Sunday Music Muse Day - Ralph Towner, Mark Isham

 This Sunday Music Muse Day find us getting a our first real touch of winter. Friday saw a light blanket of snow covering the lawn, although it didn't last long, Saturday was cold cloudy and gloomy.  Sunday start overcast and grey, gave way to scattered clouds and patches of blue sk, but still chilly.  I tried pick some music to reflect the weather, introspective and sober,  First up is Ralph Towner Batik. This a favorite Towner album of mine, released in 1978.  In considering selling my record collection I bought a new CD of it.  I admit I like the original album cover, front and back, more than the updated CD package.  At least the music is as great as I remembered.  It a trio set with Towner on 12-string and classical guitars, and piano (which was actually his first instrument),  Eddie Gomez on bass, and the amazing Jack DeJohnette on drums. I know this was one of the records that hooked me on ECM records. If you don't own I highly recommend it.

Here's the vinyl album cover front and back.  The hand lettering give it more character.

My second selection is Mark Isham Blue Sun, a trumpeter with a extensive and varied discography ranging from rock, pop, and jazz, and to children's Rabbit Ears Storytime Classics.  I first came to know him as New Age artist with his first album Vapor Drawings on Windham Hill records label.  Lisa, my wife, even got permission from him to use one of his tune for a animation short she did in the '80s.  Blue Sun is pleasant CD with some nice laid back tunes and upbeat selections to round it out as soundtrack for a gloomy winter day.

Here's his Vapor Drawings album on the Windham Hill record label, know for acoustic New Age music.

Hope everyone finds tunes to help through these chaotic time as we move toward the winter holidays.  Stay safe, stay healthy, wear a mask.