Michael Doherty's Music Log Post No. 1000

This is my one thousandth music blog post, and I thought it perhaps appropriate to reiterate the focus and purpose of this blog. Music has played an important role in my life for as long as I can remember. I got into The Monkees at age four, got my first Beatles album at age six, attended my first rock concert at age ten, started playing drums at age thirteen, saw my first Grateful Dead show at age sixteen, my first Ellis Paul show at seventeen, worked as a radio DJ in my early twenties, and just kept going. But most of mainstream music these days (and for quite a long time now) is just awful. I mean, seriously. However, there is a lot of great music out there too. You just have to look for it. So the purpose of this blog is let people know about all the good music that's happening, music which might not be quite as easy to find. This blog is intended to be a positive force. I try to only review music that I like. I am not out to knock any new bands struggling to find an audience. If I don't like a band, I simply don't review that's band's releases. This isn't entirely altruistic in motive. After all, I don't want to be spending time listening to music I don't like. I usually listen to a CD three times before writing the review, and I can't stomach the thought of listening to something I don't like three times through. Life is too short for that.

That being said, I've noticed that a lot of online music reviews are just a paragraph or two, and many don't even include the track list. (Some simply reprint the press release, which surprises me.) I tend to write slightly longer reviews. Though I acknowledge that some people's attention spans have decreased in recent years, I trust that there are enough people who can still focus on something that is longer than a Twitter message. My blog is aimed at fellow music fans, people to whom music is important - my kind of people.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog, and to those who have left comments (they are much appreciated). And thank you to the artists who have been sending me their music. I should also take this time to say that I'm now receiving more CDs than I can possibly get to in a timely fashion. So if I haven't reviewed your album yet, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not into it. At the moment, I have two cardboard boxes full of discs waiting to be reviewed. So please be patient.

And to those who are new to this blog, you'll find that I review a wide range of music - rock, pop, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, jazz and so on. As long as I like it, I'll review it (so you won't find a lot of rap reviews here). I hope you dig what I'm trying to do. And please, if there's a band you think I would enjoy, don't hesitate to send me a message.

All right, enough of this rambling. Time to get back to the music.