Category: Music

Forget Ryan Seacrest, this is a great listen to ring in 2013 (especially Box Full of Letters starting around min 24):

It’s amazing to think that one instrument has pretty much provided the soundtrack of my life:

Trigger: Texas Monthly December 2012: “Without Willie, there would be no Trigger. And it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that without Trigger, there would be no Willie. Willie likes to say that his guitar will probably wear out just about the same time he does. But instead of slowing down, as most people do when they approach their ninth decade, Willie keeps doing the things he’s been doing for years, and so does Trigger. The pair did more than 150 shows this year, and they’ll likely do about that many in 2013. They’ll make some more albums and write some more songs. They’ll play as if they’re going to play forever.”

Fantastic article on my favorite musician and favorite instrument.

Good for a chilly election night…

Beautiful:

Apple’s Tribute To Steve Jobs, Yo-Yo Ma, And The Prelude From Bach:

As it turns out, Ma plays the first four Bach suites tuning down his cello a full semitone, and there is a specific reason for doing so. In baroque times, instruments like cellos sounded a little different: the musical note A (A440) didn’t have a frequency of 440 Hz, but was more around 415 Hz — something known as the baroque pitch.

(Via www.macstories.net)

It’s funny, odd and a little comforting to scroll back through back in my last.fm profile and see what music I’ve been listening to since I signed up for the service in August of 2005 (when I was 26 and a lot more wiser):

samharrelson’s Music Profile – Users at Last.fm

In 2005, the social web was still completely new and the idea of sharing what you were listening to with others was just revolutionary.

Still is.

In 2005, I was living in Columbia and teaching at Hammond School and had no idea what lie ahead.

What a long, strange trip it’s been.

By the way, I went a few years without having the last.fm audio scribbler hooked up, so there is so much data missing. I’ve listened to way more than 12,000 songs over the last seven years (about 4-5 a day if that’s to be believed). I’ve probably covered closer to three times that amount at least. But still… fun data.

Yay interwebs.

Streaming Now: Phish – Cities http://t.co/9eXc9NGb

— Sam's Music (@SamsHouseMusic) August 27, 2012

I’m always shocked that people want to know what I’m listening to, but I’m pretty open about what comes across my iTunes and Spotify accounts via the @SamsHouseMusic.

Thanks to Last.FM’s Scrobbler, iTunes, Spotify and Twitterfeed, I’m able to stream whatever is playing in my house at any given time.

Even when I’m out of the house, I keep the music going. It’s always fun for me to check in the middle of the day to see what Schaefer is listening to at any given time.

He’s a big Phish fan these days, evidently.