The Highwaymen: Great Song, Terrible Video

Oh man, I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day. I actually really like this song. With Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson you can’t go wrong. I sang this song all the way through the morning. When lunch finally rolled around I sprinted to my computer, got on YouTube and found the video. With coffee in hand I hit play.

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CAGED System vs. Pentatonic Scales

I’m hoping by now you’ve read Ivan’s great post about the history and importance of flatpicking. Though a seasoned musician, it’s a relatively new topic to me and one I’ve been looking at a lot lately. Recently, while hoping to improve my acoustic and bluegrass guitar soloing chops, I searched around for some tips on scales and chord shapes to use. In doing so, I found such a travesty of misguided music theory and wildly unmusical thinking, I just had to share.

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I’m in Love with Lake Street Dive: Happy Valentine’s Day

I woke up this morning with Bad Self Portraits stuck in my head. Upon arriving at work the first things I saw when I turned on my computer was a Rolling Stone article with a new Lake Street Dive video of Bad Self Portraits. I’m pretty easy to please so I called this a Valentine’s Day miracle, and thought I’d share it with Dig Nation.

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Outlier Syndrome

those-who-dig-logo-finalI have a problem when discovering new music, and I know I can’t be the only one. It’s somewhat traumatizing, sometimes embarrassing, and ultimately disappointing. Does anybody else out there suffer from Outlier Syndrome – liking the first tune you hear from a band then realizing none of their other songs sound like that? If so, please read on. If not, it’s because I just made it up right now, but please read on anyway. Read more…

Dead Horses on The Dig Sessions

The Dead Horses have been taking the Midwest by storm. They have a diverse range, mixing everything from catchy ballads to hard-picking traditional arrangements into their live shows. Their self categorized genre is “folkgrass” and they were kind enough to drop by the Dig Session Studios (ok it was the back room of a Milwaukee bar) and play a few songs for y’all.

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But He Don't Sound British – Accents and Singing

Ah music, the international language. It transcends political and economic boundaries, it harkens on universal themes, and does a lot of other things someone who describes themselves as #blessed would say. All feel-good melting pot analogies aside, have you noticed that music actually does manage to nullify one huge indicator of our backgrounds? That’s right, nearly everyone sings without an accent. Why is it that you don’t realize a singer hails from the UK until you hear them speak instead of sing into the microphone?

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