I loves me some good music.

So I was over at the IHoB for my daily does of Blogcakes, and stumbled on a past one about music and it got me to thinking how much I love music. I am not, nor have ever been, in a band, and I am not musically talented at all, but music has always played a big part in my life. Well, not that it really plays a part in my life, but as far as I can remember, I have listened to and bought album after album, and gone to various concerts. I just love music. As I mentioned before, I can pretty much relate a memory to an album or song that I bought. McGone has the same thing, but his memory is much more detailed than mine. No thanks to my time at NIU with Hopkins and Herman, I am sure. Anyway....

My tastes in music range pretty widely. My favorite genres are Rock and Alternative, but I do dabble in some Rap, mainly older stuff, and a smidgen of Country. Actually, a lot of the music on my iPod is classified as Pop, but nowadays, Pop is such a broad genre, pretty much anything can be put in Pop.

Today, my band of choice is The Black Crowes. I first heard the Crowes when I was a junior in high school. Shake Your Money Maker came out, and of course the big singles then were Hard to Handle and She Talks to Angels, which to this date, were never huge hits with me.
I actually did not buy The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion in 1992, but liked a few songs. Over a few years, I kind of forgot about the Crowes.

It wasn't until 1994 in Denver that I had heard part of Amorica and really liked it, so I bought it. To this day I still own the CD that I bought at a used CD store in Aurora, CO., complete with generic price tag on the inside. That album is so good it is ridiculous, I can listen to that CD over and over. After that they had By Your Side and Lions and they were OK, not huge hits though. So for a few years, it was just standard "old" Crowes songs.

Then McGone copied the Greatest hits album for me, and the love affair was renewed. And as the time went on, and the glory that is the Internet came to life, good old McGone stumbled upon the Aquarium Drunkard.

Oh how we love the AD. Free song downloads of unreleased music, including 2 albums from The Black Crowes! Are you kidding me? FREE music on the internet?!?! It was beautiful! Granted the quality was not 100%, but it was good enough to play back on the iPod. And there is some DAMN GOOD tunes on these albums. The Tall Sessions and The Band , as we came to know them, are now morphed into one album on iTunes called The Lost Crowes.

Yeah the quality is much better, but I kind of like the lower quality that I have, gives it a more personal feeling. Almost like I was in the studio with them when they recorded them.

As if I didn't already love the Crowes...on the day my daughter was born, the doctor had his iPod playing on a stereo. And right before she was born, I heard a beautiful sound, one of my favorite Crowes tunes... Thorn in My Pride. It almost brought tears to my eyes before she was even born. Not that the song relates to children or anything, but I just love that song and now it is tied to my memory with one of the most glorious days of my life.

More of my favorites:
Paint an 8
Descender (love the piano in this song)
Remedy
A Conspiracy
Wiser Time
Lifevest
Gone
I could really go on, but you get the idea...

So to sum up.... The Black Crowes rock. I love the Black Crowes. If you have any Crowes albums, go give them a listen and enjoy the audible beauty, then go download The Lost Crowes. If you do not own any albums, then DAMMIT! GO BUY SOME!