There are two stories about Jimi Hendrix being fired. The first was when he was fired from a band he joined in high school. Hendrix was too wild for them. That just wasn’t the sound the band was going for, so they fired him. Hendrix was later hired by Little Richard to be in his…
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts. I’m using Discogs to catalogue my entire music collection. I recently finished folk music. I have 45 folk albums in my collection. Folk is a weird genre label. Almost everything made by folks could be considered folk music. Blues is a type of…
I can’t believe it’s been 25 years since I first heard singer, guitarist, songwriter, and band leader Susan Tedeschi. Not to the day, of course. I’m pretty sure it was the summer of 1998. I went to a concert, as I did a lot back then. I don’t remember who it was. Maybe Buddy Guy…
As a former horn player, I listen to as much French horn music as I can get. I love the big orchestras and bands, but there’s always been a special place in my heart for small ensembles. Things like woodwind quintets, brass trios, and brass quintets. One of my favorite brass quintets is the Canadian…
Holiday songs are not typically sad. There are some blues Christmas songs that would qualify, I guess. But usually, holiday songs are happy, joyful, and merry or contemplative, somber, and reverent. But there’s one holiday song that could be in the conversation for saddest songs ever, After the Holidays. Just look at these lyrics: Please…
The AIs used to detect whether a piece of writing is AI generated or not think that the US Constitution and the Bible are AI generated. That’s objectively funny. But is it a problem? The easy answer is that, yes, it is a problem. The AI detectors don’t do what they are designed to do….
I’ve written about artificial intelligence and writing before in this space. Once was about Grammarly, which I hate. The other was about ChatGPT, which I’m pretty ambivalent about. It’s weird to write a piece about something I’m ambivalent about, but I did. I actually sort of wrote three, here and here if you’re interested in…
I used to be a big Bob Dylan fan. In the 90s, I nearly wore out my copies of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Blood on the Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited, and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. I never thought he was a good singer, but he had attitude and swagger. The lyrics were deep and meaningful….
I started as a writing tutor at a local community college about 17 years ago. I’ll never forget one of my first sessions with a student. I don’t remember what the whole essay was about, but the student was talking about the taste of blood and said it was like, “a rusty penny.” I suggested…
“Revival (Love Is Everywhere)” is a 1970 song by the Allman Brothers Band. It was written by one of their guitarists, Dicky Betts, and Greg Allman takes the lead vocal. The first verse goes: People can you feel itLove is everywherePeople can you hear itThe song is in the airWe’re in a revolutionDon’t you know…
