Monday, January 31, 2011

MILTON BABBITT RIP






" And so, I dare suggest that the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute, and voluntary withdrawal from this public world to one of private performance and electronic media, with its very real possibility of complete elimination of the public and social aspects of musical composition. By so doing, the separation between the domains would be defined beyond any possibility of confusion of categories, and the composer would be free to pursue a private life of professional achievement, as opposed to a public life of unprofessional compromise and exhibitionism "

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

CHARLIE LOUVIN RIP



"We won all the awards gospel music had to offer, but in those days the gospel people didn’t like us because we played stringed instruments. They thought of us as a carnival act. The country folks didn’t dig us that much because we would quiet an audience, actually make them feel guilty that they were out instead of in church"


i started playing he & his brother's music when emmylou harris released her first album, pieces of the sky, which had "if i could only win your love" on it. their vocal harmonies have that uncanny resonance so many sibling duets evince. check out their astonishing "satan is real." i'm pretty sure the spirit will move you.

REYNOLDS PRICE rip




"I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern."