Whisky Drinkin' Music

@Timp - I didn't know that about them. Whereabouts exactly?

My Dad was a bit of a Mod back in the day and I received a damn good musical education off the back of it. Cheers, Dad!

Oh, check your pms

@RianC brilliant.. Mod style was so cool. Also loved a bit of northern soul after having been introduced to it by an obsessive scooter boy named Dylan back in my youth! Only found out about Peat and Diesel from this thread posted back a bit. Just brilliant tunes and a touch of the Pogues punk style. Another early obsession of mine, love punk tunes.

@RianC thanks for the reminder, need to check more often lol. Cheers mate.

@RianC Cow bells get a lot of bad press. I gotta say, they seem surplus to requirement in the Procol tune. Good rocker though.

In honour of the Calgary Flames, I propose Born Under a Bad Sign by Albert King.

@MRick Be thankful that you don't live in Edmonton where the former Edmonton Eskimos are now called the Edmonton Elks. They would have been better off to sacrifice the EE logo and come up with a decent name. Besides, isn't the plural of elk elk not elks?

A little change of musical pace yesterday and was really enjoying the calm of an empty house. This piece is one of my favourites from the classical genre - and is it just me that, when in the right mood, finds it stirs up deep emotions (or is that the whisky? Ha!)?!

Whatever, enjoy!

@RianC that is a very beautiful video of that lovely Johann Strauss piece, and makes pleasant background for any pastime.

Macabre Alert. On the opposite end of the scale, the wake me up with a slap in the face verismo side, is a great favourite operatic scene of mine from that other Strauss, Richard. This is the final scene from Salome. Though this is definitely not for the faint of heart, and though this scene possesses a very different kind of beauty, whiski can be consumed to anything.

www.youtube.com/watch

@BlueNote, yes, you are correct..... and the plural of leaf is golf.... errr, the plural of leaf is leaves, not LEAFS. I think the Eskies, errr, Elks are copying Toronto.

@paddockjudge Actually, Leafs and Elks is linguistically correct, as the plural rules are different when it comes to proper names (the linguist quoted in the article is an old friend of mine): iheartradio.ca/cjad/shows/ee-football-team-to-make-important-announcement-tuesday-1.15329413

@YakLord, the comment was tongue in cheek, as was the comment by @BlueNote...tread carefully

@YakLord Yeah, but really though, Edmonton Elks? That's almost as bad as Ottawa Red Blacks. Eagles might have worked. Do they have any in Alberta?

@RianC Makes me want to dig out 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I prefer Vivaldi and Bach, especially his Brandenburg Concerto's. Their music enhances your spirit as well. On the other hand relative cheap bourbon and rye whiskey can be best enjoyed by rock music. The usual suspects are Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, Guns 'n' Roses and the Allman Brothers. More important isn't the music, but the company. Most important is the whisky itself. It is great whisky if you need your concentration to discover the nose, taste and finish

@NamBeist I love listening to Bach performed on the harpsichord. Jean Rondeau has a great understanding of Bach, imho. His performances are fantastic. And although she usually plays them on the piano rather than the harpsichord, Martha Agderich is absolutely brilliant. Her rendition of Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor is flawless.

@OdysseusUnbound Angela Hewitt is a great interpreter of J.S.B.

@NamBeist - Pretty much where I'm at. I would more often than not listen to something heavier when whisky drinking - any of those you mention would be good, but anything rock or blues based works, especially with blends, rye or bourbon! Classical, like some whiskies, is very mood dependant and it was a rare, welcome treat to have some alone time to really sink into both the whisky and music the other day.

@OdysseusUnbound - I will check out those recommendations. I also like Bach and Vivaldi but have become too familiar with Four Seasons as I used to play it when the kids were doing creative tasks. Similar with Beethoven during maths work.

@Victor - Bar some of the populist performers, like Pavarotti, I'm quite ignorant on opera. I do enjoy the passion though. Nessun Dorma will always bring a lump to my throat as it reminds me of how close England came to world cup glory in Italia '90! (The BBC used it as the theme song) I went to see the Halle orchestra when I was about eight and it made a huge impression. I remember my older brother teasing me relentlessly afterwards ha! I suspect opera, like many performing arts, would be best enjoyed live?

@BlueNote - Me too! And what a film that is! OK, the ape scene aged badly but the rest is cinematography at its finest. Considering its a U rated film here, 'those' scenes with Hal are terrifying!

@RianC whiski appreciation and opera appreciation are very parallel.

Both whiski and opera have multiple dimensions and multiple variables. Both the production of whiski and the production of opera may master the execution of these multiple variables transcendently, splendidly, very well, well, adequately, or poorly.

As a result the appreciation of both whiski and opera are acquired tastes.

