James McMurtry

Got all his stuff but my fav is his second Candyland. Very underrated artist.

You should also listen to an artist he recommends called Michael Eck. Forceful accoustic guitar.

This is good as well.

Good stuff. I hope to be seeing him on a twin bill with Dave Alvin Saturday night.

Matt

Matt, I envy you. "California Bloodlines" was one of my favourite albums of recent times.

Thanks Chris. I have not been to a good show in a long time. And now two of my favorites at the same show. Feast or famine I guess.

Regards
Matt

I lived in Binghamton in the late 80s. We used to get some decent bands coming through there in those days.

Syracuse in the 2000s is pretty hit or miss. The show I am going to is in Troy at Revolution Hall (attached to the microbrewery). How did you end up in the UK (or Binghamton for that matter)?

Matt

I'm a Brit, but got moved to Binghamton in '84 to look after my comapny's biggest account, who built flight simulators there. Came back here in '89. Loved upstate New York though.

I like it here too although in Syracuse we are in the heart of the lake effect season. Days on end of gray weather and snow. Beautiful weather from April to November though. Did you buy any Naim while in New York? I have to travel to the northern suburbs of NYC for my stuff. Though not a particular favorite of mine I think that Macintosh is still in Binghamton.

Regards
Matt

McMurtry's recent live CD is wonderful too. In fact, all his CDs are interesting. I tend to think of McMurtry as a kind of classic Texas liberal poet-songwriter. An American classic, just like his old man(Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry).

Matt
I brought my Quad 44/405 with me from the UK. They actually had 110/240 switching built in, which was handy! I also had a pair of Rogers Studio 1s which I took over with me. I bought a Denon direct-drive turntable from a local independent dealer who also gave me on indefinite loan a Kenwood cd player thathe had been sent to evaluate. He pronounced it very poor and told me that digital would be a passing fad and that CD might turn into a mass-market product but would never be "audiophile"!

There are plenty here who might agree with him! 2 young sons made CD a godsend for me however, and here I am more than 20 years later with 3000+ CDs and the damned things still coming into the house! I don't even have a vinyl replay system now, although I could not bring myelf to part with my record collection, so who knows what the future may hold!

And yes, I believe Macintosh are still in Binghamton.

Feel free to send me your records Chris. I have a functional turntable still, but do find myself listening to CDs a lot more than I used to.CDs are definitely much more child friendly. One of my nephews caused trauma to my cartridge a few years back. An expensive lesson.

I thought Macintosh was still there. I used to have a Mac tuner of mid 60s vintage. Beautiful to look at and sounded nice too. But there was a yearly adjustment or repair so I sold it back to where I bought it and got a Naim tuner. So no Naim for you until you returned to the UK?

Regards
Matt

Actually, no Naim for me until 2005 when I got my CD5x. I had an integrated valve amp from about '96 but sold that last year. Then when I moved out of the marital home in November05 I finally went the whole hog (except for speakers).

My elder son snapped the stylus cantilever off my Denon304 a few years ago when he was teaching himself to DJ and I was away on business! He didn't tell me. I went to play a record and realised that wasn't an option! I think I'll hang on to the records for now Matt! That said, I am no longer convinced I could tell vinyl from CD in a blind test now.

Well you made up for lost time. You have a pretty nice system. I have a couple of thousand Lps so having a turntable for me is pretty much a no brainer. My CD collection is definitely catching up though. If I were using a CDX2/555PS as you do might, it would probably increase my CD purchasing and play time exponentially.

Matt

The 555PS really turned the CDX2 into something else again. My CDs probably outnumber my LPs at least 10 to 1, so it's reverse no brainer for me!

Whenever James isn't on tour he plays every Wednesday night at the Continental Club here in Austin with Jon Dee Graham. If you're not familiar with Jon Dee, check him out as he's along the same vein and equally as awesome. Good Times!

Thanks for the tip Biddy. I have some friends who travel to Austin twice every year. They pretty much see a couple of performances every day while in town. You are lucky to be in a place with so much high quality live music.

Matt

True, infortunatly I rarely go out to see any. Two kids does that to you. I was super pissed to have missed Ron Sexsmith last week. I found out he played two days too late. BTW, get his new CD! SXSW is when I shut down the shop and get my ya yas out. One more month!

quote:

Originally posted by Biddy:
True, infortunatly I rarely go out to see any. Two kids does that to you. I was super pissed to have missed Ron Sexsmith last week. I found out he played two days too late. BTW, get his new CD! SXSW is when I shut down the shop and get my ya yas out. One more month!

I just can't get my head round Ron Sexsmith. However thanks for the tip on Jon Dee Graham. Never bothered listening to him before but liked the samples of all his stuff so went and bought them all. Paid less than £20 for all 5 albums.

Great show Saturday night with McMurtry opening and Dave Alvin following. 4 hours of great music.

Matt