http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqIRpnsUvP4

This is the VEVO music video on youtube for Kenny Chesney's new song, Pirate Flag.  The sound is great, the imagery is great, and it makes you feel good.  This song, especially when you watch the video, gives you the same feeling as "I Go Back" but with a Caribbean feel, not unlike every classic Jimmy Buffet song, but also without sounding like just a remake.  It's great and new but also invokes so many nostalgic feelings about the beach, clear blue water and hot summer days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSTPIUz_QY4

This guy on the left is Easton Corbin, and he's starting to become my favorite new country artist.  He sounds like George Strait.  Seriously.  This guy is to George Strait what Michael Buble is to Frank Sinatra.  If you don't believe that last analogy, or don't understand it, listen to this.  The song above isn't as new as 'Pirates above, but it's called "Lovin' You is Fun", and he's also well known for "A Little More Country Than That" and "Roll With It."  I love them all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IGH53PZ6Y

On the left is the one and only Eric Clapton, and the link is to a video of him playing "Further on up the Road" with The Band.  If you don't know who the Band is, you were either born after 1980 and you have bad taste in music, or you were born before 1980 and you also had bad taste in music.  But in all seriousness I didn't know them by name until only a few years ago, but I recognized them immediately.  You most likely have heard "The Weight" or "Ophelia", and they are just as varied and popular as Creedence Clearwater Revival.

This video is from The Last Waltz, a very famous ending tour for The Band which featured a lot of music celebrities.  Here we see Eric Clapton 'battling' it out with The Band's guitarist Robbie Robertson.  You see them go back and forth and it's incredible how much talent they both have.  You can also tell they are both trying very hard to keep up with the other and you from their looks back and forth that they have an immense amount of respect for each other.  Plus they are having a blast creating some of the most timeless, legendary music of all time.  

Today is Maker's Mark Day!  It's time to celebrate!  Now let's see.... how to celebrate...?

Don't worry, this is not Facebook, or Twitter, or any other site dedicated to internet memes, but this was just too hilarious to not post. If you want possible songs that she is listening to, see below.

Also, Maker's Mark is staying at 45%!  Yay!   I'm going to pour a glass right now... enjoy your own delicious adult beverage with these, and let me know your favorite music/drink combos.

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/2013/02/14/why-tolkien-rejected-beatles-rings-feature/

Click on that link and you will find out about J.R.R. Tolkien's relationship with the Beatles, besides they both hail from England.  In case you don't want to read from the source, The Beatles wanted to make a Lord of the Rings movie and Tolkien, who still owned all of the rights at the time, refused.  There's a fantastic passage written by Tolkien in there, which I share below:

The reason this is so interesting to me is that I would love to explore the manner that people practice music, whether vocals (in the shower doesn't count), drums, guitar, piano, sax or anything else for that matter.  It seems as if almost everyone practices in a basement/garage/basic home structure but there are definitely negatives to this process.  Does anybody use a service that rents out studio space?  What are the cost structures involved?  Are there other more creative ways that you guys may have used to effectively practice music with the least annoyance to others?  Share any thoughts at all!

I was using Stumbleupon.com and found this little gem you see below.  I'll try not to indulge too much and let it speak for itself, but there's a few points I'd like to make.  First, if you understand guitars and you're talented, just watch this guy and enjoy the music and appreciate the work he put into this.  If you don't, then I highly recommend you watch his hands closely; this guy put a lot of work into blending all of these songs together, and there's a whole lot he's doing off-camera with his feet in order to change the tone.  If you don't know what I'm talking about listen closely when he plays Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and the next couple of songs and listen to how different the final sound is coming from the amplifier; that is tone, and he is changing it with foot pedals.  Also you'll notice at some point that he reaches up to the guitar's head and actually tunes one of his strings in the middle of the song.  People who know how to play guitar I highly recommend viewing this video from here, where it shows tablatures as the video plays.  Enjoy all of your favorite rock songs!

Here it is, my second distillery tour!  I went on this tour the same day as the Woodford Reserve one (earlier post).  As I mentioned on the Woodford Distillery Tour post, the distilleries are all fairly close together and you can easily get two tours in a day on a moment's notice.  This tour is a big favorite, despite it being free (compared to ~$7 for Woodford) and less designed.  Let me explain what I mean there; recapping Woodford's tour, they give you little headsets and you ride in a nice shuttle bus down the hill (it's seriously only like, 75 yards or something but they make it elderly and handicapped-friendly, I guess, since it is on a hill) and the tour route actually feels more like a set route.  This doesn't even mention the tour guide constantly selling his product (remember the "Woodford Reserve is a super-premium micro-distillery blah, blah, blah" comment that the tour guide constantly adds to his speeches?).  The Buffalo Trace tour, however, was more laid back, though no less professional.  It still starts in a room near the gift shop where there are many old photos and snippets of history about the distillery (always interesting!), and ends in the same location where you also get a free tasting.  However, when you are taken on the tour, you get to see the property and the different steps in the bourbon-making process, but they didn't spend extra money to make you feel more like you're on a tour, which I actually think is a good thing.  

