"Why We're Here" (Oct. 2008)

Here, as in this relationship of music maker and music listener. One that has happened since the beginnings, when humans began expressing themselves and other humans took in the experience. It's an interactive relationship, and a personal one.

I've been squarely in the listener's role this week. Baby Madeleine's new skills at walking have prompted a few hasty changes in our home infrastructure, including forcing me to confront the stacks of CDs seemingly everywhere in the house. I'm not sure if that was her intent when she started carrying them one at a time from the rack to make a pile at Daddy's feet, sweetly saying "here!" as each one arrived.

So me, my Mac, and iTunes have been getting personal with a whole lot of music new and old. I couldn't resist all the high praise for Louisiana slide whiz Sonny Landreth's new CD, so I bravely dove into the world of buying downloadable music. I found that I am seriously still susceptible to Van Halen II. Madeleine and I pulled Vivaldi out for a while last night. And one of the sampler CDs they hand out at the annual Folk Alliance conference and trade show, from the Montreal conference in 2005, rocked our living room with some pretty eclectic and very cool music from other parts of the world.

I've found all kinds of gems under my nose from nearly every genre of music, but I am also finding that I am susceptible to the "rip the good songs, and the let the rest rip" mentality. I flutter between obsessive organizer (put all that band's songs in one folder, under bands; favorite albums in a different folder) and shuffle-crazy wannabe DJ (ok, shuffle THIS mix!).

Meanwhile, I dice up albums into the songs I like with a simple question - "will I ever listen to this?" And if the answer is no, away it goes. Banished to the ether. Ruthless I suppose, but despite our ever-larger hard drives we still have a finite amount of storage space! Which is why I am finding myself in the quicksand of this project in the first place.

Still I am grateful for the gift of such prodigious creativity from so many artists and styles and generations. I had forgotten how much great guitar music I have accumulated, and if one of the results of my household reorganization project is that I start another intense phase of guitar playing and learning a few new things, then Amen.

So I leave you now to rejoin the company of Segovia, Robert Johnson, Hendrix and Eddie VH, I sign off with best wishes for a great month and ever-refreshed enthusiasm for the instrument I have known and adored since I was tweener :) (If you're wondering, my trusty 76' Fender Stratocaster has been my one and only electric guitar since 1979. That's a pretty long love affair with one instrument!).

Whatever it is that you listen to this weekend, thanks for listening, and for reading.