Category: Music

Somebody Noticed the Elephant

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USA Today (via Yahoo) published an article today that addresses the number one reason why podcasts will never be (or, more accurately, allowed to become) a mainstram thing. It’s about time someone noticed that elephant in the room (the priority-challenged RIAA). If podcasting is ever going to attract the masses, it must contain interesting, legal content, that you can’t easily get somewhere else. For that to happen, the elephant must be dealt with. Otherwise, podcasting will devolve into three catagories:

1) Watered down, low bitrate marketing ploys from the record label cartel;

2) Rebel podcasts that try to stay one step ahead of the RIAA lawyers (like the file sharing services do now); and

3) A lot of mostly boring talk with a few public domain songs thrown in to give it an NPR vibe.

None of those are likely to bring podcasting to the masses.

So until the elephant is dealt with, podcasting is hobbled almost to the point of uselessness. Yes, yes, I know there are some good podcasts out there, but that’s only because they ignore the elephant and use unlicensed music, but that will soon end, if you read between the lines of this quote from the article:

“Record companies say they’re just trying to look out for their artists. Podcasting could exacerbate the piracy problem created by file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa. When listeners download a podcast, they “are getting a copy of an entire program … an unprotected copy that they can do whatever they want with,” says Steve Marks, a lawyer at the Recording Industry Association of America.”

The RIAA doesn’t yet know what it wants to do “about” podcasting. Poscasting’s not terribly popular yet and even the RIAA (surely) has some residual desire not to be painted as the devil (probably, I am assuming, maybe not). But the record cartel also knows that if this thing gets legs, it could be Napster all over again. Eventually, greed will beat out logic and more lawsuits will be filed against 10 year olds aimed at stopping podcasting in its tracks. The prime objective of the RIAA will be to avoid another Napster at all costs.

To survive podcasters have to confront the elephant. Ignore it and it will eventually charge at you with tusks (and lawyers) raised and ready.

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New Rancho Radio Set

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For the second week in a row, I picked the songs for this week’s playlist at random from our alt. country library. Last week, I was really pleased with the mix. I heard a bunch of good cuts that I wouldn’t have thought to add had I done the set manually. I also received a good bit of positive feedback from listeners. So, once again, a new random set from our 26,000 song library.

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.

Hot Rod Heart – John Fogerty (Blue Moon Swamp)
Floating – Blue Rodeo (Outskirts)
Like a Mole in the Ground – 5 Chinese Bros. (Stone Soup)
Spoonful – Cream (Fresh Cream)
Bluebird – Howlin’ Wolf (The Chess Box)
Tall Trees in GA – Buffy Sainte-Marie (Im Gonna be a County Girl Again)
Grapefruit Juicy Fruit – Jimmy Buffett (A White Sport Coat…)
Couch – 15 Mary Thompsons (MP3.Com)
Coloured Rain – Traffic (Mr. Fantasy)
Ship of Fools – Grateful Dead (From the Mars Hotel)

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.

There’s a Wall in Washington – Iris Dement (The Way I Should)
Rain Dogs – Tom Waits (Rain Dogs)
Me & Your Memories – Ronnie Jeffrey & Kent Newsome (The Caution Children)
Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler – Travis Tritt (It’s All About…)
Can’t Let These Blues Go – Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials (Chicken, Gravy…)
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad – Uncle Tupelo (Cover Story)
Beyond and Before – Yes (Yes)
Airstream Bohemians – John Gorka (Between 5 and 7)
Fools Blues – Jorma Kaukonen (Too Many Years)
I Hope It Rains at My Funeral – Tom T. Hall (100 Children)

Rancho Radio Rocks

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I uploaded a completely new playlist to Rancho Radio tonight. About 16 hours worth of great Alt. Country, Americana and Classic Rock.

Consistent with the recent trend, this set rocks a little more than some of the older ones. There are a few Allman Brothers cuts as well as some other southern boogie. There’s also the usual supply of great alternative country.

Calling all Ears

If I’m going to talk about music from time to time, I ought to at least let you hear a little bit of what I’m talking about.

The Jukebox has returned (Update: and now gone again) at least temporarily. At the moment it has a few of the songs I’ve mentioned lately. The music is not downloadable. Take a listen and if you like this music as much as I do, buy the CD (we have a rotating list of recommendations on the right side of this page).

Now you can see just how hard Southbound rocks and why Elizabeth Reed made me a huge Allman Brothers fan. Cold Mountain (Col. Bruce Hampton) rocks pretty good too.

Again, if you enjoy the same sort of music I do, you can listen to songs from our huge library of songs legally and free by tuning into Rancho Radio.

An Old Jones Rediscovered

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No record on earth is more associated with the beginnings of my love of music than The Allman Brothers’ Brothers and Sisters album. I became an Allman Brothers fan the very first time I heard Idlewild South (and specifically In Memory of Elizabeth Reed). Then when I heard At Fillmore East, I decided they were my favorite band (they’ve been neck and neck with the Grateful Dead pretty much ever since). The future was bright with the promise of new music until Duane Allman and Berry Oakley were killed in motorcycle accidents within about a year of each other.

When Brothers and Sisters was released after various delays, no one knew what to expect. What we got was an instant classic, with Dickey Betts moving easily onto center stage and Greg Allman sounding as soulful as ever. The record epitomizes southern rock and roll- it’s a soulful mix of rock, blues and country. It is not an overstatement to say that if there was a soundtrack to my youth, this would be it. When I listen to it, every single song reminds me of somebody I knew back then or some crazy thing we did. At one time or another during every stage of my life, I have rediscovered how much I love this record and created a new set of memories and associations. That’s what is happening now in my house. My kids are sick of hearing how incredible the opening of Southbound is; and how great the piano is in Come and Go Blues. When I saw the Dickey Betts concert on HDNet, I made them watch it with me (fantastic show; check it out).

There are 7 absolute classics on this record. The song most people know, Ramblin’ Man, while a great song, is no better than the 5th best song on the record, behind Wasted Words, Come and Go Blues, Southbound and Jessica. The other two songs (Jelly Jelly and Pony Boy) are also tens on a 10-scale.

I didn’t have this record on CD until a couple of weeks ago. I realized that it was crazy to have as much music as I do on my music server without having maybe the greatest rock and roll album of all time. So I bought the CD and have been listening to it non-stop ever since.

If there’s a song in the world that rocks better than Southbound (playing on my stereo right now), somebody point me to it.