Put a Little Song in Your Heart
Two scholarly communication pros launch a new music-focused e-newsletter
At this year’s SSP Annual Meeting, I found myself seated next to Rick Anderson, Associate Dean of Libraries at the University of Utah. Since I’m a UofU alum, we have a little connection there, along with our last names. As we talked, our shared enjoyment of music became a topic, as did our compulsive need to write. Before long, we’d started to cook up an idea.
That idea was operationalized in August under the title, “Mad About Music,” an e-newsletter spanning new releases, interviews, reviews, and our experiences with music. (Rick is a bassist, guitarist, and banjo player, a specialist on the clawhammer banjo. I play keyboards and synths in rock bands.)
So far, we’ve generated dozens of posts. “Mad About Music” is published every weekday, and we’re finding it easy to keep a daily pace, even with life going on around us. (Did I mention the compulsive need to write?)
Some of our favorite posts so far are:
- Interview: GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan
- Review: “Dogrel,” by Fontaines DC (guest post by Tim Gillett)
- Interview with Steve March-Tormé
- What Makes a Pop Song Great?
- Reflection: “Born to Laugh at Tornadoes”
- Why Does Classic Rock Overperform?
- “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”
- Paul Simon vs. the Specter of Mortality
- The Global Bass Juggernaut
- Review: Pink’s “Hurts 2B Human”
- Review: “Rockonomics” by Alan Krueger
- Is It Cultural Appropriation?
- Jazz and Impostor Syndrome
We have plenty in store, including more interviews, reviews, and Rick’s weekly “Heads-up Dept.,” which tells readers about new releases of note across all genres. So far, he’s covered new releases in early music, jazz, reggae, and electronica.
If you’re a music lover, I invite you to give “Mad About Music” a try. Like “The Geyser,” some posts are free, while others require a subscription.
Thanks!