While I am still deeply into Spotify, I also enjoy the ability to roll some mixes that are available to those who stubbornly refuse to sign up.
My current favorite of the mix-tape sites is 8tracks.
Here’s our third mix. 25 great alt. county songs you’ve probably never heard. Probably the best mix I’ve ever rolled.
Enjoy. Share. Tell your friends.
Archive
Rancho Mix Volume 1
Rancho Mix Volume 2
Here’s a little audio-video holiday card from your friends at Newsome.Org.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is the hard to find Punch Bowl Full of Joy, by Sonny Columbus, with help from The Del Fuegos. Likewise, one of my favorite holiday cartoons is Snow Foolin’, a 1949 cartoon, now in the public domain.
Those two plus a little iMovie editing equals our digital holiday card for 2011.
Enjoy.
Courtesy of Twangville, the best music blog on the internets, I’ve queued up Michael Donner & The Southern Renaissance in my Spotify player for the weekend.
Good stuff so far.
Here’s the Spotify link.
And here’s a music video.
I heard part of this great show on the Grateful Dead XM channel tonight. It reminded me how much I like this show. My favorite version of Here Comes Sunshine, a fantastic version of Loser, among many other great songs.
I just cannot get the Archive.Org embeddable player to work, so here is the link.
Live, from Public Hall, Cleveland, OH. December 6, 1973.
A post in which we demonstrate that:
a guy on a buffalo + great music + social networking = awesomeness.
It all started when I came across these hilarious videos. Seriously, if you can watch these without howling, dial 911 immediately, because your brain isn’t working right.
I haven’t laughed that hard since that iPhone video. Straight-up got mauled by a cougar. Epic.
Being the curious sort, I discover that those videos were made by The Possum Posse, an Austin band, as a way to generate interest in their music, and to finance a record.
That led me to their SoundCloud page, where I discover some fantastic music, including the excellent Pocket Dial. This is some seriously great music. Going through this discovery process was reminiscent of the day I stumbled onto the Wrinkle Neck Mules, who remain my all-time favorite alt. country band.
From there, I went back to The Possum Posse’s YouTube page, where I see even more audio video excellence, in the form of a video mashup of another one of their excellent songs and a really old Tom & Jerry cartoon.
Humor in songs, especially humor that doesn’t rise to the level of complete stupidity, is an under-utilized tool, that works. Remember this song, one of my favorites from last year?
Ultimately, I ended up on The Possum Posse’s Kickstarter page, where they are seeking funds for their next record. Having just kicked in for my upper case Friend Mary Lou Lord’s (I’ve not met her IRL, but we have mutual musician lower case friends) next record, I gladly pledged a few bucks.
Any time we can reward hilarity, great music and smart marketing, we should do so. It’s like the anti-Twitter.
And, finally, for an added bonus, here’s the entire Buffalo Rider movie, that helpfully provided the raw materials for the (much better) Guy on a Buffalo videos.
So, I just fixed you up for humor, music and movies. Enjoy.
And support these artists:
This post has a soundtrack. If you don’t have Spotify, for the love of Duane Allman and Jerry Garcia, go sign up. If you can’t get an invite, and I know or know of you, leave a request in the Comments and I’ll try to round one up for you.
The current Jukebox DeLuxe playlist.
It’s no secret that I really dig Spotify. It has almost completely replaced all of my other music applications and services. Including my huge local music collection on my network server. If I want something Spotify doesn’t have, I add that file to my Spotify library. Not the other way around.
When Spotify was released, I was certain it was going to roll over the social web like a tidal wave. I’m not sure that happened.
My Facebook Friends list is a good mix of three kinds of folks. My high school friends, who are mostly very non-geeky. My tech writer friends, who are extremely geeky. And fellow musicians, who are all ranges of geeky, but very interested in music.
Of my 247 Facebook Friends, exactly 14 have signed up for Spotify and enabled the social sharing features.
Of those 14, four had early access to Spotify. Another one of them is my daughter, who begged for an invitation after hearing me rave about it endlessly. That leaves 9 people who signed up on their own after Spotify officially launched in the U.S. That’s not many. Heck, I’ve sent out 5-6 invitations and only my daughter has signed up.
All of this makes me wonder.
As someone who has tried countless music services, I can tell you unequivocally that Spotify is the best music service I have ever used. I love it, and am happy to pay for a premium account.
But the money is in the non-geek crowd. Because there are a lot more of them. And based on my admittedly non-scientific sample, Spotify doesn’t have the non-geek reach I thought it would.
I hope I’m wrong. Because Spotify rocks.
Here’s a little gem for your holiday listening.
Mick Taylor demonstrates why he is one of the most under-appreciated guitarists on earth.
Yes, I was tripped out on a hillside. I broke down my head and I cried.
I’ve been listening to the Grateful Dead since I was old enough to scrape a few dollars together and find my way to the nearest record store. I named my first child after a Grateful Dead song. I listen to the Grateful Dead channel 75% of the time I’m driving. I have a recurring and wonderful dream that I am in the band, playing on stage sometime during the Europe ’72 era. In other words, I am a committed fan. I thought I’d heard every song they’ve ever recorded.
But, as it turns out, I hadn’t. Because tonight, on the way home from work, something wonderful happened.
It’s a special treat to hear a new Grateful Dead song. Even if it was recorded almost 40 years ago. Is this really a cover of the Porter Wagoner song? Apparently so.
And it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long, long time.
It’s not on Spotify (the Porter Wagoner version is). No luck on Amazon.
A little research indicates that this show was in Jersey City, NJ. It was in the second set, between The Greatest Story Ever Told and Truckin’.
Here’s the entire set, via Archive.Org.
![Image of Strangers Almanac [Deluxe Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-IJgdwPCL._SL75_.jpg "Strangers Almanac [Deluxe Edition]")
