Category: Music

Digital Music: Less Than Meets the Eye

The EEF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that works to protect individual and consumer rights relating to technology, has published a very interesting and useful Guide to DRM in Online Music.

DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is an umbrella term referring to any of several technical methods used to control or restrict the use of digital media content on electronic devices with such technologies installed. Stated another way, DRM is what prevents us from freely using the music we legally purchase from online music stores like iTunes, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, etc.

In its guide, the EEF examines the licenses and marketing language used by various online music stores to decipher what it means- to determine if you truly own the music you have purchased. The conclusion: not really. You have the right to use it, but you don’t own it in the traditional sense of the word and even your right to use the music can be further restricted after you buy it.

The guide analyzes iTunes, Microsoft, RealNetworks (makers of that bloatware and computer hogging Real Player program), Napster (the new establishment-supported and DRM restricted version, not the old version the RIAA killed).

Some lowlights:

iTunes can add additional restrictions to your ability to use a song, ever after you buy the song. iTunes also makes it hard to give away or sell a song you have bought (meaning sell without keeping a copy, much like if you sold a CD you own on eBay). It also limits your ability to convert the song to another format, which may be necessary to listen to the song on certain non-Apple MP3 players.

RealNetworks promises “freedom of choice” to use the songs on the music player of your choice, but the songs you buy are not compatible with all music players and can only be burned to a CD a limited number of times.

Napster charges extra for the right to put your songs on a portable player.

I decided to see how the music services I use stack up. I use MusicMatch, owned by Yahoo, and Rhapsody, sadly owned now by RealNetworks (I signed up when it was independent).

MusicMatch. I had to dig around the web site and within the MusicMatch Jukebox to find anything about DRM. But I am persistent and I found a few things. The downloaded tracks are encoded in secure WMA format. The cannot be transferred to an iPod, since the only secure format supported by the iPod is the AAC file format. MusicMatch has the Microsoft “playsforsure” logo, so I assume the restrictions are the same as the Microsoft downloads. I know only one thing for sure- and it’s a big thing. I just bought a copy of Delbert McClinton’s Down in Mexico and at no time did the system tell me that the music file I bought was restricted or the nature of such extensions. As mentioned above, looking around the site uncovered no summary of the restrictions. DRM should be invisible, but not in this way.

Rhapsody. Unlike most online music stores that sell downloadable song files, Rhapsody traditionally sold songs that you would burn to a CD from within the Rhapsody software itself. Not all songs could be burned onto a CD, but the ones that could burned to a CD ended up on a CD that, like regular music CDs could be ripped (i.e., transferred to your computer in digital format). The foregoing applies to Rhapsody version 2.1, which is the one on my computer. Apparently, there is now a version 3.0 that lets you buy digital copies of songs, but is full of DRM restrictions. I am going to cancel my Rhapsody subscription as soon as I finish this post.

The bottom line is that DRM protected song files are restricted, some less than others. The problem is that the casual buyer likely has no idea if and to what degree the songs he or she buys are restricted. As I’ve said before, I don’t pirate or share music, but I also don’t purchase songs that are crippled by DRM.

EFF Trivia: John Perry Barlow is one of the co-founders of the EFF. He also co-wrote the song that Cassidy is named after. Shortly after Cassidy was born, I emailed him a photo and short note, letting him know how much I love that song and telling him about Cassidy. He emailed Cassidy and welcomed her to the world, and he has emailed her a few times since then, just to check in. How absolutely cool is that? When Cassidy is older, that will mean a great deal to her.

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Jukebox, Uncensored

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.

Jealous Guy – John Lennon (Imagine) (1)
See Rock City – Kate Campbell (The Portable) (2)
Midnight Rider – Waylon Jennings (The Ramblin’ Man) (3)
Satisfaction – Otis Redding (Stax Box) (4)
Waiting for Sara – Cheri Knight (The Knitter) (5)
If You Were a Bluebird – Joe Ely (Joe Ely) (6)
Daylight – Dillon Fence (Rosemary) (7)
Greensboro Woman – Townes Van Zandt (8)
Margaritas – Ronnie Jeffrey & Kent Newsome (Demo) (9)
People’s Parties – Joni Mitchell (Court and Spark) (10)

(1) Good song on a good record. I like some, but not all, of his solo stuff. Of course I am a Beatles fan, but I don’t have the extreme reverence for him that a lot of folks do. I think a lot of his stuff post-Yoko was lame. Sorry.

