This is a super quick post today to honor the memory of Jeff Beck, one of rock’s biggest guitar legends. Beck was the guy who was never the biggest star but was the most widely-celebrated artist among his peers, as seen both in the insane number of collaborations he did and in the outpouring of tributes since his passing the other day.
I’m not huge on doing “obituary” style posts so I’ll skip a lot of the details which are easily found right now after the news of his death broke. I’ll just post a few videos of a few of his many prominent songs and call it good. Rest in peace Jeff.
The quick and easy posts continue this week as it’s that time of year for Spotify Wrapped.
I’ll add a quick bit of context before getting into mine – this year I used Spotify for two main purposes – small playlists of 6 or so songs when I go on bicycle rides (which is most every day) and to check out new releases. I figured my wrap-up would be distorted this year based on the small series of 30 minute playlists I constantly rotate through, but as it turns out I can say the results were fairly representative of my listening habits.
First up the is genres. Not a whole lot to get into here, besides whatever “post-doom metal” is. Music descriptors get awesome these days when everyone is trying to invent a new term for a sound that sets even somewhat apart from the rest. I’m also not entirely sure what they’re referring to with “country rock” but that’s a more understandable term.
Now on top artist. Not really shocking to me – I have a handful of LoG songs in my playlists and then when Omens came out in early October I played the hell out of it. I’ve liked them for a long time but the new album really knocked me over and likely explains how they took my top artist crown this year.
And here is the overall Wrapped sum-up. Kind of funny that my top played song in 2022 was the same one as from 2021. My only real “huh?” moment is Muse being in my top artist list – they put out a new album this year which didn’t really hit with me, though one song off of it is pretty awesome. I guess that one new song and whatever sprinkling of others I have in my playlists put them over the top. None of the others register any surprise to me all.
Here is one other little bonus that was going around in the past few days leading up to Wrapped – the Instafest lineup. It essentially takes your Spotify data and generates a three day festival based on what you’ve played. Here is mine.
I’m honestly pretty happy with mine. Now, I do love Oasis, but in no universe would I book Iron Maiden as an opening act for Oasis. I’m sure plenty of people would have my head for that. But beyond that, I would pay huge money to attend that fest. It lines up with what I like pretty nicely. The only oddball? I don’t know the artist “Lord” as listed on the festival bill. No clue who that is referring to and I’m not getting any easy answers on Spotify.
That covers my Spotify Wrapped for 2022 and also the bonus Instafest thing. As a preview for my end of year stuff, I’ll do my top albums of 2022 on December 12, in place of the regular Album of the Week feature. I’ll probably do a small Songs of the Year list too, maybe three or five, don’t know yet. On through the ass end of 2022.
I was putting together some info for a near-future Judas Priest post when I got to thinking about Rob Halford’s solo career. This seed also got planted a few weeks ago when a few of us were at a buddy’s house and he had one of the the Halford albums on.
So today I present a quick run through the non-Judas Priest albums of Rob Halford. He did quite a bit of stuff in his time away from his legendary outfit, and threw a few more solo efforts out there after returning to Priest in 2003.
Let’s go all the way back to 1993 and begin the look at Rob Halford’s solo offerings.
Fight – War Of Words (1993)
Halford came out swinging with his first non-Priest effort. Fight were a band of the times, in a thrash/groove pocket that slotted very well with the metal in rotation in 1993. Though Priest had done well to update their sound with Painkiller, Halford took his own leanings into even more of a current direction with Fight. Also note that Scott Travis double dips here – he was drumming with JP and also with Fight. Also notable is Russ Parrish on guitar, now more well-known as Satchel from Steel Panther.
Nailed To The Gun was a single from War Of Words and it was a great introduction to Halford’s post-Priest life. It got plenty of MTV play and the buzz set Halford and Fight up decently well out of the gate.
Fight – A Small Deadly Space (1995)
Fight’s second and last release didn’t quite hit the same way the debut did. It maybe lacked the dynamics of the first and was a bit stripped down or “grungy,” perhaps. It’s not horrible by any means but it kind of flopped and spelled the end of the project. I did see Fight live on this tour, it was my first Halford live experience of any kind. Between the Fight stuff and a small handful of Priest tunes thrown in it was a hell of a show.
