Random Thoughts

[TMats]

Random Thoughts,
There's a columnist I like to read named Thomas Sowell, professor of
economics and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford
University. Periodically, he writes a column with this same title,
mine of course, will be largely confined to those things pertinent to
Malcolm's Free Form Radio website. In the interest of generating some
heat in this forum-I offer these thoughts or targets if you wish.
There will probably be a couple of these.

First of all, thanks to my long-time (in internet years) electronic
friend, Malcolm. We have been communicating with varying degrees of
regularity for about 4 years now (which means it's probably been 6 or
7 years) and I appreciate his efforts to inform, educate, entertain
and establish connections, within this free form radio community.

Technology has given me access to more, and a wider variety of music
than ever, yet I'm amazed at how dissatisfied I am. Our satellite
dish (and the satellite radio in my wife's new car) provides dozens of
music formats from XM radio and many would seem to be "can't miss"
formats of alternative, Americana, rock, blues and country, yet
somehow they're not quite right. I like alternative and XM has 5 or 6
AltRock stations, but I find myself jumping all over the place trying
to listen to a string of songs I like.

I find I rarely listen to Classic Rock. I guess the tunes that are
"classic" to the programmers aren't quite as important to me. This
actually extends into my own music collection where I can pick and
choose what I play. It was great to live through the evolution of
rock music, but much of it sounds dated to me now. Understand, there
are notable exceptions, but generally speaking, I don't listen to
classic rock.

One of my favorite formats has always been "Texas music," Progressive
Country, or the expanded definition, Americana. Largely, the music of
those musicians who have frequented the Austin music scene since the
70s. I thought I had struck gold with the XM station, X-Country, but
I find much of today's Texas music hard to love too. Cross Canadian
Ragweed, Drive By Truckers, even the bigger-than-ever Waylon Jennings
crony, Billy Joe Shaver kinda bore me. I miss the old crowd of Steven
Fromholz (who we've discussed before), Willis Alan Ramsey, Guy Clark,
Michael (Martin) Murphey, Ry Cooder, (and expanding outside of Texas)
Rick Cuhna (now playing bluegrass with a California band called Drive
South), Tracy Nelson (and Mother Earth), yeah-even Waylon and Willie.
In this case, I prefer the older stuff-also true of country music,with
few exceptions.

I think Green Day's American Idiot is an outstanding album and should
be considered on any list of great albums.

That's probably enough for a start. Fire away.

[TMats]

Actually, I meant Ray Wylie Hubbard when I wrote Billy Joe Shaver. Aw
hell them guys with 3 names all look and sound alike...don't they?

[LegendarySurfer]

T ~

You touched on a number of things, only some of which I have much
input to offer.

Thank you for the kudos, of course. In various ways, I've been doing
what I can to help bring "the freeform community" together. By
freeform, I mean, basically "underground," as "freeform" has a much
different meaning, generally, in radio today.

This effort has not born the fruit I was hoping it would -- at least
so far -- probably due mostly to the fact that those of us who did
freeform or listened to it between 1966 and 1975 are not generally
computer literate. Our compatriots are out there and I suspect they
would love to interact with the rest of us and others, but the
computer world is not something they are really part of.

I'm thankful for those of us who are engaged. Bill Ashford is a
shining light and being back in contact with Jim Clancy and Ed Chatham
fires up my year. Peripheral contact with the KMPX/KSAN crew also
provides a point of reference. I just wish there were more of us in
cyberspace. Allman Brothers "No One To Run With Anymore" comes to
mind.

To your specific comments:

"Technology has given me access to more, and a wider variety of music

than ever, yet I'm amazed at how dissatisfied I am..."

I think this is because as vast as the musical offerings are, there
are very few live bodies to play them in real time. When we were doing
freeform and listening to it, there was an undeniable COMMUNITY aspect
to it. I can't get that off my ipod.

"I find I rarely listen to Classic Rock. I guess the tunes that are
classic" to the programmers aren't quite as important to me. This
actually extends into my own music collection where I can pick and
choose what I play. It was great to live through the evolution of
rock music, but much of it sounds dated to me now. Understand, there
are notable exceptions, but generally speaking, I don't listen to
classic rock."

Who would have dreamed that the stuff we were playing 40 years ago
would be on heavy rotation 40 years later? The equivalent for us would
have been to come of age and having the majority of radio stations
playing ragtime.

Bill's integration of the classics, with new and not-so-new works for
me. I can get a freeform hit every weekday morning by listening to The
Rock Garden. If I was really gonzo, I could invest in the software to
record every one of his shows for later replay as often as I wanted.
And about the times when Bill is not live -- although I thought about
it many times, I never thought that I would actually get to listen to
a freeform automated station. So, there's a lot of good in the
technological advance.

"One of my favorite formats has always been "Texas music," Progressive

Country, or the expanded definition, Americana..."

This is the area that, essentially, saw the dying throes of freeform
radio as we know it. It is still some of my most favorite music...