String Theory Media

lives in music, cont.

I'm fascinated by musical biographies, and in this case I don't mean carefully researched books about major musical figures. I mean the stories of regular people, whether career musicians or just engaged fans and supporters. I've often described a life in music as a long series of epiphanies - those moments when you say to yourself, 'oh wow' or 'now I get it' or 'I've never heard that before' and dug a little deeper down the hole because the last discovery made you feel good.

So I was taken by this weekend's post at The Score, the New York Times' periodic blog about music making. Daniel Felsenfeld describes his journey of discovery through various styles and artists on his way to becoming a professional composer. In a scene that reminded me very much of my own early life, he talks about trading tunes with his buddy who then lets him in on his private stash for a trial of something "really wild."

It seems implausible now, but the “something really wild” Mike held was not goth, metal, or punk.  It was a neatly hand-labeled tape of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  He put it on, and I listened.  I think it was then I actually heard music for the first time.

The whole article is definitely worth a read. And if you're interested, after the jump is the first excerpt I've posted from my book-in-progress about instrumental music and its often hard-to-access magic. It's a draft, and I'm not even sure how much personal story I want to include in the final work, but I wrote it and I'd rather get it out there than let it fester in my computer. If you have thoughts about it, or if you would like to share your own autobiography of musical discovery, I'd be excited to post it as part of a series.

video postcard: bluegrass underground goes HD

A few weeks ago, I was on hand to document a remarkable event - the first ever HD shoot of the established show Bluegrass Underground. It's a pilot for a PBS series, made through the good graces of WCTE, the enterprising and outgoing public TV station in Cookeville TN. The show was the brainchild of Todd Mayo (he's the guy in the final shot of this short film) who went on to co-conceive Music City Roots, the Wednesday WSM-AM show where I'm resident blogger and artist interviewer. My pal Todd Jarrell produced the BU shoot, and below you'll see highlights of the load-in, set-up and performance from a remarkable weekend. Artists were the Farewell Drifters, Mike Farris with the McCreary Sisters and the John Cowan Band. In general, Bluegrass Underground is a remarkable experience and a great day's adventure. From downtown Nashville, it's about a two hour trip door to seat in the Volcano Room of Cumberland Caverns, 300 feet below the earth. The acoustics are remarkable. Next show is April 17 with Cadillac Sky and awesome new band The Vespers. 

Bluegrass Underground Video Shoot Weekend from String Theory Media on Vimeo.

yeah, what david byrne said...

"Words can be a dangerous addition to music — they can pin it down. Words imply that the music is about “that” (“that” being what the words say literally) and nothing else. They can, if not done well, destroy the pleasant ambiguity that is a lot of the reason we love music so much. That inherent ambiguity means that we can psychologically tailor music to our own needs, sensibilities and situations — but words limit that, or they can." Source is HERE. 

who's behind 'music matters' ?

Dean Kay's daily e-blast points to Music Matters, a site dedicated to telling inspirational music stories on video in an effort to encourage people to make the "ethical" choice and buy or rent legal music rather than pilfer it via file sharing. It has a little bit of that feeling of a hip attempt by the industry to reach out, but the films are serious and engaging, and there's certainly nothing wrong at all with the sentiment. According to Billboard, it's led by former manager Niamh Byrne, who's now Universal UK's head of creative content. It doesn't say who's funding the campaign, and the website says it's a "collective of people across the music industry, including artists, retailers, songwriters, labels and managers, formed to remind listeners of the significance and value of music."

The real play seems to be the creation and dissemination of a "trust mark" that will (I suppose only in Great Britain) put the gold seal of legality on sites like Spotify, Napster, etc. The complete list is HERE. I suppose that sounds like part of a solution, though hardly a golden bullet. Anyway, what about the films? Well, they're short, in keeping with that youthy demo's reported attention span. But they touch on some worthy, unexpected artists (including one of my faves, The Jam) and they're well-animated. It might be good of them to open this up to all comers, and perhaps that's in the works. Here's MM's take on Blind Willie Johnson.

