Ch-ch-ch-No More Hidden Chord

To my legions of adoring fans: I am, sadly, shutting down The Hidden Chord Blog. Don't cry, no, please...Now ain't the time for your tears. It was a good run. This is the 41st and final blog entry. Allow me to explain.

Music blogs are quite plentiful. It's hard to be a fresh voice on "the scene", whatever the scene may be. Popular music has changed so much since I first fell in love with it in the mid 1980's. It's so much easier to get your hands on and there's so much of it!!! And there are so many people constantly reviewing it, taking on "different" angles in regards to the old stuff. The advent of the Internet has made the music industry a tad overwhelming. Not that I don't still love it, it's just that, I think my aspirations to be a music journalist would have been more suited to the late '60s, early '70s, than the days of the sprawling fields of bloggers that inhabit our early 21st century times.

Man, oh man, I do love music, though! I thank/blame my dad for this, since it was his Beatles records that my brother and I listened to constantly and it was his voice over the radio that made it something special. Over the years I've had my obsessions: the aforementioned Beatles, Hendrix, The Who, The Doors. I had my Southern Rock phase with Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, .38 Special. I even caved into some hair metal in the mid to late '80s with Def Leppard and Tesla. Of course there was grunge: Pearl Jam was initially my favorite, but that naturally led to Soundgarden and Alice in Chains...and though I was late to them, you couldn't deny the genius of Kurt and Nirvana. '90s alt-rock was amazing to me. And as I got into college, I came to love jazz...Coltrane still puts me into a different state of mind that I can't fully express through words. And Charlie Parker? Possibly the greatest American musician of all time! I went through a folk phase where I discovered Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Odetta, John Prine, and one of my enduring favorites: Steve Goodman.

These days my tastes are a bit all over the place, I guess. Maybe slightly favoring "indie rock", but certainly not limited to it. Wilco, Spoon, Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, Grizzly Bear...These are just some favorites. It's always been hard for me to pin down my absolute favorites, though. I'm sure I'll be wishing I added a few more later.

Music brings out certain reactions that are more emotional than rational. Writing is primarily a function of rationality, I suppose, so maybe it makes sense that I have a hard time knowing what to write about. Yes, on the one hand there is SO MUCH, but on the other hand, writing about music is like listening to food. If you spend too much time doing it, you're really missing the point.

I've had some fabulous opportunities given to me as a music journalist. I've been lucky enough to interview artists and every so often get paid to write a few sentences about rock & roll. I fell in love with Austin, TX because of music. And it's always been my hope that I could share that passion and pure love and joy of music with others. But then again, it's extremely personal to me. I could tell you all about seeing Lou Reed and Moby duet on "Walk on the Wild Side", but there is a certain sadness I feel when I can't accurately CAPTURE that amazing moment! Even if I had a video camera that day, it still wouldn't have done justice to the actual moment Grumpy Old Lou took the stage!

Maybe I'll still have more to say about music. I'm sure I will, in fact. I just don't want to limit myself to just that. If you want excellent music writing all the time, I'm sure you know where to find it. It's everywhere.

So what now for me? I'm going to start a new blog. It very well may be just called andypulliam.blogspot.com, but don't quote me on that just yet because I haven't checked to see if that's available! Maybe I'll take some time to think of something more creative, but we'll see. Anyhow, the format is mostly going to be open-ended, with maybe a slight more emphasis on fiction writing. I write a lot of fiction for myself, but I think I'm at a point where I'm ready to take the leap and give it, for what it's worth, if anything, to the weird, vast universe that is the Internet. I plan on still writing about music when the mood strikes me. Maybe I'll write some non-fiction essays too. Jeebus knows, I know a lot of interesting people without having to make things up. Who knows? I just enjoy writing and I enjoy documenting the wonderful/bizarre/heartbreaking/troubling/fabulous/ridiculous thing that is life and the human mind/condition.

I hope you'll join me.

But as always, support your local music scene and never stop trying to discover that music that has that power to elevate us to that unexplainable "other" plane. Let me know when you find it!