Today I was totally digging on jazz singer Sara Gazarek and her three albums (2 studio, 1 live) because of Paste Magazine (who provided a track on sampler #33) via Rhapsody (who provided the streaming music).

Sara is not as breathy as Diana Krall and not as “old timey” as Madeleine Peyroux; her voice is clear and wonderful and perfectly emotive. Do give her a listen. Her backing band is pretty sweet, too.

For those who are convinced as I am that she and her band are that great, you can see them play here in a few days in Seattle. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it. Go and make me jealous.

Friday night was my first gig. Not my gig, mind you, although I did literally play a part in it. It was Justin and Naomi’s musical baby, and I was just there to keep rhythm via djembe and play guitar on a few songs (sweet!). Not to mention that they needed someone sexy enough to keep the crowds from leaving.

The occasion was a coffee house/cafe thingie put together by a couple of the interns from a local church. They turned a cavernous multi-use room in to a homey, mood-lit coffee shop with paintings and portraits and even coffee. They did a great job.

Playing there was a lot of fun. We three had performed at two open mics in the past two weeks, so it wasn’t my first time in front of a crowd. We didn’t play together at all during the sound check. And despite a few of my patented sour F2-chords, the sound check was an anomaly. Once it was for real, we clicked and played well. The feedback was positive, too, which was a good sign.

We spent a lot of time preparing and rehearsing, and it was cool to see the work pay off as well as it did (I even sacrificed an Ultimate game to practice one night). It makes me want to think more about getting better at this guitar thing.

It was lots of fun; I would do it again.

Russ got me started on last.fm. It's social-networking meets music-habits meets collecting-lots-more-data-about-you. I've been listening and "scrobbling" long enough that you can view a significant chunk of my habits/data here.

If you are the sort, you can follow me as I attempt to listen to my entire music library, alphabetically by artist. I started using last.fm before Christmas while in the Ns. I left work today midway through the Rs, though I did pause briefly to get better acquainted with Paste Magazine Sampler #27. Fun stuff.

The last 10 tracks to which I listened:

Tip to last.fm: fix the timestamp problem. Kudos to last.fm: thanks for lots of raw data and feeds to play with.
[Update 10 Jan 2007 11AM: It's apparently user error on the timestamp issue. I set my timezone to "GMT-8" when I needed to choose "US/Pacific". They seem the same to me, but whatyagonnado.]

I'm about to gush about Over the Rhine again. I know I've gushed about 'em before; I'd apologize if I were sorry.

But before the floodgates open, lemme 'splain somethin' to ya. I don't much care for Christmas music. Not right now, anyway. And, in fact, I don't much care for Christmas-the-American-holiday, either. But that's another post. I'm sure that my distaste for the current state of the holiday flavors my perception of the music that surrounds it. Or maybe I'm a fuddy-duddy. Or curmudgeon. Maybe I'd like more of the music if it didn't usually stink.

One side note to the side note. The music at my church this year for our Christmas brunch/kids program/celebration was outstanding. A mini-choir with multi-part harmony in the vocals; carols sung in their entirety (It turns out that The First Noel doesn't have to be slow, boring, or tedious if you keep things up-tempo. And you get the full story. Pretty sweet.); and with familiar songs and lots of guests, people sing louder and, I think, with more joy.

To sum up: most Christmas music = ick. It even keeps me away from stores at Christmas time. I don't care, need, or want to hear Celine Dion singing about naughty-and-nice while I'm shopping at Lowe's for a shiny! new! toilet plunger.

Back to the gush. Over the Rhine recently released their second full-length Christmas/holiday CD, Snow Angels. I have never listened to their first, but if its quality is anything close to Snow Angels, I'd consider spending my pretty pennies to get it. Snow Angels is Christmas music I can whole-heartedly enjoy rather than endure. There's a little bit of love, some sincere singing about Jesus and remembrance of His birth, and even a jazzed-up version of "Jingle Bells" that doesn't suck.

