Favorite music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1vZ3NIuJ3s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7YtO08WMCI&feature=related

Daniel Lanois opened my eyes to the creative process of production when I first encountered his work with Brian Eno when they transformed U2 on Unforgettable Fire. Then I kind of forgot about him until Wrecking Ball came along and for the first time I became a big fan of a producer as a great artist. After that I searched out other stuff he collaborated on and followed that path and discovered a bunch of other music and artists like those mentioned above as well as his solo works. I never appreciated the impact a producer had on the finished product until Daniel taught me all about it. He is responsible for the sound and feel and aura of some of my favorite music and may be a true audiophile but on the creative front so we get to enjoy the result of recreating it later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0bhs4O6_w

Last one, thanks for letting me steer this off on Chris Whitley for a few....

Amazing you went to school with Chris Whitley, that made me look him up:

Yeah, Chris was a great guy. He hung with a rough crowd, but got along with everyone, and was well liked. He was one of those folks who was wise beyond his years. Smoked like a chimney, even back then, which I believe is what cut his life so short. He was pretty passionate about dirt bikes too - big Bultaco fan, which is what he was riding back then (late 70's). Being a rider, I loved the line from his debut album, from, Look What Love Has Done:

Used to be when things got tight
I could bid you a well bye bye
Riding some two-wheeled sex machine
Like I don't have to try

Of all his albums, that first one, Living with the Law, remains my favorite. Love the tune, Phone Call from Leavenworth. We actually had a second celebrity in our graduating class - along with Chris there was Melissa Leo who's gone on to become a truly great actress. Also mature beyond her years, and also well-liked. This was a "progressive" public school in Bellows Falls, Vermont. I say progressive because back then they had moved into a custom made building (that still houses the school) where the classrooms have no walls (just a big open warehouse like space that is divided with movable dividers). Other than that, it was just another public high school.

PS You can find more about Chris Whitley on his website. From there:

Chris Whitley has a special connection to Rockingham and Bellows Falls; he spent his teenage years with his mother, brother Daniel and sister Bridget in a cabin on a dirt road in the back hills of Rockingham. It's where he first picked up a guitar. And it is where he returned in the late nineties to record one of his most enduring cds, the gorgeously stark and somber DIRT FLOOR.