My friend Minty passed this baton to me. Her blog looks great, by the way; I think she must know what she's doing. I still don't know what a meme is, although I have just linked to the definition that she links to. I gather I answer these questions and then pass it along. So then, I will.

1. Total amount of music files on your comoputer? A lot. I keep my 40-gig iPod backed up on my hard drive (and also on an external hard drive). So I have about 32 gigs just from that. Then another 24 gigs of wav files, compressed or unpacked, of live shows and unreleased demos that I downloaded and have yet to burn to CD. Then another, say, 6 gigs of stuff that I DID burn to CD but still have in Fuerio (my burning software) in case I want to burn another copy for me or someone else. So all total that looks like 70 gigs.

The last CD you bought was... Well, I don't buy 'em one at a time. I usually wait until I have 4 or 5 I want and go get them all at once (usually online), unless something comes out this week that I just have to have. So the most recent batch included: The Chris Stamey Experience, A Question of Temperature; Calexico, Feast of Wine; Ollabelle, self-titled (2004 release; this one I really like. I saw them open up for Ryan Adams; Adams played guitar with them their whole set.); North Mississippi All Stars, Hill Country Revue; and, Chris Isaak Christmas. The last, I didn't get until well after Christmas, so I won't actually play it until November. I'm listening to the Stamey right now; I'm a sucker for him, but not so much for Yo La Tengo, who back him here. Couple nice songs so far, a couple are noise-infected in that Yo La Tengo way.

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message? Didn't play any music today before reading the message. Last song last night before hitting the hay-- "D.M.S.R." by Prince, off the notorious bootleg Small Club, a pristine soundboard of a 1988 show and one of the best boots ever. If I stayed awake a little longer I could have said Prince's cover of "Just My Imagination," the next track, on which his guitar work is just sick. But then, as I think of it, I also could have lied.

Hey-- turns out Stamey covers "The Summer Sun" on this CD-- from his own catalog, a very early dB's track, I think it was a single but not on an album. Cool.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. Hmmm... as I use an iPod a lot, I am finding that I have more comfort with some songs than others-- you really have to like a song sometimes to want it inside your head, the effect of using headphones. So here's 5 that seem to wear well on me in the iPod:

--"Locked Away," Keith Richards. Love the guitar work on the outro. We know him as a rhythm player; perhaps that is why his solos are so delightfully understated, there and not there.

--"Aja," Steely Dan. Comfort food for the ears.

--"A Long December," Counting Crows. I remember my brother's kids (now 8 and almost 12) liked this. That is probably a lot of why I like it; I am definitely reminded of them when I hear it. Its got that line, "If you think you might come to California...I think you should," and they live in California. Generally I find Durnitz to be a preening twit, but he says this song contains his best line: "All at once you look across a crowded room / To see the way that light attaches to a girl." Yeah, like I said, pretentious.

--"Be My Baby," Ronettes. Sang it to my wife in our wedding.

--"Autumn Leaves," Cannonball Adderly. Off Something Else, which has Miles Davis on it. Lovely piece.

5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?

Lane, because he's a music library as well as a musician.

Jill, same reason.

My brother, who probably won't play.

Labels: The tunes