, it creates a mood and let’s you fill in the blanks with your own memories.

ZZQ is a tribute to a radio station listened to while driving the back roads:

Ten miles north of Jackson stood a tower, with 100,000 watts of power. In the parking lot after school, the skynard nation rolled the knob to 102.

Jimmy Carter is a mostly sincere and slightly tongue in cheek tribute to my favorite President and the first song I play for someone when introducing this record:

In the bicentennial summer of our faded glory land a bright new face appeared upon the scene. Of an honest peanut farmer by the name of Jimmy Carter. His eyes were set on every school boys dream.

There are many other fine songs on this record. Anyone looking to build an alt. country library would do well to start with this record.

Technorati Tags:
,