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Thread: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

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    Default What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    What song, album, musician or other thing changed/inspired/enlightened your musical perception/awareness style the most? What was that moment you heard something or realized something and said "thats it, thats what I have been searching for"

    Mine:
    Musician: David Grisman: Rhythm, clarity, slick and greasy slides and style, Can play any style well.
    Album: Miles Davis Kind of Blue
    Last edited by Cosmic Graffiti; Dec-22-2016 at 11:01am.

  2. #2
    Middle-Aged Old-Timer Tobin's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    I think it might be pretty rare for someone who is already into music to be able to say that a single song or album or musician completely changed their perspective. It's likely more of a longer process, where a particular artist may be somewhere near the tipping point.

    For me, I have to credit Foghorn Stringband. I was strictly a bluegrass guy for a long time, with occasional forays into some Irish tunes and fiddle tunes just for the sake of learning to be more "complete" on the mandolin. But Caleb Klauder's mandolin style really appealed to me, in the sense that he was playing really great stuff but it wasn't bluegrass. It sort of turned me on to Old-Time music and led me down the path of taking up fiddle and banjo. I'm more entrenched now in traditional Old-Time music. But it was FSB that kind of pointed me that direction and made me start looking for non-bluegrass music. I still enjoy playing bluegrass, but it's OT music that has really captured my passion.

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    Registered User Trey Young's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    For me, John Hartford's Aereo-Plain completely changed my perspective at the time. I was new to playing music and really had not delved deep into non-mainstream acoustic music other than classic country. I wanted to like bluegrass more than I did, but it just never seemed to hit home for me. Then I found an album in the bluegrass section, the cover had a bushy haired feller with a big beard and aviator goggles on...and he had Norman Blake and Vassar Clements playing on the album. I still very vividly remember thinking this was something I needed to check out and remember my first listen...completely changed everything for me. Since then there have been a a couple of albums that caused me to delve into a certain artist's style and catalogue, which certainly opened my eyes to different ways to approach music. Two that come to mind are the Mike Compton & David Long Stomp album, which started me on a big Mike Compton kick and then Joe Walsh's Sweet Loam, which launched my current obsession with Joe's style. Seems like both of those albums not only were fantastic albums, but just so happened upon my ears at the exact right time...

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    I played sax in middle school, a little in high school (took a hiatus for sports), and got back into it in college. I remember driving to work one morning and hearing "Ode to a Butterfly" by Nickel Creek playing in the background of a country station's morning show introduction. I was completely blown away by it, and still love that song. At that point, I said, "I'm gonna learn to play the banjo!" Couldn't afford a banjo at the time, so borrowed a guitar while saving, eventually bought the banjo, and delved much deeper into acoustic music and bluegrass. Eventually bought a mandolin, and it's been my favorite instrument since.

    As for a favorite or most influential album, that's a bit tougher, because my musical "taste" is all over the map. Don't think I can pick just one. That said, I can see how Kind of Blue could be yours...great album!
    Chuck

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    As a die hard Zeppelin and Stones fan I was completely turned around with Will The Circle Be Unbroken. My wife made me buy it back in the '70's and now I'm a die hard bluegrasser.

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    mandolin slinger Steve Ostrander's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    For me, it was the Allman Brothers Fillmore album that introduced me to the blues. I was so knocked out by the album when it came out that I looked at the song credits and began investigating. I had never heard of Blind Willie McTell or T-Bone Walker or any of the other bluesmen who wrote the songs. So I started looking in record stores and libraries for the original recordings and listening to them and comparing them to what artists like Eric Clapton, Savoy Brown, John Mayall, and yes, even the Rolling Stones were doing. It was the beginning of my life long love of the blues.

    So many other artists have influenced my style that it would be hard to point to one single individual or group. Probably the Beatles if I had to pick one.
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Answers to this will surely be age/era-specific. Bluegrass-wise, it was OAITW to show that a Deadhead could get into the grass. Mandolinistically, it was The David Grisman Rounder Record when it was released in 1976. This turned me on to so many of the hep cats, like Tony Rice, Skaggs, Vassar, Buck White, et al. Then, The DGQ record in 1977 (Kaleidoscope F-5) which, as Mike Marshall said 'blew the top of our heads off. Here were 9th chords!', to show that the mandolin could do 'other things'. Then, Back To Back with Tiny and Jethro to show how jazz could be played on the 8-string.

    For rock: whoa, too many. Maybe Sgt. Pepper's, or The Dead Skull and Roses or Allman Brothers Eat A Peach, Live at Fillmore East or the Mothers Just Another Band From L.A., or...

    For jazz: same...maybe Miles' K.O.B. or Eddie Harris Swiss Movement Live or George Benson Body Talk or...

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    This is a great thread.

    My answer is different. The event that changed my whole perspective on music was not a song or an album or a musician - it was when I first picked up a musical instrument and re-conceived of music as something people do, not just something people listen to.
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    The Grateful Dead's live acoustic album, Rekoning. That's what got me into acoustic music. Led me to Old and in the Way, which led me to David Grisman, and Peter Rowan, then Tony Rice, etc.


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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Chuck, yeah man Kind of Blue is like a moment for me. Just started listening to it two weeks ago as I am starting to study Jazz. I listened once and heard some pretty cool beats and swings, I listened to it again and went deeper and heard some interesting re a curing themes, Listened to it a third time and fell in love. Now I am on probably my 50th listen and I am still finding new details and moments and realize I have not even scratched the surface.

    Trey! Lol....haha yeah man. Aero-Plane is great! Such a great listen.

