January 11, 2008

best find of the week

J.P. Rangaswami just led me to Genghis Blues, which I'm sure George knows about, and if he were at home right now I prod him to tell me everything, because I just followed J.P.s links and then went to the itunes store and listened to snippets of New Train (can we link into the itunes store--i mean i want to share the link but it's a desktop app on my macbook and i don't know how to show you where I am).

All of this left me in that weird place -- you know, of feeling at the same instant overjoyed to have encountered special music and devastated that the musician making that music is gone -- so it's kind of a simultaneous embrace and release, which, mirror-mirror, you also feel listening to Pena's music...

...because sometimes artists are born forward from their death into our lives, if you know what I mean, which is to say that's how they meet us so succinctly, right at the exact spot of the hole in our hearts where they resonate...

...which is to say, I found Paul Pena and reading his bio and am listening, which at least you can do partially on amazon, so then you can buy it.