I was hiking in the mountains listening to the new Jamey Johnson album "The Guitar Song".

It’s gonna take a good long time for me to unpack this sucker.  It’s a double album in an era when people only care about singles.  Then again, "The Guitar Song" ain’t like regular country music, you know, the fake shit you hear on the radio about babies and churches with a banjo thrown in to make you realize this pabulum’s got ROOTS!  If you’re blazing your own path, you get to do it your own way.

And a bunch of the songs are about the economic situation.  Not the pandering crap of the usual suspects, but the blue collar angst of men who’ve been screwed by the fat cats and want their revenge.  I want my revenge, don’t you?  How can it be that Goldman Sachs ruined the country and no one goes to jail and these fucks continue to get rich?

Watcha gonna do about that?  Worried about your bills while sold-out politicians say they care about you but are beholden to corporations that pay no tax.  Who’s gonna soothe your soul? Certainly not Sarah Palin, not unless she gets paid.  And Barack Obama is so fearful of demonstrating black rage he’s in bed with the worst of whitey.

Maybe that’s who we need in power.  An angry black man.  Who’s gonna put the fear of God deep into the heart of all the chiselers.  That’s what broke rap, it was the sound of the streets.  Now it’s the sound of the ATM.

But this Jamey Johnson record.  It’s got the roots of Alabama with the hope of a rube in California.  It evidences humanity.

But the track I’m writing about here is not the social comment with authentic country instrumentation.  I’m writing about the ANTHEM!

That’s what’s astounding about "The Guitar Song".  It sounds like country.  You know, the shit you hear at the general store, the music that comes to mind when you think of "Deliverance".  A sound not made for the radio, but the people.  It evidences a humanity that satiates crackers and frightens you.

But "Heartache" sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd.  It’s closer to Alice In Chains’ "Rooster" than anything by Taylor Swift.  It’s that music that grabs you by the gut and has you raising your fist in the air.

Oh, there’s a cool lyric.  Heartache is personified.  The names of famous broken couples are trotted out.  But what hooks you immediately is the organ.  As if Felix Cavaliere met with Alan Price and they tried to capture the sound of the Mississippi Delta.  Then, there’s a bit of guitar pickin’.  Not chicken pickin’, but strumming that sets the mood.

And then world-weary Jamey starts to sing.  He didn’t win a talent contest.  Didn’t give it a year before he went to grad school.  This is his life.

And the track is building like Fleetwood Mac’s "The Chain".

And then there’s a chorus, not as great as one in a Beatles song, but it’s more than serviceable.  The background vocals put it over the top.

And by time they hit the second verse, you’re hooked.  You were just minding your own business, listening to a record, and then suddenly somebody jerked the steering wheel and drove you right into the ditch.  Everything that mattered before is suddenly meaningless.

And now the guitars are electric.  There’s more than one.  You’re reminded of the Allman Brothers.

The song breaks down.  And then it starts to BUILD!  And for the remaining two minutes Jamey and the band WAIL!

There’s no dancing involved.  Not on stage.  But in the audience, you’ve got longhairs shuffling their feet, nodding their heads, not that the band cares, they’re playing for themselves.  You feel like you’re getting a peek at something magical.

And I’m listening to an MP3 on an iPod.  Imagine if I had vinyl or an SACD on the big rig.  The whole house would shake, sixty years on I’d have the same feeling as I had back then.

I’m not quite that old.  But every time I hear that Elton John song, I’m taken to a place that’s both dead and alive.  Like someone lifted the lid of a casket.  I can’t help but look.  This is death. This is life.  This visceral experience is so rare today.

I had to hit repeat.  And then again.  When you hear something this good, you can’t let it go!

I go through life looking for peak experiences.  And when I’m bitten on the ass unexpectedly, I feel fully alive.

That’s how I felt tonight.

With a Little Help From His Friends

I want you to read this because it’s inspirational.

Yes, it’s movie hype.  And as much as Justin Timberlake is not the real Sean Parker in "The Social Network", David Kirkpatrick’s article doesn’t nail Sean either.  But reading this you want to jump off the couch and get involved, leave your mark.

The music business used to be full of guys like Sean Parker.  But then the baby boomers grabbed power, slammed the door and declared nobody else could come in.  You couldn’t license the music and you had to utilize the touring infrastructure.  At first, programmers like Sean Parker stole the music.  Then they gave up, they moved on to other ventures, like Facebook.

You see Sean Parker wants to make a difference, he wants to change the world.  This is what musicians used to want to do.  Now they only want to be rich and famous.  They want to get in bed with the Fortune 500. Whereas Sean and his tech cronies WANT TO BE THE FORTUNE 500!

Tech is an open field.  VC money is like the record deal of yore.  Only instead of playing your demo, you whip out a PowerPoint.  And illustrate how you can make money.  Tech innovators don’t divorce themselves from commerce, they’re directly involved with the bottom line.  The new breed of artists is too.  You’re not only the act, but the record label.  And that’s how you keep everyone honest, including yourself.

We live in an era where the barriers to entry are lower than ever before.  You can utilize information and tech tools to build your own infrastructure.  You don’t need permission.  And chances are you know more than the establishment players.

The era of sour grapes is over.  If you’re railing against the powers-that-be, you’re living in the nineties.  It’s tough to forge your own path.  It’s easier to live in a box, waiting for someone to tell you what to do.

