Friday, November 16, 2007

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Welcome to the Blog World: 1st Post

So this is my first posting. Should be interesting — at least that's my aim. What's a new blogger to write about? What's hip, interesting, new, not been written about before? Who knows? I guess I'll just start writing and see where this road leads.

I suppose that I should address the title of this blog, as well as the URL. If you haven't guessed already, I'm a Doors and Jim Morrison fan. The blog title is a line from the epic song The End, and the URL is from the song Love Street. So ... Driver, where you takin' us? Driver's takin' us on Love Street. It's sort of a stretch, but coming up with an original or ultracool blog title isn't as easy as it might seem. Anyway, my proverbial hat's off to the Doors and, naturally, the Lizard King.

I'll begin with an obviously favorite topic: music. Growing up, music was always in my life, and in a big way. I played piano, dabbled with the flute (before getting quite angry at its output and banging it on the ground), taught myself limited guitar and sang as much as I could. And of course I listened to the radio when the CD was just a poof in some brilliant person's mind. Yes, I've been around to know what 8-track and cassette tapes are. I even held out from buying my first CD for 10 years after they became popular, deeply believing that something smaller/cooler would soon replace the shiny CD. Alas, that was a fruitless wait. My first CD was the Black Crowes. But I digress.

At the ad agency I work at, I sit next to this dude who is completely into music; he plays tunes loud enough for the entire office (or sometimes just a few of us) to enjoy. This environment has revived my new-music interest. I get to listen to a wide, wide variety of stuff, both old and new. And sometimes I get to plant a musical seed in his ear. For example, I introduced him to Michael Hedges, one of my all-time favorite musicians. The completely sucky thing is that Hedges died in a car accident almost a decade ago, so his genius writing and guitar playing can only be experienced via recordings or videos. Such a shame. I was fortunate to see him play live twice at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kan. What a flippin' killer show that man could put on — and completely by himself. He played the acoustic guitar like no other. If you read this blog and have yet to experience Michael Hedges, by all means RUN to your nearest computer and check him out. And then buy his CDs. You shan't be disappointed.

Now, I'll share a personal tidbit with you: I'm about to turn 40. Yikes. Many folks who are in my age range are losing or have already lost touch with the new music of the day. Having kids also does the same thing, as free time becomes a huge factor — mainly a missing one. And yes, that has definitely happened to me. In the last several years, the only "new" music I've actively enjoyed is The White Stripes, Split Lip Rayfield and Dave Matthews Band (and DMB's been around for a while). So I guess what I'm getting at is that sitting next to this guy at work, hearing lots of familiar work but also creations of new artists, is reviving my interest in what's groovy now. I still can't stomach most country music and rap, but I'm pretty open to just about anything else. One newer-to-me genre that's sparked my interest is bluegrass. And you can swear up and down and sideways that bluegrass is a close cousin to country, and I'll tell you that you can have lots of relatives and not be a cotton-pickin' thing like a lot of them.

I'm positive that I'll revisit this musical highway again, so for now I'll leave you with a quote from brilliant Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues to ponder:

You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Happy trails,

Keaton Quinn