For those of you unfamiliar with the song, it was on the Twister soundtrack from the mid ’90s.  I was not advanced enough in my listening habits at that time to embrace anything “bluegrass.”  I bought the soundtrack because I liked Van Halen’s “Humans Being,” if that tells you anything.  For some reason, though, I overcame myself and listened to the song anyway.  I was a bit gobsmacked.  I didn’t know what to do.  I liked it.  A lot.  That didn’t bother me too much, despite my musical prejudices.  What bothered me is I couldn’t explain or understand why or what I liked about it.  I was okay with the expansion, not the mystery.

15 years or whatever later, I’m still not someone likely to listen to bluegrass music but it’s not out of the question.  I still love this song.   I’m closer to solving the mystery, but there’s still a quality I can’t define that makes this song work for me.  It deserved a much kinder fate than life on the Twister soundtrack.

So I had this idea. There are days I know exactly what I want to listen to at any given moment, but there just as many when I look at the 22,041 songs on my iPod and I have no idea where to begin. The flip side to that is there are moments when a song, band, or album will pop into my head at a time I can’t listen to it and I am flooded with regret and frustration.

So I’ve created my own system of I.O.U. and I’m calling it The Menu. My goal is to queue up some ‘appointment listening’ on my iPod and every day I’ll try to work through the entire playlist. There are no rules unless I decide to make them up for that particular day. For example, today I am going to listen to some Mark Knopfler. I’ve also put a couple albums on here I recently acquired: Ronnie Earl’s Living In The Light and a couple from The Black Crowes: Lost Crowes and By Your Side. I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon listening to the completely wonderful Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Raising Sand. I enjoyed it so much I’ve scheduled an encore listen for today.

Today’s menu clocks in at 69 songs and more than five hours. It is entirely possible to get through the entire run whilst at work today, assuming I don’t get interrupted 200 times or sucked into insufferable meetings. These are things beyond my control. I try to clean my plate, but sometimes you get full. There’s also no rule that says if something else strikes my fancy that I can’t switch over. For today, this is what I’ve queued up and it’s going down easy.

The Menu:

• Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La
• The Black Crowes - By Your Side
• Ronnie Earl - Living In The Light
• The Black Crowes - Lost Crowes
• Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

Before I fall all over myself extolling the wonders on this disc, I feel I once again must tip my cap to good friend of the site El Bicho, who turned me on to Back Door Slam on one of his legendary appearances on my short-lived BlogTalkRadio program, B-Sides Concept Album.  The appearance wasn’t quite as legendary as the time he called in after a few beers from an NHL game, but it was legendary all the same.  It was also a bit more helpful, because he was completely right about how talented young Mr. Knowles is.

In fact, you can now hear what it is that got Bicho so hot for these guys that he then passed on to me.  Their performance at Bonnaroo is now available digitally through your iTunes and Amazon.  He’s even got a review of it written, that Bicho of ours.

That’s the past, now let’s roll with the new.  Knowles has parted with his former bandmates, but still has possession of the Back Door Slam name.  His upcoming album is being sold under the moniker Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam, but it’s really just him and with all due respect to those other blokes that’s really quite enough.  Those fine fellas contributed, but Knowles’ voice and guitar are really where this ‘band’ lives. If you’re curious what the new BDS sounds like, El Bicho has you covered there having seen the young man open for Jeff Beck.

Besides, Knowles went and found some big boy contributors for this new album.  Benmont Tench of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers is here to lay down some Hammond B-3 organ.  Benmont Tench and Brian Eno are the keys.  If one or both of them show up on an album, best you just go ahead and buy it.  Peter Frampton produced the album, co-wrote a couple tracks with Knowles,  and even contributes some guitar on an incendiary cover of George Harrison’s “Hear Me Lord.”

This is an absolute contender for my 2009 year end list.  I’m not telling you it will place or how high, but it’s going to be considered strongly and not just because it was released in 2009.

I mean it when I say there isn’t going to be any opening band. We’re going to start EVERY show with EVERYONE onstage playing together. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next but I think we‘ll probably play a set on our own after that so we’ll actually be the opening band in a way, although guys from the other bands will probably be bouncing on & offstage helping out on different songs like the guys from Augustana did last Summer. I want to do all sorts of duets and trios and quartets of guys from all the bands on songs after that and throughout the show. Then maybe Augustana will play a bit by themselves with some more mash-ups after that and maybe we’ll close the 1st Act of the show with a Spearhead set, but one in which we all eventually join them so that the Act ends with all of us playing something together. I don’t know what that’ll be, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did, but I know there’s a Spearhead song I REALLY want to sing on and that might be the perfect Act 1 closer.