    Jeff. You got it! That falls into the category of something else. Interesting how the mind works.

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Shakti, Sabicas, Sun Ra, Coltrane, Cage, Xenakis, Eno, music from other cultures way too many to list ..

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Yeah, last weekend I got a ton of older jazz albums I haven't listened to in a while back into my phone, and am immensely enjoying hearing them again! It's been a while since I've actively listened to them, so it's like I'm starting fresh again. Great stuff!
    Chuck

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    It can be difficult to pinpoint a specific album, song/tune or musician and, in the Irish traditional music sphere, there have been countless moments that have changed my perspective over the years. But, more lately and more generally, there was one video shared with me by a guitarist friend and it is this one of Barney Kessell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnoXbqadcjU

    It deals with jazz improvisation and is quite comprehensive, though easy to follow. The opening part of this lesson, 'Play what you think', totally opened up my mind. I know it sounds obvious but when you strive to learn scales and theoretical exercises to help your improvisation skills this turns that ideology on its head. Check it out. Just the first five minutes or so is music gold.

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Byrds, Gene Clark and Bob Dylan. Newer stuff like Mandolin Orange and Steve Earle.

    The Byrds took me through so many musical styles and instruments.

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    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Don Stover.
    Doc Watson.
    Jimi Hendrix.
    Seldom Scene.
    Jethro.

    But it's really a longer list of folks who changed my point of view and opened new doors along the way.
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    The Ramones first album.

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    I was just learning to sing and my brother played paperback writer on the record player. the full sound of those voices just got me. I asked him to play it over and over. then he started teaching me about harmonies
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Some that come to mind:
    ================
    Flatt & Scruggs: "Hard Travelin'"
    Judy Collins: "Who Knows Where The Time Goes"
    The Band: "The Band"
    Tom Rush: "Tom Rush" (1st Columbia release)
    John Prine: "Diamonds in the Rough"
    John Hartford: "Aereo-plane"
    Ralph Stanley: "A Man And His Music"
    Seldom Scene: "Old Train" & "The New Album"
    J.D. Crowe: "Rounder 0044"
    Si Kahn: "Doin' My Job"
    Johnson Mountain Boys: "The Walls of Time"
    Wildwood Valley Boys: "Songs From Wildwood Valley"
    Gibson Brothers: "Bona Fide"
    Red Clay Ramblers: "Rambler"

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    I knew I wanted to be a musician around three minutes into Cat Steven's 'Peace Train' when that big choral "Traaaaain" hits! The Beatles finished the job. David Immerglück's work on John Hiatt's 'Crossing Muddy Waters' got me interested in the Mandolin. But it was Nickel Creek's Tiny Desk performance that made me put down the electric guitar, sack the drummer and pick up the mandolin for real!

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    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
    --Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

    Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos

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    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?



    The connection is not easily seen, but this eventually led to mandolin family instruments.
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    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Back in 1963,at age 18,i was still up to the eyeballs in '50's Rock 'n Roll & the emerging ''Merseybeat'' music. Then i heard my very first Bluegrass music at a friend's home,& the whole world changed. I still loved my 'pop' music,but the drive was to play Bluegrass music,something that i never thought of with regards to 'pop' music. I suppose that i was fortunate in the fact that there had been an era in the UK when Banjos were popular,so it didn't take me too long to find a good English made one,Gibson banjos were unknown territory back then. So for me, it was the LP ''Golden Bluegrass Hits'' by The Barrier Brothers from Indiana that lit my fire & it gets stoked every single day,
    Ivan
    PS - Zip along to 30 mins into the clip to hear what blew my socks off back in 1963 - ''Earl's Breakdown'' played by Ernest Barrier on banjo - that's the way i first heard it & that's the way i still play it !! :- https://youtu.be/9IrDqA6Oj_s
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    The first Album I heard that sounded like I thought music should in my head, was Flood Land by the Sisters of Mercy!
    I was very goth back then :D

    I first got in to folk music via Steeleye Span.

    When I took a Music GCSE at school, one of the things I wrote was a Celtic rock piece.

    Years later, when looking for that sound, I came across Steeleye!

    When at Uni they were my dark secret for some reason. I would lock myself in my room with my huge headphones on to listen :O

    From there I got more in to the less rocky aspect of Folk Music.

    The next band that really changed my direction was the Dubliners.

    I knew the name for years, but had never really listened to them. I remember their new years evening performance being on TV in 2012, and my partner's friend making some rude comment about them, so I didn't really watch!

    During an interesting period in my life this year, I had Dirty Old Town running in my head, so decided to look up their version.

    That's what got me playing strings and thinking I could actually do it, wanting to play their songs.

    It also got me in to playing Irish trad.

    Before that I was pretty scared of it. As a box player I didn't like the fact that it didn't seem like I couldn't use the left hand much. Also there is/was a lot of talk about which box in which key you need to play Irish trad on, which I found most confusing!

    I also used to hate the sound of the Banjo, I mean it would make me cringe, but many late nights listening to Dubliners tracks got me hooked on the Tenor!

    Now I'm interested to find out what the next thing will be that really gets me hooked!

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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    The Cream - First album.
    Ten Years After - Undead.

    Sean O'Riada - O'Riada Sa Gaiety
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_%C3%93_Riada
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    Registered User Mike Snyder's Avatar
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    Default Re: What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

    Miles Davis
    Bill Evans
    Allman Brothers
    Chieftans
    Will the Circle Be Unbroken
    Coltrane
    Monk
    Armstrong
    Beiderbecke
    Stones
    Bush, Sam not Kate

    There's really nowhere to stop.
    Mike Snyder

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