(2) Kate is currently on my friend Brad’s Compadre Records label. Compadre provides an outlet for a lot of great artists, and Kate is one of them (along with Billy Joe Shaver and James McMurtry). I like this song, but I like the Kentucky Headhunters song by the same name better.

(3) Decent version of a good but overplayed song by one of the fathers of the outlaw country movement. Waylon has a lot better songs and nobody does this one like the Allmans. It’s a very good album that really started the outlaw country movement.

(4) Lots of covers and similar names this week. Otis sang everything good, but again, the Stones do it better. To hear Otis at his best, try In Person at the Whisky a Go Go.

(5) I liked about two thirds of the songs made by the Blood Oranges, Cheri’s previous band. I feel the same way about her solo work. The good songs are very, very good. Some of the rock numbers feel like toss-ins. This is one of the very, very good songs on a very good album, her first solo effort.

(6) Another excellent number off of Joe Ely’s first record, released in 1977. This one and a lot of the other songs on this record became Americana classics. This remains one of my favorite Joe Ely records.

(7) I missed Dillon Fence when they were active, but I learned about them via music-related posts at ACCBoards.Com. They were/are based in Winston-Salem, NC, where I went to college.

(8) Townes has always been one of my favorite songwriters. I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times and he was an interesting guy to say the least. One of the magical concert moments I’ve experienced was Townes, Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson sharing the stage at Fitzgeralds back in the early nineties. This was the first TVZ record I ever bought and it’s a good one.

(9) I usually violate the Jukebox rules by skipping over my songs when they pop up. I’ll let this one slide because I had forgotten about it altogether. It’s a song I wrote about the night one of my friends met his wife. Cool people, but not one of my better songs.

(10) One of my favorite records of all time. I’ve listened to this record hundreds of time and it never gets old. Unlike many Joni Mitchell records, there’s not a bad song on it. Some so called purists have argued that it’s too pop/rock, but whatever it is, it works for me.

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My Favorite Records

As those of you who listen to Rancho Radio know, I like all sorts of music. I have spent more money on music than I ever did on whiskey and women combined. At the moment I have 26,138 songs on my music server. I bought 8 track tapes, I bought LPs, I bought cassettes and I buy CDs. I listen to everything from country, to rock, to blues and everything in between. I’ve played in bands and I’ve listened to bands. I’ve written country, rock and blues songs. Basically, music has been the one constant passion in my life. Others come and go, but music has been there as long as I can remember.

So I decided it would be fun to identify, list and discuss my all-time favorite records, and here’s how I am going to do it. I’ll work through my music library from A to Z, listing and discussing my favorite records. I don’t know how many records will be on the list when I finish, but I am shooting for between 50 and 75.

So without further adieu, the first record on the list.

5 Chinese Brothers are/were a five piece alternative country band based in New York. Their music is on the folk rock side of the alternative country spectrum. All of their records are very good, but their first one, Singer, Songwriter, Beggarman, Thief is my favorite. By the time this record was released in 1992, the band (who are neither Chinese nor brothers) had been playing together for 10 years. The quality of the songwriting and the playing shows it.

If I Ain’t Falling, the lead off track, is an unapologetic rocker about the need to find your own path, even if there are wrong turns along the way:

“You’re getting bored when you’re living fast
You can only be sure when your time is past
A well laid plan is all right if
You’re a dying man or a working stiff.”

Baltimore is an accordion driven, almost Cajun influenced number about the loss and rediscovery of a hometown. She’s a Waitress is the first fine example of the band’s Loudon Wainwright-like ability to make songs that are equally funny and affecting. Who hasn’t fallen for a waitress at some point? I certainly have my own waitress story.

Don’t Regret is a stripped down ode to the moment:

“Please don’t promise to be true
With words that you’ll forget
You don’t need to believe in me
When all you know is that I haven’t hurt you yet
Don’t know about tomorrow so just let tomorrow be
Don’t regret, don’t regret.”

I could go into great detail about the virtues of every other song on the record, such as the hilarious ode to Paul Cezanne. In sum, this is one of those rare albums that have no average songs on it. Every song on this record is at least very, very good and most are excellent.

This record is a fine start to my list.

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Duncan Wells' New Website

My friend Duncan Wells has a new website. Duncan is a songwriter, playwright, performer and actor. My kids know him as “daddy’s friend who sent us the CD we listen to all the time.” His Love & Safety Club CD has been in the regular rotation in my wife’s car for years. Duncan has written and recorded some of the best children’s music I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot. In fact, I would rank Duncan and Dan Zanes at the very top of the genre. Duncan also writes and performs great music for grown-ups and is active in the theatre.

