I sit here on the couch at Upbeat Cafe (our Cafe & Music Venue in our hometown of Georgetown, KY) listening to Megan Jean and the Klay Family Band, playing live on stage and listen in wonder (why does this still surprise me?) at the talent that is on display.

As an owner of a small venue in the heart of the United States, I see an endless stream of artists who grace our stage with their musicianship.  The vast majority of these talented folks will never see a major record deal.  Some don’t even want a major record deal.  Some are too young to even know what a real record is (was!).  All of them are blessed with voices and ability that the rest of us would pay thousands of dollars on guitar/fiddle/piano lessons to try and emulate, but never come close.

Megan Jean and Byrne are no exception.  Their music is a healthy mix of Folk, Americana, Country and Bluegrass: all of it delivered with punch and clarity.

For parents worried about their kids listening to good music, you need to look up your nearest venue, be that a coffee shop, or some other small venue, and expose your children to LIVE music.

Why live?

being in the heart of Bluegrass country, we see our fair share of Bluegrass bands at Upbeat.  Now, I don’t own a Bluegrass CD at home and it’s not music I would listen to in the car, but live…

Live is a different story.  To be immersed in sound, feel the bass vibrate the wood floor under your feet, see the interaction of the band members as they navigate through a song - you just can’t beat it!

So, I encourage you to go listen to live music and support these sometimes unknown, but always great music.

(And always buy a CD!)

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the Upbeat Radio Podcast.  We have a new producer onboard - Andy Froehlich.  Andy will be responsible for making sure we continue to produce the podcast on a regular basis.  We welcome Andy and encourage you to check out the podcast.

Upbeat Radio features music from artists from all over the world and you will never have to worry about the content as we listen to every song that is submitted to us and only those that we qualify as “E for Everyone” make it to the podcast.

You can click on the link on the menu on the left to check it out.  If you like it, why not subscribe and tell your friends where they can find safe music for their children.

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Been a while since I posted here, so I thought I’d better get on it!

I just wanted to let you all know that we are working on our official launch of our digital download store Upbeat Sounds.  We should be ready for our major marketing push, along with a concerted effort to sign-up more artists in September/October.

The artists we will be looking to have join us and offer their music through Upbeat Sounds will be those who are producing family-friendly, all ages music in all styles.  Just another way we want to promote great, safe music as well as help these great artists.

I’ll post more when we have more details.

I was reviewing a CD for another of our podcasts, the Celtic Folk Podcast, when I realised that the world of Classical music has always been a good bet for the title “safe music.”

The CD to which I refer is from a young woman by the name of Rachel Barton Pine and is called Scottish Fantasies for Violin and Orchestra.    It features Rachel and guest performer and much-renowned Scottish fiddler, Alasdair Fraser, playing  classical pieces with a Scottish theme.  Now in this day of modern gizmos such as iPods and the like, why would classical music even be mentioned?

Well, this is a blogcast about music that parent would find fit for younger ears and classical fits that definition.

I often have the local classical station tuned-in on my car’s radio as I head off down the road and so the last time I had my two daughters in the car I had some PBS show blaring away.  I asked my kids if they liked the music I was listening to and, a little to my surprise, they said yes!  Now, Katie, my oldest, plays the violin and the piece was a violin piece, but as I listened to Rachel’s CD today, I thought she would really get a kick out of this mix of classical and traditional Scots… and I bet a whole lot more would too!

So check out Scottish Fantasies for Violin and Orchestra today.

OK, so a little off topic: Live music.

This past Saturday evening at Upbeat Cafe we hosted a band from Somerset, KY called The Flint Ridge Millers. They’re a four-piece Bluegrass/Acoustic/Jam Band that threw in a little Newgrass, Jazzgrass and Springstein to boot. Why should I be talking about them on a blogcast about digital music downloads?

The only place on the internet that you can find these guys is on MySpace. MySpace gets a lot of bad press - and in some cases this negative face of MySpace is quite disturbing; from spam messages trying to sell you things to invitations to not so kid-friendly websites, but the one thing about this online community is the great array of music.

Again, this can be both good and bad. The Flint Ridge Millers are, however, in the former category and the only way you can hear their music is on their MySpace page.

They are a great group of talented musicians and fine young men. Check them out!

Al.

 OstinAuto [2:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For fans of Fleetwood Mac, Aimee Mann, Paul Simon, The Police, Natalie Merchant, Sheryl Crow, here’s a great CD from an indie artists that I can listen to over and over again: The World Spinz Anyway from OstinAuto.

Their music is upbeat and fun, as well as very well produced. Here’s a link to their music and I’ve included a couple of audio clips of their songs Lost At Love, My Life’s On Hold & The Whole World Spinz Anyway.

You can find their music on the Upbeat Radio Podcast, as well as their website.

Enjoy!

Al.

 Music Quality - SM2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As part of my task of sorting through the many submissions we receive for our two regular podcasts (Upbeat Radio and the Celtic Folk Podcast), I am always impressed with the constant, high quality of the music.

Today’s musicians are able to create music in their home studios, and in some cases in their family room, that have a quality of production that would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago. The availability of powerful computers, music recording software, high quality recording hardware, editing software, etc have made this the first generation where anyone with a modicum of talent can produce a first class product.

