playlist

My Reel Tapes: #1
by

My Reel Tapes: #1

I have always loved music. During the 60’s and 70’s, I used to edit music and create tapes with dual cassette decks. Initially I recorded music from FM radio overnight, and while listening I would select songs I liked that I wanted to keep on a new tape. I would also capture the artist, album, and track information and save that playlist with the tape.

Later I graduated to two reel-to-reel tape recorders which offered much more capacity. Of course, I no longer have either the cassette or reel tape recorders, but I have boxes of cassette and reel tapes (and vinyl records and CDs too).

I’ve been wanting to get them converted to DVD to load into my computer, but I was concerned that might cost a lot and might not turn out that good for some of the tapes which are so old. It’s been so long since I’ve listened to them, and thought that it would be fun and bring back lots of memories via the music I loved way back when I was much younger.

Lately I realized that I could create custom Spotify playlists from my recorded tape list contents, and I’ve started doing that with a few tapes and actually the quality is much better anyway. There’s no tape noises and many albums have even been remastered. Although some of the songs are not available on Spotify, most of them I have found. I intend to share them in a series on my blog along with lots of other music that I like.

I hope you like this trip down memory lane. Starting right now …

Tape 1 – 14 songs, 57 min


More music by artists for albums featured in this playlist

The Austin 100: A SXSW 2016 Mix
by

The Austin 100: A SXSW 2016 Mix

For NPR Music to get ready for SXSW 2016, they listened to more than 1,800 artists, and hand-picked 100 songs for the musicians that they will be keeping an eye on at the South by Southwest Music Festival here in Austin this month.

Article and Playlist

This article by Stephen Thompson of NPR Music includes the complete playlist with artist links and the ability to play each song, if you want to just browse through the list. However, I think you will like trying out their interactive web app (see below).

The Austin 100: A SXSW 2016 Mix

Interactive Web App

A really cool feature is a fully interactive multimedia web application. For each one, there is information about the artist and song, with hometown and brief description. There are links to download the MP3 song, stream that artist on Spotify, or access iTunes or Amazon music stores

It offers shuffle play of all 100 songs, including the ability to pause, as well as skip forward or backward. You can click the heart to mark specific songs as a favorite, and you can later just click on a button to play your favorites. That makes it extremely easy to skim through all the songs and pick those that you like (and eliminate those you don’t).

Launch the The Austin 100 App (2016) by NPR Music.

This Austin 100 app will continue to be available for another year until March 31, 2017.

Download all 100 MP3s

Also there is a download available with all 100 MP3 songs as a single 852 MB zip file (over 6 hours of music), which will only be available this month only until March 31, 2016. If you like, you can choose to import any or all of these MP3 files into iTunes and made a playlist for it.

Download The Austin 100 Zip file – 100 MP3 songs (851.9 MB).

Spotify Playlist

If you want to listen to NPR Music’s artists to watch at SXSW 2016, select this playlist on Spotify.

The Austin 100 (playlist) by NPR Music – 89 songs, 5 hr 34 min

SXSW 2015

If you are still also interested in listening to The Austin 100 SXSW 2015 Mix from last year, it is still available.

Launch the The Austin 100 App (2015) from last year.

Enjoy the music!

by

Folksy Christmas

Here is a folk playlist created by Spotify.

Play these festive songs on a winter’s night, and have yourself a folksy little Christmas now…

Folksy Christmas – Playlist created by Spotify – 166 songs, 9 hr 38 min

 

by

Country Christmas

Here is a country Christmas playlist created by Spotify.

Celebrate the merriment and fun of the Holiday Season with your favorite country artists.

Country Christmas Playlist created by Spotify – 55 songs, 2 hr 51 min

 

Pat Green
by

Pat Green

Here’s some country music by Pat Green for you to listen with Spotify.

Playlist

Here are some of his more popular songs.

Pat Green (Playlist) – 69 songs, 4 hr 38 min

 

More Pat Green music, videos, and links

Whisperings Solo Piano – Playlist
by

Whisperings Solo Piano – Playlist

These playlists highlight popular artists that appear on Whisperings Solo Piano. It includes songs from Whisperings Solo Piano: Volume 1 (2011) and Volume 2 (2014). There is also a link to their Christmas Whisperings album (2012) with many of these same artists. For your convenience, I have included my Spotify playlists for the artists appearing on these albums, if you like a specific artist and want to listen to more of their music.

