Musing About Music, Never Ending

You know, it's funny. I call myself a musician, but I don't listen to music all the time, like a lot of musicians I know. Some people get up, get some coffee, and on goes the music, from morning until night. They buy CD's, constantly explore.. it's like a never-ending hunger for them.

Me, I go in cycles.. such is my nature. Like, all week, I listened to little music, except at night, when I catch whichever late night show is on, then I'll listen to the artist/band of the night. Last night, I was watching Jimmy Kimmel. I've been leaning towards him more and more ever since Conan left the late night television landscape. He's got some sharp wit, he makes me chuckle. His band last night was an outdoors live thing.. a band called Korn. TRY AS I MIGHT, I can not stand that band! Is it the singer? Probably. It just makes me cringe. Sorry to any Korn lovers out there, but ICK.

I lean towards jazz, blues, twangy surf, "alt rock" and anything different, interesting, like Amanda Palmer. Once in a while, I'll even listen and enjoy singer/songwriter stuff, like this morning, when I went on MySpace and listened to Juliana Hatfield. Though she and I crossed paths a few times during my years living in the Cambridge, Mass. scene, I never once saw her live, and I certainly never exchanged words with her. One of my pals did a few recordings with her, but Juliana is notoriously shy and has a very small circle of friends.. she was little bit of a celebrity in our area, having been on tour and mentioned in Rolling Stone and stuff. Listening to her little, deceptively simple tunes that are on her My Space page today, my soul was stirred. She makes it seem so easy, but I know it's not.

For the last few years, I've been struggling with electric blues guitar riffs and modes and chords and crap, and when I listen to somebody like Juliana, it brings me back to the simple jingly jangly melodies one can make with an acoustic guitar. I remember the hunger I had when I was starting out with my acoustic, coming up with melodies to back my simple lyrics. I miss that feeling. I wasn't comparing myself to anyone back then, or trying to do anything special. I was just playing for the joy. I'd get inspired by somebody like Joni or Neil or Bob or Suzanne Vega, and I'd riffle through my notebooks, pick up my acoustic, go to my bedroom and start writing and strumming.

There is so much great music out there... Today, I have a feeling I'll be listening to a lot of it. I don't feel guilty when I don't listen though. I remember reading once somewhere that my all time favorite musician and songwriter, Neil Young, said he NEVER listens to other people's music. Says it clutters up his musical process. I like that idea. One time, after I played a gig on guitar with my original band, one of my pals who is a verocious music listener told me that my playing reminded him of Syd Barrett. I was like, who? The guy from Pink Floyd? Um.. So, out of curiosity, I asked another one of my musician friends who is a major music collector, can you make me a tape of some Syd Barrett? I have got to hear what this guy sounds like on the guitar! It was eerie to me to hear the similarities in style. But I had never sat down with Barrett's music and studied his guitar playing. Somehow, my sonic noodling ended up blending with the sounds Barrett made on his guitar! I thought that was pretty cool.

Here's some Juliana live in 2008.


And here is a video of a couple of gals out of Portland, Maine. Totally cute.