Hi,
I'm an English lurker who lives in the UAE chiming in with a few points -
* First of all, a great big thanks to Lama for copying cd's and videos
for me. What a service to the Joni community! I must admit that when
I sent off media and a cheque from the UAE, I was a bit skeptical -
was it an Internet ripoff/would the media get stolen in the post or
held up at customs? I was a little more worried when Lama said he had
sent me 8 Jonifest cd's (which wasn't what I had ordered) - I had no
idea what Jonifest was and couldn't believe the quality of the
performances, recording and packaging. Thanks to Lama and everyone
concerned - these are now amongst my favourite cd's! If there are
other newbies on the list, please try to listen to the material -
most of it is brilliant!
* The state of the list - yes, I couldn't believe how many messages
came in and the relevancy of some of them (I guess it's the eye of
the beholder). After a while, I got to know a rough idea of the
'senders' whose messages I tended not to be interested in and have
filtered these into a place where they belong.
* Over here, Virgin/Tower Records etc are not so up to date as in other
countries so I read with interest the reviews of 'Travelogue'. To be
honest I took the bad reviews with a pinch of salt thinking that
maybe the reviewers were traditionalists who weren't 'open'. I still
have not seen Travelogue on sale but recently bought 'Both Sides Now'
and was completely shocked. I have only played it once and although I
know it's crazy to condemn a recording on one hearing, I don't think
I'll ever play it again.
How does 'Both Sides Now' compare to 'Travelogue' - are the 2 very
similar?
* Counting Crows - I really like their version of BYT. I always thought
Joni's was so unusual in vocal style (at the time) that the
magnificent lyrics were lost to the mainstream audience
* TNT - I enjoyed watching this (thanks again Lama!) but was
disappointed with some of the performers who were not on the show -
what happened to Dylan/Young/CSN/Jackson Browne?
* I initially got into Joni through listening to a couple of 'Miles of
Aisles' tracks on the radio. Prior to that, I'd heard her albums at
college in England but had pigeonholed her into the 'folksinger' and
'lonely female student's' music category while I of course was a
'macho guy interested in long haired electric guitar heroes'! My
opinion of Joni has changed, I couldn't be macho even if I tried now
but I must admit I still like electric guitarists (even if they are
not heroes!)
Cheers,
Stu