2wo – Voyeurs (1998)
Halford’s next move would be into the industrial metal space, a form of music that was huge at the time and something he had long expressed a desire to do. This one-off project saw him team up with John 5, now known as Rob Zombie’s guitarist and the new guy in Motley Crue. The record was released on Trent Reznor’s record label, though this was not a collaboration between the artists.
2wo did not make waves at all, in fact the album was derided on release and the project scrapped pretty early on. It has gotten some more love in retrospect but remains more of a curiosity than anything in the distinguished career of Rob Halford. I always thought the album was a worthwhile listen but I can see why it didn’t really take off.
Note that while I’ve only posted the song, there is a fairly crazy video out there for I Am A Pig. It takes a bit of digging to find.
Halford – Resurrection (2000)
As the calendar flipped to a new everything in 2000, Halford returned to his metal roots and launched a new project. This time he would collaborate with producer Roy Z, who had lent great weight to Bruce Dickinson’s solo career.
This project would be very well-received and reinvigorate interest in Rob Halford and the more traditional strain of heavy metal. The band toured extensively, including opening for a reunited Iron Maiden, which really spiked interest in the “old sound” again. Bruce Dickinson also appears as a guest on the song The One You Love To Hate, making true a long-desired fantasy pairing in metal.
Halford – Crucible (2002)
Halford’s next move would be to get a bit heavier and actually move aside a bit from the “trad metal” leaning of the last record. This record accomplished its mission and kept the Halford train rolling, with the featured song Betrayal being an absolute barn burner.
This is the point where Halford reconnected with Judas Priest. It would be several more years before a new Halford solo offering.
Halford – Winter Songs (2009)
The third Halford solo outing would be a bit of a departure for heavy metal in general – while not explicitly stated as such, this is a Christmas album. There are a ton of old Christmas standards here, as well as a few originals penned by Halford and Roy Z.
While this isn’t my cup of tea, there also isn’t really anything wrong with it. It’s what you’d want, if what you wanted was a Rob Halford Christmas album. Halford would revisit the Christmas album in 2019 with Celestial, an album billed as a “friends and family” effort.
Halford – Made Of Metal (2010)
It would be a quick turnaround from the Christmas special to the next proper Halford release, which to date remains the final solo offering. This would return to the more traditional metal sound of the first album and serves as a respectable bookend to Halford’s solo catalog, if indeed nothing further materializes.
It’s unknown if there will be another Halford release outside the bounds of Judas Priest. Halford has expressed a desire to collaborate with some specific artists, among them Ihsahn from Emperor. It has yet to happen though, and it’s been all quiet on the Halford solo camp after some mess about label and catalog rights years ago that somehow saw Halford not have the rights to his own solo music for a time. I’m not even sure how that story ended or if it did, but it was kind of a mess.
Whatever may come, Rob Halford has led quite a career, both with his main gig and outside of it. He has displayed a clear willingness to pursue sounds outside of the box and has had some great moments, both within and outside of the bounds of strict heavy metal.
For the past while I’ve been running through my singles collection on Thursdays. I have a few left, but I’ve decided to pause the operation for now. I’ll do a special one near Christmas time, but beyond that I am going to take a break until the end of the year.
Once the calendar flips I’ll do my deep dive into my Iron Maiden singles collection. That’ll take up six months or so at the rate of one a week, so I’ll take a bit of time to get the text and photos for that all set up. Then later next year, once that’s done and I’ve (maybe) acquired a few other singles, I can run through what else is left in my collection.
In the meantime I may do some kind of quick post on Thursdays to fill the gap, maybe highlight a song or go through a few of my box sets, I don’t know for sure yet. I have a week to figure it out, I suppose.
That’s about all for today. Since I was on about Van Halen earlier this week, here’s some more.
Ok, so today was supposed to be a “real” post. I had a few paragraphs to finish up and I was going to post it for tomorrow.
However, life intervened. And by life, I mean that I went out for a few beers with a buddy, then he left and another buddy showed up right as the first one left, so I wound up being the guy holding a bag of a lot of beer and a huge tab when all was said and done.
So – I am going to put off the real post for next week. I have real posts for the next two days lined out already so that’s all good.
Instead, have a taste of what will be the next album of the week. I don’t usually do new albums as AOTW anymore, but this one has hooked its way into my brain and I’ve listened to it over 20 times now so I’m giving it billing next week.