The web site is new, and is a bit of a work in progress, but Duncan is an incredibly talented guy who makes great music for the whole family.

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Jukebox, Uncensored

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.

Starting this week, I am going to add a little commentary about some of the artist, songs, albums, etc.

With Every Wish – Bruce Springsteen (Human Touch) (1)
Walk in the Sunshine – Bob Weir (Ace) (2)
Three Days Straight – Ray Wylie Hubbard (Eternal & Lowdown) (3)
Blue – Lucinda Williams (Essence) (4)
Tonight’s the Night – Neil Young (Tonight’s the Night) (5)
We Won’t Dance – Vince Gill (When I Call Your Name) (6)
Angelita – The Backsliders (Southern Lines) (7)
Already Broken – Hadacol (All in Your Head) (8)
The Hurting Business – Chuch Prophet (The Hurting Business) (9)
Bad Night at the Whiskey – The Byrds (Box Set) (10)

(1) I more or less agree with the horde of reviewers that found this album lacking by Bruce’s standards. The album Lucky Town, released at the same time, is a better bet.

(2) Really a Grateful Dead record released as a solo record as part of the Dead’s Warner Brothers record deal. A fine record with some great songs, including the best studio version of Playing in the Band, Looks Like Rain and the song Cassidy is named after.

(3) Probably my favorite song on one of my favorite Ray Wylie records. I hung out with Ray Wylie many years ago between sets at a long gone in favor of more yuppie townhouses Houston bar. He is a good guy and impressed me as a deep thinker, even though we were totally liquored up by the beginning of the third set (during which I prevailed upon him to play his awesome version of Driving Wheel 3 times in a row). It is both pleasing and not surprising that he has become one of the main voices in the Americana philosophy-in-songwriting movement.

(4) Lucinda recently completed her Nanci Griffith cycle: immense love upon discovery; loyalty through questionable changes in musical direction; frustration; abandonment. I loved her first 4 records. Car Wheels was a much anticipated disappointment. I didn’t like Essence at all. World Without Tears was better, giving me hope that she can avoid a Nanci-like fall into the abyss of artsy-fartsy self-importance.

(5) An almost perfect record by one of the greatest songwriters of our time. If I ever do a Top 25 Albums list, this one would be near the top.

(6) I’m sort of over him now, but Vince and Travis Tritt led the much needed country music resurgence of the late 1980s.

(7) Throwin’ Rocks at the Moon was better, and the live EP From Raleigh, NC (which contains Lexington Avenue, one of my favorite songs) is best. But this is a good record by the last standing member of a NC band that was once compared to Gram Parsons.

(8) Hadacol plays a good, hard-edged version of alternative country. The band is a regular on Rancho Radio.

(9) I was somewhat of a fan of Green on Red, sometimes credited as a forefather of the No Depression movement that spawned Uncle Tupelo and most of my other favorite bands. His solo work is much more mellow and introspective, but it works. This record is perhaps the least accessible of his solo records (start with Homemade Blood), but it’s still a good listen.

(10) Every band I like, every band I ever played in and every song I write is influenced in some way by The Byrds (I Know Better Now, being one example where I strived for their sound). Roger McGuinn has a blog.

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Rancho Radio Cracks Top 20

In a little over 2 months since we relaunched Rancho Radio, it has moved steadily up the charts. Yesterday it cracked the Top 20, becoming the 20th most popular Americana station in the Live365 family.

Americana is a broad category, covering basic Americana, bluegrass, folk, alternative country and more. Since I wrote the script that selects the weekly playlist automatically out of our 26,000 song library, the number of listeners has grown significantly. My guess is that is because we are playing a lot of deep album cuts from our extensive alternative country catalog.

Give Rancho Radio a listen. If you like it, tell your friends about it. We’d love to see it move up the number 1!

Update:  Rancho Radio is now Newsome.fm.

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Jukebox, Uncensored

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.

Storybook Endings – BR5-49 (Big Backyard Beat Show)
Canray’s Contredanse – Beausoleil (Hot Chili Mama)
The Rose of San Joaquin – Tom Russell (The Rose of San Joaquin)
Your Sweet Lovin’ – Margie Joseph (Stax Set)
My Hometown – Bruce Springsteen (Live 1975-85)
When I’m at Your House – Loudon Wainwright III (History)
Ain’t We Funky Now – Brothers Johnson (Blam!!)
Don’t Let Me Down Again – Rusty Weir (Stacked Deck)
Vulcan Death Grip – Ugly Americans (Stereophonic Spanish Fly)
Beggar’s Will – Steve Pride (Haint)