The standard I see day-to-day is very high; I rarely have to turn down submissions due to poor production quality. On the other hand most of what I do refuse falls into two categories: (a) poor production and (b) lack of talent/poorly executed performance.

I have attached a short audio file that gives you a sense of what I’m talking about. The first clip on the file is of a poorly produced song. The great advantage of all this technology is that it makes it easy for the artist to record. The great disadvantage is exactly the same! The difference is that the artist doesn’t take the time to learn how to use the equipment and software to its fullest extent and consequently the listener, how, by the way, is becoming more and more used to extremely high quality recordings, can spot a home recording within the first 15 seconds of the track.

Our second clip is a quick example of a lack of ability. Think the early rounds of American Idol! Some folks just don’t know or haven’t been told that they really are not that good. Thankfully this represents the smallest percentage of songs I reject.

The third clip represents the majority of the music I listen to: excellent production, quality performance and first rate, talented artists!

Again, the vast majority of what I hear is excellent and I enjoy not only listening to the music but being able to help the bands and artists find a new audience. Good luck to all of them. It’s a long-hard slog and the American Idol dream of shortcutting the system and gaining quick fame is just that - a dream. However, there are some extremely talented artists out there and they don’t have to have a Top 40 hit for you to like their music and buy their CDs.

 SM1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We kick off with an easy introduction to music podcasts.

“What are podcasts?” I hear you ask. Well, if you are reading this we have made an audio version of this very post and put it on the website as part of the notes; just look for the player at the start of the post. This audio content is made available through a feed service (we use Feedburner) which magically takes this content and distributes it to all the agencies that provide these feeds to people who want to listen to the audio or read the post such as iTunes, Google, Yahoo, Juice and others.

Podcasts can be either audio or video and the subject matter can cover virtually anything. If someone wants to talk about something - anyone can make a podcast, or vidcast for video. There are a whole heap of them that provide their listeners with free music and are a great source for finding that next new band or singer. But what are the drawbacks?

As far as we’re concerned, it’s the very fact that anyone can talk and present their podcast about anything that should have parents looking closely at the content.

Many music podcasts are suitable for all ages. Many of them are created by well meaning and responsible individuals that follow simple rules that reduce the risk of unsuitable content reaching their audience. Some are not suitable for younger children and are tagged with a warning of explicit content.

Podcasts can be listened to in a couple of ways:

1. Go to the website that is producing the podcast and listen to a streaming version. This is just like listening to the radio with the only difference being you can stop and start it again.
2. Download the audio file from the website. This, obviously, puts the audio file on your computer and you can listen to it at any time using an audio player.
3. Subscribe to the podcast using a “podcatcher” software such as the ever popular iTunes, Juice, Yahoo, Google, etc. These software packages are most often free and can also be used to organize your computer’s entire music collection. This subscription option also allows for automatic downloading of each new episode or post to your computer without you having to go to the website and check for new episodes. By subscription I don’t mean money, it’s just the term used to describe being signed-up for regular updates - kinda like a mailing list.

To show you how easy it is to listen to a download, I’ve recorded a short digital audio (MP3) file for you and if you click on the player at the top of this post you’ll be able to hear it play (just make sure your computer’s speakers are on and the volume is set, or you have earphones on). Our player also gives you the option to download and save the file to your computer so you can listen to it later. We also have links on the sidebar of our website that tells you how to subscribe to the feed of the Safe Music Blogcast and receive all the posts automatically. So give it a try - it’s quite painless!
But how do you really know if the content is suitable for your kids?That’s where the Safe Music Blogcast comes in. We realize we cannot review every podcast and piece of music that is available all over the world on the Internet, but we give you a source, a base, from which to start. We give you tips and point you in the right direction to help you make more informed decisions. We call it a blogcast because it’s not just a blog and it’s not a full-blown podcast but we’ll use all sorts of different media to help you make informed choices for the well-being of your children. We’ll post simple blog entries, produce simple audio podcasts like this one, create downloadable pdf documents, produce videos, review music and link to bands and artists that we recommend as meeting our Safe Music Blogcast requirements.

Check out our homepage and subscribe to our feed, drop us an email and let us know what you think and if you have any suggestions for us. We’re looking forward to helping you try and keep up with your digitally savvy kids!

Al.

Welcome to the Safe Music Blogcast, a parent’s guide to music downloads. Our goal is to help you, the concerned parent become familiar with some of the thousands of tunes from some of the hundreds of artists that have made their music available for download on the Internet.

If you are concerned about what your child is listening to, then we’re here to give a little advice and recommend “kid-friendly” music, based on a set of simple requirements (see our About page), as well as guide you through the maze of software, hardware and the myriad of other issues associated with a technology that you might not be too happy with, but your 12-year-old can handle with the combined expertise of a rocket scientist and brain surgeon!

We call this a Blogcast because we will be posting advice in many forms - regular blog posts, (audio) podcasts, videos, pdf documents and more. We’re glad you found us and hope you subscribe to the Safe Music Blogcast and find it helpful and informative as well as fun.

Al.