CurtBlog

I’m getting back into updating my site finally.  Mostly behind the scenes, but I have added some new links to my favorite music of late. Hope to add a section for farm-related stuff, such as books, before too long.

So the release date for the new Portishead has finally drawing nigh.  April 28th in the UK, April 29th in the states.  I've heard about 3 tracks now on BBC Radio 1 and it's pretty great.  Very big and gloomy.  It's hard to believe it's been 10 years.  I also hear Tricky and Martina Topley-Bird may be coming out with new stuff as well.  Bristol back in the house?  Maybe.

Growing up in a Mennonite church, worship and singing meant acapella, 4 part (at least) harmony with no instruments.  While I grew to love all sorts of instruments in music and even learned to play some, that experience shaped a love of vocal music in me that remains.  There is nothing like a magnificent harmony of human voices in this world. When the movie Cold Mountain came out a number of years ago, there were a lot of things I loved about it.  But one unexpected thing was the use of Sacred Harp singing, something I hadn't exactly been exposed to before.  It's a very old American music tradition based in the South which uses an old hymn book called "The Sacred Harp" which uses shaped notes.  I was exposed to shape notes growing up, they used to use it to teach sight singing at my school.  If you are familiar with the "Do Re Mi" approach, where each note of the scale has a name, it's similar with the addition of a shape to represent each interval in the ... [More]

I feel like lately I'm getting all the good links from Jeffrey Overstreet's blog, here's another one.  Great interview with Linford Detweiler in Paste.  The thing that strikes me about Linford is that just reading his words can sometimes provoke goose bumps, he's that good of a poet writer.  So when you add in Karin's voice, it's no wonder you start getting holy ghost moments. Technorati Tags: Over the Rhine, music, interviews

Technorati Tags: music, download, Radiohead Radiohead suddenly announced the release of their new album.  They didn't sign with a new label, they are selling it themselves.  And get this, you can download the new album on October 10th for the price of your choosing, above a certain small minimum.  They are also selling this huge download/CD/vinyl package for 40 pounds (about $80 US) that will ship sometime in December.  Looks very cool, although a bit pricey for me.  Wow, leave it to Radiohead to give a nice big middle finger to the music industry.  Something tells me they will be okay. You can pre-order the album on this site.