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An Open Letter to Snuffy Walden

W.G. "Snuffy" Walden is one of the most prolific composers of music for film and television in this era.  His music has enriched some of my favorite TeeVee shows, among them "The Wonder Years" and "The West Wing" (how would we have survived the Bush years without "The West Wing"?). 

This morning I discovered that Mr. Walden, who is an outstanding acoustic guitarist in his own right, has at least one recording of his original music in release on Windham Hill Records.  I also discovered that the album is not available digitally except as a purchased download via iTunes, etc.

AsI try not to purchase music through iTunes any more, the following missive to Mr. Walden describes the resulting dilemma: 

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Dear Mr. Walden,

I guess I've been a closet fan of yours since "The Wonder Years" days, though I have not made a concerted effort to keep up with you as a recording artist or performer.  I may not have even considered that as an option.  I have only known of you as a film and TV composer (and guitarist extraordinaire in those contexts). 

This morning I discovered "the rest of you." 

It all started when I fired up Pandora.com -- the Internet "radio" site -- to a custom channel I created a few months back based on Christopher Guest's "The Beyman Bros." recording.  My Beyman Bros. channel played a track that knocked me out, and I stopped to see what it was. 

It was "Angela Smiled," which I guess came from a Windham Hill compilation, "A Quiet Revolution."

Turns out that may well be the ONLY Snuffy Walden track that's available digitally outside of iTunes.  It may be a fluke that I heard it at all.  How could it have happened at all?

It happened because this is typically how I discover and "consume" (I hate that word) music these days: 

First of all, my MacBook is my jukebox and the browser is my iPod; I use a program called Airfoil to send the signal from my browser via WiFi to my stereo.  I listen to a LOT of new music that way; Lala lets me listen to anything I want in their catalog, in its entirety, for the first time, for free.  If it's something I need to hear again, I can then purchase unlimited -- though web-based -- access to those recordings for 10c a track or 80c for the whole "web album."  For example, that "Beyman Bros." album that is the foundation of the Pandora channel I was listening to, I also own the "web album" of that release in my Lala.com library and listen to it often when I need some instrumental music while I'm doing my own work.

I don't use iTunes Store much any more.  In fact, when I go to Starbucks and pick up their "Free Download of the Week" card, I take it home with a chuckle -- knowing that I'm going straight to Lala.com to listen to the whole album that one track came from.  I am MUCH more likely to become enamored of something new -- and thus become a fan of the artist -- by hearing a whole album, or at least a whole song.  30-second clips?  That's so... 1999. 

In the musical world that I now inhabit, the ONLY reason to buy "records" any more is to make them transportable, i.e. to transfer them to my iPhone so I can listen to them in the car.  But I've already got tons of music on my iPhone that I'm never going to have time to listen to   And then there's my XM Satellite Radio receiver, and Pandora on my iPhone, and besides, I'm usually in the car when NPR is on... So there's really not much of an imperative to "buy" individual recordings any more. 

I don't need to "own" what I want to listen to.  I just need to be able to listen to it.  So there's still plenty of reason to have access to music I want to listen to, and artists whose work I admire and has enriched the soundtracks of my own life.  But (just about) the only time I buy physical CDs any more is when an artist appears in my town (Nashville) and I can buy it from them in person -- and get an autograph.  Cheesy, I know, but... that's the way it works in the new paradigm. 

Essentially, what I'm describing for you, the paradigm I'm following here, is the "Celestial Jukebox" model of digital distribution that is almost upon us. 

Simply defined, the "Celestial Jukebox" supplies 'whatever I want to hear, whenever I want to hear it, wherever I am.'  That is the end-zone that all of this digital music delivery technology is taking us to;  And if that is indeed the end-zone, then services like Pandora and Lala.com (and another called Spotify that is not yet available in the US) are "first-and-goal on the 10 yard line." 

Except that Snuffy Walden is still back on the 50 yard-line with iTunes, 30-second clips, and CDs that can only be purchased through Amazon, etc.

