Tom Russell is another one of my recent XMRadio discoveries. I heard "Four Chambered Heart" the other day and decided it was time to start exploring this fellow's music. He's coming to Austin and Houston in July - hopefully I'll get a chance to catch a show.
After losing my old car stereo to thieves, I decided to treat myself to an upgrade, including XM Satellite Radio. I actually managed to install it myself, a process that ended up taking me about four hours. In the old days I probably would have paid someone to install it, but I'm getting less timid about tackling projects. Between the savings I got from mail ordering my new stereo from Crutchfield and installing it myself, I figure I saved about $150. Were the savings worth four hours of my time? There have been times when I would have said no, but in this case I had the time and I have to say that I got some satisfaction out of installing it myself.
Between work and personal trips, I've been doing a lot more long drives lately. Music definitely helps when you're in the car for three or four hours, and my last stereo's ability to play MP3s was very handy. The only problem with the MP3 player was that I had been getting into a bit of a rut musically, listening mostly to music I already have in my collection. While my collection is pretty extensive and eclectic, I found myself listening to the same favorites most of the time, and I thought that satellite radio would be a good way to expose myself to some new music.
Listening to their XCountry station introduced me to Joni Laurence's Meet Your Mate, a funny little song about the challenges of dating as an adult in the 21st century. The album that this track comes from, Trashbag Birdie, impressed me enough that I bought a copy through iTunes (my first online music purchase). If you want to check out some snippets, you can hear samples of each song on CDBaby's website.
If you want to hear some rare and interesting music, check out the UC Santa Barbara Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. An article in the Sunday New York Times, How Pop Sounded Before It Popped, alerted me to the existence of this amazing resource.  (There was also a Wired News article) . The Eddie Morton song mentioned in the Times article is definitely worth a listen.
I need to remember to occasionally listen to music that isn’t already in my music collection. I occasionally use StreamRipper to add some new music to my collection, and captured this gem, Brand New 64′ Dodge on Twang City the other day. The beauty of Internet radio is that you can find music you didn’t know that you were looking for :-) I may have to pick up some of Greg Brown’s CDs - I really enjoy that Americana-Blues-Rock-Folk style of music (I’m certain that someone with a more educated musical palate* would be able to come up with a more precise classification for this song, but that works well enough for me).
On Saturday I went to the Austin’s Carnaval celebration. Among other things, a good opportunity to put on a costume and dance. I suppose that I’m still working on that whole “dance as though no one is watching” goal, but I’m getting closer :-)
     