As fans tend to know, I utilize quite a number of musical instruments and varied recording techniques on my albums. But at the same time, I’ve made no secret of my disdain of ‘gear sluts’ constantly in search of the next great gizmo that will propel them to stardom. I’d like to address both these topics here in a way that answers some commonly asked questions and hopefully dispels my image as ‘complete hypocrite.’

Some background. We had basically one radio station to listen to in Galway. It alternated constantly between The Carpenters (‘Close To You’) or Don’t Walk Away Renee or Andy Williams (‘Moon River’) or Elvis or ‘Popcorn’ (my introduction to the synthesizer.) And so on. Ironically, there was very little ‘Irish’ music played. There was no such thing as ‘formatted radio’. Every song would give today’s programmer a severe case of whiplash.

My earliest memories of hearing this sort of diversity in one group came in listening to my sister’s Moody Blues records. I was amazed, not only by […]

I get a lot of razzing at gigs when the talk turns to ‘great singer/songwriters’. It seems an unspoken rule that certain stars in the firmament that cannot be denied. I dunno.

I have always enjoyed Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. Their songs were not only sincere but also profound. They also really ‘lived it’ so he’s got the built in ‘street cred’ that builds so many careers (think of rappers who have to prove their gangsta bona fides in order to get a deal.) Best of all? Both their bodies of work still sound very fresh to me.

The succeeding generations who have stood on their shoulders have, in my opinion, not fared quite so well. And I think there are some commonalities to their work that make their almost universal success so puzzling to me.

First of all, none of ’em can sing their way out of a bag. I mean seriously. Is there anything even pleasant in the vocal tones of Neil or Dylan or Leonard or Lou? I’m not […]

…as opposed to some synthe-knit. (To go with the synthe-hol, of course.)

I just watched the new Star Trek movie. And note that the ‘rebel’ James T. Kirk defines his rebelness by:

a) driving an old Corvette

b) listening to something that sounds like 1992 Rage Against The Machine on something that looks a lot like a ‘car stereo’

c) Wears Levi’s jeans.

I pray  to God that the 24th century is not really like that. I hope like heck that the future has something new and different in store. But I worry that we are actually encouraging our own demise by cultivating a culture that recycles when it should be burying and making new things.

Back in my day, a ‘rebel’ rejected the past. Kids wore Levi’s specifically because it pissed off the parents. And the parents listened to Glenn Miller. Nowadays, there is this unholy amalgam of generations. The parents still don’t understand the kids, but the problem is, we think we do because we all can share the same icons and totems. We […]

A lot of people who favour ‘free file sharing’, (aka ‘The Pirates’) like to use the Booze/Prohibition argument.

Hey, people drink so if you don’t make it legal people will bootleg it.

This is similar to the “People copied cassettes back in the day, so why can’t they copy CDs now you hyopcrite?” argument; filled with more flaws than swiss cheese. (OK, maybe yer average Emmentaler has more holes than flaws, but hey everyone misuses their analogies, right?)

And that’s the point.

Yeah, people have been drinking since before Bacchus. Gettin’ high is a basic human need. End of story. And people have probably been copying art since the days of cave paintings. But everyone except William Burroughs recognises that crack is different from beer. The ‘quality’ (the intensity of the high) is very different.

I’ve been making beer for a number of years. One myth is that the first beer maker was some Egyptian who left his maypo out after breakfast and forgot about it. A few weeks later, he decided to drink the […]

Let me count the ways. 😉

Look, you don’t need me to pile on about ‘Idol’. But most of the criticism seems to focus on the bad auditions as freak show and the winners as empty shirts. I’m not too concerned about that. One more ‘reality show’ freak-fest more or less ain’t gonna improve the zeitgeist. And another Milli Vanilli more or less isn’t going to kill the music biz any deader than it already is. No, what bugs me is what it’s doing to our brains. I call this The Three Stooges Argument.

Those of you old enough to remember The Three Stooges (has there ever been as meaningful comedy since Aristophanes?) are also old enough to remember the controversies as to whether or not the sight of a guy getting shot in the ass by a .38 (puff of smoke coming from his pants, cue frying pan sound effect) would lead to an increase in violence in the streets. I dunno whatever became of that… although I have always wondered […]