About Me

I hate talking about me because I’m boring. The subject I want to discuss is not boring. Music is the opposite of me; exciting, vibrant, always changing, always evolving. I stay the same…well not exactly. I get older, maybe heavier, and definitely have more gray hairs. I’ve always had a love for music from a young age. My parents saw that I was put into music classes and piano lessons very early on, so I gained an early knowledge of theory and general appreciation. The biggest problem was that I really wanted to listen to music…piano lessons were hard work; you had to practice and I hated practicing. I always thought that the reason that I never practiced was that I thought the piano was uncool, but even as I got older and into different instruments practicing still was not happening. Even now at my most disciplined, practicing is tough to do routinely.

As I said before, I loved to listen to music. Now, what did I listen to early on? Well, basically whatever my parents allowed me to. My parents were never strict about what music I listened to, but they also did not have a robust collection of music. So, a lot of my early musical experiences were with John Philip Sousa marches, the Star Wars soundtrack, Disney music, some musicals, and the one odd David Bowie greatest hits cassette, “Changesbowie.” My first personal music experience independent of my parents' collection was the Wayne’s World soundtrack. It was also one of the first CDs that I ever had. I remember the wild sounds of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady. This was ‘92 and was sure this was the hottest current artist. Boy, was I disappointed to find out he had been dead for 22 years. A few years later I discovered MTV, well to be fair I knew about MTV just had never watched it, and a whole new world of artists opened up to me. Then I joined Columbia Record Club. If you don’t remember it, it was a club where you purchase 12 CDs for $1 and then you had to purchase something once a month for like 6 or 12 months. All that I remember was that my collection started expanding rapidly thanks to that service. That was when I really started actively listening to and collecting music. I ended up going to school to study Music at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and ended up bummed, as when I was going to school, higher ed had barred the doors for popular music to be study or performed. Collecting and listening became my hobby, passion, and vice. Now I’ve decided to take what I’ve learned through reading, study, and listening, and combine that with words to hopefully have others enjoy it. I guess that last sentence really sums up my plan for this writing; hopefully, I can impart my passion and maybe a bit of knowledge to willing readers.