Jim Pugh write-up in Forbes.com

Great write up about Jim Pugh and Little Village Foundation. in Forbes.com today.  Here's an easier to read/less adds version (hopefully the link lasts for a while)

I wish I could say Jim Pugh was a friend of mine, but the relationship is more one of fandom and Jim is just a very generous with his time.  My first direct encounter with Jim was at a recording of Sessions at West 54th in 1999 (season 3, Episode 4).  I luck-boxed my way into tickets via the mostly defunct Robert Cray Fans Yahoo group.   Had seats right next to Jim's organ.  He came out and offered us some of his gum.  I've be a Robert Cray fan for years and here I was being offered gum from a guy who I've listened to on Robert Cray tracks for years.  Star Struck.

Later on a group of us who were at the session caught a bunch of Robert Cray Band shows in several back to back nights in New England.  Robert Cray is a pretty shy and quiet guy.  He's always polite and gracious with his time, but you can tell he's not into fan interactions. As such I haven't had many interactions with him, but Jim, Karl and Keven, they were super cool and would hang out.  The Memphis Horns were on that tour and I got to meet Wayne Jackson‎ and Andrew Love as well.   It was a whirlwind weekend.

Because of that weekend, when ever I saw the band I could always count on a wave or point and smile from Jim.  It was easy to find me, I'd be one of the nerds pressed up against the stage.  When Kevin and Karl were fired from the Robert Cray Band,  Jim responded to my email asking what happened.  Like I said, he's been generous with his time and is really trying to do some good through Little Village Foundation.   There's some amazing music to be found through LVF.  Do your self a favor and check it out.  It's available on Apple Music if you're a subscriber, and on Amazon and CD Baby for most artists.

Ping gets more useful

I didn't get Ping from Apple.  What good was it?  I mean even if you had all the artists in the iTunes 'verse online and updating, so what?  Well with the recent update to iTunes, it's starting to become more of what I thought it should be.   They finally added some features that iLike.com and last.fm had all along.

iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like or Post about music right from your iTunes library. You can also easily see the recent activity of a selected artist in your library, or of all artists and friends you follow on Ping using the new Ping Sidebar.

So now it gets more integrated into the core App, you don't have to visit the iTunes store to view Ping info.  It has a nice side bar like ilike.com (a service I've stopped using some time ago).  You get a facebook/twitter style timeline of what others bought, followed, commented, etc.  All of this is nothing new in the 'social media' world.  Nor is it done innovatively or particularly well.  I think it's too much of a 'me too' move by Apple.  Simply putting Apples brand and market presence behind it isn't enough.  Google Wave?  Microsoft Zune or Bing? The product still has to be good and useful.  So far Ping seems to be neither to me.  It also seems to be solving a problem nobody has.  Facebook and Twitter tell me all about what my friends are up to.  Do I want to go yet another place to see what they're listening to?

Hopefully Apple will roll out a regular string of improvements to the service.  In typical Apple fashion they're not rushing into this.  They released the first, fairly crippled version a few weeks ago.  They've already released the first update.  With any luck they'll release another before the years end.  I'd like to see it incorporate the Genius suggestions some way.  It'd also be interesting to give out some kind of badge or award for listening and rating.  They also need to improve the way you find people to follow and they suggestions they generate. Some other interesting features would be to suggest a 'mood' a person is in based on the music they listen to.

Now on to the wild speculation based nothing except my wishful thinking.  Ok, suppose they get cool new features into Ping.  So what?  Is it enough to reach the tipping point?  I doubt it.  But what if it's part of a bigger plan?  What if Ping goes beyond iTunes and takes the next logical step and gets integrated into iPods, iPads and iPhones?  Now it's more than music.  But that's not enough. I can already twitter and facebook on those devices. What if it extends further to the AppleTV? Now it's about what I watched in addition to what I listened to.  Now it's getting interesting.  That's one niche that hasn't been filled by cable or FiOS.  Tivo, Roku and Boxee are headed there, but they're one dimensional.   Watch a great TV show, then comment about it to all your friends.  Even better if it could be done while watching.  Ping your buddy while watching; 'Hey, I know you'd do exactly what Wolowitz did with the robot arm!'  Now Ping becomes something more than a copycat app.

