Saturday, December 12, 2009

Guitar

Well, I finally bought some music from iTunes. I'm probably the last person on the planet to do so, but that's OK. My 13-year old son can't handle the apparent contradiction---"Whoooah, Dad." Shock and awe.

There's couple of things I like:

• they ditched the DRM, so I copied my whole library including the new songs over to my new OS X Server box, wireless. Very cool. Guess I need some speakers (and a solution to putting them in the TV room / Kitchen).

• The audio quality is adequate with AAC-encoding. I think it's not as clean as AIFF, but it works for me.

• I can get my favorite old tunes---you know, the ones I already have (or had) on vinyl.

So, being too lame to actually post an audio link (how?) here are my two favorite Jerry Garcia guitar songs. They do not come from his work with the Dead, but a concert with Merl Saunders at Keystone.

Positively 4th Street
The Harder They Come
iTunes

We're rockin' out here. Let's see, favorite guitarists?

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Jerry Garcia
Carlos Santana
Mark Knopfler
---
Larry Carlton
Lee Ritenour
David Gilmour
Frank Zappa

Though I like I like the top part of the Rolling Stone list, anybody who would rank Keith Richard ahead of Mick Taylor is out of his tree. Just saying…