Well, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this odd spell of warm October weather, and if you live around here then I hope you have, too.  (for my Northern brethren who haven’t escaped to a warmer clime– keep rocking that thermal undershirt and throw on a good sweater!)  It’s a wonderful thing when the bike trail is obscured by fallen orange and yellow leaves, canopied by a rainbow of trees in mid-color change and spots of blue sky, and I’m riding by in shorts because it’s 72° outside!

Since I moved here, Lynchburg hasn’t exactly been a musical oasis as much as some of the nearby cities (e.g. Richmond or Charlottesville) but I get the feeling that change is in the air.  I struck up a conversation today with some other people who are active in the music scene, and we observed that people seem to be taking local music much more seriously since the economy took a downturn.  Maybe it’s because people are less willing to travel for hours to see shows at $50 per ticket, or maybe it’s an outcome of the surge of support for the local community, or maybe it’s just because people have more of a reason to drink and bars need to hire entertainment.  Whatever the reason, the scope of musical offerings in and around Lynchburg has grown noticeably bigger in recent years, and it excites me as a musician and as a lover of all things musical to be able to witness and participate in the growth.

Michael Chagnon put together a great website, lynchburgmusicscene.com, as a tool to help musicians and venues network. It also features a calendar of upcoming events and various resources for musicians. Enough with the excited banter, though: here’s one of my favorite songs about running a blender in a lightening storm:

MP3: Band Of Horses – The General Specific