Morning in the Afternoon

Hey hey music luvas,

By now you should have all received the link to the audio mix. If it expires before you get to it let me know.

Here's the art work (a mandala painting from Carl Jung's Red Book) you can download and put into your iTunes/Window Media player etc. Right clicking on it should give you the usual downloading options. Or use your own art--whatever makes you happy.

Some people have had issues downloading the audio file but it does work. Curiously, when I put it in my mom's Windows audio player it named the entire thing after the first selection even though it's all one track. Being an iTunes guy it took me a little while to rename the track.

The file is compressed but weighs in over 100 megabytes so tell your 'puter to be a little patient. The link should work from any where; you should be able to forward it to another address if needed.

Tim, my college roommate and one of the instigators of this group, got me into listening to and making mixed tapes. His passion for music was infectious and he turned me on to so many great bands that wouldn't have gotten passed my music snob filter otherwise. My first serious girlfriend (a college radio DJ and a big Tom Waits fan) and I sent musical letters from Maine to Florida and back before we graduated. Since then I've created at least one mix a year for my friends not including my own albums of original tunes.

Finding and sharing great music makes me happy. I've been lucky to land jobs where I could get paid to be a music geek: a music selector (with an unlimited iTunes account) for a weekend end school held at Jazz at Lincoln Center, a dance party DJ, commercial composer, band leader, an audio engineer piecing together audio music magazines and radio shows.

This is my first DJ-style mix (one long track) and the first distributed in pure info-digital form. It grew organically as a playlist over two months. When nothing more could be added or taken away and it held up under repeated listens over a couple more weeks it was done.

Let me know how this collection hits you, if you find any good uses for it etc. I'll be posting the track listing once everyone has taken the it for a ride or two.

I look forward to hearing all your mixes! Thanks Tim and Joe for getting this going.

Stay tuned,

Lyle Beers

Sunshine & Lollipops

Wake Up--Hierophant
An interesting project featuring Shooter Jennings (Waylon's progeny), and author Stephen King. According to wikipedia, " A hierophant is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. The word comes from Ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ta hiera, "the holy," and phainein, "to show." Also, "In the Rider Waite Tarot deck and similar decks, The Hierophant (sometimes called "The Pope") is one of the twenty-two trump cards comprising the "Major Arcana", and represents conformity to social standards, or a deference to the established social moral order." Who knew?

Heal Yourself--Ruthie Foster
From her 2007 disc, The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. The only artist in this mix, that honed her craft on the road with a Navy recruitment band.

Bitter Pill--Janiva Magness
You can tell by her voice she has lived every moment of this song, and it's no fluke.
She brings this rich tapestry of feeling to every song she tackles. Plus a really cool baritone sax honking in the background is hard to beat for me. From her "What Love Will Do" release

Uprising--Muse
The first of two Muse offerings in this mix. Both come from their latest effort, "The Resistance".

Ain't No Crime--Eric Sardinas
I love the sounds this guy coaxes from a resonator. Not the most inventive guitarist, he more than makes up for it with his passion. This is from "Black Pearls."

His Word is Not His Bond--The Waterboys
Stole this from one of Tim's mixes years ago. On "A Rock in the Weary Land", great lyrics, and, in my opinion, outstanding vocals.

Where is the Next One Coming From--Buddy Guy
If I could own only one Buddy Guy album this would be it. In fact, it's on my Desert Island Disc. Ask Tim.

Ain't Gonna Happen--Reverend Horton Heat
The Rev is probably best known for his wild shows, and if you ever get a chance to see this band, it's well worth the price of admission. Music like this could never have come about without punk, but it's a uniquely American take. From "Lucky 7"

Halo--Porcupine Tree
This band started as an elaborate joke by two friends who created a fictional legendary rock band called The Porcupine Tree, and created a history for the band, then music. At some point they realized some of the tunes they had created were viable, and self-released some of it. A good progressive rock/metal band. From
"Deadwing"

Both Sides Now--Sammy Hagar
Always been a Hagar fan from his days with Montrose. This is something of a personal anthem for me. It describes alot of the places I've been. From the
"Marching to Mars" album, recorded right after his split with Van Hagar.

!Pimps Up, Aces High! 0700 Hrs. (Westside Swashbuckling Parade)--General Patton & the Executioners
Try saying that three times fast! A very cool collaboration between Mike Patton and a Hip-Hop outfit from New York called the X-ecutioners.

Wissions (Of Vu)--Stanton Moore Trio
From "Emphasis! (On Parenthasis)" As explained by all music guide: "The album's 11 tracks all contain titles with parenthetical statements — it is an acknowledgement of the gentle ribbing from his Galactic bandmates that he slips parentheses into the name of almost every tune he writes. In some ways the music reflects this; each of these tunes has extensions in it, where the riff or groove starts and gets grafted onto continually with other musical statements, transforming the original vamp, groove, or riff into a more complex and varied composition."

Political Science--Randy Newman
From the "Sail Away" LP, Newman is one of the most tongue-in-cheek writers you'll ever come across. His humor is so dry and well-delivered he often took an amazing amount of shit from people who couldn't or wouldn't get the joke.

You Haven't Done Nothin'--Stevie Wonder
There's nothing to say about Stevie that hasn't been said.

Gotta Live--Shakura S'Aida
A fine blues/jazz singer from Canada, this is from her "Blueprint" release. I like the gospel tinge.

The Fightin' Side of Me--Merle Haggard and the Strangers
Ol' Merle just kind of calls it like he sees it. Written in the sixties, it still has resonance today.

Resistance--Muse
I still believe that love conquers all.

Balrog Boogie--Diablo Swing Orchestra
I bet this will be the only Operatic Progressive Swing Metal band on anybody's mix.
With lyrics entirely in Latin. Ever. From "The Butcher's Ballroom", just give it a chance. Incidentally, a balrog is a demon from J.R.R. Tolkien's universe. If you saw the Lord of the Rings movie, the old white haired guy fought one in the mines.

The Guns of Brixton--The Clash
How you gonna come?