For me, it’s a combination of both music and lyrics. I can appreciate the manic speed and technical wizardry of a Satch or Via but when it comes time to put something on the CD player, it’s usually something with good lyrical content (but it’s got to be backed by good music or it’s pointless). Let’s put it this way, the one CD that seems to get played a lot around here is usually Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood on the Tracks’. Not a technically difficult album I suppose (I can’t play most of it myself yet) but that CD resonates through me. Always has and always will. I like to listen to the blues players too though for different reasons. I like the blues guys for the musicality of what they play. Like country, a lot of the lyrics are not terribly deep or profound but they elicit a response and that is what we want in music. A response. I would imagine that when Satch or Via play in front of an audience, they are looking for the same response that B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck are looking for. Heck, I imagine that even ‘The Knack’ was looking for that same thing. It’s the ‘goose bump’ response. You want to play to the point where the music makes an almost electric response run up the spine of the listener leaving ‘goose bumps’ in it’s wake. You want that response where the listener has an almost immediate and intense connection with the musician. Where the listener says to the person they’re with, or to himself, “Man, that song just blew me away…” I think that’s why.

Of course, I could just be full of it. :)