Brendan – Page 2 – The Prog Pilgrim

A new home!

Getting ready for the festival and travel I’ve got coming up in 2015 I’ve moved to a dedicated blog. With this new platform I should be able to post pictures, stories, reviews and such more often.

Not only will I post more about my current travels, I hope to go back and post stories from events that have happened in the past that haven’t been published. After all, what good is a permanent record if it isn’t all captured?

Here’s looking to a wonderful holiday season and another year of travel and music!

Off to Philadelphia!

Yeah, yeah… I’m a bad blogger… You still love me though so we won’t belabor that point.

I’m about to fly off to Philadelphia to attend the wedding of a couple of my friends. I couldn’t be happier for the bride and groom. In honor of them I decided to post one of his videos. If you like what you hear you wouldn’t be badly served by picking up some of his music. Solo Simon Godfrey, Shineback, or, my favorite, Tinyfish.

See you on the flip side!

Kellerkommando – Maus

A few days ago I was listening to the Radio Göthe podcast and the show had an interview with the band Kellerkommando. I found the band and their music interesting, fun and upbeat. I also like the fact that they are taking traditional songs and putting a modern spin on them including singing in Fraconian. So why not share this wonderful music with my fine readers? After all not everything from Germany is AGM.

FYI, the video I’ve linked might be considered unsafe for work if you’re workplace is pretty uptight.

Restarting!

Wow, long time no write. I’m sorry but as happens life got in the way. My life is significantly different than it was when I started this blog. After some thought and discussion with some of my closest friends I’ve decided to give this another go. After all, I’m still traveling and listening to music.

If you are new you can read about my goals on the first post. In short, I’m going to write about my travels and music. Though I don’t promise to keep to just those subjects. Like everyone else I know I have many interests and I can’t keep them all contained into separate silos.

Another big reason I’m restarting my blog is that I’ve just returned home from the Rites of Spring festival. RoSfest, as it’s commonly called, is three days of music. It is held on the first weekend of May at the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The festival is always an amazing combination of music, friends and fun. Our tribe comes together once a year to celebrate life, catch up with each other and enjoy some damn fine music. I will be posting a RoSfest retrospective later.

So welcome back!

Dazed and Confused

Last night was my first bass guitar lesson. I’ve said I wanted to get back into playing music someday, well someday was yesterday. One of the exercises my instructor taught me was part of the bass line from “Dazed and Confused.” So your video for the day is the Yardbirds performing it from a television show.

Warren Sessions #17 – Curtis Eller – After The Soil Fails

In honor of going to see Curtis Eller tonight at SteamCon. If you get a chance you should catch him playing live. Mr. Eller puts on a high energy show and sings some great songs inspired by American culture and history. I’ve learned that when he asks if you want a beautiful or an ugly song, always vote for the ugly one. They are not ugly at all and mostly hauntingly beautiful, though the topic isn’t always a happy one.

Active Music Listening

Sometimes it’s better to share the wisdom of others instead of trying to recreate something. In this case Wilton Elder has some great information on what everybody ought to know about active music listening. I encourage you to read Wilton’s post and try active listening. You will find your music has a deeper level and you can begin appreciating the layers that are crafted together to make a song.

Did you try it? What do you think?

The Aaron English Band: “Like Smoke” (from the new DVD)

My music selection for the day is “Like Smoke” from Seattle’s Aaron English Band. I had the pleasure of being present while this video was recorded and it was a wonderful experience. I hope you enjoy.

The Prog Pilgrim

Prog

A definition of Progressive Rock Music:

Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock) is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a “mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility.” The term “art rock” is often used interchangeably with “progressive rock”, but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical.

Progressive rock bands pushed “rock’s technical and compositional boundaries” by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus-based song structures. Additionally, the arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from classical, jazz, and world music. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used “concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme.”

Progressive rock developed from late 1960s psychedelic rock, as part of a wide-ranging tendency in rock music of this era to draw inspiration from ever more diverse influences. The term was applied to the music of bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Soft Machine and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Progressive rock came into most widespread use around the mid-1970s. While progressive rock reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, neo-progressive bands have continued playing for faithful audiences in the subsequent decades.

Pilgrim

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Pilgrim Pil"grim, n. [OE. pilgrim, pelgrim, pilegrim,
     pelegrim; cf. D. pelgrim, OHG. piligr[imac]m, G. pilger, F.
     p[`e]lerin, It. pellegrino; all fr. L. peregrinus a
     foreigner, fr. pereger abroad; per through + ager land,
     field. See Per-, and Acre, and cf. Pelerine,
     Peregrine.]
     1. A wayfarer; a wanderer; a traveler; a stranger.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  --Heb. xi. 13.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. One who travels far, or in strange lands, to visit some
        holy place or shrine as a devotee; as, a pilgrim to
        Loretto; Canterbury pilgrims. See Palmer. --P. Plowman.
        [1913 Webster]

The Prog Pilgrim

Me, your humble host. A guy who has decided to follow his joy and travel the world to hear great music live. I’m also going to try and spread the word of wonderful music that I feel doesn’t get the attention it deserves. While progressive rock is my genre of choice I can’t limit myself like that, so I’ll be talking about all kinds of music.

This whole thing works best if it is a conversation and I encourage everyone to comment and share information about their favorite music. After all, how am I going to discover more myself? I certainly can’t find it all on my own as I’m only one guy.

So welcome and I hope you enjoy the ride.