No Song Unsung Blog

If you didn’t catch the first episode of America’s Got Talent, you missed the huge family who came on to perform a Blue Grass number that turned me onto this long-forgotten type of music.

According to Wikipedia, bluegrass music is:

“…a form of American roots music which has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the British Isles (particularly the Scots-Irish immigrants of Appalachia), as well as that of rural African-Americans, jazz, and blues.”

It’s funny because just a few days after watching America’s Got Talent (why they got Jerry Springer to host, I don’t know…but the show does reek of Springeresque staged drama), my boyfriend and I were in Borders checking out magazines when lo and behold, a bluegrass band was playing in the Borders café. Talk about Law of Attraction!

I have to say that I was so moved by the music that even I was bobbing my head and clapping my hands - coming from someone whose life and inspiration comes from the likes of Prince or Alicia Keys.

If you like bluegrass music, you might enjoy:

• Appalachian Stomp: Bluegrass Classics
• Hand-Picked: 25 Years Of Bluegrass On Rounder Records
• Shop for Blue Grass at iTunes

I just read via PC World that Microsoft has launched a program called "Ignition".  What Microsoft hopes to do is expose emerging artists to users and customers of MSN, Xbox Live and Zune.

It only makes sense that Microsoft would make use of the music industry.  After all, we are all fueled and inspired by music.  It’s a win-win situation.  Musicians get a great deal of exposure while Microsoft users are exposed to different types of music. 

The Microsoft director of music marketing, Christina Calio, said in a statement, "We don’t want the same thing that is going out on MTV."

Tags: Microsoft, Ignition, music industry

This weekend is a weekend of entertainment and discovering interesting music-related websites to share with y’all. I use Technorati to do my blog searches…and today I discovered the Museum of Bad Album Covers via Matt Castille’s blog.

The Museum of Bad Album Covers is entertaining indeed. Many of these bad album covers come from an era when Photoshop obviously didn’t exist! I always like to look for interesting fashion statements and this Love * Peace Album definitely has some fashion worth noting…For instance, don’t you just love those striped pants that the trumpet-player is wearing. They say stripes are supposed to make you look taller and slimmer, but for some reason it doesn’t quite work for him.

Speaking of album covers, one of my favorite covers right now is Norah Jones’ “Not Too Late”. I love the contrast of black and white with the red. You can tell that a very passionate artist created this cover.