Anyway you slice it, Apple has a lot of work ahead of them if they hope to turn Ping into another reason to use iTunes and the Apple eco-system.

Christmas Greetings from Jim Pugh

I received a christmas card from Jim Pugh/Pastel Motif today.

While I suspect all purchasers of the CD are getting the card, I like to think mine was special :-)

Jim needs to put of a christmas album or MP3 download...

So long Kevin and Karl

So, I've been delaying this post for a while now. But it's time to put the issue to rest for me personally. A few weeks ago (sometime towards the end of October) Robert Cray let Kevin Hayes and Karl Sevareid go from The Robert Cray Band. We had a lot of discussion about it on the Robert Cray Fan Club. That, by itself was noteworthy. Its been a quiet year on the board from an RCB perspective. Anyway, I pretty much said my peace there, but want to re-iterate it here.

It is a bitter pill to swallow. This line up has been in place for over 16 years, eight studio albums, over 1000 live performances, not to mention the compilation albums. It may be over a private matter, but it's a pubic divorce and all diehard fans are going to be affected. So while we shouldn't publicly speculate about the private reasons why, it's fair for us to discuss and lament it's effect. For me, for now, it's not going to be "The Robert Cray Band" for a while. They broke up. Now it's Robert Cray featuring Jim Pugh. I'm sure this feeling will pass, just like when the Horn's left, but for now I'm still saddened by the news. Karl and Kevin were more than just band members, they were contributers. They have song writing credits across many albums. They worked so well together.

All of the best RCB shows I've seen have been with this foursome. Sometimes with the horns, some times not. In the late 80's I caught the RCB in Minnapolis. Back when it was the Richard Cousins, Peter Boe and David Olson. I don't have the same enthrallment memories of this show as I do the shows I saw in 2000 onward. I didn't get to see too many RCB shows before moving to Washington, DC. The MSP show and one appearance at the Bayfront Blues Fest in 1995 or 1996, I forget which year. I don't know if it's me that's changed or the band, but things just seemed 'better' from 2000 onward. It's probably just nostalgia sneaking up on me.

So now it's on with the Robert Cray group. Still can't call it "band" yet.

P.S. Kevin or Karl, if you're out there, drop me an email.... I'd love to know where you land next.

Music Brainz Picard

So my MP3 library's been a mess for a long time. I have a large folder full of MP3's called "Bad Tags". They're the tracks I don't listen to very often and have tags that are messed up. In most cases I'm too lazy to get the CD out of the attic and re-rip it and it would take forever to re-type them. My most common tag issue is truncated fields or the infamous "Track 01" song name from back in the days of using Real Jukebox. Man, those were the days. Then Sound Jam on the Mac. Nostalgia! Anyway, lots of bad albums.

Enter Music Brainz Picard. It makes cleaning them up a breeze! If you have MP3 tags that are wrong and want an easy tool to clean them up in, Music Brainz is the best free tool I've ever used. I've used some of the 'fee' based ones. They're good and all, but I don't like to pay for a tool I'm going to use once and never again. It's back-ended by the MusicBrainz meta data database and it quite extensive.

Jim Pugh/Pastel Motif

Jim Pugh (Robert Cray Band Keyboard maestro) has come out with a solo project.

http://pastelmotif.com/

As Jim himself put it:

Hi everybody!

For all those who enjoy deep spul groove Hammond B3 instrumental music check out

JimPugh/pastelMotif at PastelMotif.com.

There's info on PastelMotif and you can also check out some of the tunes.

Cheers.

There's a lot of great info about Jim on the site as well. Check out the Bio Page in particular. He has a few samples from the project up on the website.