Lyle Lovett

Have not made a post in awhile.

I am not much for country unless it has a good touch of songwriting and folk in the artist.  One such artist is Lyle Lovett.  He chooses his material well and plays either with a small sparse band or a large mini-bi band.  I have most of his albums and like them all to varying degrees.  My favorite is Joshua Judges Ruth.  That one should be in everyone's music library.  Every song is good.  It could be retitled Ballads and Blues.  Two songs, Baltimore and North Dakota are excellent.  He is excellent live, if you ever get a chance to see him, go.  I saw him twice as an opening act for Sting and than Bonnie Raitt.  He had his large band with him and for an opening act, his sets were a bit long but entertaining.  The players in his band are very good.  One other album, I would recommend is Step Inside This House.  It is a tribute, all covers, to Texas Singer Songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt and many others.  It is very nice and introspective to listen to.  I got it as a download for 5$ from Amazon.  It is a short double album (21 songs) so this price is a good deal.  Check it out and you will not be sorry!  The man has such a great voice for the ballads.  Most of his songs have a way of getting in your head and sticking there.  A very good country-folk artist!!  A good classification for him is LBACSS, laid back alternative country singer songwriter!!

That is all for this entry.  I have been busy with my music.  I am trying to unload some of my cassettes and albums.  It is not easy.  It seems cassettes are a thing of the past and no one wants or plays them anymore.  Vinyl is making a slight comeback but mostly for the popular stuff and not jazz or classical. I have some great jazz and classical and I hate to just throw them out.

I may buy a program for converting them to Digital.  Golden Records is one and I have tried it and it seems to work well.  Has anyone out there any opinions on this subject.  One issue is this approach is very time consuming as the transfer is in real time.

MOG is a great streaming service and I have tried it out about one month now and I like it a lot. You can download the songs you like on your IPOD or IPHONE.  It has lots of choices and the streaming is high quality.  However, on a IPAD it is hard to tell the difference.  It is a much better service than PANDORA.

That is all.  Hope all of you followers (if any) are having a nice summer.

Uncle Joe