It's Getting To Be That Time Of Year Again

The air is cooler, the days are shorter and the festive brews are hitting the shelves. So far I've had the Sam Adams holidays brews, Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale and yes even the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale! Not all in one sitting, but over the course of the last couple weeks.

I may be one of the few people who noticed, but they changed the photo of the cabin on the label of Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. It used to look like a cabin at sunset that had a fire burning inside, but I noticed now it looks very much like middle of a wintry day and the windows are darker. Don't get me wrong, I still love the brew and their label will always be one of my festive favorites, but for what it's worth I like the older version better.

Speaking of the holidays, even the new Sirius XM channel lineup features the Holly channel that has already started playing holidays hits. I'm actually excited about the merging of the channels and getting to hear the best of both worlds. The blues channel is now B.B. King's Bluesville and even the jazz channel merged changing its name to Real Jazz. This week, I noticed lots of different music in the rotation on Real Jazz, but they kept great original Sirius content like "The Blue Note Hour" that airs on Fridays and Sundays.

I didn't realize until today that Harry Connick Jr. has a new Christmas CD out this year. Just today I received some new/old Christmas CDs in the mail from BMG Music Club. Don't order from them a lot anymore with iTunes, but keep my membership for when they have big sales (like 70% off and no shipping/handling) -- but also there are certain music classics that I would rather have on an actual CD and not just download from iTunes. Don't know maybe it's just how I grew up with records and tapes. As much as I love my iPod there are still times I would rather throw a CD in the ol' CD player.

Sounds funny to say, but even CDs seem old now. I still have my classic Sony 5-disc CD player that I bought back in 1994 along with my Bose speakers that are still kickin' out the audio for my fav movies and shows as part of my surround sound system. The best is when I throw in a concert DVD like The Who, U2 or Dave Matthews Band and crank 'em up. Oh baby do they sound good!

Mentioning Dave Matthews Band, I downloaded the Live Trax 2008 from iTunes last night that was provided for all fans who purchased tickets through The Warehouse or Ticketmaster this year. There are eight tracks on the compilation of live recordings from this past year. Six of the tracks feature Leroi Moore and the last two tracks were recorded after his passing, including "Bartender" that was recorded the night Leroi died.

I heard that Jeff Coffin, who filled in for Leroi, is in talks to join the band on a permanent basis. Leroi will be missed, but after hearing Jeff jam with the band one can only imagine where Dave and the boys will take their music.

- Salud!