Thank You

Just a quick note. The other day, The Sonic Landscape reached 1000 hits. As a special thanks to you faithful readers, I scoured the internet until I found a picture that graphically represented how I feel inside. Enjoy:

Taylor Swift Meets Coldplay

Hey, folks. I've been really pleased with your comments on my most recent post. Keep them coming! I've tried to check into each of the songs you've mentioned and I was blown away by one in particular; it's local pianist Jon Schmidt's arrangement of 'Love Song' by Taylor Swift meets 'Viva La Vida' by Coldplay. Now, I'm typically wary of this kind of thing because it can be a pretty easy thing to take a track by someone else, make a few changes, and cash your paycheck. But in some cases, an artist's cover version can add new life to a song in a way that perhaps even the original author hadn't anticipated. Such is the case with Jon Schmidt's mashup.

That's saying something, especially because of the fact that I don't like much country music (Taylor Swift) and I've heard a few too many renditions of 'Waterfall' (Jon Schmidt) from players who consider it the apex of contemporary LDS piano music. In other words, I was skeptical. But, as I often am, I was wrong and what I discovered instead was something that I'd now like to share. I love to hear from everyone, so as I said before keep the comments and suggestions coming. Thanks to Megan for this one, and enjoy the video!

What do you think, folks?

For today's post, I'm trying something new that will hopefully generate a bit of dialogue among you readers. If you're anything like me, you probably have a hard time narrowing down your music to a single favorite artist, or, harder still, a single favorite song. So this week, I'd like people to comment on which artist or song they are really digging right now and then maybe write a sentence or two about why the music is affecting them the way it is. I'd like to see what happens.

Let me be first... I'm currently listening to a lot of a guy some of you may know. His name is Ray LaMontagne and I first came across one of his songs on The Last Kiss soundtrack. I immediately thought his raspy, breathy vocals were super-expressive. I also liked his simple arrangements. Anyway, I now have two of his three albums and I think he's great. He can take an ordinary vocal line and inject it full of emotion in a way that leads you to feel that there's a big backstory to the song. I've included his song "Gone Away From Me" on my playlist for your listening pleasure. It's just one example of why I think Ray LaMontagne's stuff is so cool.

Well, that's it for now, and don't forget to let us all know what you're listening to these days. Take care.