Welcome to Black Mountain Underground

Hello, and welcome to Black Mountain Underground. I have been a music ‘enthusiast’ (geek) for as long as I can remember hearing music, starting with the radio or my burgeoning vinyl collection that ensued soon after hearing music and understanding that you could buy it, take it home and listen to it as much as many times as you like. I became a tape trader, starting with the most obvious at-the-time, the Grateful Dead…but my love for Jerry’s guitar playing mushroomed into rock like The Allman Brothers Band and Hendrix (soon to expand) and also bluegrass, namely Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley…later everything I heard and liked which is a list too large to number here but usually fell within two groups: 1) amazing instrumental performances and 2)emotive songwriting (or hopefully both). I try to keep my mind open to good new things, but I like what I like.

Through the years I fell deeply into that world, eventually getting equipment and taping my own shows which would range from Bob Dylan to the many folk shows that I either attended or did sound for at a prominent Bethlehem, PA folk club which included stuff like Bill Morrissey and John Gorka (amongst many others). As I became more of a professional musician myself, I found myself able to record some of the acts I would open for. So my personal collection grew through the years up until the advent of the bit torrent world when everything just exploded. I’m the type of guy that finds peacefulness in the rifling through of first vinyl and then the CD's, whether that be in a store or someone’s collection. Now, because of some fine bit torrent trading sites out there, I can do that in the privacy of my own home for hours in the middle of the night (imagine how peaceful I feel now).

Back in recording school, in the summer of ’82, we had a guest speaker talk of the coming digital age, how digital sampling would be responsible for our brains having to ‘fill in the spaces’ that would be left in the transfer from analog to x’s & o’s and generally the end of society as we know it…now that may have come to pass to some degree and I am still a big fan of analog recording, but we as a society are dealing this with digitalization anxiety fine, and now tapers and tape traders such as myself can post recorded events to all instead of just those who have something to trade back- you used to have to know the right people to acquire a great many of the things now found with a few clicks. Personally, I think we as tapers and music enthusiasts are in a golden age and so, for those of you music lovers out there perhaps somewhat like me, I present Black Mountain Underground, a ‘radio show’ podcast for those who like finding hidden treasures, different versions of things already dear, or even something completely and surprisingly new and maybe a little more. From my personal collection and the shows found on a handful of trading sites I frequent, I will attempt to compile a literate show of musical gems, perhaps put into a context that goes down nicely and perhaps elicit fond memories and a pleasant demeanor. Some of the shows will be a mixture of different artists’ performances and some will adhere to the spotlight of one. I’ll also be posting collections of my own music from time to time, but I won’t be presumptive enough to include that in mix tapes of other artists save for the show’s theme music I’ve written and recorded my self. You can still hear some of the original 160 episodes of Black Mountain Underground I did for my friends over at Homegrownmusicnj.com over the past few years in rotation, and a lot of those shows also featured studio material from legitimate releases but here in the blog world I’ll stick to only allowed traded material and recordings I’ve made myself. Perhaps you’ll hear something here that will inspire you to find the whole show or purchase things from an artists released catalog which I heartily encourage. Please remember that I actually own most of these artists' official material as well, and I do believe that is the most important stuff, so go out and buy it if you can. But until then, sit back and enjoy Black Mountain Underground....it's coming!