Stuff

Yesterday a good friend sent me a link to mp3 files on Wolfgangsvault.com of a Taj Mahal set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 28,1968. I am a big fan of Taj and a major fan of the late Jesse Ed Davis.
What is remarkable is that I actually had attended the concert, which also had included band Kaleidescope, Happy & Artie Traum and Theodore Bikel. I had hitched down from Boston, and had spent the all off my time in a parking lot converted to a campground partying as I couldn’t afford tickets. Janis Joplin was at Newport that year, but we could only listen from beyond the fence. A friend from school ran into me and gave me a ticket for the show…in addition to Taj’s set, I listened to Kaleidescope yesterday and will see if Happy & Artie are on there. Some great music.
As I logged on to Nodepression.com, I saw Christine Ohlman’s tune “The Deep End” on the player. I discovered her music here. Not a day goes by that I’m not on Youtube checking out someone…As I write this I’ve been working the web to promote my tunes and am starting to get some traction, first here for “Another Day” and now on HosstheBoss.com w/ “Bedtime Story” – Overnight Sensation? Hardly. But the web is an amazing vehicle for music.
Back in the day, AM radio didn’t play hardly anything but Top 20, FM (relatively new) was starting to play ” Alternative” stuff, but it was still music from Record Labels. When I heard something cool, I would look it up in the Schwann catalog, take a train to NY (or mail order via what is now called “snail mail”) to King Karol Records
When the record arrives, I would read the credits and liner notes, go to the record store and try and listen in the demo booth if they had it. The local Record shop in Larchmont,NY didn’t stock Muddy Waters or McKinley Morganfield records back then ;->
Times sure have changed. As an “Artist”, you now have to do more footwork than ever to get recognized. EVERYONE has access to means of promotion and distribution, getting noticed in the crowd is difficult. But the MUSIC is there, and when I saw Taj at Newport that summer it wasn’t about money, it was about THE MUSIC. And there has never been a better time to hear it..