Music
-
Glenn Phillips If there is anyone reading this who has heard of Glenn Phillips, I'd like to know. Without looking back over the whole list of people I've posted about this year, I feel pretty sure he is the least-known. I believe–again, without checking–that he's one of the two people I've featured whom I've seen…
-
Taylor Swift has a new album out. It's called 1989, and I may or may not hear it. I've always assumed that her music was the sort of commercial pop that doesn't interest me, although I know of two people with excellent taste in music who think highly of her work. (Well, maybe I should say…
-
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Just a country boy and his dobro: I didn't have in mind to venture away from standard guitar in this series. The other night I was watching the 2004 Crossroads concert, a guitar festival organized by Eric Clapton to benefit a drug treatment center he founded. It's two DVDs, four hours,…
-
Gary Moore When Jack Bruce died a week or two ago, all the obituaries described him as "former Cream bassist." But Cream only existed for a couple of years, and Bruce had a very long and productive career afterwards, including several albums which are more interesting to me than Cream's stuff. He worked with a…
-
Robert Fripp I hadn't planned to include Fripp in this series, although he is a very highly regarded player. Apart from his work with King Crimson, which doesn't necessarily offer that many examples of his playing apart from the band, I really haven't heard that much of him. But having Daniel Lanois and Michael Brook…
-
Michael Brook After Daniel Lanois, Michael Brook naturally comes to mind. He's another guitarist whose strength is in colors and atmospheres rather than power and speed. And Lanois produced Brook's album Cobalt Blue, which is well known among both guitar and ambient music fans–I first heard it on the ambient radio program Music from the Hearts…
-
Daniel Lanois Most of my entries in this series have emphasized technical brilliance, though not, I hope, empty brilliance: I haven't included anyone who doesn't have something interesting to say musically. But there's a place for people who don't dazzle you with speed, and yet have the ability to move you. Daniel Lanois is one…
-
Doc Watson I'm pressed for time today, but I don't want to put this off, so I won't say much. You already know who Doc Watson was, right? If not, you can read about him here. I'll confine my remarks to repeating what Dylan said about him: that his playing was like water flowing from…
-
Chet Atkins This is for Robert Gotcher, who asked if I was ever going to feature Chet Atkins. Actually I wasn't planning to. I know Atkins was an extremely good player, but the kind of music he played has never been all that appealing to me. And I have to admit I was prejudiced against…
-
When we were discussing Twin Peaks a week or so ago (on the Favorite Movies thread?–I can't remember), I mentioned that I had discovered that there's a band named Audrey Horne, and one named The Dale Cooper Quartet. (For those who don't know Twin Peaks, those are prominent characters.) I wondered if the Dale Cooper name was…
Light On Dark Water 