WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO NOW?

[dannobasso]

Such a wealth of music both new and old to discover. My musical partner and I record and co-produce all of our music and it gives me so much respect for the engineers through the ages. How they were able to capture and present all of those brilliant performances with limited technology .
Glad you enjoyed the selections Dave.
Here's a selection that sounds great to my ears especially on Nura headphones!

[dannobasso]

Guy Pratt breaks down his playing on that track.

[David Houck]

... I searched for Sam Bush today on Bandcamp ...

I opened a Bandcamp artist account a long time ago for the purpose of posting demos to link to while searching for a new band situation.  Eventually I took the demos down.  Only rarely had I searched for other music on Bandcamp, and then with little success; the only real exception being when I purchased the Stanley Lighthead album that our own Hieronymous recorded.

Until I read Stephen's note about searching for Sam Bush on Bandcamp, it never occurred to me that "name" musicians would be selling music on Bandcamp.  But then thinking about it for a few seconds, it makes sense; I already knew that Bandcamp pays musicians far more than other sources for plays and downloads.

So the first "name" musician I search for is one that I've been listening to a lot recently, Nick Johnston.  I particularly like his album "Remarkably Human".  And yes, there's Nick Johnston on Bandcamp.  So I create a fan account (as opposed to an artist account) and then purchase and download the album in Flac format.

I did try a second search for a "name" artist, Mike Dawes, whose cover of "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" (which happens to feature Nick Johnston) I really like.  Over the last few months or so, I've listened to that song more than any other.  And yes, Mike Dawes is on Bandcamp.

So thanks Stephen!  I don't know why it didn't occur to me before.

[rv_bass]

I’ll check out the two musicians you listed, David.  Just wondering why you download flac, and what can Flac files be played on?

[David Houck]

Guy Pratt breaks down his playing on that track.

Guy Pratt has had an amazing career.  It's interesting to hear him talk about this project.

[StephenR]

Hey David. Nice that you were able to find some artists on Bandcamp that you like. I think Bandcamp is a great service, thanks for supporting them and the artists. The artists get as much as 80% of the selling price. During the pandemic they started “Bandcamp Fridays”, the artists get 100% of the selling price for anything bought on Fridays.

As much as I like Bandcamp I admit that it can be hard to find stuff. I have gotten better at searching over time. Here is a link to my collection I buy a lot of diverse stuff.
https://bandcamp.com/stephenr2

The two Richard Thompson releases are both excellent. One of my favorite purchases is Trujillo Peru 1971-74, psychedelic cumbia music. Bola Sete’s “Samba in Seattle” is also a fantastic new release. The Sun Ra estate has been reissuing fresh transfers of the extensive Sun Ra catalog on Bandcamp. One thing I really like is the labels that let you also download the digital version if you buy an LP.

I will also check out the two artists you mention as I am not familiar with either of them.

[David Houck]

I’ll check out the two musicians you listed, David.  Just wondering why you download flac, and what can Flac files be played on?

Mike Dawes is a highly regarded solo acoustic guitar player.  He also does duets and has some recordings and videos with Tommy Emmanuel.  He's also recently toured with Justin Hayward (Moody Blues).  As mentioned, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room (cover of a John Mayer tune) is the song of his that I listen to; and on that tune Nick Johnston comes in near the end to play electric lead over Mike Dawes acoustic.

Nick Johnston writes and plays what I guess can be called progressive guitar oriented instrumental music.  His command of the guitar is wonderful; very tasteful playing mixed with virtuoso type licks.  And his compositions are impressive.  Remarkably Human is something of a concept album as the songs seem tied together and work really well from beginning to end (there's also a series of videos somewhere on the web where he plays through the entire album in scenes that further tie things together.)

I'm no expert, but in short, and as far as I know, Flac apparently will play on pretty much anything that plays mp3.  The quality is considered to be better than mp3 and I suppose kinda equal to wav.

[StephenR]

Flac is a form of lossless compression for audio. Generally it is used to reduce storage space or to enable shorter download times. Once you decompress the Flac file you have a full resolution audio file either .wav or .aiff for Macs. Mp3 is lossy compression unlike Flac it throws away what it considers to be redundant bits as it reduces file size, the more you reduce the size the more it degrades the quality of the audio and you can’t get it back.

Bandcamp requires full resolution audio files from the artists. You can download any and all formats indefinitely once you buy something.

[David Houck]

... As much as I like Bandcamp I admit that it can be hard to find stuff. I have gotten better at searching over time. Here is a link to my collection I buy a lot of diverse stuff.
https://bandcamp.com/stephenr2

A diverse collection indeed!  Particularly intrigued with the Art Tatum.

And yes, finding stuff looks like it will be a challenge.

[StephenR]

There is a lot of classic jazz including the entire Prestige catalog… early Miles Davis etc. The Art Tatum is good, I had never heard him before, that release popped up recently when I checked new jazz releases. Solo renditions of all the old classic jazz tunes. There is a really nice Monk release, too. Just gotta poke around…

[cozmik_cowboy]

The late, great Billy Joe Shaver: 

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

OMG Coz. Hands down, best song intro.... ever. 

[pauldo]

[jazzyvee]

[sonicus]

Whilst surfing YouTube I stumbled into this video of a CalNORML event that I played at with DEAD GUISE about 4 years ago . I am playing my upgraded 1992 Alembic Walnut top Essence and the lead guitarist is playing his Alembic Further .