This truly is a great time for music. Maybe not so much for the music business. CD sales are down, radio is a parched wasteland, but if you take a little time to look, there are great bands and artists creating wonderful music today.
I am not one of those who thinks that the "golden era" of music was way back when. There were great times and places back then - see Sun Studios in the fifties, Motown in the sixties, the British Invasion in the mid-sixties, the Punk explosion from the broken streets of Brixton in the late seventies, the San Francisco Pyschedelics on Haight in the Summer of Love, etc.
I've always tried to seek out the new, at the same time keeping close to some of my long-time favorite artists: Dylan, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Neil Young, the Stones, the Who, the Beatles, Elvis, Springsteen, U2, Jeff Beck, Tom Waits, the B52s, Lucinda Williams, Yoko, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Television, the Allman Brothers, Joy Division, Nick Drake, Miles Davis, Velvet Underground, John Coltrane, Elvis Costello, the Ramones, the Clash, Van Morrison, Jeff Buckley, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart - this is not a definitive list, just some favorites off the top of my head.
Over the years, I've also discovered great artists who are putting out superb music right now, including: Wilco, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, The Flaming Lips, the Hold Steady, Antony and the Johnsons, Bright Eyes, Mars Volta, Green Day, Beck, Yo Lo Tengo, Drive by Truckers, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Robyn Hitchcock, REM, Cat Power, the White Stripes, etc.
Yesterday, I came across one of the "old-timers" who isn't acting old at all, Ray Davies, founder of the Kinks, put out an album in 2006 called "Other People's Lives." It's witty, brilliant, funny, rocking, cathartic, quirky - Ray is a word-smith and a rocker through and through. I just love it. Plus, I love that he's a man of "experience," he's been around the block a time or two, (or three), but he still has the fire, the inspiration, music still matters to him, and yes, it matters to us too. Ray goes way back, he was part of that original British Invasion, he has an incredible back catalog of brilliant music, but hey, put this disc on the box and enjoy now! It's a real pleasure. Really, I kid you not!