sin city

I'm listening to the Flying Burrito Brothers, and all is right with the world.

I am a fan of nearly all types of music, be it bluegrass, bebop, bossanova, blues, or even boy bands. I'll listen to pretty much anything at least once.

I make an exception, though. If it's country, and it was produced after 1988, it is probably crap. Therefore I don't listen to it.

I really shouldn't dignify it with the misnomer "country". It's prefab pop pulp with the occasional steel guitar in the outro. That does NOT make it country. It just proves that Swedish pop impresarios have run out of things to do with string sections, and must move on to other instruments to ruin.

There are exclusions to my rule: if it's bluegrass (real bluegrass, i.e. Southern Thunder with Ricky Skaggs, whose album "Live at the Charleston Music Hall" should be in every music lover's collection, or Alison Krauss, who could probably sing the phonebook and I'd listen), I'll give it a listen.

For example, the only "new" bluegrass band that really sounds good to me is Nickel Creek. Mainly because the mandolin player (my chosen instrument) is amazing, and the fiddler is fantastic as well.

I have a soft spot in my heart for one country artist, though.

Dolly Parton.

Now, don't click the back button just yet. Hear me out.

Get her album of bluegrass covers of rock songs. Her version of "Shine" by Collective Soul is the best rendition of that song currently available. Also, "Stairway to Heaven" sounds much better with a mandolin and fiddle solo in the middle of it. (The fiddler and mandolinist (mandolinier?) from Nickel Creek are on that album, too.)

So, there's my semi-geeky musical incursion of the day. Flames, inquiries, professions of undying love can be sent to me here.

Like the card, Kate?

And, by the way, my Launch station has played the aforementioned FBB, followed by Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good", and wrapped up with "She's On It" by the ever-lovable Beasties.

Eclectic? Yes.

Good? Definitely.