Music

Anything music.

There are 320 posts filed in Music (this is page 11 of 32).

Homemade music: don’t try this in Raleigh

My family and I spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. After dinner was over, we got out our instruments and played some music, starting with Christmas songs and then moving on to others, like the bluegrass classic Keep On The Sunnyside, as seen on YouTube. It had been a long time since I’d played with my brothers (and dad) and we all had a great time. It reminded me of something I’ve been considering for a while (actually, ever since my daughter Hallie began violin lessons): hosting a regular jam session at the house for anyone who wanted to come over and play.
Continue reading →

Southern Culture’s Rick Miller interviewed

Here’s a great interview of Southern Culture on the Skids (a.k.a. “SCOTS”) frontman Rick Miller.

I love reading Miller explain how SCOTS is forging its own way in the music industry. You can tell by watching them play that Miller and the band truly love what they do – and that makes a SCOTS show such a blast.

Southern Culture On The Skids – guitarist Rick Miller, bassist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman, plus recent recruit Tim Barnes on second guitar – is a North Carolina institution, Tarheel rock ‘n’ roll ambassadors determined to preach the gospel as espoused in that none-too-subtle, ever-evocative moniker. Put another way, their goddam reputation precedes them, and folks coming out to a SCOTS show aren’t there because they want to furrow their brows and ponder the deep metaphysics of life itself (well, unless you’re talking some esoteric Duane Eddy, Dick Dale or Tony Joe White musical reference; then you’re welcome to go deep). No, they’re there to shake their asses, and maybe toss a few chunks of fried chicken back and forth like crispy brown frisbees.

via BLURTING WITH… Rick Miller of Southern Culture On The Skids on Blurt Online.

Singing is hard

For the past few holiday seasons I’ve been saying I would create a CD of me singing Christmas songs but I’ve never gotten it done. I began this season determined to do it. After considering inviting a friend to accompany me on piano, I decided to go a more polished route and use some professional musicians.

Recalling my early job as a recording engineer at the karaoke-like Sing-A-Song Recording Studios, I searched online for some vocalless tracks I could buy. Finding just what I needed at Singray Digital’s The Karaoke Channel, I purchased a dozen or so tracks and tried mixing my voice in with them.
Continue reading →

Lots going on

As usual when you don’t hear much from me, there are a lot of things happening at the moment. And they’re good things, really. Can’t complain.

On the work front things are cranking up. I was busy with a few projects which have expanded my knowledge of the product. I was expecting to be traveling south to Orlando next week for a trade show but my plans changed abruptly today when the company realized I should be in New York state instead. So rather than enjoying high temperatures of 80 degrees I’ll be looking at 55 degrees instead. Oh well: at least the work will be interesting! I will be far more active in NY than at any trade show, so my product knowledge will increase exponentially from this change of plans.

Outside of work my community involvement continues. I nailed down the East CAC’s November agenda, and through the magic of Le Calendar I have proclaimed this month’s to be the last meeting of the year. We’ll have a holiday social event and hobnob this month. It’s always one of my favorite meetings.

On the Raleigh CAC front, I’ve been asked if I would like to become chair. I’m not really looking for any more feathers in my cap but I don’t want the organization to lose ground, either. Still trying to figure out if I want to take something else on, though as of now I’m leaning towards “no.”
Continue reading →

September Morn

September Morn
Neil Diamond

Stay for just a while
Stay, and let me look at you
It’s been so long, I hardly knew you
Standing in the door
Stay with me a while
I only want to talk to you
We’ve traveled halfway ’round the world
To find ourselves again

September morn
We danced until the night became a brand new day
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way

Look at what you’ve done
Why, you’ve become a grown-up girl
I still can hear you cryin’
In the corner of your room
And look how far we’ve come
So far from where we used to be
But not so far that we’ve forgotten
How it was before

September morn
Do you remember how we danced that night away
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way

Sound Choice in the news again

I was delighted to read the story in today’s Charlotte Observer about Kurt Slep and Sound Choice, fighting back against illegal copying of their karaoke music. The company took a beating when unscrupulous karaoke jockeys (“KJ’s”) downloaded their music rather than paying for it.

While I was sad to hear how devastating music piracy has been to Sound Choice, I was glad to read about the history of the company, including the time in 1985 when I was one of its first employees.

Kurt, give me a call if you need a vocalist!

Metal Method with Sledge

Back in the 1990s this show, “Metal Method with Sledge,” was the rage on Raleigh’s public access channel. Fortunately it lives on thanks to YouTube. Rock on!

Close, but not quite

I put on my geek hat last night to see if I could get Bluetooth audio streaming to work from my mobile phone to my Ubuntu desktop. I got tantalizingly close! After adding “Enable=Source ” in the /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf file and rescanning my laptop’s available services from my phone after I made that change (among the other steps outlined in this page, suddenly the phone would connect to my laptop. It wouldn’t last long, however as soon as I began to stream music to my laptop it would disconnect. I’m not really sure why, too. It probably has something to do with PulseAudio, which I have rarely messed with and don’t completely understand.

I bet you this is a cinch to do under OS X. Sigh.