Music

I love it. I write it. I sing it. And, with or without some help from my friends, I play it. Guitar was my first instrument. I picked up bass in college, drums later, and piano in the last few years.

I love songs. I also love great playing, great singing, great arrangements, great production, and even great liner notes. But the songs come first.

I love the greats. I love Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Louis Jordan, George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Hoagie Carmichael, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Anita O'Day, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Miles Davis, and Tony Bennett. I love Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Ravel. I love Hank Williams, Sr., Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and Willie Dixon. I love The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Who, The Kinks, James Brown, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, The Jackson Five, Jim Croce, Sly and The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, America, Bread, Parliament, The Meters, Elton John, Steely Dan, The Rutles, Bonnie Raitt, and XTC. And so many more.

I love music that creates a new world and pulls me in to enjoy it. The music must tap my foot. The music must compel me to smile. The music must judge all who hear it: no one who loathes a genuinely happy tune is worthy of happiness. I love music that takes seriously the job of what my favorite author called "direct emotional communication". The emotion I love hearing most in music is joy in its many shades.

To come: MP3 montages of some original tunes, along with lyric sheets, and eventually a way to buy CDs. If you love what I love, you won't be disappointed.