Music

[libby]

Haven't been listening to music all that much lately. Music arouses all sorts of emotions in me, so I don't listen to it when I'm sad or lonely or need to keep a stiff upper lip. At times like that  I settle down in my big easy chair after dinner and watch something on TV -- like reruns of NCIS or Star Trek NG or The Closer -- while working the WP crossword puzzle. But last night I noticed that one of our three PBS stations was featuring The Three Tenors (Carreras , Domingo, and Pavarotti), so turned to it and watched/listened to it all, from start to finish. I was alone except for my cat, and she slept through it all.  That made me think of my old sheep dog, who also never reacted to music -- except for Pavarotti.  She used to sing along with him  -- a soft high pitched howl. 

[me]

Pavarotti had a great voice. I don't normally listen to that type of music but his voice really attracted me the first time I heard it for some reason. I've managed to watch The Three Tenors at least 5 times and enjoyed it each time.

[Purplelady1040]

I listen to all types of music except rap. When I work with kids, I play classical and many of them are like what is that and find that they like it!

[Bo D]

I found a classic country channel on XM (Willie's roadhouse) and I've been listening to that a lot lately. I never used to care for country music at all, but this is country music when it was still country - before it tried to be rock& roll.

Of course, I still listen to virtually everything else too.

[me]

I agree with you Bo D. IMO today's country music pretty much sucks.

[Henry Hawk]

Speaking of music, has anyone watched "Whiplash"?  JK Simmons won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  He really is fantastic in this flick.  I highly recommend this.  I saw this, this past weekend, and I was really pleased with it.  This guy plays a "Bobby Knight of Music" teacher, and the kid in it, actually plays the drums well enough to pull off all of the scenes.  Simmons is awesome.  I became a fan of his this week.

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

[me]

Speaking of music, has anyone watched "Whiplash"?  JK Simmons won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  He really is fantastic in this flick.  I highly recommend this.  I saw this, this past weekend, and I was really pleased with it.  This guy plays a "Bobby Knight of Music" teacher, and the kid in it, actually plays the drums well enough to pull off all of the scenes.  Simmons is awesome.  I became a fan of his this week.

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

Think that just might call for a trip to the Amazon site. 

[Henry Hawk]

Think that just might call for a trip to the Amazon site. 

You will love it me. 

[libby]

Speaking of music, has anyone watched "Whiplash"?  JK Simmons won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  He really is fantastic in this flick.  I highly recommend this.  I saw this, this past weekend, and I was really pleased with it.  This guy plays a "Bobby Knight of Music" teacher, and the kid in it, actually plays the drums well enough to pull off all of the scenes.  Simmons is awesome.  I became a fan of his this week.

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

I'm a long-time J.K. Simmons fan and will definitely watch for the movie. I didn't watch the Oscars but certainly would have if I'd known he would win one. Right now he can be seen in The Closer reruns on what I know as Channel 20 (WDCA) at 7 PM Saturdays and Sundays. He also had a supporting role in the Monk series.

[The Troll]

I found a classic country channel on XM (Willie's roadhouse) and I've been listening to that a lot lately. I never used to care for country music at all, but this is country music when it was still country - before it tried to be rock& roll.

Of course, I still listen to virtually everything else too.

  This new country music just PLAIN SUCKS.  Who ever heard of COUNTRY RAP. 

[libby]

I found a classic country channel on XM (Willie's roadhouse) and I've been listening to that a lot lately. I never used to care for country music at all, but this is country music when it was still country - before it tried to be rock& roll.

Of course, I still listen to virtually everything else too.

On Tuesday night I was scrolling through some local TV channels and stopped at one because a lot of people were paying a lot of attention to a big country-looking baby-faced fellow with a shy-looking smile. Then he started to sing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, and oh my what a voice! He had on a worn-looking cowboy hat and wore the clothes to go with it. And sounded like Johnny reincarnated except for a time or two when his voice, the timbre, was a little bit smoother.  I didn't catch his name -- and didn't know what I was watching, but after he left the stage I moved on.

Found out today who he is:

'The Voice' contender is a D.C. lawyer by day, country crooner by night

On Tuesday night's episode of the NBC singing competition "The Voice," Jack Gregori impressed the celebrity judges, along with many of the show's 15 million viewers.
But on Wednesday night, he hoped to wow a far smaller crowd at his regular weekly gig at Madam's Organ, the blues bar in Adams Morgan. Gregori is a Washington lawyer who spends his days poring over real estate titles and his nights playing country tunes with his band, Human Country Jukebox, at venues around the city, including Gypsy Sally in Georgetown and Chinatown's Hill Country.