Music Matters - Blind Willie Johnson (23-3-10) from Music Matters on Vimeo.

a breathtaking virtual choir

The coolest use of internet musical collaboration yet? Background HERE.  

growing the roots

Tomorrow Music City Roots: Live From The Loveless Cafe will close its second season with what feels like incredible momentum. With each passing week, it seems like our audience is bigger and more enthusiastic, and we’re hearing raves back from the artists and musicians who’ve played the show. People are tuning in from around the country and the world. It’s not where we want it to be ultimately but it’s on its way.

Clearly, I'm not an objective observer. I’m part of the show as an interviewer, writer, blogger and creative advisor. But I will say that as beautifully as the show was described to me at the outset by co-producers Todd Mayo and John Walker, there were no guarantees that it would succeed or that it would be able to get through a half year with its original ethos in tact. I’m not just happy that it has done so; I'm ecstatic. I think in all sincerity that it’s going to be one of the pillars of the new Nashville. Music City has been badly in need of artist development avenues that have nothing to do with the foundering mainstream music business. And while Roots can't be and shouldn't be the only channel for that effort, it stands ready and proven to be a major source of energy, inspiration and communication for the sounds and spirit that drew many of us here in the first place.

scales without octaves

This thought-provoker appeared in the Boston Globe Ideas section. I was recently writing about octaves being a natural, virtually inevitable organizing principle for harmony. It is certainly the bedrock subdivision of the music we in the West know and sing. Chop octaves into 12 equal tones and you have our tempered scale, and how that scale was arrived at is an amazing tale you should dive into one day.

But what about this?

The unusual scale she played ended on a high note that was triple, not double, the frequency of the low note, and the interval was divided into 13 equal steps. This new system, called Bohlen-Pierce, was independently invented in the 1970s and 1980s by two engineers and a computer scientist as an alternative to the traditional musical system. Initially a mixture of math, music, and theory, Bohlen-Pierce has now grown into a living art, as people around the world have begun building instruments, composing pieces, and developing a music theory, all using notes that most people have never heard.

There's also good video at the story itself.

sam bush television - a webcasting success story

Yesterday I gave a talk at the chaotic and slightly surreal but hospitable Broadway club Cadillac Ranch during a session at PodCamp, an annual free gathering of digital content creators and facilitators. The title, as above: Sam Bush Television - A Webcasting Success Story. It was a great experience, and a lot of fun to have the Sam Bush Band playing live over the AV system as people gathered. I was streaming "Blue Mountain," the 19th webisode in 19 weeks since Sam released his album "Circles Around Me." My purpose was to describe a fairly unique media and marketing experiment that's made everyone involved pretty happy. It's a story of musical adventure, gonzo filmmaking and ROI. The essentials of the presentation follow the jump.

zac brown in acoustic guitar magazine

 My Q&A profile with Zac Brown, surprise country star, appears on the cover of the new issue of Acoustic Guitar. A brief excerpt:

In many ways, Brown’s rise to headlining status feels more earthy than the typical Music Row male vocalist. Thirty-one years old, he’s been playing live for a living for 13 years, logging his 3,000th show in early 2009 and selling more than 30,000 CDs independently before landing his current record deal. As one of the very rare artists who’s played both jam and roots festivals like Bonnaroo and Telluride Bluegrass and country music’s CMA Music Festival, Brown is riding that enviable line where grassroots integrity overlaps with commercial success.

ode to a music teacher

Writer/editor Joanne Lipman turns in a loving eulogy for her former music teacher Jerry Kupchynsky.

Mr. K. pushed us harder than our parents, harder than our other teachers, and through sheer force of will made us better than we had any right to be. He scared the daylight out of us.

I doubt any of us realized how much we loved him for it.

via www.nytimes.com