For those of us over 60..

@hapinoregon, you’re my kinda guy! Are you actually in Oregon? Portland perhaps?

@prof, I feel your pain. Musical taste is purely subjective and personal. I too find The Moody Blues insufferable (except for their debut Go Now album, when future Wings member Denny Laine was a member). The Allmans were okay (except for Duane, who was a great guitarist), but somewhat over-rated imo (their drummers are terrible!). But see, I have gone back and discovered the original sources of the music theirs is based upon, and I find most white versions of black music inferior, with some exceptions. No offense intended slaw! The Dead are too complicated to discuss in a forum, but I completely understand why you find their appeal bewildering. How do you feel about Phish? ;-)

slaw, I became deeply into Lucinda after discovering her in the mid-80’s (and meeting her at a Long Ryders’ show in Hollywood. Her at-the-time husband was their drummer.). I lost interest in her after her Car Wheels album, her follow-up albums not aligning with my then-current musical tastes.

But I have been catching up with her, and now can’t get enough. Due to the price of even a non-audiophile LP being at least twice that of a CD, and the generally indifferent sound quality of many Pop (as in non-Classical) recordings, I spring for LP’s only of my very favorite artists, one of whom in now Lucinda (again). I fell in love with her again while listening to the West album. I get delirious listening to the title song, the most romantic one I’ve heard in many years.

Being as timeless as they are, The Band have been on my turntable and in my CD players since 1969 (I didn’t "get" them until a year after Music From Big Pink came out, but for years have listened to that album every single day. Seriously.).

And you don’t more timeless than, or more applicable to the "human condition", than J.S. Bach. There were more geniuses in his time, and he was---and remains---the King of the hill.

I could live on a musical diet of just The Band and J.S. Bach if I had to, but I’d sure miss Dylan, Iris Dement, Buddy Miller, Dave Edmunds, Hank Williams, Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, and all my other favorites. Luckily, we mid-century relics have our massive music libraries to elevate us out of the mundane. I truly pity young people; they are in for some bad times ahead. Hope reincarnation is a myth!

Hank Williams: "No matter how I struggle and strive, I’ll never get out of this wor-uld alive."

slaw, I don’t know what you mean by "best describes you/your life as you see it." I’ll just say the band that currently really knocks me out is The Fabulous Superlatives, Marty Stuart’s "backing" band (they are actually more like collaborators), comprised of the fantastic Nashville studio drummer and harmony singer Harry Stinson (he is SOOO good), guitarist Kenny Vaughan (I first heard him live in Lucinda Williams’ band on the Car Wheels tour), and Nashville studio pedal steel great Chris Scruggs playing bass (he’s also a real fine drummer).

If you want to be as blown away as was David Letterman, watch the clip of Marty and TFS performing live on Dave’s old show, viewable on You Tube. Just insanely great.