Musical countries

[peiplayer]

I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Those of you who have been there might agree that it is a musical country. Music is everywhere. It is usual to walk a city street and see small stores with huge speakers outside just blasting music (oftentimes annoyingly so) out to the public. If you happen to be awake at 3am you can usually hear the thud of a bassline somewhere off in the distance. Now, not saying that all the music is necessarily good….just that its there, sometimes live but mostly recorded. Wherever there’s a crowd of people there is music. Lie on the beach and you will hear it in the background.

 

Its not like that where I live. In fact apart from the inane Christmas elevator music you sometimes hear in the malls, there’s no music anywhere…I mean you have to go into the bars and clubs, or special events (like concerts, festivals, jams etc.) to hear it. Even record stores (CD and DVD stores now I guess) do not play music. No music on the streets, none on the beach, nothing. Its depressing.

 

A recent post by Brundaddy under “busking” got me to thinking how much like Kingston New Orleans must be…sounds like music is everywhere. Must have been like that in the Village in NYC too at some time in the past.

 

What’s it like where you live?

[ajsc]

In Phoenix, Mariachi music abounds!! Not that that's a bad thing!!

[Deadgrateful]

Brighton UK, lots of hype, very little substance... Still, if your willing to look hard, there are some truly great musicians playing on a regular basis.

[grampa]

Sacramento seems to have an overabundance of cars with very loud stereos playing everykind of pop schlock. It's the prevailing music in the air.

[TommyK]

...Its not like that where I live. In fact apart from the inane Christmas elevator music you sometimes hear in the malls' date=' there’s no music anywhere…I mean you have to go into the bars and clubs, or special events (like concerts, festivals, jams etc.) to hear it. Even record stores (CD and DVD stores now I guess) do not play music. No music on the streets, none on the beach, nothing. Its depressing.

...[/quote']

 

And you're just the guy who can change that. O:)/

[James Allen]

I live 20 mins from Chattanooga, TN, and there are a lot of good things going on musically. We have a lot of live venues, be they outdoor or clubs, going on at any given time. There's music somewhere, claissical, rock, blues, jazz. You just gotta be willing to immerse yourself.

 

Cleveland, TN, where I live . . . is a nice community, but the only music you hear on a consistent basis is rap blaring from some idiots car as he feels everybody should be subjected to the abuse.

Surprisingly, though, the local churches put on decent rock shows. Good bands with good musicians. Go figure.

[brundaddy]

I haven't been to Kingston, only the tourist areas like Montego Bay etc. From what I understand Kingston has a strong anarchy/guerilla-style music scene with cutting contests everywhere.

 

I'm from New Orleans, where music is always in the air and you are exposed to it constantly from the beginning of your life... you can't avoid immersion! Not everybody realizes how huge music is to Mardi Gras - the local high school marching bands play things you would never expect and that it's actually not uncool for those kids to be in the band. After school, you'll sometimes hear kids playing their horns while walking home, or sometimes they get together in the FQ as a brass band to do some hustling and they are amazing. In general, music is just more public there. It's in the streets. Also many nightclubs are tucked away in residential neighborhoods, which gives really thriving breeding grounds to lots of musical enclaves. It's dizzyingly rich.

 

I'm in Ann Arbor, MI now (with my wife, who's in school) and it's miserable. No music is public here, for starters, and almost none of it is live music. Most of the music to be found here is actually karaoke & DJs (not hungry MCs like in Jamaica, I promise). Just not much culture here, apart from the middle-class stuff U-M spoonfeeds. And slight flashbacks to hippy days (don't get me started on the phonyness of folk music) before the town became a corporate whore to U-M. I'm a fish out of water I guess... this place is Disneyfied, no traces whatsoever of the powerful rock and roll this place spawned a la The Stooges/MC5, etc. Sorry for the rant, but you asked!

[G u e s t]

Spain can be good if you like guitar - but you need to go inland and away from las touristas.

[jefleppard]

not a lively music town, windsor ont, but there is one place in town that's become a hub for touring indie bands making their way to detroit, chicago or north to toronto called The Phog Lounge.

http://phoglounge.com/

http://www.myspace.com/phoglounge

alot of national touring college scene acts have come through town only because of this place - otherwise they would have blown right by us and never known we were here.

[Murph]

I live 20 mins from Chattanooga' date=' TN, and there are a lot of good things going on musically. We have a lot of live venues, be they outdoor or clubs, going on at any given time. There's music somewhere, claissical, rock, blues, jazz. You just gotta be willing to immerse yourself.

 

Cleveland, TN, where I live . . . is a nice community, but the only music you hear on a consistent basis is rap blaring from some idiots car as he feels everybody should be subjected to the abuse.

Surprisingly, though, the local churches put on decent rock shows. Good bands with good musicians. Go figure.[/quote']

 

So, I can hit you with a rock from Rock City.

 

I'm on the Ohio River, in Southern Illinois, so most of my gigs are in Ky. Illinois decided to kill live music with smoking laws.

 

Kentucky is a good place. I love bluegrass, but actually gig Classic/Southern rock, Motown, Blues, and Country.

 

I'll play any of the above mentioned genres at any time.

 

Best to ya.

 

Murph.