LETTERS
Where do I want my music to take me?
Editor:
Mr. Austin, you are so correct in your editorial “Spirited away by music” (AWSI, Vol.42 No.10). I often think of my record collection (be it vinyl or digital) as a library of souls captured in a specific time and place. When I sit down to listen I’ll ask myself, “Where do I want to go?” or “How do I feel now, and who else in my library feels that exact same way right now?”
From that beginning, I’ll let those souls take me along a path that can lead me to happiness, or sadness, to full-on party mode or to intellectual insights I never had before. Many times, I’ll jump around from artist to artist as they lead me down a path that I (most often) wasn’t expecting. Other times, there can be just one particular singer, musician, or composer who wants to keep me company all by themselves. Sometimes I can listen for hours; sometimes I’m spent after just a few very intense minutes.
As Sasha Matson writes in My Back Pages, “Emotions and memories can be brought back to life by the listener who, in his or her determined pursuit of music, invests in it a certain passion.” That passion is surely a two-way street, reviving the passion inside the artist and in us, the listener. —Jay Jackson
Orlando, FL
Well-rounded
Editor:
I’m a septuagenarian, published author, pseudo-audiophile, and decades-long subscriber, so perhaps the sharp points of my youth have been rounded by age and experience. Rather than critique every review in your exceptional publication, , seeking to find fault, I read every word trying to learn more and be more cogent in the appreciation of my beloved hobby.
