I have little energy tonight so this will be slightly all over the place, sorry!
The internet is bad for music, there I've said it...no course it's not but it does have a few down sides. File sharing poses potentially the greatest threat to emerging musicians today depriving them of the money they deserve and need to live and produce music. Well the greatest threat apart from "made for TV" talent shows which elevate mediocrity way above its designated place in the musical food chain and snuff out real talent.
The other big downside and maybe this is just a personal thing. I love CDs. I love album work, I love the physical nature of a CD and the excitement of opening a CD, taking out the artwork and flicking through it, reading the lyrics whilst you listen to the music for the first time. It's such a nice thing to do...you just don't get that from iTunes, maybe that's just me and I'm getting old, am I alone in the world?
On the plus side, the internet has allowed unheard of and insanely talented musicians to find a voice outside of their own town/state/country and reach a much wider musical audience. One such musician is a guy called Kevin Montgomery who I discovered last night with a friend. This guy has produced some of and I don't use this term flippantly..."the most mindblowingly beautiful music I have heard in years!"
Some of his stuff is very Country and maybe a bit too Country for me but some of his other songs...wow, I actually can't describe the level of beauty in the music. Check out his myspace and in particular check out and listen to the songs Nothing, True, Angel Tonight and She Don't Wake Me Up.
And how did I find him...in short....fan of Counting Crows (who owns CDs - yes folks CDs of all their albums) years ago found a guy called Kid Lightning (Dave Gibbs - friend of Adam Duritz) promoting and talking about his solo album on countingcrows.com messageboard. Purchased said album, met and saw Dave Gibbs perform live. Dave Gibbs teamed up with Chris Seefried (who's solo album Denim Blue I also own and who produced Jay Nash's album The Things You Think You Need - which I also own along with other Jay Nash music), Jude Christobal and Jeff Russo to form Low Stars whose album I also bought. Kevin Montgomery is listed as a top friend on Jeff Russo's myspace page and that is the history behind it.
Confused? You shouldn't be. My love for one band years ago has spawned so much more music I adore and I keep finding more connected to it like a tangled and intertwined musical spiders web...and that people is why the internet, whilst being in some ways bad for music and potentially damaging is awesome in so many others and maybe just maybe we all need to stop taking it for granted and commit to stop filesharing music and give something back to these amazing artists before we lose them.
Happy listening world xx
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