And I promise I won’t get messed up again and put stuff off – the post I originally had for today will be on next week, and I already have most of next week’s crap lined out. This just became a a temporary, one night halt order when I spent more time drinking than doing what I should have been doing.
In fact, there might be a few appropriate lyrics from this song for that:
You’re face down, down in a ditch that you dug yourself
I had a different album in mind for this week, but after talking about a particular band extensively last week, I’ve called an audible and switched things up. The record was mentioned yet not really discussed in the posts last week and I got it in my head yet again after all these years and so it’s time to give the album its day in court.
Iron Maiden – A Matter Of Life And Death
Released September 5, 2006 (US) via EMI Records
My Favorite Tracks – The Longest Day, For The Greater Good Of God, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
This marked Iron Maiden’s 14th studio album, though also the 3rd since the 1999 reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith. It set the table for the reunion being more than a brief run for nostalgia and cash’s sake, that the band were serious about forging ahead in a marketplace where they were hailed as heroes yet were also as old as dinosaurs.
This also turned a corner creatively – while the predecessors Brave New World and Dance Of Death were celebrated, A Matter Of Life And Death stood out for longer tracks with more mood and less tempo. While not appealing to the portion of the fanbase that pines for Powerslave II, it set the rest of the fans and critics on fire. Maiden would not hedge on their new effort – the resulting tour saw the band play the entire album live. While there were some lessons learned from that approach, it still indicated the full-bore dedication the band had to their new material and defiance of living on their laurels as a “classic” act.
The album cover is, as usual with Maiden, worth discussion. The art does not prominently feature the band’s most famous member Eddie, but the mascot is there on the tank with his band of brothers. Personally I love the cover and it’s my favorite of any of the reunion-era pieces and it’s especially welcome after the literal abortion of a cover Dance Of Death got. I even have this as a back patch on a jean jacket, as all good metalheads do.
There are 10 tracks to discuss here, but at a beefed up runtime of 71 minutes. The era of long Iron Maiden albums had dawned and this was only a pregame for the future. There are also several other factors to discuss, like the Internet mystery campaign behind the lead single, the decision to run the whole album live, and the album’s prominent place among reunion-era records. In short, this post will be about as long as a reunion-era Maiden album, so grab a few drinks and settle in.
Different World
The opener also served as the album’s second single. The song is, in contrast to the rest of the record, a straightforward rocker offering up a bit of philosophy about co-existing with differing perspectives and all that.
This one doesn’t really get a lot of love around the fanbase. I personally don’t mind it but it won’t make a list of my favorite stuff, Maiden or otherwise. It isn’t “bad” in any sense but it’s just a song.
These Colors Don’t Run
Now into a sound that would shape the bulk of the album and also delve into a theme present in much of the remaining lyrics. This is a mid-tempo affair that moves at a trot as opposed to the gallop of many past Maiden efforts. And the theme here is war, this song offering a rally cry for the soldiers who fight for their flag no matter the cost.
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
Off to one of the album’s epics, a now standard feature of latter day Maiden records. This sprawling effort tops out at near 9 minutes. The title seems a bit mystifying until the song’s theme becomes clear – this is about the development of the atomic bomb. The bomb was humanity severing its connection with creation and playing god with the potential of world-ending destruction.
The song marks one of three celebrated epics from the record and these songs have become centerpieces for modern Maiden albums. It probably creates fits when it’s time to make a set list, but of course the band circumvented that problem by playing everything live.
The Pilgrim
It’s literally a song about pilgrims, either the historical settlers of America or in the general sense, I don’t know. It won’t ever be accused of being Maiden’s best song but it’s a damn sight better than any description could make it out to be. It’s better than some aging British metal band droning on about the Loch Ness Monster for more than ten minutes.
The Longest Day
Back to the war and, as the title would indicate, it’s off to D-Day. The massive beach invasion is painted in vivid detail in the lyrics as the song slams through the battle. There isn’t a lot for me to say other than it’s my favorite track from the album.
Out Of The Shadows
A fairly abstract track about birth and death, new and old, that kind of thing. Not much to it but it’s a pretty decent song.
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
The album’s first single and one with quite the marketing story behind it. Without any prompting, a website featuring a biography of the unknown Breeg was posted. It was quickly surmised that this had to do with the new Maiden album and fans set to work trying to solve the mystery of who Breeg was and what happened to him after his 1978 disappearance. Breeg was a known painter and a future website update offered up one of his paintings which featured none other than Eddie. The last dispatch from the website had set a meeting with someone who knew Breeg’s fate, that meeting was on the day the single was released.