This is an album to which I would listen at any time of the year, not just at Christmas time.

Ok... so not much of a gush. I'm still learning how to do it right. For more reviews, see here. You can (and should) order a copy from here.

So I went to an Over the Rhine show at Regent College... shoot... two weeks ago now. I'm not sure what to say about it, except that it was awesome. As usual. And that it still sticks in my head like it happened last night.

I've seen them live three times, and I own their live stuff. Every time, with or without a full band (this gig was just Linford and Karen), they've been nothing short of excellent. It's a fantastic experience.

The guitar work isn't all that complicated, but you still wish you could play that well.

It’s just as natural to hear Karen sing about pain, life, death, and the human condition as it is when she turns her bedroom voice full-on for the new tune North Pole Man. It was a chilly night; but after that song, not so much.

I like music. I’ve expressed that before.

I try to make a point of buying music that I’m going to listen to later. My basic rule of thumb is this: If I’m not going to like it in 2 years, I don’t want to buy it now.

Sometimes the rule of thumb fails, or I ignore it, and my music collection starts transforming or growing to include albums I won’t listen to anymore. Like extra clothes in the closet, I must occasionally go through everything and throw out the warn out stuff, stuff that doesn’t fit, or stuff I just don’t like any longer.

A few weeks ago I sorted my music library alphabetically by artist/band first-name first (then by song title) and hit Play. My crude calculations suggest that I have more than 250 hours of music.

I do have a number of doubles. That is, identical tracks that appear on different albums, or the same song by the same artist performed differently (say, one studio track and one live track). I skip the doubles.

If the software spins up something I don’t want to listen to, that’s a sign for me sell or BALETE. So far I’ve liked everything enough to keep it.

An unexpectedly fun part of this whole thing is music translations. I go from Dan Russell’s cover of Mark Heard’s “I Just Wanna Get Warm” to “Benzi Box” by Danger Doom (it came on a Paste Magazine sampler) and then to “Alarma!” by Daniel Amos. Another weird transition: dcTalk to Diana Krall.

On a really good day I can listen to 70 tracks. It’s been a month since I started, and today I left my computer mid-way through the Gs (Glenn Kaiser). Yesterday I was in the Fs (Fleming & John), so I guess I’m making progress. It took me 4 days to get through the Bs (thanks to Bill Mallonee).

It’s been killer not skipping ahead to the Os, what with an Over the Rhine concert coming up on Wednesday night. Two OtR shows in one year. How ‘bout them apples.

My parents came to visit; I took the week off of work; my parents went. It felt good to sleep in a few of those days. It also felt a slight bit o’ good not to go to work when I knew everyone else had to.

One thing, among many, that I miss by not being at work is the perk of listening to music. If I am fortunate enough to have a block of uninterrupted time where I can just do my thing, music is usually playing through my headphones.

Because you're dying to know, here are my top 10 favorite bands/artists, as determined by how much of each band's/artist's music is ripped to my harddrive:

• Vigilantes of Love / Bill Mallonee : 19.5 hours of music (13 hrs as VoL, 6.5 as non-VoL Bill)
• The 77s / Mike Roe : 18 hours (13 hrs as 77s, 5 as non-77s Mike)
• Over the Rhine : 12 hrs, 16 min (11 hrs as OtR, 1:16 as Linford Detweiler)
• The Choir : 10hr 50min
• Phil Keaggy : 8hr 24min
• Iona : 6hr 26min
• Lost Dogs : 5hr 54min
• Afro-Celtic Sound System / Afrocelts : 5hr 38min
• Havalina : 5hr 03min
• Sixpence None the Richer : 4hr 58min

The funny part (funny, interesting; not funny, ha ha) is that most of these bands/artists are not in my regular music rotation anymore. Some music is more appropriate for different times of life, I suppose. And although I was once a completist for a number of these bands, I know full well that my library is missing at least one album from each artist's catalog. I'll make you a list of missing CDs if you need Christmas ideas.

