April 2015: Transferring to the Tube

The way we consume media in these modern times is quite different from how we took it in as recently as five years ago.  Streaming and avenues like Apple TV and Netflix allow us to gluttonously devour television series and movies as if we were headed to Whataburger after a fast.  We don’t consume these shows quietly either.  We must blast our latest viewing habits out on all manner of social media.  Why do we do this? Because we as humans crave a connection.  We want to share our joy and love of something and feel validated.  Finding someone else who watches and enjoys the same show as you bonds you in some sort of unexplained social lockstep.  And, boy can we get passionate about these shows we watch.  Whether it’s Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Mad Men, Scandal, House of Cards or you name it…we will jump up on the highest cliff and stump for it harder than the 2016 candidates are striving for the White House.  We will beat the drums and tell people why it’s awesome and why they should watch.  We will act incredulous when someone tells us they haven’t seen it or didn’t enjoy it when they tried to watch it.

I used to see that same kind of passion about music.  But, it’s rare these days.  It’s easy to blame it on the changing fads or the death of both country music and “Texas Country”.  Yet, there has to be more to it.  I think it’s related in the way we consume music.  Much like the way we ravenously take in film media at a rapid pace, we now have so much music at our fingertips that it is easily overwhelming.  iTunes and Spotify are fantastic tools (not debating artist pay rates in this column) of discovery.  Making playlists at the push of a button is so much simpler than burning a cd for hours or having to select which 12 track adventure you’re going to undertake at the start of your roadtrip.

This ease of choice makes music seem disposable. Replaceable even.  But it is not.

For me it is still the most powerful art form.  Books stimulate your brain.  Movies/television paint pictures.  Music does it all.  Through the course of a song you can be entertained and moved in ways you didn’t even know were imaginable. This website and community has always striven to be a place that brings folks who dig the same type of music together in one place.  We used to all jump up on the stumps and shout from the mountaintops about the music we all loved.  The number of folks who do that in any community are no severely fragmented.  Attention spans and social media overload have us all shouting into an empty well of ignorance.  But, it won’t deter me.  And it shouldn’t deter you.

Just today Will Hoge and Ray Wylie Hubbard released two of the best collections of songs to come out in 2015.  In a few weeks, they will be joined by William Clark Green, Zane Williams and the long-awaited Hold My Beer and Watch This Randy/Wade collaboration.  Good music is out there.  And it keeps coming.  Join me and the other passionate music folks up on the mountain of sharing and get this great music into the ears, minds, hearts and souls of the people who would dig it…and the people who need it.  Transfer that tube passion to music passion.

MINOR CHORDS:

–Greenfest 15 tickets are now on sale!  Get yours early! We will be rolling out some incentives very soon!

-LJT time is upon us.  The time between Steamboat and LJT always moves so slow and then it’s like the music calendar around here kicks into high gear.  LSM Awards, Lone Star Jam, Greenfest…

-The Rangers look awful and I’m trying to keep the joy in Mudville.

-Saw Sturgill live for the first time last week.  Surpassed the hype.  Laur Joaments on lead guitar is the best country picker I’ve ever seen.  2 things:  1.  Sturgill’s mumbles/enunciation issues were even more pronounced in person. 2.  Billy Bob’s was ridiculously crowded.  Sound was in and out.  Sightlines seemed worse than normal.  20-30 minute wait for drinks.  Livin’ the dream.

-Speaking of TV shows…I’m still digging Better Call Saul.  Feel like this first season has set the table for some crazy adventures to come.

-If you missed it, go read Drew Kennedy’s new bio written by Peter Dawson’s talented wife Elisabeth.  Fantastic.

-If we could just keep the weather we have currently for longer than 2 weeks, that’d be great.  Minus the pollen/allergies though.

-Battled food poisoning for the first time in many years last week.  It’s worse than a hangover

-Traveling to Hot Springs, AR for the first time in June.  Suggestions?

–This month’s recommended film is:  Speaking of Netflix, a film I took in recently was the staggeringly honest Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself directed by Steve James of Hoop Dreams fame.  An unflinchingly brutal look at Ebert’s ego, writing, career and health issues.

-“Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.”- Mark Twain