The Return of Beautiful Past Radio

In the early years of my website, I had a couple of the old MP3.com radio stations that I had linked to the site so that people who viewed my paintings could also listen to the same music I listened to while painting. Thanks to a blog by Rebecca Chamberlain called Ladies' Historical Tea http://ladieshistorictea.blogspot.com/, I have revived the station courtesy of Playlist.com. The player can be found at the bottom of this blog and also on the home page of the website just below the navigation bar. To listen while viewing paintings, click on "Pop Out Player" and this will allow you to listen and navigate the site or continue to listen while you journey across the internet.

I have a lot of music on the playlist but I've not perfected the arrangement yet, and anyone who has ever received one of my mix tapes or CDs know that I work very hard on getting the flow of one piece of music into another just right. When I am not playing my 1907 Columbia BI Sterling or my 1918 Edison Amberola 30, this is the music I listen to while I paint. I choose the music very carefully and it often ties closely with the paintings. Many of these songs are dear old friends, especially everything by the Moody Blues, The Cure and the Baroque harpischord pieces. I have five copies of The Moody Blues classic 1967 Days of Future Past in vinyl. At least one of those copies is quite worn out. Newer musical friends are Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Dark Sanctuary, Dead Can Dance and Narsilion. This music is very ethereal and heartfelt and some of it admittedly darker than some of the other music, but since my paintings are sometimes about acknowledging the melancholy in our lives, so does the music I listen to. I find it very cathartic.

One of my gramophone records actually made it online. It's the exquisite Ave Maria with the early 20th Century Irish tenor John McCormack singing as the incomparable Fritz Kriesler plays the violin. I can't remember the exact date but was recorded sometime between 1912-1918. The recording delights me with its original pops and cracks wearing its age proudly.

Look for the arrangement of the playlist to shift many times until everything goes together just the way I want for establishing a mood and gently sustaining it.

When I was looking at Rebecca's blog, I couldn't help noticing the similarity of our interests and our tastes in music. Some of her music is also on my playlist. Later, I may do a radio station of music just for the gallery of my paintings and drawings of Charlotte. There are songs on this list that fit her very well not the least of which the Cure classic Charlotte Sometimes.

Thanks to Polly Singer for sending me to her friend Rebecca's blog.