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Jeff's Rants
The future is here ... hear NOW:
Internet radio has come a long ways from its humble beginning. Currently there are hardly any buffering issues that once plagued the listeners experience, computer/network technology has progressed and improved the stability and speed of the stream to make this possible.
Internet radio is already on its way to a whole new level and what I believe will make internet radio stations like Back Street Radio surpass the popularity of both terrestrial (AM/FM stations) and satellite radio (Sirus/XM) is the capability to listen to internet radio on your mobile devices. You can now take stations like Back Street Radio anywhere you go...There are apps for your iPhone, iPad, Android based phones and tablets. I can personally tell you that Back Street Radio has a rock solid listening experience even in a 3G network. The car manufacturers are starting to make it possible to use your mobile devices as a hot spot to stream internet radio through the car radio. Right now you have on most newer Cars/SUV's an AUX input that you can connect to using a cable from your headphone jack on your mobile device to the AUX input of your cars stereo and play any internet radio station including Back Street Radio through your cars stereo system. The sound quality is better than your FM radio transmission. I have even taken my tablet in the backyard of my house remaining connected to the WIFI of my homes network and I connected my tablet to a small external speaker that I once used for my MP3 player, and enjoyed listening to Back Street Radio with a group of friends outside my house while barbecuing.
FM / AM is boring for the most part and has a very limited amount of choices and Satellite Radio cost money to listen to and it is not as transportable or adaptable to different situations as your mobile devices. With today's technology and your mobile devices connected to a SHOUTcast App you can now take a diverse, almost infinite selection of music anywhere you go ..... for FREE!
The future is HEAR NOW!
Americana Music ... what does it mean?
Americana music is a genre category that is widely misunderstood and is left wide open for interpretation by the novice, but is quite apparent to those in the know...
Lets start out with the popular definition of "Americana Music":
Americana music is a mixture of roots based music, specifically joining those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other influential styles. Americana is popularly referred to as alternative country. The term "Americana," related to music, began in early 1995 through the efforts of Rob Bleetstein of San Francisco, and Jon Grimson of Nashville.
What qualifies me on this subject? I have been an Americana drummer and an Americana music lover for more years than I want to admit. When I entered the realm of being an "Americana" musician there was no such term that existed, but the music is stiil the same only it now has a new name. You were a country artist, bluegrass musician, a rock player, a country rock player, a blues player and at last a mixture of all. Also when your band specialized in covering a particular body of work or genre, such as in my case The Byrds, Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers, etc , there was no such term to label bands as a "Tribute Band" or Cover band, that’s how long I go back. You were only considered a bar band.
The genre that my band was playing back "then" was considered country-rock. I have lived through listening and playing to the various musical expressions that are the roots base of "Americana Music" I lived and breathed the music that was happening as I was growing up and delved into the music that was there before me and eventually all of these various genres of music became a part of me. Eventually I came into my own.
But does that qualify me as an Americana authority or for that matter an "Americana" musician? The answer is NO.
This is the most important part of truly being a real Americana artists.... and it is an intangible... some have it and most do not. This does not make an artist’s body of work any less important, just because they might be so eclectic in nature that there is no ONE true identity. This is the exact situation for my own band GBU AKA The Good THe Bad and The Ugly that we are pigeon holed into. Just because GBU plays several songs that have a country twang, people will classify our complete body of work as country, when in fact all of our original music is more of an eclectic mix of genres than belonging to one or another. With that said, If had to pick one of the given genre to be classified in , I would have to pick Americana.
It is a shame that certain eclectic artists like GBU have to fall in to a particular category and cannot in essence just be in a category considered “GOOD MUSIC”.
Which brings me to my point: what kind of music should be categorized to be considered Americana music?
What makes it real difficult to categorize an artist as and “Americana” artist properly is that there are so many various elements and combination of elements that are put together to make up "Americana Music".
There lies the danger of perception. What is the correct recipe, how much percent of country mixed with how much percent of R&B, with Folk, etc. Yes it is a mixture of various elements but the answer is in the actual end result of the various elements. It is the "IT" factor! Either an artist got "IT” or they don't.
You can give two different people the same recipe and ingredients to bake a particular chocolate layer cake. The end result can be drastically different, from one baker to another. One person can truly be a baker and will bring out the intended essence of the desired end result of the Chocolate layer cake recipe and the other baker could just not be spot on and the cake can taste a little off... This example runs true for Americana music. The artist is either a true “Americana “performer or he or she is not. It cannot be faked or acted out. It has to be genuine.
Recently there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Linda Chorney Grammy nomination for Americana music. Is Linda a true Americana musician, is her latest album Emotional JukeBox which was nominated for the Americana Grammy category an Americana musical piece of work when compared to the standard or remainder of her competition? Only time will tell!
I will be featuring a song from Linda Chorney's Grammy nominated album on my show. Please tune into Jeff The Drummers HOMEGROWN Show this Sunday Jan. 22nd at 5PM and an encore presentation on the following Wednesday at 2PM and again at 7PM EST on www.BackStreetRadio.com to find out for yourself.
I believe the main problem that the Americana community is having with Linda Chorney ‘s nomination is that the Emotional JukeBox album does not truly have the overall “feel” of a true "Americana " album/artist. Yes certain songs are somewhat Americana, but if you have no choice but to pigeon hole her music into one genre than I guess Americana would be the closet fit for Linda’s album. All I can say is I wish Linda the best and if she takes home the big prize, more power to her and I will be VERY happy for her!
I will be getting into more detail of what I think during this broadcast featuring "Americana" artists.