As with whiski, progressively deeper and broader experience of opera gives progressively deeper and broader appreciation. As with one's first tastes of whiski one may see one opera and say, " I don't like opera." But, as with any complex multifaceted reality it is not really 'opera' which was not liked, but what was not liked was that first bewildered not-knowing-what-the-hell's-going on-with-this? experience.

Opera, like whiski, has its limitations. Not everybody is going to like it, even among those who gain enough experience of it to form informed opinions. But, like whiski, opera is a complex reality which requires a lot of experience to get to know it well enough to even have an informed opinion.

I'm weird when it comes to whisky music. I've played violin since I was 5, and as such have developed a great appreciation for classical music. I adore The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky (when that premiered, he was run out of town because of the devil's triad). I play a lot of Vivaldi, Bach concertos, and when out playing in Nashville I'll do a lot of Irish/Scottish folk. I also have an electric that can adapt to pretty much any genre.

I'm also a huge metalhead so I listen to a lot of things that would run my grandmother out of the house like Behemoth, Gojira, Septic Flesh, Meshuggah etc. I wouldn't call this "whisky music" though unless you are trying to get in a fight.

I also enjoy Bluegrass, both listening and playing. The Steeldrivers are great, especially when Chris Stapleton was the front man. For whisky drinkin, I think Bluegrass would be my first choice when I want to just relax and not ponder the complexities of whatever I'm having. Otherwise classical.

@casualtorture I was the duet-singing age 12 Roman Catholic choirboy who never studied an instrument and who didn't learn to read music until my 40s. I've since studied theory, harmony, form and analysis, and orchestration, composed and had performed about 15 pieces, and headed for 12 years a society of composers. In 2008 I switched my main hobby away from sound and music to the study of taste and smell through whiski appreciation. I consider whiski appreciation to be the best and most convenient laboratory for the study of taste and smell.

In popular music my formative and favourite music was Motown, especially that written by the song-writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and The Doors. I saw The Doors in '68, Aretha Franklin in '69, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Ella Fitzgerald several times during the 1960s.

Why Motown? I grew up in the DC suburbs and went to high school in DC. DC has for many years had the nickname "Chocolate City" because the population was majority African-American. During my formative years DC was about 80% African-American, and Motown and other soul music was THE music played on the radio. Very recently the African-American population of DC has slipped below 50%, but the African-American influence remains overwhelmingly strong in DC. Holland-Dozier-Holland was a great song-writing team. I miss them. .

@casualtorture - I love the sound of the fiddle, especially in folk and bluegrass. Seems like it became a major part of Americana and American music? I assume it was like that here too (back in those there Pilgrim days!) but a lot of the traditional/folk music fell away from the mainstream.

If we ever have a Connosr meet up I'll bring my guitar and we can rip up some Pogues' tunes

@Victor that's awesome. I played in the Alabama Symphony Orchestra for a few years back when I lived there. I can't read all the different clefs, so composing would befuddle me for sure. And many of the time signatures require such precision I'm sure I would have the violins a half-beat off from the brass at some point. Always impressed me how a composer could bring together so many different moving parts into something so captivating. I don't miss practicing 8 hours straight 3 days before a show. Most of that was waiting on the 2nd violins to get their act together haha

@RianC We should! I love a good improv session. Especially if it's bluegrass, or even better, 12 bar blues!

@RianC Opera live is a high risk/high reward proposition. When it’s bad, it’s really bad but when it’s good it can bring a tear to your eye through its sheer power and majesty. I cut my teeth on heavy metal, but I submit that a full orchestra, lead by a competent conductor, playing the music of a master like Bach, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Beethoven, Holst etc. is incomparable if one enjoys that type of music.

Further, I’d say that live theatre presents the same risk-reward factor as live opera. My wife and I regularly attend the Shakespeare festival in Stratford, Ontario and we’ve seen really bad performances as well as some magnificent ones. There were some awfully wooden ones the last time we saw Macbeth, which is one of my favourite of the Bard’s plays. BUT I’ve also seen some masterful performances: Christopher Plummer playing Prospero in The Tempest and Colm Feore playing King Lear in King Lear come to mind.

Just got back from my first tentative session on the golf range after surgery. I was a bit worried after shanking the first twenty or so balls, but once I learned to trust my left hip, I was back to hitting it OK. Even managed a few drives at the end. I then had a wee session on the practice green and short game area. Very pleasing and reassuring to get back into it so easily. I'll be sore tomorrow, no doubt, but thinking I might get back on the course proper later this week.

Anyway, this song played as I drove home and seemed to capture my mood perfectly. So I'm now sipping a Wild Turkey 101 and re-listening to this classic piece of pop art.

@RianC nice one mate, pleased for you..Good tune too.

@Timp - Thanks, mate! Can't express how relieved I was to be back hitting balls. And not too sore today either. 18 holes will kill me though

This classic from our Halloween party. Love the guitar tone and lyrics.