Listen to "Samuel" by The MayTricks (re-sung version and the Geoff-sung original, released on the 1994 album Happy Songs Will Bring You Down). As I've described before, my band in college featured (from '91-'94) the adventurous jazz guitarist Geoff Esty, who gave us some cred with his fleet fingers. He's also a songwriter (you can hear/watch his current activities here), Continue Reading …
Originality, Music and Noise: Some References
I am a regular listener of the show, and my dad, Jonathan White, has even been a guest (episode 72, "Terrorism"). I am a music history professor at Mercer University and became very excited when the discussion on episode 94 focused on music and, in particular, two major issues: 1) music and noise; 2) music and the cult of originality (which in turn suggests an exploration of Continue Reading …
Partially Naked Self-Examination Music Blog: “Things We Should Do”
Listen to "Things We Should Do" and "Things You Should Do." I did not intend to write another new, episode-specific song right after the last one, but once I started thinking about it, it rather kicked off in my head. The only relation to Ayn Rand is that she's, in my opinion, "of the existentialism moment," meaning that like the existentialists that were her Continue Reading …
Are You Experienced? Are You Ready to Rock?
My previous post about parody songs is of course a much too transparent and potentially exceptional case of the role of associations in music appreciation, since the joke in question is about style, meaning the art is "about" its style in an obvious way, whereas you might argue that art more typically works within a style but the style is not itself the subject matter. While Continue Reading …
Music with One Finger: Rumi Music
My involvement with non-Western philosophy has been pretty limited overall, and one fellow I'd not run into was 13th century Persian mystical love poet and philosopher Rumi, though I see now I have a book with a couple pages of Rumi aphorisms in it in the "Contemporary Sufism" chapter such as "To the ignorant, a pearl seems a mere stone" and "Counterfeiters exist because there Continue Reading …