After hearing "Angela Smiled," I followed my usual pattern:  first to Lala.com, where there is nothing listed.  Your page at Lala.com says only, "This artist's albums are not yet available for listening on Lala. Thanks for your patience as we work to license more content. To view the full discography of this artist, click here."   I clicked, and found two compilations listed, and I don't actually see anything by you on either of them.

So I went back to Pandora and I created a "Snuffy Walden" channel.  And guess what?  It appears that "Angela Smiled" is the ONLY Snuffy Walden track in the whole Pandora library.  Yup, it's a fluke that I heard it all, because right now my new "Snuffy Walden" channel is playing everything BUT Snuffy Walden. 

OK, I apologize now, this missive has gone on MUCH longer than I intended, so let me get to the point:

1) I think it would be worth your while to do whatever it takes to get your collections into both Lala.com and Pandora. If that's unappealing or too daunting then...If I knew how to do it, I'd do it for you. 

2) What do you think is the likelihood that I could get a SIGNED copy of the 2001 Windham Hill Release, "Music by W.G. Snuffy Walden" ?  I'll gladly pay the regulation $15 for it, but I also realize that raises all kinds of e-commerce issues like processing payments etc.  I don't even see a commerce function on your website.

I guess there's a third alternative:  I could wait until you come to Nashville, either to perform and/or record.  Composers and artists of your caliber have been known to visit this backwater on occasion.  A long shot, I know, but it doesn't hurt to make the suggestion.

So let me know if there's any way to get that "signed" copy of the CD, before I put my tail between my legs and breakdown and send another $10 into that bottomless maw known as iTunes...

Apple gets enough of my money already, and given your level of success, you may not need the $15 either, but I'll make you a deal... I'll put my autograph on a check and send it to you if you'll put your autograph on a CD and send it to me.

Deal?

Thanks,

--PS

The Waymores

Tom Kimmel, Don Henry, and Sally Barris as "The Waymores" at the Bluebird Cafe - August 18, 2009:

Transformative Moments

Earlier this year, I applied for the Leadership Music class of 2010.  As part of the application process, somebody on the screening committee asked me to compile a more detailed bio/resume of myself.  Rather than compile the typical list of things I've done, places I've worked, etc. etc.,  I found myself thinking about a couple of moments that occurred during my first year in Nashville which set course I followed through the rest of the 1990s. 

My essay about "Transformative Moments"  follows after this video, which was recently shot by Harry Simpson at the Bluebird Cafe of Michael Lille singing one of the songs I remember hearing for the first time in 1994 or '95.

Michael Lille: "Life On The Run"

Transformative Moments: 1994-95

If you can find the "25 Random Things About Me" on Facebook, that'll give you some details of the oddball odyssey my life has been.  But I've been thinking about a couple moments that transpired during my first year in Nashville that you might find a little more illuminating re: what really drives me.

First, a little background:

After the drugs and alcohol wore off (in 1987), I decided to give reality one more try, but music and playing my guitar was about as much of a concession to reality as I was willing to make. I was living on Maui at the time;  In 1992 I went to LA, first to the Grove School of Music, and then in '93 I  graduated from the Musicians Institute. Yes, I actually have a certificate from the "Guitar Institute of Technology."  Just don't ask me to play any argumentative or demolished chords...

Late in '93, one of the instructors at MI said something about moving to Nashville, and I thought that sounded like a good idea.  I spent a few (cold, rainy) days here between Christmas and New Year's, rather liked it despite the dreary weather, and  went back to Los Angeles to wait for a sign from God.  At 4:27 on the morning of January 17, 1994, God himself woke me up and said sta-a-a-a-a-a-rt  pa-a-a-a-acking...." As Mike Williams said once, "Paul responds to acts of nature; he was in an earthquake in California and it moved him all the way to Tennessee."

