A 2015 Musicians List

It's been awhile since I've written about my musical tastes.  Some of my earliest postings had to do with my Top 40 Favorite Songs in certain genres.  Even though music is such a vital part of my life, I've written relatively little about it. So it's time to write about some of the genres that form my musical tapestry in September 2015.  I imagine new threads will be woven in as I hear more musicians and composers in the future.

I guess the type of music that I listen to most is rock music, although there are sub groups such as R&B and funk that I lump under rock.  My mood determines what I listen to, and I often want to hear something with guitars, a strong bass, some drum, and definitely a beat, and often with the volume up so I can hear eveything happening.  I generally like music that is melodic, which much of early rock music had, but not so much currently. 

Even since the Beatles hit the scene in 1964 (the Ed Sullivan Show), I have been enamored of the Fab Four for over 50 years.  They will always be my favorite rock performers.  But below are some other "rock" musicians to whom I listen, and with whom I often sing along, and I've attached some You Tube videos of some of them:

Rush, Paul Simon-solo-and Simon & Garfunkel, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Police, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and Neil Young-solo, The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Bread, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, Tom Petty & The Heartbrakers, ZZ Top, Michael Jackson, Billy Squier, Elton John, Metallica, The Ramones, Robert Palmer, U2, Billy Joel, Phil Collins.

The list above is pretty much composed of musicians from the 60s, 70s, and maybe the 80s.  I have felt that that was really the golden age of rock.  My tastes have transitioned to include some of these more "recent" rockers--some 80s, 90s, 00s, and current:

Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots, Muse, The Smiths, Club Nouveau (kind of old school), Bush, Soundgarden, Presidents of the United States of America (also kind of old school), Fugees, Beck.

There are singers that I will occasionally listen to that tend to be less raucous, sometimes a little folksy, or maybe jazzy, but I love their music.  Here are a few of them:

Linda Ronstadt (especially in Spanish!), James Taylor, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Sting, Willie Nelson, Dean Martin, John Denver, Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot.

My mood sometimes takes me into the jazz genre, although there are sub genres in jazz that I will listen to but only briefly.  Here are a few of the jazz musicians that I enjoy:

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Herb Albert (not so jazzy), Keith Jarrett, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Mangione, Dave Brubeck, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Vince Guaraldi, Mills Brothers.

When I want something soothing, but not necessarily classical, I will often listen to Pandora--streaming music.  But if I want to listen to one artist(s), I will listen to: Enya, Diana Krall, Thijs Van Leer, Mannheim Steamroller, The King Singers (not always soothing, but always good), John Barlow Jarvis, Leo Kottke, Bedalamenti, Morricone.

In a genre all by themselves--until I find more musicians that don't fit anywhere else outside of clasical, is a new group to which I was introduced on Pandora. They are from Ireland and are called The High Kings; very Irish and very melodic!

As for my favorite classical composers, both instrumental and choral, here is my last name list, although I'm sure I will forget some.  If I hear their music, I often recognize it right away:

Mozart, Vivaldi, Part, Lauridsen, Holst, Beethoven, Faure, Durufle, Rossini, Whitacre, Copland. Rachmaninov, Saint-Saens, Gershwin, Sousa, JS Bach, Wilberg, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Handel, Rodrigo, Strauss, Barber.

I will occasionally swerve into country, opera, world music, electronic music, and other genres, but the above lists are what I usually listen to. 

I feel to thank God for His grace in allowing me to be able to listen to music.  I thank Him every day for the blessing it is to even be able to hear.  I thank Him for the pleasure music has given and continues to give to me!

Based upon what you see here, does anyone out there have any suggestions in any of the genres, or some individual or groups or composers that you would recommend?