Jasper Jones

When people hear that I live in Nashville I’m always bombarded with questions about the music business. What celebrities do I know? Can I can someone big to record a song written by a friend? Can I get them free concert tickets and backstage passes? Can I help someone get their big break?

Found a video on Youtube that you might like if you have an interest in the music business. I think it is always good to hear about the inside track from people who are in the middle of it. John Esposito is the CEO of WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic), so here’s his opinion and advice.

Would you drive over two hours to be at a concert by the Eagles? That’s what a bunch of kids fro school did last night. They all left out of here at 2:00 in the afternoon - late classes be damned! - and drove up to Nashville to see the concert.

It was evidently an awesome show, but I couldn’t go. For one, I had to work and I get my schedule 2 weeks in advance, so I can’t just take off from my shift on every whim. For another, I’m trying to make money and missing work doesn’t exactly help me reach that goal. Another big reason is that tickets for that show started at $110 for arena seats. Like nosebleed section, can’t see anything but the big screens on the stage for closeups and little specks on a big stage thousands of feet below you. That’s not getting my money’s worth out of tickets.

My idea of a great concert is getting as close to the stage as you can. No more than 10 rows back. MAYBE the balcony if it is the first 3 balcony rows. Other than than, I’d rather listen to the good music on my iPod and in the car.

Bothers me to read about some of the world best rock stars, musicians and comedians dying this year. We’ve lost a lot of great talent this summer and the list grows longer with the passing of Richard Wright, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. Cancer took this world class keyboard player and songwriter from us at just 65 years old.

Pink Floyd had a rocky history of band members fighting and firing and suing each other. But the fact remains that the music was so original, so awesome and so timeless that we will always love the band and their songs.

Rock on, Richard Wright - thanks for the tunes.

Bought the Kid Rock CD called “Rock N Roll Jesus” because I’ve been hearing a really catchy song on the radio called “All Summer Long.” Now, I’ve never been a real big fan of the Kid, he has a bizarre lifestyle that I personally find very offensive. But that’s his life and he’ll deal with the consequences of his actions further down the road.

I don’t like to help support the drugs and illegal activities of today’s musicians by buying their records. But then again, there are lots of other good people involved in the making of a CD and some of them do deserve to earn a living in the music business, so if I really like the songs and can afford to spend the money then I’ll buy the album. but I only buy 2 or 3 albums each year, so it’s not like anyone can buy much cocaine with that little bit of money going their way.

That’s my take on the music business.

I don’t watch the singing and dancing reality shows, but I think that Carrie Underwood got her big break from winning one of them. Now her career has taken off like a rocket and I’m glad for that. She’s a pretty little thing and has a great voice.

I was watching the GAC (Great American Country) cable channel today and it was interesting to see how they worked a video story around one of her songs, “Just a Dream.” I would have thought the song meant it was a breakup from the typical domestic and relationship problems that happen. But the video showed her getting into a wedding dress for a picture perfect wedding and then switched to scene of her going to a funeral. We are led to believe her man had gone into the military and been killed in action, although you never really know if she had married him before he left or not. That was an interesting twist with a contemporary slant to the meaning of the lyrics.

So, after all that, it’s a good song and an interesting video. Carrie rocks!

Did you hear the drama about Kane West’s show at Bonaroo? It was a comedy of errors and a lot of people were really pissed off at him. Not only because of the gawd-awful delays in his show, but because of his arrogance and indifference to the fans. Here’s a clue, Kanye - without fans, you’ve got nothing.

Here’s another clue, Kanye. You don’t have a show scheduled for 8:15 pm that doesn’t even start until 4:25 am and ignore the fans who’ve been WAITING OVER 8 HOURS FOR YOU. The very least you could have doen was thank the fans for waiting and apologize for the delays. Don’t come out railing against the people putting on Bonaroo. These people have been doing this for YEARS without you and your prima donna ways and they do know what they are doing. YOU ARE THE DUMMY HERE.

Here’s a quote from the front page of Yahoo this morning. Unbelievable arrogance.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kanye West defended himself from criticism over his delayed performance at Bonnaroo, saying on his blog that the flak he’s taken has left him “the most offended I’ve ever been.”

West’s performance at the Tennessee festival was scheduled for 2:45 a.m. in the early morning of June 15. West didn’t take the stage until 4:25 a.m., angering much of the crowd who had stayed up late to see the rapper perform.

The delay was caused by problems setting up West’s elaborate stage set, which included an interplanetary landscape of a wavy black platform and a video screen above. Pearl Jam, who had performed on the main stage earlier that evening, also went an hour over its scheduled time. While waiting for West’s concert to begin, many in the crowd pelted the stage with glow sticks and beer.

Picked up a little MP3 player that is a jump drive by design but has a couple extra features built in that lets you download and play back music files. It holds about 3 hours worth of music and is smaller than a pocket knife.

The Coby Stick runs on a AAA battery and works great - I picked mine up from Electronic Express for $19, including the earbuds and serial cable.

The plan is to carry this to work so I have something to listen to at the warehouse instead of the boombox that one of the other workers is using that blares that awful nerve wracking hip hop and gangsta rap. I don’t know about you, but when I’m trying to concentrate I need a more soothing and peaceful noise sound around me. So now I’ll bring my own and I can listen to the good stuff on my Coby stick.

One of the way cool things on my new little mini laptop is the preloaded internet radio link. I was worried that my media player would be toast on a Linux system, but they have a Linux version and all my tunes are good to go once I transfer them from the jump drive. Haven’t gotten around to doing that yet, so last night I fired up the mini and logged on to the internet radio to give it a listen.

Listening on the internet gives me access to hundreds - if not thousands - of radio stations all over the world to listen to the new music and regional differences in each genre. I had a blast checking out several U. K. online radio stations and landed on one, XFM, that I marked as a favorite so I can be sure to find it again. They have a nice, clean, but hip web site design and links to some great sites like access to gig tickets and a guide to music festivals.

My favorite part of the XFM site is the playlist tab. I can see their current playlist and sort it by main playlist, new additions, and recently played. Then each playlist shows the artist name, their song and links right there to either listen to that track, download it from iTunes or buy the CD from Amazon. So if I find a song that I really like and want to have on my mini, like “Aint No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant, I can download it from their site right then and away we go.

This list includes the most requested wedding songs for the first dance as selected by couples and tracked by a survey of mobile DJ recently conducted by discjockeys.com.

Top Wedding Songs For The First Dance