Then there’s probably going to be an intermission.  Can you tell we’re still in the “winging it/what-the-fuck-are-we-going-to-do” stage of the planning process?

They’re calling it “The Saturday Night Rebel Rocker Traveling Circus & Medicine Show.”  It sounds a bit to me like a page from Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue from the ’70s, and I mean that in a good way.  That sounds like so much fun and they’re playing Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  I’ve recently gotten a bit short on cash, but I’m not counting myself out.  Wow, that just sounds so great.

Bruce Springsteen, man of the people.

In what should be a surprise to no one, fan demand to see Bruce Springsteen’s final run with his E Street Band at Giants Stadium in his home state of New Jersey was so intense that two additional shows have been added to what was already a three-night run. The solution? Give the people what they want. Two more shows in Jersey.

Final run? Settle down, Scooter. The Boss isn’t going anywhere, Giants Stadium is. The stadium that hosts the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants is being closed and a new building is being ushered in. In addition to hosting the two NFL teams, Giants Stadium has been something of a home field for Springsteen and the E Street Band.

The first three nights sold out briskly, so these additional two dates have been added. Tickets for the run go on sale Monday, June 8.

Springsteen is in the midst of his Working on a Dream tour. Working on a Dream debuted at #1 in countries all over the world and the first leg of the U.S. tour saw Springsteen playing to packed houses night after night. The band is currently on the European leg of their world tour.

With these fall dates announced for Jersey, speculation is running rampant about further dates. So far, only a two-night run in Mansfield, MA has been announced. The band will play the 19,000 capacity Comcast Center amphitheater on August 22 and August 23, with tickets going on sale for those shows on Tuesday, June 9.

First, let’s talk Blogcritics.  Since my unexpected month-long hiatus, Blogcritics has done a big, shiny site design.  The site looks SO much better and has become a much more user-friendly reading experience.  The kicker:  as with all things, we’ve had a few technical glitches along the way and unfortunately continue to experience them sporadically.  An elite team of technical geeks are working extraordinarily hard to resolve these.  In the meantime, the site is up.  Visit.  Read.   Comment.  Join us.

Now to today’s article:  I am going to try to write a weekly column chronicling the Top 10 Singles and Albums from the iTunes Music Store.  The first of those debuted this afternoon.

What would possess me to do this?  Well, one, it gives me a chance to make fun of the dreadful music that is often found at the top of these charts.  Second, I’m interested in the times when an album catches on with the download and online crowd as opposed to the conventional.   Anyway, I’m going to try and make this a weekly over at Blogcritics.  I’ll keep you pointed to them.

I’ve experienced laziness and writer’s block before but it never dawned on me the unending flow of verbiage would come to such a long, brutal drought.  I hope the rain that seems to be refilling the fountain are here to stay for awhile.

As I work tonight, I’ve spent some time listening to the latest from Jars of Clay, The Long Fall Back to Earth.  It’s no surprise I like that album.  Not only do they continue to wear their U2 influence, there are now the sounds of Coldplay.  Oddly enough, I hear hints of The Killers and that should turn me off but it doesn’t.  Well, not entirely.

I’ve also dusted off Tuatara’s The Here & The Gone, specifically the opening track “A Grainy Taste.”  This is still one of the best things I’ve heard all year.  I don’t think Coleman Barks’ poem is specifically about revitalization, but there is a restoring, healing, uplifting power in his words, his delivery, and the music of the band.  I feel good listening to it.  I feel better after I’ve heard it.

In addition, we have the first appearance of a song from Barrett Martin’s upcoming solo record Zenga as well as a great tune from the recently released Chuck Berry package The Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966.
On the Springsteen front, I fell in love with “Candy’s Room” while on that long road to Greensboro and that helped place it in the Top 10.  The rest should look vaguely familiar if you’ve kept up.  If not, you can look at the toos and fros of previous months.

