Put a Little Song in Your Heart

At this year’s SSP Annual Meeting, I found myself seated next to Rick Anderson, Associate Dean of Libraries at the University of Utah. Since I’m a UofU alum, we have a little connection there, along with our last names. As we talked, our shared enjoyment of music became a topic, as did our compulsive need to write. Before long, we’d started to cook up an idea.

That idea was operationalized in August under the title, “Mad About Music,” an e-newsletter spanning new releases, interviews, reviews, and our experiences with music. (Rick is a bassist, guitarist, and banjo player, a specialist on the clawhammer banjo. I play keyboards and synths in rock bands.)

So far, we’ve generated dozens of posts. “Mad About Music” is published every weekday, and we’re finding it easy to keep a daily pace, even with life going on around us. (Did I mention the compulsive need to write?)

Some of our favorite posts so far are:

• Interview: GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan
• Review: “Dogrel,” by Fontaines DC (guest post by Tim Gillett)
• Interview with Steve March-Tormé
• What Makes a Pop Song Great?
• Reflection: “Born to Laugh at Tornadoes”
• Why Does Classic Rock Overperform?
• “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”
• Paul Simon vs. the Specter of Mortality
• The Global Bass Juggernaut
• Review: Pink’s “Hurts 2B Human”
• Review: “Rockonomics” by Alan Krueger
• Is It Cultural Appropriation?
• Jazz and Impostor Syndrome

We have plenty in store, including more interviews, reviews, and Rick’s weekly “Heads-up Dept.,” which tells readers about new releases of note across all genres. So far, he’s covered new releases in early music, jazz, reggae, and electronica.

If you’re a music lover, I invite you to give “Mad About Music” a try. Like “The Geyser,” some posts are free, while others require a subscription.

Thanks!

Visit "Mad About Music"