Bluegrass with a classical tang.
I imagine Foxtrot you’ll be listening to this lot (or their successors) soon:
Hugh, I cannot imagine it will be as awful as that image suggests! Arsene on lead guitar…FFS!!!
Come back TOTP, all is forgiven! 
Last week’s album cloud.
And last week:
And for the last week or so:
These collages are nice but I keep expecting to see a bigger version when I click it.
Yeah, that’d be nice, unfortunately that’s full size. They’re made to fit into a Last.Fm profile sidebar and there’s not much room there: last.fm/user/SarsenLintel
They’re automatically produced by the Album Cloud tool here: lastfm.dontdrinkandroot.net/
Two or three years ago, whilst becoming acquainted with works of D.H. Thoreau, I chanced across an entry in one of his journals, wherein, he describes his delight at discovering the effect that bright sunlight shining through leaves, has on the underside of those leaves. Almost as though they were illuminated internally. However, his disdain for the dull appearance of the upper surface, if I’m remembering this correctly, was in equal proportion to the delight he felt, when viewing the underside.
Chancing across that particular entry, had a great resonance for me, and the memory has stayed with me ever since, the reason being, that only a few days before, I’d had exactly the same experience.
Within less than arm’s length from where I’m sitting, a wide bay window looks out onto a small gravel covered garden. The only thing growing in the garden, besides three rogue daffodils, is a Magnolia tree. The tree fills the garden, and some of its outer extremities, almost touch the windows. On the day in question, I was sat, as I am now, or was, a short while ago, looking out through the window, at the Magnolia. It was mid afternoon, and the sun, high in the summer sky, was beaming down onto the tree’s leaves. The tree was a mass of brilliant golden yellow leaves (the undersides), as well as, mid to dark green leaves (the upper surfaces). It was a beautiful sight, but unlike Thoreau, I appreciated the effect of the dark surfaces, contrasting, as they did, to great effect with the golden yellows.
As you may gather, My relationship with the Magnolia, is one of ardent admirer and protector. It’s fascinating to watch the gradual changes, that the tree undergoes, with the onset and progression of the different seasons.
I am its protector, because I refuse (frequently), to prune it. I usually promise to do it, “Next year”.
Since midday, today, a gentle rain has fallen. There is no wind or breeze to speak of, and once again the tree has held me in a state of enchantment for an hour or more. As a raindrop hits an uppermost leaf, the leaf shakes/vibrates slightly, and the raindrop rolls off, and falls onto another leaf below, causing a similar reaction and so on and so on, till it falls onto the gravel, twenty feet below the start of its journey in the canopy top.
Of course, there are probably at least a hundred raindrops making the same trip at any given time. Obviously attempting to follow the journey of a single raindrop is an impossibility, but what I discovered today, was, that if you stare into the middle distance, focused on nothing in particular… you can see… every leaf shake as the rain drop falls onto it. The whole tree is shaking before your eyes, with just a slight, hardly noticeable blurriness. Like mainlining on a vision.
It occurred to me, after a while, that some music would be a pleasant addition to the experience. What came instantly to mind, was:
Sam Barber’s youtube.com/watch?v=KylMqxLzNGo
Alegri’s Miserere youtube.com/watch?list=RD4l … lC7V8hG198
and Albinoni’s Adagio youtube.com/watch?v=sOobwQPD3f0
Better than a flagon of Absinthe&Laudanum
The blessing on you, lad. Excellent choices. I was — so long ago it seems another lifetime — a classical DJ; Saturdays was Listener Request, and your picks were often asked for by the listeners.
Allegri is often performed with women singers, but was written for a boy soprano, which is how most listeners seemed to like it. Toscanini liked the Barber so well he memorized it as soon as he received a copy, and conducted it often. And Albinoni was the piece played by the Cellist of Sarajevo.
http://someoldguy.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-cellist-of-sarajevo/
Phil
Thank you, Vic, for the lovely tribute to your magnolia tree and DH Thoreau. (Yes, his birth name was David Henry. After college, he switched it to Henry David.)
My tastes will seem old-fashioned to the young’uns here, but I prefer classical, especially chamber music, jazz of the MJQ-Brubeck-Bill Evans ilk, lady vocalists in the Ella and Sarah school, and Goodman of the quartet and quintet era. Also Fats Waller, Erroll Gardner, Nat King Cole, Marian McPartland and many other great pianists.
Thanks to Pandora and other “radio” apps, I do hear lots of good contemporary tunes, and I’m always struck at the infinite variety of music created, even though some say the writers use only four chords. youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I
youtube.com/watch?v=PSNPpssruFY
youtube.com/watch?v=OQ-JgK9h_MU
youtube.com/watch?v=CI779D2tLyk
youtube.com/watch?v=PHdU5sHigYQ
Droo,
I’m a young ‘n’, and I can run with these babies. 8) cool man
Vic
Discovered some new stuff recently:
My Darkest Days (especially “Set It On Fire” and their cover of “Come Undone” from the first album)
Sean Christopher, Transcendence (especially track 6, “For Andromeda” – it’s like a mix of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect thrown in)
Kongos, Lunatic
Willie Nelson, cover of “The Scientist”
Mixed with cherished favorites:
Anything by Alison Krauss
Daft Punk Tron Legacy soundtrack
Technotronic
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero
Mass Effect
Halo
At this particular moment…
