An Introduction

I do not consider myself to be the "blogger type," if there is such a thing.  I admire those who take time out of their busy days to craft entries that can serve as inspiration or entertainment for readers, but I usually feel guilty if I don't spend my time doing things that will get me into graduate school or earning money.  So I am starting this blog for three reasons:  1) My introduction to journalism class requires it.  3) I need to loosen up and stop taking my writing so damn seriously.  2) Hey, wait...I want to go to graduate school for creative writing.

So this is the introduction to my blog.  People who know me know what I do, and people who don't probably don't care.  But for those who are curious, I'm into music and writing.  And writing about music.  I will take this opportunity to review and reflect on musical content, cultural impacts, and personal memories related to my favorite popular music albums.  I am of the old school, as they say, meaning that I will probably end up reviewing mostly '70s and '80s albums with a few from the '90s and beyond thrown in for good measure.

Why "The Blue Letter Review"?  Well, my obsession with my favorite band began when I heard a song called "Blue Letter."  Some of you may know the original version by The Curtis Brothers, or else the Fleetwood Mac version released in 1975.  I, however, stumbled upon the song in its intermediate incarnation: as a Buckingham Nicks cover song recorded live in Birmingham, Alabama in early 1975.

Sure, I'd listened to my dad's copy of the 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits album while studying for chemistry.  What I heard led me to listen to more and join an online fan forum where I came across Buckingham Nicks-- the band Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks formed before they became famous with Fleetwood Mac.  Now, if you listened to the song I linked you to in the previous paragraph, you may be more than a little disappointed with the quality (ugh, sounds like it was recorded through a paper bag or something!).  But I ask you to listen again and witness the scratchy but effortless guitar, the harmonies that shine even with decades and shitty recording equipment as handicaps.

Soon enough, you'll forget that this isn't pristine like a fresh mp3 or perfect like a band that's rehearsed exactly the way each song will be played until it sounds exactly the same night after night.  What you're hearing is ONE night, ONE stage, and a band's mood on that particular evening.  In other words: the atmosphere is captured.  In Dave Grohl's 2013 documentary Sound City, Tom Petty said that "music really isn't supposed to be perfect.  It's all about people relating to each other and doing something that is really from the soul.  It must come from the soul."

And that, friends, sums up my philosophy on what makes good music.  I'd trade technical perfection for soul and originality any night.  Any skilled singer or musician can hit the right notes.  It's feel that defines music.  And players and singers together define feel.  You haven't heard of many of my favorite vocalists or musicians because maybe different types of music move you.  Or maybe you haven't ever been moved by music.  Either way, I would like to share the human side of the music I love, some of the stories behind the songs, and anything else that has attracted me so deeply to the soundtrack of my twenty-two year old life.

Image: http://www.last.fm/music/Buckingham+Nicks/+images/29333811