Seems most everything I do — writing, coding, cupping coffee or catching up on my reading pile — I do to music. I don’t have anything against silence, mind you… but life is richer with a soundtrack. And right now that soundtrack calls for an eclectically bluesy, finger-style guitar.
Topping my play list these days is 
Kelly Joe Phelps and his astonishing, live acoustic finger-style blues spectacular, Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind. Kelly morphs with ease between Delta and folksy blues styles, thumping a droning baseline one moment, snaking his way through complex modal riffs the next. Often as not Kelly uses his voice as an accompaniment to his guitar rather than the other way ’round — sometimes growling out an alternative baseline or counterpoint between his breathy, syncopated lyrics. An artistic tour de force and stunningly musical, besides.
Also high my on my playlist — and a sometimes collaborator with Phelps — the Tony Furtado Band. Furtado’s style is centered in folksy blues, too — which only makes sense as he’s a Grand National Champion banjo player — and ranges to Bela fleck-styled bluegrass-jazz fusion and Kottke and Juber-inspired finger-picking. Where Phelp’s Tap the Red Cane is “just” a guy and his guitar, Furtado offers a full-on musical soundscape of electric and eclectic, unplugged instruments — acoustic bottle-slide and resonator guitars, fiddle, pipes, banjo and a tall stack of drums. Want more? Check out Furtado’s American Gypsy’s slightly Celtic overlay, and Roll My Blues Away with it’s progressive bluegrass roots.
So… what are you listening to?
I saw Kelly Joe perform at McCabe’s Guitar shop in …. 1993? He and Ted Hawkins. I bought KJP’s first CD that night and I still listen. But I haven’t paid much attention to him lately.
What I listen to is easier found on my last.fm page.
Phelp’s Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind is a compilation of a series of live performances, and it — I think — blows away most of his previous recordings. He’s taken it to another level. 😉
And last.fm… I’ve heard about it here and there but never dug in. I’ve been a Pandora fan for a while, which is pretty much the streaming without quite the social network stuff of last.fm, yes?
I think I need to take a look.
Great Lake Swimmers. From Canada. Is there anything happening in specialty coffee in Toronto? Montreal?
I’ll give the swimmers a listen… 😉
In Montreal, I’m hearing good things about a brand new coffee house — Caffè in Gamba — that’s opened at 5263 Park Ave., between Fairmount and Bernard.
More details here at Disparate.
Good call, Phil!
Swimmers have a banjo-picker. 😉