Usually I post here on Thursdays about music I’m listening to, whether a mini review of a CD or some playlists Pandora or Rhapsody picked out for me. I thought today I’d share what podcasts I like to listen to, considering I split my drive time and gym time between music and podcasts.
Headed to the office on a beautiful winter morning. Here’s what Pandora selected for me from my Matt Nathanson Station, nice guitar-driven soft rock.
In my hour yesterday I did some light reading for a financial class I’m preparing to teach. I cued up Rhapsody’s radio channel: Corner Cafe. Coffee mug within reach and tunes in my ears, it feels like a coffee house, except quieter and I get to wear my pajamas. … Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do”
The River, a radio station in Toledo, starts spinning Christmas records in November. It seems to get earlier and earlier every year. Eventually you’ll be able dial it up and hear “Sleigh Ride” in September. What I like about Pandora and Rhapsody is their genre-based holiday channels, whereas the River would play the same songs by the same artists over and over.
Here’s some music Pandora selected for me from their New Age Essentials station. I’ve never liked the New Age genre because of its name. This (usually) instrumental ambient music is related to the spiritual New Age movement of the ’80s-’90s. I drop the spirituality and call it simply Instrumental.
I’ve enjoyed listening to Pandora for a while now, but I’ve never tried creating a worship music station, probably because I already own a lot of worship music. But I decided to go ahead and give it a try during my devotional reading early in the morning.
I cued up some jazz on Pandora, typing in Brad Mehldau. Mostly piano trios. If you’re not familiar with jazz, this is the basic combo: piano, upright bass, and drums. There have been some amazing jazz pianists who have preferred the trio, including Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and more recently Keith Jarrett. Here are some others.
I’ve put together several playlists of my favorite worship songs, and very often I’ll just tap shuffle on my iPhone. I was wondering the other day about doing this with our Sunday morning setlists. I mean, God is ultimately in control of iPhone’s shuffle, right? I don’t know what iPhone’s shuffle algorithms are — or even what an algorithm is, it just made me sound smart …
As a young piano student, I didn’t care much for classical music. I wanted to play what I heard on the radio and songs from church. (Mine featured the contemporary worship songs of the ’80s.) I slowly grew to love classical music, and though I hardly play it today—it is quite difficult—I still love to listen. … Usually, I’ll listen to an orchestral work in its entirety or a collection by the same composer, but this time I thought I’d have iTunes shuffle it up for me. Sort of like listening to the local nonprofit classical station. But without having to feel guilty when they call for financial pledges. …