While nothing was ever resolved in terms of the mystery, the quiet marketing ploy drove a lot of buzz for the band’s new song and album. I recall being fascinated with it at the time, but of course it’s a bit tough to specifically recall all of that 16 years later. It seems like Benjamin Breeg might have died in 1978 and was “reborn” as Eddie, but this has never been explicitly stated. Given that Maiden have never built further lore around Breeg, this theory is my guess.
The song itself does also perhaps support the Breeg is Eddie theory. Breeg was a tortured artist who might have sold his soul, and the reincarnation aspect of it might be him becoming Eddie. It fits with the various themes posted in bits on the website.
Oh yeah – also, the song is good.
For The Greater Good Of God
The second of the album’s epics, this tune takes aim at the ills of religion. While not condemning religion outright, the song does goes full-bore on the wars and calamities experienced worldwide due to the power-grabbing influence of religious figureheads over time. The song is widely-loved and often at the top of people’s favorites lists. It’s also one song that has been featured in Maiden set lists years after the album’s tour cycle.
Lord Of Light
This is about Lucifer and mostly how he is used as a scapegoat for humanity’s ills so that humans can continue sinning without consequence. It’s another fairly long track that sometimes gets set to the side but I feel offers a bit more than its secondary status might indicate.
The Legacy
The album closes with the third epic and one that the band knocked out of the park. The song has two halves – one in which a world leader is on his deathbed, being reckoned with the true cost of his warmongering. The second half of the song implores humanity to move beyond the cycle of death and destruction and embrace a new forward vision.
That clearly hasn’t happened, but that doesn’t diminish the impact of the song. Maiden offered arrangements and movements here that were unheard in the extensive prior catalog. It was a true mark that the band had a solid direction for their music now and into the future, and that direction would diverge from their past eras.
A Matter Of Life And Death was praised by critics and swept up by fans – the album hit high chart positions in many countries all over the globe, including the US where the band scored their first top 10 chart appearance on the Billboard 200 at position 9. The group already had hot receptions for the prior two albums of the reunion era, but AMOLAD arrived and put things on a whole new level.
Proud of the effort, Maiden made the decision to tour the entire record. This was a first, and to date has been the only time the group has played an entire album live. While the die-hard portion of the fanbase ate up the offering, the fact is that concerts are attended by a great many people who aren’t as fervently attached to things and the shows met with somewhat muted receptions. The concept wasn’t dismissed as a total failure, but the group has since refrained from going so hard with pushing new records.
This album shaped the direction of Maiden albums to come – the three albums following all offer huge, epic arrangements and very extended run times. That has become its own argument among fans but it is clearly the direction the band wishes to pursue.
In terms of the reunion period, AMOLAD has been hailed as one of the top offerings, rivaled perhaps only by Brave New World. Not only has it mostly taken that crown, it has ascended many lists in terms of the band’s entire catalog. And it’s something that needs to be highlighted when talking about the band and its long-running status – there are many fans who have come on board in the last 20-plus years and those fans’ keystone albums are in this reunion period. And this one is often top among those.
Not everyone was paying attention or even alive when the 1980’s classics came around and these past few decades of the band have brought in many new fans and kept the legacy alive and thriving. There are fans who sneer at the slower, more plodding reunion material and gladly showcase the band’s masterpieces from way back when as some kind of argument against the modern songs, but judging by the album sales, concert attendance and constant new interest in a band older than dirt, no one really seems to give a shit what they think.
This is the first of two posts I’ll do this week. As I said last Friday, I’m just gonna go over some songs so I can get ahead on my writing and be ready to get back in full swing in October. Today I’m gonna have a look at a handful of videos that have hit more recently. This isn’t my usual “upcoming releases” sort of thing, this is more just looking at stuff that hit the YouTube radar. On Friday I’ll have a go at some older videos I’ve been wanting to write about for awhile now.
Iron Maiden – Stratego Live
This one grabbed my interest right away, being Maiden and all. They filmed a video for one of the Senjutsu songs they’ve been playing live lately. Maiden were just in the general area a few weeks ago but I was unable to go due to way too much other stuff going on.
