Cowboy Quest

Legend & Legend-in-training. Eric Clapton. John Mayer. Crossroads. Get on it baby.

In case you haven't noticed, I've gotten lazy. Actually I've just got too many other websites to run & work to do. Anyway, I'm closing cowboyquest.com down. Adios, folks.

JD

I just found this old post over at Blogcritics.org called What Do You Do When Nashville Isn't Making "Real" Country Music? I recommend reading it because it does a decent job of highlighting a few under-the-radar "country" musicians that are well worth the average country fan's attention, like Hank William III and Neko Case.

Cossel brings up the common arguments against the standard contemporary Nashville fare like Keith Urban and Tim McGraw. If you know me you know that I hate that goofy pop crap more than anybody, & definitely agree with this quote from Dale Watson: "They own it now, and you can't change it. They've stolen country. To me, it automatically means crap."

I've got some huge problems with this article though. The only type of music fans that I detest more than your average pop fans are indie-music die-hards...the jerks that refuse to admit any major label music possesses any artistic integrity, & the author of that post proves himself to be of this ilk. You know the type....the kind that are prone to spout out "Yeah, everybody loves em' now, but you should have heard their old stuff. I was listening to em' way before anybody else."

Listen, people. Making money doesn't negate valid aesthetic creativity, & being a no-name non-success doesn't make you a true artist. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it makes you a shmuck who doesn't have any talent.

That Keith Urban is one flaming goober, but Carrie Underwood is one Grade A high-quality piece of country beef, I tell you what. & when they're rocking a live version of Rihanna's Umbrella...well that's just straight-up cool.

Pretend you have good taste in music. Crank up these playlists of mine, courtesy of Finetune.com.
*Note: While Finetune is awesome for creating playlists, it's terrible for "social music." Don't even bother entering an artist to find recommendations. You'll put in Zeppelin & they'll give you Burt Bacharach.

Soul & The Roll - Lives, Debuts & straight-up clean music from the best Soul, Blues, & Rock 'n Roll artists around.

Harden Up, Gladice - Straight rock, cause sometimes you just gotta harden up.

Country of the Moment - "of the moment" meaning, yes, Ronnie Milsap still rocks, and no no, those Rascal Flatts guys are still flaming douches.

The Black Keys doing their joint, Your Touch, off their 2006 release, Magic Potion.

Check our more free live music here & here.

I've turned into a Finetune ninja. I'm loving this site. I called my latest playlist "Soul & The Roll"....all soul, blues, moody folk, & good ol' fashioned guitar rock 'n roll. If you're looking for a crucial party playlist, load up CowboyQuest & let ol' JD convince your friends that you've got good taste in music.

Tribute to the Electric Six tune, Getting Into The Jam from their 2003 release, Fire. Apparently it was shot entirely on the Beijing subway system, & that cracks me up. If you've ever been a white guy on a subway in China (HK not included), that's exactly what it feels like. The blue head part. Not the jam.

Thanks to Danwei.org for first posting this video.

Two basketball posts in one day --- call me enamored with All-Star Weekend. Either way, this article from the normally annoying-at-best WaPo on Caron Butler's early years as a crack dealer & the police officer who changed his life, is a phenomenal read. I firmly believe in the individual's ability to surmount terrible environmental influences, & generally loathe people who blame their terrible lives on bad parents, neighborhoods, etc. In that regard, Caron Butler is a hero.

Also worth reading, Henry Abbot's thoughts over at the TrueHoop blog.

JD

From the current ESPN the Mag, this article on Michael Jordan has probably been printed in ten different magazines, about six hundred times over the past eight or so years. Not this article itself, the but basically the same statements & sentiments.

I'll tell you though, when the big guy is talking, I'm listening. I'll watch or read anything about MJ, anything.

Why?

This is why....

JD