Quotes that come to mind lately:
"The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for." - Ernest Hemmingway
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
From time to time I say something that I think is worth remembering. Maybe I should keep a list.
I received Trey's new album today, and listened to it about 3 times. I love it. Of course that's probably no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I still believe I have some form of objectivity about his music, if not quite as much as about other music, and I think it's smokin'. The songwriting on the slower tracks is quite beautiful, and he's delved into some serious R&B and funk too. I'm particularly into the track Push on 'Til the Day, it makes my ass sweat. I also love Flock of Words, Drifting, and Ether Sunday. Oh, and Night Speaks to a Woman grew on me fast as well. Which one don't you like, Anthony? None of them. I think it all boils down to an emmence respect I have for Trey as a musician and artist. It's like the Coen brothers, The Simpsons, The Beatles, and the other artists in my Hall of Fame. The enjoyment I get out of it is directly related to the joy they put into it. If I can feel their passion for what they're doing, I'll probably be infected by what they do, even when those works cover huge ranges of taste and style. This new album is beautiful because it's uncompromising. It might not be the Great American Album, or as good as this or that in some way or another, but it's an honest document of someone's vision and it shows. Unfortunately, this seems kind of rare these days, unless you count lust for money as a vision. On the other hand, there are hundreds, thousands, of examples of that kind of beauty. We need the sellouts anyway; they keep the lines short for the good stuff.
Something I read about The Beatles the other day comes to mind. "...they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did, and the most popular at what they did." You could say they were lucky, but I bet they'd disagree.
Here, have a listen.