Stratego is an interesting choice for me as it’s not a song I necessarily took to a lot when Senjutsu first came out. I thought it was buried a bit under itself, though the Spotify pre-release version was murkier than the album cut. But hearing it live, the song does shine out in the open. There have been some curious production choices in reunion-era Maiden and, while Senjutsu as a whole came out fine, there was some stuff buried on a handful of tracks.
The band have made it no secret that they wish to play the entire album live in select, smaller venues, knowing that the wider audience probably wouldn’t be into it. Should it come to pass I might venture out for it.
Also, a note since we’re talking about them – in a week or two I’ll have a post (maybe two) talking about all of the songs Iron Maiden have not played live, as relayed by a recent article. Obviously the discussion will not include Stratego.
Courting – Loaded
This is an interesting bit that I just ran into when I was checking out one site or another (it was NME, apparently). This British group has been around since 2018 but just released their debut album Guitar Music last week. It’s been generating a bit of buzz so I thought I’d give the song a go.
Man is this weird. On one hand I like it, it’s very noisy and I’m cool with that. But on the other, wow there is a lot of stuff going on here and it might be missing me a bit. The genre tags being thrown around include post-punk and hyperpop, meaning I don’t know what the hell this is. It’s like Britrock on LSD and steroids, I guess.
I’m not sure if I’m sharing this because I want to say “hey, check this out” or if I’m saying “if I had to hear it, so do you.” I’ll give the album a spin later on and see what I think of them. This did at least catch my attention, no doubt about that.
Liam Gallagher and Foo Fighters – Rock N’ Roll Star and Live Forever
I wanted to talk about this for a minute, this being the first tribute concert for Taylor Hawkins held early September in London. A lot of wonderful performances came from the event and there’s honestly almost too much to talk about. In order to keep it concise I decided to hone in on the opening two songs, featuring the one and only Liam Gallagher fronting as the Foo Fighters run through two Oasis classics. Rock N’ Roll Star, often an Oasis opener and usually Liam’s opening song, fittingly opens this tribute show as well. It could be said that the Foo’s performance is a bit clean compared to the usual snarl of the Oasis version, but it’s nothing to fuss over and is a fine rendition.
Live Forever was an almost mandatory cut, it being the perfect song to honor Taylor. I’m sure Taylor would be honored, having been a huge Oasis and Liam fan. And the remaining Fighters all seem pretty psyched to be sharing a stage with Liam.
The show would go on to produce some heartfelt and also insane moments, not the least of which was Wolfgang Van Halen breaking his usual rule and playing his father’s music. Another show is slated to take place tonight, September 27, in Los Angeles.
Lorna Shore – Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames
I’ll wrap this post up with another single from one of the most hotly anticipated extreme metal releases of the year, due out now in just a few weeks’ time. Lorna Shore conquered the Internet, and therefore the world, with their song To The Hellfire last year, and now it’s almost time to see if their new full-length can maintain the buzz of last year’s EP.
So far with the singles released, it appears Lorna Shore are happy to expand their lexicon rather than try to capture lightning in a bottle again with To The Hellfire Part II. A wise choice too, as that almost never works out. Pain Remains seems to offer an expanded pallet and a strong focus on composition and arrangement, moving out of the typical confines of “deathcore” and incorporating many other elements.
This song is clearly the first part of a trilogy and, given the song’s abrupt cut-off at the end, seems to indicate that it’s one long song with three movements. Given the loss illustrated in the video, I’d wager the other two parts are going to get pretty damn heavy.
That’s about all for today’s post. I’ll run through some other videos on Friday, again they’ll be older ones I just want to talk about. Next week I’ll be back at my usual posting frequency. See you all later.
I’ve been very spotty with my posts lately and I need a minute to reset and recharge a bit. Work has been especially brutal lately and my now middle-age body isn’t responding to it well, I’m very far behind on stuff I need to get done, and September is always a super busy month with a million things going on. It’s all added up to beating me down pretty good. I’ve barely had the time or desire to even listen to much music lately, much less write about it.
This won’t last very long though, thankfully. I am taking a new position at my job in the next week or two that will be far less strenuous and also grant me more time to get things taken care of and also focus on the site. And the September blitz of life and events is almost over and I’ll have a far more quiet fall season lined up.
My goal over the summer was to consistently post four days a week but I’ve missed the mark on that. And getting posts lined up at all has been a chore in this super busy time – if I don’t get a post started and finished in one go, it winds up sitting and collecting dust.
