Makes me think of that John Peel quote...

“Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don’t have any surface noise. I said, ‘Listen, mate, *life* has surface noise”

 

It's sad isn't it.
Luckily shiny CD gems are still made. Folk it ain't but I laid my hands on a few Thin Lizzy box sets which are fantastic - as items, and in sound. However I wonder how many they make. These go for collector rates within months of release. Yet, they feel like last of the Mohicans.
At my Roots aan de Zaan gigs whenever I book an act also selling vinyl at their merch table, the LP's are the things that sell. It never fails to puzzle me 😂

Somewhat appalled at myself, but I appear to actually be going to see Rush after all.  The Sunday at the Co-op.  As far away from the stage as it is practically possible to be.  £112.  Utterly ridiculous, but what the hell...I can pretend to be 16 again (my age the last time I saw them)...

If anybody is interested in the songbook, here is the listing on eBay.  Happy to deal either on there or directly if anybody here wants it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/257379839039

Indeed he did! He opened with “Cassidy” by Bob Weir and closed with a GD song whose title I forget but is at setlist.fm

Did he play any Grateful Dead?

Sunday night I saw Warren Haynes at the Paramount Theater. He played solo, without a band, for two hours. He mixed Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule tunes with solo compositions and a smattering of well-chosen covers, including a magnificent rendition of "He Ain't Give You None" (sounding very much like Van Morrison). Because of the format, we didn't get a lot of guitar solos. This was clearly his intention, though maybe a few shredders in the audience would have been disappointed. Some of the shows from this tour are streaming on nugs.net, so I recommend a listen.

Monday night we saw Emmylou Harris at the same venue. Although it was billed as an evening with EH, it was in reality a guitar circle with Emmylou, Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp, performing the music of Guy Clark. I was unfamiliar with Verlon and Shawn, both of whom are skilled players and singers with long-standing connections to Guy. Their stories and choices of material were clearly honed over years of performance. Emmylou was kind of tacked on. She added high harmony to a number of songs, told stories of her own, and contributed verses to some tunes (aided by lyric sheets). Altogether, it was a loving and musically rewarding tribute to a mercurial songwriter.

It seems to be part of a trend among the younger generation to look for alternatives to everything being digital. The latest thing I read about was how people are starting to write letters again. Or in the case of kids, for the first time.

With vinyl I think it's being sold as something you can have alongside your streaming app or mp3 download. I've heard that the likes of Taylor Swift shift large quantities of vinyl as part of the whole merchandise pack. So it's not about sound quality as far as I can tell.

And yes, before HMV closed its shop in Lancaster there was probably as much floorspace given to vinyl and there was to CDs. We now only have a small independent record shop selling LPs and an Oxfam book and record shop selling CDs and vinyl.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but whenever I visit record shops these days, here in The Netherlands, the absolute bulk on offer is vinyl. But I got rid of all my vinyl in, ooo, 1997 or so, and am definitely not returning to it however hip vinyl may be(come). I have zero understanding of how on earth vinyl became big again. CD to me wins in every aspect except in size as far as I am concerned. And I am kind of past the age where I care about size, haha.
I find CD an ideal medium (whilst retaining the art of the album format which you can't do streaming).

I did get questions about releasing these albums on vinyl. I looked into it. Very costy and you can only put so much on an LP (my releases would at a minimum have been double LP's). And since I have zero affinity with the medium anyway, I didn't venture into that. I partly did this CD label for fun, after all. Am still proud of the fact that they are out there.

yes its all or nothing. No music only tickets. It sold out in a couple of days anyway. We're looking at it as more than just a festival.