Hackleys

Flexing ear muscles

I feel happy about my musical intakings over the past month or so. I have broken myself out of the routine of sticking on the same albums and have pretty much steered clear of most things I have heard before. This is because of the generosity of one Nick Barbery who burned 6 DVDs of musical delights for me last year and that I am now, finally, coming to terms with.

The major surprise is how much variety I’m currently able to bear, without curling up into a ball. I am, at this very moment, which is 7:41pm on Thursday evening listening to one of my favourite albums from the Barbery batch which is by Javad Ma’roufi, is called Golden Dreams and Other Romantic Melodies and is some beautiful piano music that, as Nick rightly mentions on his blog, steers pretty close to being sentimental but somehow manages to distance itself enough to just be thoroughly enjoyable and introspective enough. It was immediately accessible, which can be a bad sign, but in this case was not. It has stood up to repeated listens and is one of the few albums I have listened to more than once in recent weeks.

There’s a pretty powerful old-time music vein running through my current listening. Lots from the Kentucky mountains, and some delta blues. John Fahey and Jack Rose have made appearances. Buell Kazee has become a firm favourite, mainly for his voice, and Bascom Lamar Lunsford is always good to me.

What I like most about finding new stuff to listen to every day is that my mood doesn’t attach itself so much to my music anymore; I can just enjoy the experience of a new experience, if you see what I mean. This seems like a pretty obvious conclusion to have come to a long time ago but I feel like I’m only just really realising it. Luckily, most of it has been handed to me on a plate – I haven’t been searching things out for myself which may change, but at present there are enough gems coming at me from friends that I don’t have to do any work for myself.

In my plodding around I have also discovered an English traditional singer I hadn’t heard before, and is clearly incredible: Harry Cox. His version of Just as the Tide was a-Flowing is the finest version I have heard of the song, and is well worth downloading just on its own.

And finally, yesterday I listened to The Blops, a Chilean prog folk group who are amazing. Los Momentos was the highlight track for me.

That’s all for now.