In order to get caught up and build a true queue of posts to be able to meet my own posting goals, I’m going to scrap my usual format next week. Instead of an album of the week and my other usual posts, I’m just going to make two or three quick posts of a handful of songs. They’ll be short and sweet and I’ll probably talk some trash to spice it up a bit. I want to make sure I post something but I need to step back for a second and recharge a bit. It’s also stuff I can just whip up off the cuff and not have to plan out, that will give me time to get October’s content lined out and be able to step into the consistency that I want.
That is really about all there is to say – I’ll be posting light next week in order to get caught up on other stuff and start rolling out more consistent stuff next month. In the meantime, here’s one of the greatest heavy metal videos in history that not that many people have seen.
I’m calling this leg day because, just like leg day, I’m skipping some posts this week.
I clearly didn’t do an album of the week yesterday. The holiday weekend, and more specifically me working it, left me with less time than I was anticipating. I’ve had a ton of other stuff to take care of and I won’t have much time at all this coming weekend, so time to get posts sorted isn’t really happening right now.
This week I will still do a singles series post and one other post to book up Wednesday and Thursday. Next week I will get back at it with an AOTW and some other posts, stuff I will spend time this week getting ready. If I manage my time wisely (lol), I will both get back to a normal posting routine and also have a fair bit of stuff worked up that’s kind of been sitting for awhile.
Anyway, here’s a sneak peak of what will be the album of the week next Monday.
All right, everyone. It’s time for a bit of a party – today marks the one-year anniversary of my first “real” post on this blog. I did a since-deleted “getting ready” post and a welcome post, but on this day last year I posted my first Album of the Week. A great album and also, to be expected, my least-viewed post. I guess someone has to be the loser.
It’s been a pretty wild ride getting set back up in the blogging sphere. I did blogs in some form semi-regularly from 1998 through to 2011. At that time I intended to “make the big leap” and get my own domain and do stuff on a level I hadn’t done before. It only took ten years for me to actually get to it.
I was a bit worried about doing it again, after all – who the hell reads blogs in 2021 and 2022? Blogging was already “on the way out” in 2011 thanks to YouTube and social media. Was I pissing in the wind trying to start something up in 2021?
As it turns out, no. It’s been a really cool thing this past year. I’ve been able to stick with it, people have been reading, and all in all it’s been a rewarding experience.
It has been kind of funny at times. Back in the “old days” when I was younger and had more cognitive function I could crap out a blog post in no time flat. These days it takes a bit more work, but also I imagine things are a little more “on the rails” than I used to be too. (And also this time around I told myself I was gonna edit and triple check everything – yeah, right. Not happening).
But enough of that – looking forward, I don’t plan or expect any huge changes. I’m working to post four days a week now and I think I have that down. I’d eventually love to get to five every week but that might be a bit off in the distance yet (save this week, which will have five). I have enough “occasional” series running now that it’s fairly easy to come up with ideas to crank out.
There are no huge three or more part projects on the horizon right now. I’ve done a few before but I haven’t been struck with the inspiration with anything big lately. I’m sure something will dawn on me someday, but for now it will be a rotating series of S-Tier Songs, Tales From The Stage, and the other “here and there” things I do (along with the weekly single series). A new thing here or there may pop up, but I’m going to ride it out like this for a bit before I spring anything new.
One thing I had intended to do that hasn’t surfaced yet is YouTube. I was going to do album rankings and other things like that in video form. I honestly just haven’t had the time or inclination to mess with it. I may give it a go and see if I can’t get that off the ground before year’s end, but I wouldn’t advise anyone to hold their breath for it.
I have also considered the idea of doing a second, non-music related blog. That is something that may very well happen but will also be a ways off. I want to make sure I have this one sailing smoothly before I commit to something else. But we’ll see.
One note before I go – thank you to everyone who has visited, commented and/or otherwise interacted here. I got a bigger response than I’d anticipated, it’s certainly not easy to get or keep anyone’s attention these days. It’s nice to know I’m not just typing into the void, I doubt I would’ve hung around a year that way.
That’s about all I got – it’s kind of funny to think that, after a year, I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the music I like and have listened to. This site and concept could easily outlive my ability to run it. That’s a good thing, I suppose. Thank you all and we’ll see what the next year brings.
The Crooked Wanderer 