One day back in 1996, I was on my way to work and heard this terrific song...about a kid playing in the backyard? Refusing to wear a shirt? Huh?! It's a girl? What the hell?! This turned out to be "When I Was A Boy" from Dar Williams' The Honestly Room. The song was played at the beginning of a set on a local college radio station (thank you WERS)...so after arriving at work I spend another 15 minutes or so waiting in the parking lot, praying for a setlist. It was worth the wait.

I don't normally care all that much about lyrics. If the music doesn't "rock" then the lyrics can't save the song. "When I Was a Boy" did both. A picture was painted of youth in transition, layed over a bed of pretty fingerstyle guitar, sung by a voice...mmmmm, that voice.

There was no sophomore slump for Dar as Mortal City brought us the hilarious "Christians and the Pagans" as well as the heart-rending "February". Every one of her recordings, including the side project Cry,Cry,Cry has contained several gems.

Which brings us to her latest, the beauty of the rain. The list of guest artists made me a little nervous. John Medeski, Cliff Eberhardt, John Popper, Bela Fleck, Chris Botti (to name a few): all fine musicians. But there have been far too many great records flattened under the combined weight of the hired hands.

No so here.

The highlight for me is the stunning cover of The Band's "Whispering Pines"...with a tear-inducing harmony vocal by Alison Kraus.

If I had to pick a favorite among the original tunes it would be the title track. I could explain it myself, but Dar's liner notes do it better:

I love New York City, because when I eavesdrop on people, they're often in the middle of some important discussion. Adversity is a given, but conversation renders poetry from it, hence "the beauty of the rain is how it falls."

It's not often that I would pick a recording several slots into an artist's career as recommendation for the uninitiated...but that rule goes away here. the beauty of the rain is a great place to start. Work your way backwards. It'll be fun.

Mariliyn Crispell Trio - Highlights from the Summer of 1992 Tour

your (not my) lovely president wants to deploy a missile defense system before it has been tested.

i am nauseated.

Dar Williams - the beauty of the rain

brand new this week.

imagine walking into a big music store. two guys are playing: a solid funk bass propelled by a wiggly, syncopated drummer.

then, on the other side of the room, some kid on an elementary school field trip picks up an electric guitar that somebody left plugged in. the kid doesn't know how to play, not even a little bit. so he grabs a string and gives it a yank. sproinggg!! ..then another, maybe a little louder this time. he moves his left hand, makes a sorta-chord and rakes his right across the strings. klangg!

the thing is, you haven't seen the kid. so you're trying to figure out if this plonky guitar actually goes with the rhythm section. it just might.

or not.

welcome to the strange and beautiful world of Derek Bailey, king of the freely-improvised guitar.

Bailey has made a lot of recordings in various contexts: solo, duos , small ensembles and large groups. all are worth checking out. on Mirakle he teams up with Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass and Calvin Weston on drums. definitely a formidable pair. Mirakle is a good introduction to this style of play as the funk rhythm section give the uninitiated listener something familiar to hold onto while the more "alien" guitar does its thing.

now, i'd be the first person to admit that this recording is not for everyone. Derek Bailey's guitar style will require some time to "get". in fact, you may never "get" it. if you do though, a whole new musical landscape will open up for further exploration.

fifteen inches of dry, white, crystalline snow here in southern new hampshire. very pretty. i can't complain...they got two feet of it down in boston.

but really, did that guy across the street have to run his friken' snowblower at 5:30am?

Seks Bomba - somewhere in this town

lounge-a-rama!

so...i'm sitting on my couch yesterday afternoon. outside it's crystal clear, cold and windy. but my anger can melt all that ice. let's just say that the task of updating design documentation is not one of my favorites. and microsoft word just has a way of ruining the best of days.

but just then Bruce Hornsby ("Here Come The Noise Makers") segues from "Mandolin Rain" into a beautiful version of "Black Muddy River"...and i realize that my anger is wasted. because for every occurence in this life of something as ugly and inelegant as microsoft word....there are things like "Black Muddy River".

and that's what i should be focused on.

a recent new york times article talks about Carson Daly's "Most Requested" radio show...about the fact that it is constructed out of various Carson-snippets to sound live. when in fact it's just more Clearchannel-manufactured product, tailored to each market.

just more evidence of the lack of humanity in the music industry.

Philip Glass - Saxophone

it's really cool, it's really cool, it's really cool, cool, cool, really cool, really cool.

i'm reading this article the other day about the sad state of radio. the guy's complaining about this station playing stuff by "'no-talent' mooks like Mudvayne"...and it got me to thinking (again!) about why any of us enjoys the music we listen to.

this is obviously a very complex issue. ever think about it? when i hear a new song that gets me going i'll later wonder what exactly it was about it that made me latch on.

for some of the "cats-walking-on-piano" jazz stuff that i'm into the reasons can be quite complex. maybe it's the way the bass is following the ride cymbal pattern. or the way the two horns split off and create just the right "shreeeeeek!". but hell, even then...why do i like that "shreeeeeek!"?

pop and rock-oriented material is a little easier to figure. a cool guitar riff. maybe a really catchy chorus (i have to admit here that i own a coy of Avril Lavigne's Let Go because i couldn't get "Sk8er Boi" out of my head....so sue me!). great drumming can do it as well.

which brings me back to Mudvayne. while i have a hard time getting through an entire recording of that style of metal, the rhythm section of Mudvayne (and and while i think of it, Slipknot as well) is fricken' great. the guy's snare technique is monsterous. and the way it's locked onto the bass is pretty damned athletic. just listen to the beginning of "Dig" from L.D. 50. it's like riding a danged rock roller-coaster.

so do a little thinking the next time a tune "lights you up".

just sitting around yesterday, worn out from the events of saturday (plus some sort of oncoming bug that appears to be draining all of my energy)...so i decide to watch Woody Allen's Manhattan.

i've never been able to put my finger on the reason before...why is it that i'm so attracted to nearly every danged apartment shown in most of his movies? then it hits me: look at all the bookshelves, just pregnant with books. compare this to, say, nearly any episode of MTV Cribs, where the average star's place is loaded with giant TV's and other high-tech thingies. big difference.

why does this matter? maybe it doesn't. but to a bibliophile like me, it's pure eye candy.