Category: music

For Those A Great Distance From Their Loves

     A little something from the great Tom Rush:      To those who have their loves close by: Be grateful.

Have A Little Afternoon Music

     …for lovers in the afternoon of life:      Dan Fogelberg wrote it; Glass Hammer raised it to glory.

Stories Told In Song

     I love a song that tells a good story. Here’s a traditional, performed by Pentangle: In Bruton town there lived a farmer Who had two sons and one daughter dear. By day and night they were contriving To fill their sister’s heart with care. One told his secrets to no other, but to his …

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Things Have Been Getting Too Heavy

     …so let’s have some music. Here’s Emmylou Harris, from her Stumble Into Grace album:      God bless you, Emmylou.

A Musical Reminiscence

     The older I get, the more my thoughts are occupied by my past. That’s hardly unusual. Neither is it difficult to explain. After all, more of a septuagenarian’s life lies behind him than ahead of him, exceedingly unlikely advances in human longevity excepted. Besides, a man in his seventies hardly has the range of …

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Music For The Ages

     In my not-terribly-humble and completely irrelevant opinion, in all the annals of classical composition, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti reign supreme – and Brandenburg Concerto Nr. 3 is the pinnacle of the group. It’s been my favorite classical piece ever since I was a boy.      But the Brandenburg Concerti were written for a chamber orchestra …

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De-Angrifying Music

     Sometimes, nothing else will do the job for me. Herewith, The Telling, with the concluding track from their brilliant first album Blue Solitaire:      May you know peace and contentment. They’re getting pretty hard to find, lately.

Some Music For Your Afternoon

     With the summer drawing to a close, preparations for the autumn season are in progress. Here at the Fortress, we’re slowly gathering the outdoor impedimenta of summer and taking it to storage, while inside we’re making adjustments to the décor, unloading the summer rounds from the guns and reloading with autumn-appropriate rounds. Yes, really! …

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Music For A Friday Afternoon

     Each decade has its stand-outs. Sometimes, the dominant modes and motifs of a particular period can cause some of the best offerings of that time to languish in obscurity. It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing to be done about it, other than to enjoy what you enjoy and cluck over the neglected artists’ misfortune.      …

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When The World Is Too Much With Me

     I’m old: 71. The older I get, the less patience I have for a great many irritating and inconveniencing things. A barrage of those things will send me to one of my “escape hatches:” fiction; music; yard work; chess; weapons (this is a big one lately); cooking; or some other. Each of them possesses …

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Music For A Windy Afternoon

     We’re getting gusts of thirty to forty knots out of the northwest, and Weather.Com is predicting thunderstorms, so let’s have some thematic music. This is Glass Hammer’s cover of the Yes classic South Side of the Sky, featuring Jon Anderson and Susie Bogdanowicz on lead vocals: A river a mountain to be crossed The …

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It’s Time For Music

     …here at the Fortress – but nothing too upbeat today: It was a night meeting Somewhere in a troubled land They came with no greeting Left without a shaken hand. Nearby the town sleeping Was unaware of what was done No need for watchkeeping They’ll be gone before the sun. You may not see …

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Yes, I’m still here

I’m pretty sure that when our gracious host invited me to blog here, he expected a bit more output from me. I do apologize, but my time seems to constantly be gobbled up by all sorts of various undertakings, both physical and mental. However I do try to find some time to smell the roses, …

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Some Afternoon Music

     I can’t imagine how anyone could remain downhearted or depressed when listening to this classic Nitty Gritty Dirt Band track:      Be of good cheer, my dear Gentle Readers. We shall prevail!

Some Music For A Summer Afternoon

     Have an old favorite from a group that far too many dismissed as “pretentious” and “unoriginal:”

Music As Prayer

     “He who sings prays twice.” – Catholic maxim      I was in the middle of the Rosary when I was seized by a powerful desire to hear this piece: Jennifer Warnes’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Song of Bernadette:”      (Yes, I finished five decades before succumbing.)

Some Music To Lift Your Spirits

Neither I nor anyone else could say anything that would embellish or diminish this magnificent piece: The Flower Kings have been erratic over the years, but this piece is one of the jewels in Prog-Rock’s crown.

Things Are Looking Up

     Someone with my proclivities has to be reminded that happiness requires him to “stay close to home:” that is, to keep the greater part of his attention on things that are personally important to him, and to hold the “big stuff” that occupies the attention of the talking heads at a good distance for …

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Something Beautiful For Your Friday Afternoon

     Because there’s more than enough ugliness to go around:      Enjoy.

Saturday Afternoon Music

     I’d been thinking about the many changes that have come over my neighborhood since I moved in here, forty-four years ago. I expected few of them. Fewer still have struck me as improvements. But the only constant in life is change, until life ends and one changes no more.      Dire Straits, in its …

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