So much music, so little time

I started writing about music in college when I realized that record companies would send me copies of the latest LP releases free. Free.

So for four years, I was the envy of my contemporaries when I went to the mail room and retrieved my 20 or 30 albums a weeks. Many I listened to. Some I gave away. Some never even got opened. Yes, I became that jaded.

The largesse continued when I graduated, and continued to write for small music magazines, for the local newspaper, and when I began to play these CDs on the radio.

You won't feel sorry for me, I know, but I've gotten so many CDs, so much free music, that I can't always find time to listen. And I have piles of CDs still encased in cellophane. And my problem is tiny compared to folks who write about music for big magazines and dailies.

But, I've never sold a promo CD. I think that's unfair to the artist and label. And it never prevented me from shelling out my own money for lots of the albums that didn't come my way for free.

So, all this to justify my boorish behavior when Amy Gallatin handed me her new CD of songs with Roger Williams. I misplaced the first copy she gave me, and nearly lost the second. But after Amy and Roger stopped by my show last week, and I couldn't find the second copy she gave me, I was mortified. So I did the unthinkable, and cleaned out the trunk of my car, and I found it. It being, Something 'Bout You.

So I put it in the car CD player, and damn, if it isn' t wonderful. I think it's the best thing that Amy has done. I think it's one of the best albums I've heard this year. A bunch of really old, relatively obscure country songs, and a few new ones, done in that old-fashioned country duet style that is killer. Amy's vocals, which with the power and tone of her voice, can come off as strident, are tempered by Roger's baritone which has been sanded smooth by cigarettes and, shall we say, maturity. The song selections are perfect, the harmonies glorious, the sentiments wonderfully maudlin (like any good old country song), and the Nashville session players are amazing.

So, sorry Amy, for not listening right away. But thanks. I'm listening right now.