But there is no box.  There’s just unlimited highway.  Pull your car onto the asphalt and drive.  Create your own map.  And know that millions of followers are just around the bend.  If you walk the fine line of integrity and wow.  Delivering something that excites the populace and continues to do so.

It’s overwhelming.  But the time is now. 

Follow us on FourSquare – Redskins

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where an NFL team is hipper than any record label or concert promoter?

Whilst labels are shaking their fists at their customers and promoters are busy getting kickbacks from Ticketmaster, the Redskins are creating mania and building brand loyalty AND IT’S FUN!    

Imagine a nationwide scavenger hunt.  Hell, Trent Reznor did do this, depositing USB sticks in locations.  But if the RIAA would stop whining and create a game where everybody got excited about music, wouldn’t it pay more dividends?

You’ve got to check in at the location of the Fillmore East.  And the Boston Tea Party. And the truly adventurous will go to the Hacienda in Manchester.  Fans would learn about music history as they earned their badges.

Go to Graceland and unlock an unreleased Elvis track.

See Lady GaGa in five different cities and she calls you.

Go to the House of Blues in five different cities and you get a call from Danny Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, today’s Blues Brothers.

You want to be the mayor of "Rolling Stone".  You want to go to the disco where they shot "Saturday Night Fever".  Make a pilgrimage to Kurt Cobain’s grave, as well as Jim Morrison’s.

Numerous hip-hop locations come into play too.  The location where Biggie was gunned down, Tupac too.

And you qualify for ever greater prizes.

A bunch of Napster or Rhapsody subscriptions.  Hell, you can only enjoy these subscription services if you use them.  Music is already free, maybe by showing people the greatness of subscriptions, they’ll testify how satisfying they are.

And there will be a grand prize winner at a concert/TV show.

Screw the Grammys.

Make it a festival in New York or L.A.  For a whole week.  Fan Fair on steroids.  Classic acts and wannabes, streamed on YouTube or sponsored by AOL or Microsoft or…

A week of club and arena shows.

And you can only get into the final gig by scoring high on the social network game.

And the winner gets an award.  Goes up on stage and is laden with gifts…  Free Live Nation shows for a year! A shopping spree on iTunes!  A night with the rock star of your choice, sponsored by Craigslist…  Well, we might have to stop shy of this.

This is a way for acts to give back, to gain promotion.  Rather than appearing to a limited audience on "Entourage", what if U2 headlined this superbill at the Garden!  And money can’t get you in, no way.  Fat cats can only gain entrance if they play.

This is the opposite of today’s music business.  Where money and power rule.  Now, you can only get a seat if you’re a big fan.

And it’s all broadcast on TV.

Meanwhile, as the show goes on, you can play at home on your iPad/laptop/desktop.  Yup, a competition will take place outside the venue with prizes just as good.  And you can only win by watching.

Can you say FRENZY?

None of this is hard.  None of this is difficult.  The technology already exists.

When is the music business gonna give up on the old model, selling discs, purveying overpriced albums with one good track, AmEx pre-sales and $100 tickets and utilize all the new media to make more money than ever before?

Stop complaining and get on the bandwagon.

Meanwhile, I originally found out about this promotion via Mashable on Twitter:

Washington Redskins Tackle Foursquare

Reps: Lou Reed Not The Cause Of Susan Boyle’s Missed ‘America’s Got Talent’ Performance

I don’t want to waste a lot of time on this.

At some point in the future, the whole, true story will come out.

That’s how it works in the Internet age.  A story breaks online and then the crowd susses out the truth.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media sits on its hands, frustrated with a 24 hour news cycle.

Used to be the only news that happened was that which was reported in the newspaper and on TV.  We now know there’s a lot more news than that.  Tons more.  And that people are interested in all kinds of info, like the story behind this kerfuffle.

Meanwhile, at this point TMZ has credibility. They were first with Michael Jackson’s demise and continued to be first.  To the point where they were more trustworthy than the mainstream press.  Kind of like the "National Enquirer" and John Edwards and his illegitimate baby with Rielle Hunter.

BUT THE POINT REMAINS THE SAME!

You’ve got to do what’s right for you emotionally.  Money isn’t everything.

Does your wife ask for a check before you have intercourse?

Do you get paid when you give a compliment?

Everything does not come down to money.  And no one knows this more than the man on the street, who is not famous and may not have any money.

But he’s got power.  Elections in the last decade have been decided by a few hundred votes.  Yes, every vote does count. You do matter.  You’ve got a voice.  Complain about a product online and the company either hops to it and fixes it or risks its reputation.

Rock stars used to live in their own rarefied air.  Making their own choices.  This rendered enough money for them to be able to destroy hotel rooms and pay for it.  To break the rules and survive.  That’s why we admired them, that’s why we all wanted to be them.  We wanted to make it on our own wits and do whatever we wanted, adored in the process.

But isn’t it funny that just as music became commoditized, in the eighties, that’s when greed started triumphing in society?  Bankers could make more money than musicians.  So the musicians started imitating bankers, making it all about the cash.

There’s no soul on Wall Street.  Financiers die and are forgotten.  Like record executives.

But a great record lives forever.

And if you made that great record, and you continue to make it about the music, you can work to an adoring audience until your body calls it quits.

The media wants to quantify everything.  How much money did you make…  But the music game isn’t about numbers, it’s about emotions.  Never forget this.