The Music Hunter and Gatherer

I've found myself, of late, pursuing interesting music. It all started when I took up a recommendation from a guy on the NY NOLS email list who works for a small record label. It was for Josh Ritter's Hello Starling. The music has a real pure sound to it. His voice really hits many different moods. The songs tells stories that can transport you. Track 3, Kathleen, tells a story of a boy pursuing a girl at a party; and for those few minutes, you're there. You feel his yearning, his excitement, and the joyous consumation. There's that nostalgia of growing up. Like the Wonder Years without that painful awkwardness of Kevin Arnold. Highly recommend it.

Pretty cool stuff. The album really reminded me of how much good music is out there if you look. I caught a whiff of the excitement of turning over a stone and finding that gem. It's great how part of the satisfaction is the search. Just like food, where the context around the meal can matter just as much as the food itself -- cooking with friends, how you caught the five-pound bass, or how you hiked all day long before getting to camp -- how you found the song, who you share it with, and what you were doing when you heard it first can mean more than inherent quality of the music.

Of late, I've been stringing together various means of obtaining music. My best method, so far, is a Napster subscription. Now I have an amazing wealth of music searchable by artist, song, album, and genre. It's great -- I can listen to full songs which takes care of my big complaint about trying to buy music based on 30 second clips on Amazon or Tower Records. Napster actually has a subscription where you can download as much as you want to an MP3 player -- I might hit that up, it's a great deal. I also use Sirius radio, although it still suffers from being a "push medium" which can be problematic if the stations don't match your tastes well. Finally, one of the better means is recommendations from friends. One co-worker, Martin, is a very avid fan of music. He lent me his iPod for a week which has been great for listening to all sorts of eclectic tunes. He also gave me a great idea -- have a potluck music party -- everybody brings their music collection. You start by playing one person's favorite track. Then anyone can follow that with another track, maybe something that the first track reminded them of or perhaps just a nifty track that they like. Totally free form, but it sounds like a great time.

Well, off to listen to more tunes. I just heard a great one, Paper and Stone by Willis. Cool rhythms!