I’ve been endlessly frustrated by the evolution of music media over the past several decades, from vinyl to CD to Napster to MP3 to iPods to Apple Music to Spotify to YouTube to who knows where next. For the time being, there’s a ton of wonderful music concerts, clips and documentaries on YouTube but I find it difficult to navigate or curate a collection of things I want to watch or re-watch. YouTube makes it easy to stumble across things but hard to manage them, I find. So I’m going to try using this page to help.
I’m not sure how exactly to arrange things on this page, but best to start and see what evolves. My main music collection and playlists are in Apple Music. I may try to add some of that into this page as well…who knows?
My YouTube Channel: BillzDaze
Playlists I’ve Constructed
John Prine – from my Appreciation for John Prine
Richard Thompson – from my Appreciation for Richard Thompson
Rhiannon Giddens / Our Native Daughters – a collection of concerts and programs from the wonderful Rhiannon Giddens.
Transatlantic Sessions – collection of videos covering six seasons of this excellent TV series featuring Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain and a rotating cast of stellar American, Canadian, Scottish and Irish acoustic artists. Includes some live concert clips and related videos.
Celtic Colours Favorites – I loved attending the 2017 Celtic Colours Festival on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Here are some favorites from that and other years. Makes a good companion to the Transatlantic Sessions. The Celtic Colours channel offers a wide selection of videos that feature Cape Breton arts and communities as well as concert clips.
BBC Alba Series: Port – a Gaelic-language show (subtitled in English) featuring episodes on Celtic music on the Continent, including segments on Galicia, Asturias (and combined) and Brittany. Found this searching for music from Cristina Pato, a member of the Silk Road Ensemble; I found a little of Cristina goes a long way.
Cool Things I’ve Found
Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Patty Griffin, Bruce Cockburn , Steve Earl, Ethan Johns – Concert for a Landmine-Free World. Video of a 1999 concert, songwriters in the round including John Prine and Nanci Griffith who we lost in 2020 and 2021. Wonderful lineup, old friends playing for a good cause. The revelation for me is Bruce Cockburn’s guitar playing, which is not what you’re really supposed to takeaway from a songwriter’s circle. Unfortunately the video craps out after 55 minutes.