I have been listening to various internet music feeds tonight, and stumbled across a goldmine.
I was talking to a friend (who happens to be an amazing singer/songwriter) on the internet a couple of weeks ago, and mentioned that I used to listen to CMT - Country Music Television - on the television years ago. I think Sky had it on their analogue service in europe in the early 90’s. It got me thinking, and I went looking for it.
It turns out Sky pulled the plug on CMT in europe because there wasn’t enough demand for it. Apparently the channel we received wasn’t the original american feed anyway - it was edited together somewhere by a third party and re-broadcast.
So - this evening I discovered that CMT have a huge website, and have radio stations, videos, and artist biographies coming out of their ears. For somebody like me who likes country music but can’t always find it, it really is a goldmine.
After a while flicking around the place I have a number of people to buy albums of - Emerson Drive, Keith Anderson and Carrie Underwood - and that’s just for starters
Carrie Underwood recently won the Academy of Country Music “newcomer” award. Maybe we’ll hear her in Europe before too long - she is pretty amazing (although I’m biased and end up judging all these people against my friend).
At the moment the Dixie Chicks new album is being played over here quite a bit - the BBC have put the launch single in their playlist, so it’s playing in cars all over the country…
Aside from country music, I’ve been checking out the folk scene as well. I love folk music. Thinking about it, I suppose it’s not that I so much like country and folk music - I’m just growing weary of produced “pop music”.
While looking around I discovered that Kate Rusby has recorded a video at some stage with Ronan Keating. It’s worth checking out on YouTube - click here to watch it. I’ve looked out for Kate ever since I stumbled over one of her albums on E-Music a couple of years ago. She has such a distinctive voice. The fact that she’s rather nice to look at has nothing to do with it, honest
Oh - one more thing - you might want to sit down before reading this… I bought a sketch book last weekend. It’s years since I sat and drew anybody or anything. I don’t know what’s come over me. Perhaps this is the backlash to work being busy - I’m going back to music and art away from the office. Wonders will never cease.
If I manage to draw anything worth looking at it, I’ll scan it and bung it up on Flickr.