I was not all that keen on country music, but I liked that it's mostly acoustic guitar-based, which has always been my thing (when my high school classmates were all getting electric guitars, I went in the other direction and got a Gibson J-50; see "Random Things," items #9 and #22).  I really had no idea what I was going to do when I got here. I got a 'temp' job doing computer stuff at the HCA data center.   I started attending classes and seminars at NSAI and hanging out at places like the Bluebird.  I played guitar for a couple of songwriters.  I wrote a tune or two myself.

This was the period when the Internet was just beginning to bubble into public consciousness.  I was already aware of it, and had in fact been using computers and been online one way or another since 1979.  As I started to see what people were doing with this new Internet thing, I figured there might be some kind of business opportunity. 

Which brings me to the two "transformative moments" that I thought I'd share with you:

The first was a night sometime late in 1994, when I went to a songwriter circle at the Commodore Room at the Holiday Inn on West End.  There was a songwriter performing that night who played intricately melodic acoustic guitar accompaniments and sang a song about children playing by the water's edge on an island in Indonesia.  His name was Michael Lille.  The chorus he sang that night goes...

And they kneel on the ground
And raise their heads up to the sky
And they thank the Lord for another day begun
And the wheel goes 'round
And far away on the other side
You and I live life on the run.

Listening to that very delicate finger-style guitar, hearing that softly husky voice sing that gentle lyric... that was the moment I realized that there was a lot more to Nashville than just country music. 

It wa right around that same time that I heard another singer songwriter, this time in a round at the Bluebird, perform a song that resonated deeply with me.  His name was Tom Kimmel.  He sang a song with a suspended-chord progression that carried this transcendent lyric:

We're lifted up by angels
Higher than the world
Strong enough to leave it
Bound to learn the secrets
Angels never heard

Close enough to heaven
Above the rain
Darkness cannot reach us
Let the angels teach us
Only love remains
We're lifted up by angels

I did not know Tom then, but after the show I introduced myself and asked if it would be possible to get a recording of that song and a copy of the lyrics.  Tom graciously sent me a cassette and a lyric sheet, and I figured out the chords and added that song to the repertoire that I was performing in those days.  We traded a few e-mails in the weeks that followed.  The friendship we still enjoy stared over a song about angels.

Michael Lille and Tom Kimmel demonstrated to me the depth of the talent that this town possesses, most of it unknown outside of Davidson County.  Sometime in the winter of 1995, it dawned on me that this new Internet thing might be a way to promote that wealth of unrecognized talent to the rest of the world. 

In February or March of '95,  I asked Tom Kimmel  "what would you think if I tried to sell some of your CDs on the Internet?" Tom, a singer/songwriter friend of his named Michael Camp, and I, each put $300 into a bank account. 

In June I left my temp job at HCA.  I didn't have time for a job. I had too much work to do.    

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(FYI, I was not accepted into the Leadership Music class of 2010. But, then, considering the friends I've encountered who were also turned down, it appears I'm in good company on that score).

Got Guzzlers?

Seen in a Nashville parking lot, enroute from Alaska to Florida. Must be fun in tight corners.

Les Paul & "The Log"

In the summer of 2003, I had the privilege of attending an interview with Les Paul, the legendary guitarist and inventor who passed away yesterday at the age of '94.

The occasion might be described at the "Induction of The Log" into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  "The Log" is the guitar that Les Paul built from a 4x4 fence-post and the body of an Epiphone guitar in 1939. This is essentially the precursor of the first solid-body electric guitars. 

In 2003,Les Paul donated "The Log" to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN, where it now resides alongside Mother Maybell Carter's Gibson L5 and other inconic instruments of music history.  Concurrent with the donation, Les Paul visited the Hall and conducted an hour-long interview discussing his career as both a musician and seminal innovator of music technology. 

These were some of the very first photos I shot with a digital SLR - a Nikon D100 that I picked up in the summer of 2003.

Les Paul & "The Log" - July, 2003 - Images ©2009 Ann & Paul Schatzkin