Music - Indian and a lil' Theory

So tonight, I'm catching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart...one of the correspondents does a piece on hookahs:
Trend Spotting with Demetri Martin – the “trend” of Hookah pipes in the Middle East, and the “growing trend” in the US as soldiers return from the Middle East. Demetri visits a hookah bar in NY. It was an amusing piece.
This then reminds me of when I went to a hookah bar with a few friends, maybe a month and half ago or so...Interesting experience, I don't smoke, but it was actually a bit soothing and pleasant. A lot of the music was interesting as well, a fusion of classical indian and arabic music with modern forms of music, def some stuff I'd like to listen to again.
This then gets me in a mood to listen to sarod artist Ali Abkar Akan.
From there I put in Derek Trucks first CD (which features 2 sarod performances)...and then onto Steve Kimock.

All this got me to the Fareed Haque website. Fareed's the jam/jazz/classical indian guitarist for the cleverly named Garaj Mahal and the less cleverly named Fareed Haque Band.
What this all brings me to is Haque's well done guitar/music lessons on his website, which are very effective of breaking down different musical aspects into layman's terms...so basically this whole blog is just a reminder to myself to check out Fareed's site, as I've gotten some really good tips from here...it also proves that since it is my blog, I can make every post as concise/long and as relevant/irrelevant (depending on the perspective) as I wish.

Me and The Devil Blues...

THE GUITAR THAT GAVE BIRTH TO ROCK 'N' ROLL.. YOURS FOR £3M
By Pete Samson


THE guitar used by legendary blues singer Robert Johnson is up for sale - at
more than £3million.
Johnson, said to have have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his
musical ability, used the Gibson L1 acoustic guitar on his only two
recording sessions.
The Texas sessions in 1936 and 1937 pro duced 29 songs that were a huge
influenced on future stars such as Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling
Stones and Bob Dylan ??" and led Johnson to be dubbed the father of rock 'n'
roll. The current owner only realised he had Johnson's guitar when a boxed
set of the singer's work was re-released in 1990 complete with a picture of
him playing the battered instrument.
The Gibson L1s were handmade between 1926 and 1930 - and each is unique.
Experts who studied both the Johnson picture and the guitar confirm they are
identical. The anonymous owner is selling the guitar through memorabilia
website Moments In Time for £3.25million. But famous fans such as Eric
Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Morgan Freeman could yet start a
bidding war.
Relatively little is known about Mississippi-born Johnson, apart from the
fact he died in 1938 aged just 27 - probably after drinking whisky poisoned
by the jealous husband of a lover.
Eric Clapton, who released an album of cover versions of the bluesman's
songs in 2004 titled Me and Mr Johnson, has called him "the most important
blues musician who ever lived".
Scores of other modern acts have also covered his songs. Led Zeppelin did
Travelling Riverside Blues, The Rolling Stones covered Love in Vain and Stop
Breaking Down, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers sang They're Red Hot.


My recommended listening:

Blogs of Interest

Justin Kreutzmann's blog (film maker and son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann):

rock and reel
rock and reel: The Black Crowes (check out the Words You Throw Away Video)
http://nugs.net/vault/jk2005_The_Thrill_Is_Gone.mov (Grisman/Garcia video)
The Wheel

Blog of a couple of friends' trip to New Zealand:
Changes Abroad

Marek's blogs:
Mark's thoughts

JR's blog around the world:
A Gedanken Experiment

The creator of Phreshwater (music site I used to write for) and his blog:
Phreshwater.net

Cool music blog site I stumbled upon:
AquariumDrunk

Please allow me to introduce...

Alright, this is my 3rd ever blog...following a livejournal and myspace...why change, because change is good, or so I hear.

What's Halfway to Everywhere?


I'd been trying to think of a name for my soon-to-be blog for a couple of days. Because of my infatuation with music, I knew it would reference a lyric or one of my favorite bands. Last night I put in Three Snakes and One Charm by the Black Crowes, and "Halfway to Everywhere" came on...It's not my favorite song by the Crowes, heck it's not even my favorite song off this CD, but the title rang a bell to me. I couldn't even recite any of the lyrical content if I tried right this second.
I just liked this idea of being Halfway to Everywhere. To me it implies that you're near where you would like to be ideally, but you're not quite there yet. Living in Richmond, Va a year ago, I would be 2 hours away from where I want to be...People ask about Richmond and the location, the response would be it's near the mountains, it's 2 hours from D.C., 2 hours from the beach, and my usual reply it's 2 hours from Raleigh, NC (the city of my alma mater and current residence). The same concept applies to Raleigh, we're between the ocean and mountains. It's an ideal area, it almost has the best of both worlds, but not quite...it's halfway.

This blog will serve some sort of purpose, maybe not for you, maybe so. It might be about life in general, maybe a CD or concert experience, perhaps something going on in the world, or maybe even a soapbox for me to lash out my opinions on various worldly matters, maybe a couple of anecdotes here and there. . I have no idea how often I'll update this thing, maybe every day, maybe once a week, maybe almost never...just how often I want to stir the pot, or perhaps how often it stirs me. And on that note, I'll be on my way to eveywhere.