1. The Lengths | The Black Keys | Rubber Factory | 36
2. Cedars Of Lebanon | U2 | No Line On The Horizon | 34
3. Cherries | Benson, Brendan | One Mississippi/Wellfed EP | 28
4. Cemeteries Of London | Coldplay | Viva La Vida | 27
5. A Grainy Taste | Tuatara | The Here And The Gone | 25
6. Life In Technicolor II | Coldplay | Viva La Vida | 24
7. Spareribs & Chopsticks | Moss, Nick & The Flip Tops | Live At Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2 | 22
8. Short Street | Carter, Dave | Commitment And Change | 21
9. Death And All His Friends / The Escapist | Coldplay | Viva La Vida | 21
10. Candy’s Room | Springsteen, Bruce | Darkness On The Edge Of Town | 21
11. Kingdom Of Days | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 21
12. Silo Lullaby | Toad The Wet Sprocket | P.S.|A Toad Retrospective | 21
13. Honey Hush (take 3) | Berry, Chuck | You Never Can Tell: Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966 | 20
14. Sparks | Coldplay | Parachutes | 20
15. So What | Davis, Miles | Kind Of Blue | 20
16. The Journey Home | Keaggy, Phil | Phantasmagorical: The Master & The Musician 2 | 20
17. Where Am I Now | Lynne, Shelby | Suit Yourself | 20
18. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out | Springsteen, Bruce | Born To Run | 20
19. Handle With Care | The Traveling Wilburys | The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 | 19
20. Cry On Demand | Adams, Ryan | Demolition | 18
21. Clocks | Coldplay | Rush Of Blood To The Head, A | 18
22. Violet Hill | Coldplay | Viva La Vida | 18
23. Roll The Bones | Martin, Barrett | Zenga | 18
24. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) | Springsteen, Bruce | The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle | 18
25. Life Itself | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 18

I return to these hallowed halls of Fanboy-dom to admit what is obvious to those of you who dwell here: I let the bastards win. I retreated. I surrendered.

I allowed the excitement and passion I had for what I was doing — and a particular topic in particular — to evaporate. I woke up after my solo roadie to Greensboro, N. Carolina on empty. I had plenty on my mind but had not the will to say it. I didn’t have the energy to say it and I didn’t have the will to fight with the bastards. My mind hadn’t changed. The head was willing, the heart was weak. I took a vacation, and now I take the first steps towards my return.

Nick Moss & The Flip Tops released Live at Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2 and I listened to it throughout the month.  At first I was listening to it because I planned to review it.  Let’s just say I didn’t stop when the review was published.  Doves, the other Manchester band of brothers, released Kingdom of Rust and the first track on that album, “Jetstream” stuck with me and was listened to repeatedly.

The rest of the list reflects, I suppose, the fact that I saw Bruce Springsteen twice in the April time frame (okay, the second show was May 2nd, but I was prepping for it in April).  Here’s the full list:

The Lengths | The Black Keys | Rubber Factory | 35
Cedars Of Lebanon | U2 | No Line On The Horizon | 33
Cherries | Benson, Brendan | One Mississippi/Wellfed EP | 27
A Grainy Taste | Tuatara | The Here And The Gone | 25
Kingdom Of Days | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 21
Silo Lullaby | Toad The Wet Sprocket | P.S.|A Toad Retrospective | 21
Where Am I Now | Lynne, Shelby | Suit Yourself | 20
Spareribs & Chopsticks | Moss, Nick & The Flip Tops | Live At Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2 | 20
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out | Springsteen, Bruce | Born To Run | 20
Sparks | Coldplay | Parachutes | 19
The Journey Home | Keaggy, Phil | Phantasmagorical: The Master & The Musician 2 | 19
Handle With Care | The Traveling Wilburys | The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 | 19
Cry On Demand | Adams, Ryan | Demolition | 18
Life Itself | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 18
Runaway | The Traveling Wilburys | The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 | 18
Alternative To Love | Benson, Brendan | The Alternative To Love | 17
Short Street | Carter, Dave | Commitment And Change | 17
Back On My Feet | Phillips, Glen | Abulum | 17
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) | Springsteen, Bruce | The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle | 17
So What | Davis, Miles | Kind Of Blue | 16
This Life | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 16
Moment Of Surrender | U2 | No Line On The Horizon | 16
White As Snow | U2 | No Line On The Horizon | 16
Jetstream | Doves | Kingdom Of Rust | 15
The E Street Shuffle | Springsteen, Bruce | The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle | 15
The Last Carnival | Springsteen, Bruce | Working On A Dream | 15
Get On Your Boots | U2 | Get On Your Boots - Single | 15
Breathe | U2 | No Line On The Horizon | 15