In terms of overall musical enjoyment, my favorite from this list is Over the Rhine. They rock and/or roll every time.

Artists/albums not making this list that I must mention, just because I said so: Steve Taylor, Brooks Williams, Claire Holley, 25 Paste Magazine samplers.

I have a lot on my mind.

I should be paying bills. Some of them are late. I hate being late.

I should be wooing a woman. Some of them are awesome. I love making them laugh.

I should be eating better. Some of my recent dinners are crap. It’s like I’m making my own Super Size Me movie, but without the video camera and the fame.

I should be solidifying old friendships. I should be spending more time in prayer. I should memorize poetry. I should finish the laundry. I should be helping the poor. I should ride my bicycle. I should work late. I should blog more. I should this, and I should that.

Tonight I add one more: I should perform karaoke.

I met a friend after he got off of work at at a local establishment that, unbeknownst to both of us, was holding its weekly karaoke night.

Chip loves karaoke. Jimbo, not so much. He’s a performer; I’m a, um... not. Usually. Especially when it comes to singing.

Chip (stage name “Chucky D”) went wild (it was a slow night) and sang 3 times (Johnny Cash, The Bee Gees, America). He even won a drawing for a $20 gift certificate. I drank an adult beverage and flipped through the song title booklet, hoping no one would lay on the you-should-sing-it’s-a-lot-of-fun-everyone-is-doing-it guilt trip. (Boy, am I out of it. There are a ton of pop songs I don’t know.)

I didn’t sing this night, but maybe next time. I think I’d rather sing my own songs, if I ever were to write them. Oh, and play my own music, if I could learn more than those 4 chords. (Add another "I should": I should practice my guitar.)

Or maybe I should lighten up.

As Chucky D says, “Sometimes life doesn’t always make sense... and that’s why we should do karaoke.”

Let me laud the benefits of Paste Magazine ("Signs of Life in Music, Film, & Culture"):

• 20+ track sampler music CD in every issue. Every sampler is like the best 80 minutes of radio you’ve ever heard, and you’re guaranteed not to know all the musicians on the disc. I have 24 of the 25 samplers on my harddrive at work (#4 came shattered), and I use them like my own private radio station.
• A DVD every other issue (at least that was the pattern... we’ll see with the next one) that includes music videos and short films.
• It’s now published monthly. Paste started in 2002 as a quarterly magazine.
• Lots of reviews of music, books, and movies that are all the rage with the kids these days.

The October 2006 (#25) issue’s cover story is on Zach Braff. Cool, yo. There are also articles on The Decemberists, Bavarian beer, and... did I mention music and books reviews? They got lots. Anyone want to gift me copy of Thirteen Moons?

This issue also delves in to “The 24 Best Hours on Television” in which we find this little gem (and some minor personal vindication) from contributor Reid Davis:

“You’re not supposed to be watching this” is what each week’s feminine-hygiene ad barrage says. So why do I, a red-blooded hetero male, love Gilmore Girls? There’s the snappy, Front Page-worthy dialogue referencing everything from Ava Gardner to XTC. There’s Paste-caliber musical knowledge (Grant-Lee Phillips busking; Sebastian Bach delivering sly self-parody; a cameo from Sonic friggin’ Youth!), and characters you want to simultaneously hug and strangle. (Scrubs’ Turk said it best: “I’m so mad at Lorelai, I can’t even speak right now.”) It has nothing to do with my wife having grown up in a small Connecticut town a half-hour from Hartford. I swear.

Other good shows for which Paste agrees with me:

• House
• Scrubs
• Battlestar Galactica

Minor beefs from the list:

• I never got in to the NBC’s version of The Office. I prefer the original Ricky Gervais version.
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip hadn’t even aired when Paste #25 went to print. Sure, important editors of big, fancy magazines may get previews before mere mortals. And Aaron Sorkin does have a pretty good track record. But the blurb strikes me as a bought-and-paid-for NBC advertisement.