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shalannaY'all! This is so off-topic from my usual stuff. But anyhow, I need advice.
I got hubby a nice MP3 player for birthday/Christmas (yes, he has a Christmastime birthday, poor baby. Not to worry that he'll spoil the surprise by reading here, because he doesn't ever read it--he only ever plays World of Warcraft and surfs eBay for old board games and pictures of Pomeranians.) With this gadget (a Neuros audio computer that's about the size of an old TI graphing calculator because it has a 20 gig hard disk), I got 100 free tracks that I can download from eMusic.com.
I've already snerched up all the Vince Guaraldi and Doc Watson tracks that we don't already have, and a couple of other things I know he'll like. I'll reserve twenty or so tracks for him to pick out himself. However, I'd like to have it somewhat loaded up as a surprise, so he can start listening and zone out (and not have to hear the family bickering over which parade to watch or whatever). But. . . .
Hubs already has everything Kansas, Styx, Rick Wakeman/Yes, and Alan Parsons ever did. He also has a collection of tuba-only bands, marching band stuff, Mahler and Wagner (the Ring cycle and so forth), and old Western songs from those cowboy movies that our parents went to the movies to see years ago (don't know where this quirk came from--don't want to ask.)
They don't have any of his other faves (none that he doesn't have). He likes Blackmore's Night, Bassic, Allan Sherman (the 1960s Weird Al), Homer and Jethro (another song-bending team), Loreena McKinnitt, Vangelis, Hiroshima, the Tuba Four (just what they say they are), and various smooth jazz artists (like Steve Allen, Kenny G [hush up], Lonnie Liston Smith, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Buddy DeFranco). Oh, and I found it odd that they don't have John Denver (I was going to get "Annie's Song," which was one of my dad's favorite songs and which was played at our wedding, but I'll have to spring for the Greatest Hits CD.) I suppose they couldn't license certain labels.
So what else would be good, based on those likes? If anything comes to mind, I mean.
I don't think I'm going to sign up for the service after the trial period. For anywhere from $9 to $20 a month, you can get a certain number of tracks (15, 60, 100) every month. But I wouldn't have time to listen to all of that! It's kind of a neat free trial, though. I *might* stay on for one month if I discover a lot of stuff I want, but we have many, many, MANY CDs in the house, and so I don't think there is that much stuff we'd want. Not unless y'all come up with some really cool new artists to discover.
Me? Why, thanks for asking. Bobby Darin (yes, *swoon*, I've loved him since he had that TV show in the 1970s), Vince Guaraldi, The Monkees, The Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Paul Simon (with and without Artie), {Peter, Paul, and Mary}, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Jimi Hendrix, Mel Torme, The Chipmunks (Ross Bagsadarian and his tape recorder tricks--but I think their Christmas songs are neat because I had those 45s as a kid), Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart (Ann and Nancy Wilson, not the new wave band), Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Jimmy Webb, Cheap Trick, Letters to Cleo, The Waitresses, Glenn Miller, Brian Setzer, Mitsuko Uchida the pianist, Floyd Cramer the pianist, CCR, and Toscanini (okay, I threw that one in for Dennis, but I have various recordings of the Beethoven concerti and symphonies, the Mozart concerti, etc., and it's just that there aren't any Toscanini CDs. Are there?) I won't list my second tier (Led Zeppelin, R. E. M., Joan Baez, the Turtles, the Muppets, the Replacements, the Knack, Benny Goodman, Eva Cassidy, Nancy Sinatra & her dad, et alia) because it's just TOO much typing. And we're not supposed to be buying for ME. . . .
I got hubby a nice MP3 player for birthday/Christmas (yes, he has a Christmastime birthday, poor baby. Not to worry that he'll spoil the surprise by reading here, because he doesn't ever read it--he only ever plays World of Warcraft and surfs eBay for old board games and pictures of Pomeranians.) With this gadget (a Neuros audio computer that's about the size of an old TI graphing calculator because it has a 20 gig hard disk), I got 100 free tracks that I can download from eMusic.com.
I've already snerched up all the Vince Guaraldi and Doc Watson tracks that we don't already have, and a couple of other things I know he'll like. I'll reserve twenty or so tracks for him to pick out himself. However, I'd like to have it somewhat loaded up as a surprise, so he can start listening and zone out (and not have to hear the family bickering over which parade to watch or whatever). But. . . .
Hubs already has everything Kansas, Styx, Rick Wakeman/Yes, and Alan Parsons ever did. He also has a collection of tuba-only bands, marching band stuff, Mahler and Wagner (the Ring cycle and so forth), and old Western songs from those cowboy movies that our parents went to the movies to see years ago (don't know where this quirk came from--don't want to ask.)
They don't have any of his other faves (none that he doesn't have). He likes Blackmore's Night, Bassic, Allan Sherman (the 1960s Weird Al), Homer and Jethro (another song-bending team), Loreena McKinnitt, Vangelis, Hiroshima, the Tuba Four (just what they say they are), and various smooth jazz artists (like Steve Allen, Kenny G [hush up], Lonnie Liston Smith, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Buddy DeFranco). Oh, and I found it odd that they don't have John Denver (I was going to get "Annie's Song," which was one of my dad's favorite songs and which was played at our wedding, but I'll have to spring for the Greatest Hits CD.) I suppose they couldn't license certain labels.
So what else would be good, based on those likes? If anything comes to mind, I mean.
I don't think I'm going to sign up for the service after the trial period. For anywhere from $9 to $20 a month, you can get a certain number of tracks (15, 60, 100) every month. But I wouldn't have time to listen to all of that! It's kind of a neat free trial, though. I *might* stay on for one month if I discover a lot of stuff I want, but we have many, many, MANY CDs in the house, and so I don't think there is that much stuff we'd want. Not unless y'all come up with some really cool new artists to discover.
Me? Why, thanks for asking. Bobby Darin (yes, *swoon*, I've loved him since he had that TV show in the 1970s), Vince Guaraldi, The Monkees, The Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Paul Simon (with and without Artie), {Peter, Paul, and Mary}, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Jimi Hendrix, Mel Torme, The Chipmunks (Ross Bagsadarian and his tape recorder tricks--but I think their Christmas songs are neat because I had those 45s as a kid), Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart (Ann and Nancy Wilson, not the new wave band), Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Jimmy Webb, Cheap Trick, Letters to Cleo, The Waitresses, Glenn Miller, Brian Setzer, Mitsuko Uchida the pianist, Floyd Cramer the pianist, CCR, and Toscanini (okay, I threw that one in for Dennis, but I have various recordings of the Beethoven concerti and symphonies, the Mozart concerti, etc., and it's just that there aren't any Toscanini CDs. Are there?) I won't list my second tier (Led Zeppelin, R. E. M., Joan Baez, the Turtles, the Muppets, the Replacements, the Knack, Benny Goodman, Eva Cassidy, Nancy Sinatra & her dad, et alia) because it's just TOO much typing. And we're not supposed to be buying for ME. . . .
