Pretty Interesting Stuff Peering at the world through James colored glasses…

Stevie Ray Vaughn
October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990

Stevie Ray Vaughan would have been 57 years old today, October 3rd. His music, his amazing guitar playing, his style, are a milestone in music history. Not many people can listen to his music and not tap a foot or become lost in his Texas-fusion of blues and rock.

Truly one of the greats, he is ranked right up there with the best of the contemporary rock and blues musicians… Hendrix, Clapton, Richards, Page, Cooder, King, Allman, Santana, Beck, and a few others. I’d easily rank him in the top five rock and blues guitarists.

Although he died a tragic death in a helicopter crash, he lives on through his amazing music.

Listen to “Pride and Joy”
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Pride And Joy
Listen to “Little Wing”
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Little Wing

Lyle Lovett – b. Nov. 1, 1957
is an American singer, songwriter and farmer. He also acts a bit – and used to be married to Julia Roberts.

Lyle Lovett’s career bloomed late but by the time he signed a major recording contract he was nearly 30 years old and had years of experience playing cover songs and folk festivals.

Lovett’s quirky tunes, each of them a beguiling story in miniature, have helped define a new breed of singer-songwriter who exists outside traditional boundaries like folk and country.

Listen to “All My Love Is Gone”
Lyle Lovett_06_All My Love Is Gone

Pete Townshend wrote an overwhelming majority of the songs for The Who. He's considered one of the all-time great rock guitar musicians.

LONDON — The Who’s Pete Townshend on Monday branded Apple Inc.’s iTunes a “digital vampire” that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it.

Townshend said that faced with the Internet’s demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer some of the services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. These include employing talents scouts, giving space to allow bands to stream their music and paying smaller artists directly rather than through a third party aggregator.

Listen to “Who Are You?”
The Who: Who Are You?
The guitarist was delivering the first John Peel Lecture, named in honor of the influential British radio broadcaster who died in 2004.

Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes “can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire” to make money.

ITunes declined to respond to Townshend’s comments.

Apple’s service is the market leader among legal download services, accounting for about three-quarters of music downloads.

Townshend said consumers, as well as the industry, needed to change their attitude to digital music.

“It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them,” he said.

“Why can’t music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?” he said.