I'm going to miss the day when digital and virtual drive the final nail in the coffin of the physical, the tangible, the real. When that happens, days like this will vanish. I don't care how easy or cheap they make it to download music. I don't care that some day they'll find a way to transfer hi-fi music in tiny file sizes. I went home buzzing with anticipation, hoping something special would be waiting for me in the mail box. Hope ignited into an inferno of joy as I reached for the gold mailer with the Fast Horse Recordings sticker in the upper right hand corner.
Day by day, digital downloads are crowding out physical media and the US Postal service wants to drop Saturday delivery to save money. It's progress and a large chapter of the human experience is the continual forward motion of it all. Only the wheel won't be re-invented, or so the saying goes. I understand that it's changing and with those changes will come good. I know the change is inevitable and complaining about it is like drinking poison and waiting for someone else to die. I'll roll with the new, but it just won't be as much fun.
Getting back to our story, hope and joy turned to impatience. I tore open the envelope and clutched Tuatara's new album, a collaboration with poet Coleman Barks, in my hands. I couldn't wait to listen to it but I didn't want to start listening until I was somewhere I could sit and take it all in without interruption.
With these thoughts swirling, I began my journey with The Here And The Gone and I'm amazed. Tuatara takes a blank tapestry and colors it with shapes and textures as Barks delivers his timeless poetry in his own inimitable fashion. I listen to the first lines of "A Grainy Taste" and I'm struck by the way they describe the experiences of my afternoon.
Without a net I catch a falcon and release it to the air, hunting God
This wine I drink today was never held in a clay jar
I love this world
Is that what “A Grainy Taste” is? It can be because that's what experiencing music is for me. Am I chasing the music or is the music chasing me? Who's releasing who into the air in this scene? It doesn't matter. I love this world. I've listened to "A Grainy Taste" 35 times this year and I may listen to it another 35 before it's over.
I love this world.
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