Playlists

Whisperings – Solo Piano (Playlist) – 32 songs, 2 hr 21 min

 

Christmas Whisperings – Solo Piano (Album) – 16 songs, 58 min

 

More music playlists by 19 popular Whisperings solo piano artists …

Kacey Musgraves: Pageant Material
by

Kacey Musgraves: Pageant Material

The album Pageant Material was just released by country singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves, and you can listen to it on Spotify. I updated my original post from November 8, 2014 to include her new album as well as a playlist that is included here for convenience.

Album

“Pageant Material” by Kacey Musgraves (2015) – 13 songs, 46 min

 

Playlist

“Kacey Musgraves (Playlist)” – 20 songs, 1 hr 6 min

 

Listen to more of her music at my Kacey Musgraves post for more of her albums, videos, and links. This new album and playlist has been included there as well.

Photo credit: Pageant Material @ Amazon (album cover)

Lenka: The Bright Side
by

Lenka: The Bright Side

The album The Bright Side was just released by Australian indie pop singer/songwriter Lenka, and you can listen to it on Spotify. I updated my original post to include her new album as well as a significantly extended playlist that is included here for convenience.

I already have my tickets to see her on Monday, June 29 at 8:00 pm in Austin at Stubbs BBQ during “The Bright Side” Tour, along with British singer/songwriter Nick Howard who won “The Voice of Germany” TV singing competition in 2012.

Album

“The Bright Side” by Lenka (2015) – 11 songs, 38 min

 

Playlist

“Lenka (Playlist)” – 30 songs, 1 hr 45 min

 

Listen to more of her music at my Lenka post for more of her albums, videos, and links. This new album and updated playlist has been included there as well.

Photo credit: The Bright Side @ Amazon (album cover)

Of Monsters and Men: Beneath the Skin
by

Of Monsters and Men: Beneath the Skin

The new album “Beneath the Skin” was recently released by Of Monsters and Men, and you can listen to it on Spotify. I have updated my post for their music with a playlist of more popular songs, as well as the album, links, and some videos.

Album

“Beneath the Skin” by Of Monsters and Men (2015) – 11 songs, 48 min

 

Playlist

“Of Monsters and Men (Playlist)” – 16 songs, 1 hr 11 min

 

Listen to more of their music at my Of Monsters and Men post for more of their albums, videos, and links. This new album and updated playlist has been included there as well.

Photo credit: Beneath the Skin @ Amazon @ Amazon (album cover)

by

House Concert: Tim Neumark with Michael Logozar and Darla Bower

This Saturday afternoon, June 20th, I attended a Whisperings Solo Piano House Concert featuring Tim Neumark along with Michael Logozar and Darla Bower. It lasted about 2 hours at the Logozar home in Round Rock, Texas (near Austin) in the piano studio overlooking their patio deck and creek. What a wonderful experience to be able to listen to these fantastic piano artists perform live right in front of me, along with about a small group of about 30-40 other invited guests.

Also, it was great to meet and talk with them personally. What amazing talent and such beautiful solo piano music! I’m excited because Michael Logozar told me they plan to have about four concerts a year. I feel lucky that I have this opportunity.

Concert Playlist

Here is an approximate playlist of the songs performed during the concert. Also Darla played some unpublished  songs: one called Falling Petals, and a new playful classical piece.

“Concert – 2015 June 20 (Playlist) – 14 songs, 59 min

 

Photos

I have included a few photos which I took during the concert as each of them performed. Also, they all participated in a spontaneous improvisation at the end which they made up on the spot based on three random notes from an audience member. It’s amazing how they can just jointly all compose on the spot, and even play together, as they shift around bench positions on the fly, and it all sounds really good.

Also, I was the winner of a CD giveaway drawing, and I got the album Heart by Doug Hammer. Here’s a photo of the CD cover.

IMG_7264

I have also included the album playlist here as well.

“Heart” by Doug Hammer (2013) – 19 songs, 1 hr 17 min

 

Artist Playlists

Listen to the playlists for the artists that performed so you can enjoy their music too.

Tim Neumark – 36 songs, 2 hr 26 min

Michael Logozar – 28 songs, 1 hr 56 min

Darla Bower  – 8 songs, 28 min

For more of their albums, videos, and links, as well as the playlists, see my complete posts for Tim Neumark, Michael Logozar, and Darla Bower.