I’m sitting here at the computer with my iPod mini plugged in using the trademark white earphones listening to some absolutely incredible music. A new Sarah Brightman CD arrived to day from Amazon.com (this might just be a post of advertisements!!?!) called La Luna which turned out to be hard to find anywhere except on Amazon. One of the channels that’s turned on quite often on our Dish Network satellite TV system is the Sirius classical favorites music channel (it’s channel 6086 on Dish and channel 86 on Sirius). There often isn’t anything we’re interested in watching on TV, so we’ll turn on channel 6086 and let it play through the home theater system. Great music and good to have on while we’re doing something else. Anyhow, the other day they played Sarah Brightman’s recording of Scarborough Fair. It just blew me away. Finally someone has made a recording that trumps Simon and Garfield’s recording. I went right to the computer and searched for the recording, then where I could buy it. My first look was on Apple’s iTunes. It wasn’t there! I then called the couple of places that sell music in this One Horse Town to verify that the CD was not readily available. Amazon does well by our house. The CD arrived today and Nina thought first it was the book she had ordered the other day from Amazon. Then she saw what it was and her first question was “Can I rip it for my iPod as well?” Of course. For me, however, there were two tracks absolutely worth it. The Scarborough Fair track and another titled Figlio Perduto (Lost Son) based on a melody from Beethoven. It is also excellent. The CD is now on my iPod and these two tracks added to my “Most Special Music” playlist. I may wear these tracks out before the night is over!!
A lot of music that Sarah Brightman records isn’t all that exciting to me. However, when she gets into the full soprano mode and lets it all come out, it is great music. So what’s all on my “Most Special Music” playlist? I’ve made this playlist up of a number of pieces of music that I currently really enjoy. Music moves in and out of the playlist depending on whether I’ve decided something else must be there. I limit the playlist to twelve songs. So right now, this is what’s in the list:
- I’m On Fire (Live) by Bruce Springsteen
- Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane
- White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
- White Rabbit – featuring Esthero by Blue Man Group
- Night Ride Across the Caucasus by Loreena McKennitt
- Greensleeves by Loreena McKennitt
- My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys by Waylon Jennings
- Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
- Prelude in C# Minor from Classics Regrooved
- The Erlking from Classics Regrooved
- Scarborough Fair by Sarah Brightman
- Figlio Perduto by Sarah Brightman
I took out Standing Stones by Loreena McKennitt and Overture: Die Hedbriden (Fingal’s Cave), Op 26 by Mendelssohn to make room for these two Sarah Brightman pieces. I’m finding that a lot of the music I want isn’t available on iTunes. Napster’s not really an option as it is a $15 fee per month and you can only listen to the music for as long as you continue to pay the fee. That model doesn’t work for me. RealRhapsody isn’t much better. It charges about $10 a month plus $0.79 a download. I don’t buy enough music to pay a monthly fee. So, on the rare occasion that I’m looking for music, if I can’t find the music on iTunes, then I’ll buy the CD. It’s still cheaper than paying a subscription.
Well the night is rapidly coming to an end. My ears are sore from the earphones. I need to put some gas in the car tonight as I won’t want to take time to do that early tomorrow morning (I’ve a seven a.m. meeting). Time to put this on the blog.