Influence is a crazy thing!

I looked at my records today and was dumbfounded by the different genres of music that I have in my collection. I scanned both LP bookcases which include more then 1000 records to see what I can talk about. I just was amazed by what I have and recalling in some detail how the album I see came into my position. After I talked to a friend over the phone last night about our love for Jeff Buckley I went to the book case and pulled out my Grace and my copy of Mystery White Boy LP's and opened them up. Amazed that the LP was played once and shelved and out popped my ticket stubs and guitar picks and my Grace Poster.

I was a little kid again recalling my youth when I buy an album and rush right home to put it on the turntable. Don't worry I did not do that with the Jeff Buckley LP's. I am sure there worth about $200.00 and will more then likely will never play them again. I did find my copy of Grace on CD and threw it in the car and on my way home from where I was I listened to it. It was a eleven minute drive but it was a enough to here how great that album is.

I continued to survey the collection and then I stopped. I remember that some of the stuff I listened to was someones favorite stuff too. It was so good I liked it too. I liked it enough to buy the albums and go see him in concert. My friends rarely made a mistake on an artist that I listened to or liked. Most of the friends who liked music like me liked things I never heard, but wanted to know more about.



After High School, I quickly changed my tastes. I would listen to an artist and tell myself that is this something that will change my life. A example of that would be any popular rock of the 90's. Where these bands going to make a great impression on me or were they just going to be something in the past and when I reflect I say "Oh yea! They are ok!!" or am I going to say "Wow!, These guys made me get into other artists or genres of music."

A prime example of this is Steve Tibbetts. Steve hails from St. Paul Minnesota and when you listen to his work, you think he is from Europe. Maybe that's why ECM signed him. He is very much a world guitar player. I can listen to him albums all the time and not get tired of them. He is an artist who never changed with the decades of music. He might have changed his ways but never conformed to the ways of each decade he has been around.

A funny thing about Steve Tibbetts is that he rarely tours. I liked what I listened to and I said to another Steve Tibbetts fan about him touring. He told me that it rarely happens, and when it does it is a real treat. A few years later my friend who introduced me to him and a friend who has never heard him and I went to a show at the Iron Horse. He did not disappoint, and at the end of the show was available for talking to. Steve Tibbetts might be the unknown guitar player in your circles but he is worth a listen and this to me is the best album to start with. It might a tough find since most of his CD's are out of print, but well worth the effort to dig.