Alright, so the above photos I didn't take, mostly.  ***UPDATE***A couple of them, such as the sign about "great bourbon" and the aged brick and railways that you see, were used with permission from a blog by Elise Bergman.***END UPDATE*** Most of them also speak for themselves, so I suppose I'll explain the ones that don't:

The bottles of Blanton's on the assembly line I will actually expound upon in a little bit (geez, be patient).  The barrel rails are all pretty standard in bourbon distilleries; just note that some are on rails and some aren't, and this is because they are all gravity-fed, so the least amount of effort is required to roll them.  On grounds as large as the Buffalo Trace Distillery, this is essential.

The gazebo that you see is one of the older structures on the property, and the best that my memory serves me is that it's used to events, up to and including weddings, and summer weddings are booked there a couple years in advance if I can remember.  It really is a gorgeous property, so this shouldn't be that surprising, and the smell of the fermenting and barreling process (not to mention the Angels' Share evaporating from the aging barrels) is strong but very pleasant and natural, which only adds to this unique setting.

Finally the bottom-left photo is their 6 millionth barrel; they will take it out, use it, and replace it with each new x-millionth, so if you hurry up and drink some Buffalo Trace bourbon they'll put in their 7th million!  

This was actually said at a meeting headed by E. H. Taylor (see Buffalo Trace's website for more info on him, or wikipedia) before Buffalo Trace went on to be the juggernaut of diverse bourbon brands in Kentucky.  No, seriously.  Okay, okay, but they really do have a TON of different labels for their bourbon, which I'll show just below and explain how that can happen near the end of this post.

Okay, actually, according the http://www.greatbourbon.com/, Buffalo Trace distills 17 different bourbons, so I won't delve into each one, but I will visit some of the better known ones.

I definitely can't cover all of their bourbons in this post.  Some of them are distilled only seasonally, some in celebration of the distillery's history and some (like the Van Winkle 15, 20 and 23-year) as specifically premium bourbons.  It was unbelievably fascinating to hear about all of their varieties and that they all essentially come from the same mashes; that means that Buffalo Trace, Blanton's, Eagle Rare, and Van Winkle all start out with the same mashing of grains that ferment together.  They are then barreled exactly the same way; however, when the barrels are aged, they are stored not only in different buildings (built of different construction, such as stone vs metal, and differing sizes, throughout the years of the distillery) but also in different locations within the buildings.  The process of the bourbon being absorbed and expelled by the charred oak of the barrels is experienced differently by each barrel, because it's temperature and pressure which affects the process.  This results in a completely different aging process and end flavor when you have a facility as large as Buffalo Trace and this is why they can brand so many different bourbons.  A great example of this phenomenon is Blanton's, which is aged only 7 years, but it is aged in a metal building, built at a different time than most of the old brick buildings at Buffalo Trace, and so it ages much quicker than most other bourbons that have only aged 7 years, so it tastes and is priced closer to rarer bourbons.

This was a great tour and I highly recommend not only the tour but to try each of the 17 varieties of bourbon that come from Buffalo Trace!

The picture on the right is another pretty cool photo that a family member shared with me, so I figured I'd try to see if anyone else has found some cool guitars.  I'll take this opportunity to point out my landscape photo with the bourbon on a brick stair; the guitar is Fender Telecaster, one of the most versatile electric guitars ever made, and I love it's shape, sound and colors.  The bourbon is Jefferson's Presidential 18 year, a gift I got for Christmas.  Anyway, post or comment or link me on Facebook if you want to talk about guitars.  I don't care if it's something you drew or you saw it on Guitar Hero the video game, let's see some really crazy and cool guitars!

Look at that beautiful Superdome; the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.  The city of New Orleans has hosted an NFL record of 7 Super Bowls (actually 7 is the number of times the 'Dome has hosted a Superbowl, my Alma Mater hosted three more at Tulane Stadium, for a combined total of 10 Superbowls hosted in New Orleans!), and she's never looked better.  This photo brings me back to an eclectic, diverse, strong and incredible city which holds a special place in my heart.   Right now, she's hosting Superbowl number XLVII (that's 47 for anyone who can't read Roman Numerals!) and it's the Baltimore Ravens vs the San Francisco 49ers.  This has been an interesting football season, and being a New Orleans Saints fan, this season has been particularly difficult to watch, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying the festivities!

However, this song takes hold even more right now, as I sit in a friend's house in Rhode Island (the Navy takes you all over, many places temporarily).  New Orleans was where I went to college, learned to love football, learned about an incredibly deep and diverse music culture (actually they have a whole lot more than just music); it's where I learned to love seafood, where I turned 21, where i met one of my best friends, and where I met the most incredible woman in my life.  New Orleans most definitely holds a special place in my life, and I'm proud of her as she hosts this year's Superbowl!  I have a few more photos I'd like to show, as I've seen many similar ones on Facebook and I'd like you to enjoy them and if you've never visited New Orleans you need to stop by!  Feel free to contact me if you would like any recommendations of places in New Orleans for your visit!