Welcome to Today's Tunage

Welcome to the initial post of my blog “Today’s Tunage.” My alternative title was “Music <=> Life,” because my music and my life are intertwined and almost always have been. I look for music that resonates personally. “Today’s Tunage” won out as title because it’s alliterative, it has rhythm, and it’s catchy. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, right? It’s also the headline I use when I occasionally post music videos on Facebook. So the plan is for the blog and Facetook posts to integrate.

The blog’s mission will be to share music I enjoy and that others might also. Maybe the songs I share will lead you to artists you hadn’t heard of or new musical experiences. That’s one way I learn about music I hadn’t heard – recommendations from others. Discovery is a lifelong process. There’s more music out there than I can discover in a lifetime. I’ve always got my ears open.

What shaped my tastes? First there was my older brother and his friends, who, around the time I was in junior high, would frequently bring home (vinyl) record albums. One of those was “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon’s songwriting hooked me then and still has me, 45 or so years later. I listened to AM radio, but didn’t keep up with the Top Ten too closely. Then in high school I first subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine. Every issue had a bunch of fresh album reviews. I still recall reading about new releases by Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Richard Thompson, who still claim a share of my listening time.

Like so many others, my college years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were a huge influence on my musical tastes. New friends turned me on to new artists. Helpful record-store clerks made recommendations. At some point I realized that country music had more to offer than twang, big hair, pickups, mom and jail. Willie Nelson was country, after all, and Linda Ronstadt straddled the border between country and rock. The Eagles’ rock music was informed by country. Emmylou Harris, whose inspirational fire was kindled by the late great Gram Parsons, worked squarely out of the country camp but incorporated rock, bluegrass and folk music into her blend. A great, great Lincoln band that college friends and I would follow at every opportunity, called Sour Mash, championed country swing and honky tonk, but soon began incorporating swing a la Basie and Ellington, R&B, and straight blues. Those were the days. In the 1970s Lincoln also offered plenty of opportunities to hear live blues, bluegrass and folk music. 

Today, I feed my appetite for information from some of the same old sources (Rolling Stone, along with other music mags that are still in the print format), but also the many on-line sources of reviews, comment, interviews, and analysis.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that a whole universe of great songs and musicians existed outside of radio playlists and the marketing machinery that shapes public tastes. I have about 2,000 CDs in my collection now, but I’m in the process of ripping them to a hard drive so they can be played on a Sonos system – and fit in the house. My musical tastes are very catholic – not in the sense of hymns, but in the sense of “universal.” A deep-rooted, long-standing part of my personality is sharing songs – tunes, or tunage, if you will – with people. I love to talk about artists and new songs and why I like them.

So, then, today's tunage is from Jason Isbell, a singer/songwriter who somehow flew under my radar screen until last year's great album "Southeastern." This is "Traveling Alone" with his wife and musical collaborator, Amanda Shires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUqHEzgFRoA

Question: What sparked your passion for music? What sustains it?