I spent a long time not realizing how much I loved Tom Petty's music. Ever since my full conversion to rock fandom at age 15, Petty's just always sort of been there. I took it for granted. Petty was never my favorite artist, but not in that "I'm not trying to be insulting but I really didn't like him" kind of way. ...

In spite of my love of physical albums — in vinyl or CD form — I have certainly come around on my use of digital streaming music. While I remain a grumpy old man who loves my liner notes, I've found both Spotify and Pandora to by useful in their own ways when it comes to getting a better taste of an artist or in constructing a "station" to exactly the kind of stuff I want to hear at a particular time...

With all due respect to the late Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry, the saddest music news I heard on Friday was of the death of country legend Don Williams. I was scrolling Twitter late this afternoon when I can across the following tweet from NPR "All Songs Considered" co-host Robin Hilton:...

While making a deep dive into the Beatles catalog recently, I tried to recall when I first became conscious of the band that changed rock 'n' roll music — and probably kept it the dominant form of western popular music for another 50 years...

I don't remember the first time I heard a Glen Campbell song. It was just sort of always there, part of the fabric of my life growing up in a country-listening home. My late mother adored Campbell. As a kid, I imagined it was for his All-American Boy good looks as much as for any merit the music he was making. The older I've gotten, I realize I was selling both Glen and Mom short...

U2 can be a pretty polarizing band. You either love them or you love hating on them. There's little middle ground. People either think they're on the short list of all-time great rock bands or think they're completely overrated and overwrought...

Friday got unexpectedly busy, which is one of the things I love about this job. Sometimes this job takes a sudden right turn into what we call "hard news" — crimes, fires, wrecks, etc. Those days tend to be both depressing and exhilarating at the same time...

From a certain perspective, your teenage years are the best time to be introduced to good music. Music just means more in your mid-to-late teens than it does at any other point in your life. Even as our tastes change over the course of our lives, we carry that music with us. That's the reason that no matter what I'm listening to currently, no artist, album or genre will ever mean as much to me as Pearl Jam and Led Zeppelin did when I was 17 years old...

Been revisiting some of Ryan Adams' albums from just after the turn of the millennium. I've decided he needs to play more harmonica...

Bob Dylan turns 76 today. When I came to that realization this morning, I realized I also had to post something about Bob today. This wasn't easy. First of all, the man has a lot of material — 38 studio albums, hundreds of songs and lord know how many concerts...

In my time of thinking way too much about music, I've observed that there seems to come a time in a punk band's lifetime that the members have to make a choice. There's a young, nihilistic anger often associated with punk rock that doesn't really have much staying power. Punk rockers, like the rest of us, get older and their lives get more complicated than when they're just young and mad...

I grew up listening to a lot of country music (with just enough of a dose of '80s MTV mixed in, thanks to my brother). About I was getting into high school, I got away from contemporary country music and never really came back. As such, I've spent the better part of the last two decades wondering what's wrong with current country music. Too slick? Not "country" enough? (Whatever that means.) Not true to its roots? Too formulaic? Just a bunch of pop songs with twang?...

If you've been on the site at all today, you'll know I've taken a whole bunch of pictures of the new clocks being installed at the Putnam County Courthouse. If not? I'm not offended, but check it out now or the story tomorrow in print...

What does one of the Seattle Grunge Big 4 of the early 1990s have to do with a current purveyor of folk/blues/soul/gospel/Americana/rock?...

Townes Van Zandt would have turned 73 years old today. Unfortunately for those of us who can really appreciate a good songwriter, Townes finally drank himself to death on New Year's Day 1997. If you've heard of him, good for you. If you haven't but are familiar with good country music, you may be familiar with his work through covers by Emmylou Harris and Don Williams or Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. ...

Driving my son to school takes approximately one song, so it helps when the good folks at WTTS make it a good one. One day earlier this week, they did not disappoint. Shortly after starting the truck, the following song started:...

I used to fancy myself a music critic and this blog is still usually centered on music, so here’s my hot take on the Grammys: I didn’t watch. I’m not sure I’ve ever watched the Grammy broadcast, at least not in its entirety. It’s always struck me as a self-congratulatory exercise by the major record companies to continue to promote their own products...

Caught in the winter doldrums? Well, stop it. You live in Indiana. It’s bound to get cold this time of year. It’s when it’s not cold in early February that you should probably get worried. Besides, it may still be chilly outside, but at least the sun’s shining. It could be another one of those gray, boring February days...

For most of our 200-year history, at least one thing has united us as natives and residents of Indiana. We are Hoosiers. Not “Indianans.” Not “Indianians.” How is that even a thing, by the way? Why add an unneccessary syllable? What a strange word...

Things got busy on Friday so this post didn't make it in time. All the same, I don't want to leave this week out entirely. More often than not, this blog series is an insight into the music I've been obsessing over in a given week. Not so this time around, as I've mainly been listening to Bruce Springsteen, with a bit of Gaslight Anthem sprinkled in during the last couple of days...