Blog: The Tuning Room

Thanks to a recent purchasing binge and a great big ole stack of discs that Wobs dropped on me right before vacation, there was quite a bit of new music listening--or I should say listening to music that was new to me and some of it was actually new. So here are a few random thoughts on those discs (although truth be told I didn't get to all of them--I mean really you have to know that someone who goes to the same place for vacation each summer isn't in all that an experimental mood when he hits the [...]

Sunday often means a day of listening to WPFW, a great jazz-oriented community radio station here in DC. The Sunday line-up is killer (in fact it is the whole reason I am a member and I suspect others are as well). It starts with Tom Cole and his show "G-Strings" focused on guitar and other string-driven jazz--perfect for a Sunday morning paper and a cup of coffee. It is followed by "Sunday Kind of Love" hosted by Miyuki Williams who tends to focus on vocals, particularly women vocalists. Then you get "Guy's Groove" [...]

Okay, so we have added a new feature to add to your Tuning Room experience--hopefully you have noticed the throwback graphic over on the right. I will probably be also adding some mp3s here and there as well, but thought Mixwit provided a nice way to share a set of music (with some limitations) that you can click on, listen to and browse, while on the site. My actual profile over at MW is here and that shows the playlist for that particular mix and will show all mixes in the future when there is more [...]

The August edition of UNCUT has its usual plethora of suggestions to consider. Three that got pretty rave reviews are all tempting, but thought I would see what you all had to say about these before I went out bin sorting. And I should mention that I haven't listened to everything I have that is new or borrowed and I wouldn't want to violate the "no more buying until all recent additions have been digested" now would I? Right. Okay, so here are three to consider. The Hold [...]

I am sure TR readers continue to check in for updates on presidential campaign tunes, so let me oblige with an update on John McCain's travails with musical artists (which you surely all know about already). Mr. Mellencamp may have requested that Johnny Mac stop using his tunes, but Jackson Browne is actually suing The Maverick's campaign for using "Running on Empty" in a campaign ad. Unfortunately (from this perspective) his campaign may be running on empty (or less "fuel") but is doing it more effectively than Barack 's full-tank-campaign--yes, [...]

Well, we are back from two glorious weeks of vacation up on Lake Michigan which involved cold waters. tons of sun, building in the sand, grilling, Michigan wine (don't laugh they are getting it down), family, late night cards, and an amazing lack of stress. Got some music listening in which I will write about soon, although not a lot of new stuff as our annual beach vacation tends to be about listening to waves and talking with family more than anything. Tomorrow is back to the coal mine which I have been gleefully ignoring--including email, [...]

So tomorrow I leave to join the family and head north through the Michigan pines up to the shores of the big lake for a week of cool weather, fresh water, sand, fresh air, calming breezes, fresh fish, and hopefully another collection of summer vacation memories. But first I leave you with a confession: I love Gordon Lightfoot's music. There, I said it—and I am proud of it. Now I don't want to pigeonhole any TR readers, but I am going to take a [...]

I already noted John Mellencamp's request of the McCain campaign regarding their use of his tunes on the campaign trail. Now it appears that someone has stepped in to fill the void and provide "The Maverick" with his own custom rally tune. So let's open up the blog lines here and see what people think about campaign tunes. Best campaign tunes from the past? If you could pick a campaign tune for Obama or McCain (or your candidate), what would it be?