On Tuesday, during blind auditions on "The Voice" — where the celebrity judges listen to the performances with their backs turned, then swivel around if they want to enlist the singer to be a part of their team — Gregori's rendition of "Ring of Fire" won him a spot on Team Adam Levine.

In an interview on Wednesday, Gregori couldn't tell us much about how things play out in the competition (the episode that aired on Tuesday was filmed in October), but he says his experience on the show taught him a few things. Audiences might see a slightly more "polished" performer these days, he says. "And the off-color jokes in between songs might be more infrequent."

He's got a rise-from-the-ashes story that's made for the pathos of reality TV: After the real estate crash of 2008, he lost the title-search company he founded and had to take in housemates to avoid foreclosure on his Adams Morgan rowhouse. After that, he decided to scale back his day job and focus more on his music, which led to the spot on "The Voice."
He's hoping that exposure to the show's national audience will be a springboard for bigger things — maybe a contract with a label, albums, tours. "That's the dream," he says. For now, he hopes his appearance will bring more attention to Washington's music scene. "I'd like people to see there's a lot of great music in D.C.," he says.

Madams Organ owner Bill Duggan, who first heard Gregori sing at the bar's open-mike night and recruited him to play regular gigs, thinks reaching the big time is only a matter of time for him. "Oh, I'll lose him at some point — and I'll be happy to lose him," he says.

www.washingtonpost.com

 

[Henry Hawk]

I like just about everything except for RAP, Opera and most of the girly "Pop" music.

I have listened to the Willies Roadhouse before, and it is fun to listen to the music my Dad used enjoy.

I like many of today's country music stars.  It is different, but I like it. A little can go a long way sometimes.

My favorite is 70's lite country, such as the Eagles, America and James Taylor.  I love Bob Seger, Areosmith, Boston, Foreigner. I never tire of the Beatles.

Of the current music, I have really gotten to like Bruno Mars. He is a throw back to some old Mo-Town music that I also love.

[libby]

Earlier tonight I was in my easy chair watching NCIS reruns, then at 7 p.m. turned to Channel 20 to watch The Closer, another favorite rerun I've been watching for probably a year, but it was not there, so decided to see what the Gaithers were up to and got lucky --  the entire hour featured Alabama singing old hymns, recorded, courtesy of Bill Gaither, in the little country town in Alabama where they apparently still live. To me their sound is pure country, not what they call country music now, but country the way I remember it. Those were the songs we sang in the little country church we went to when I was a girl. 

[Anne]

I don't listen to a lot of music but I do like the old time country. I loved listening to Grandpa Jones, Slim Pickins and the rest of that era. I think I got left in the 40's, 50's and very early 60's era. Johnny Cash was a favorite of mine and I still enjoy the big band sound. I'm not much for classic opera but like what I have heard called "light" opera. My husband listens to Willie's Roadhouse. If you have ever listened to one of the Gaither shows you will hear some good music. Some of it is the Praise Band stuff (which I dislike) but when they get into the old time foot stompin', hand clappin' gospel singing, it is good. (They have good food at their cafe/store, too.)

[Y]

Modern 'country' tends to be nothing but 50s, 60s, and 70s rock and usually played badly.  Then you get the ones that try and throw 'hip hop' (rap read crap) into the mix.  Basically it just all sucks.  I had to pick up this one 'country' song (Kick it in the Sticks - Brantley Gilbert) for a band I'm sitting in with and that damn song is no more 'country' than the man in the moon - it's metal sung with a twang.

That's what passes for 'country' music these days, if you sing it with a phony arse twang, it's now 'country'...or, laughably, Taylor Swift passing as 'country'.  It's all a 'music' industry joke.

I happen to know the Gaithers and don't like them.  They - like Disney - keep making a mint off of recycling material from the public domain.  The Gaithers taking actual gospel music originating in black and hillbilly churches a century ago and longer and staging phony get-togethers solely for the purpose of selling the DVDs and acquiring Dove awards all while claiming it's for the 'glo-ry of gawd!'  It's one of the reasons I can't stand the religious music scene because it's as phony as all get out.  They claim it's about gawd but it's really all about the money and ego.

Opera is one of the few forms of music of which I'm not enamored (I didn't want to end with a preposition    ).  I enjoy classical and jazz - including Big Band.  If I were limited to only one composer, I'd choose Bach over everything else.

An aside, Bo if you want to hear the epitome of bass lines, listen to all of Bach's compositions.