Category: Uncategorized

Things have been slow around here because I am in the process of moving. Fun!

In clearing out and packing up, I realized that I might have a few too many CDs lying around. Especially if the stated goal of the move is “downsizing.”

But my loss is your gain, potentially. I have packaged up a box of 30 (count ’em, 30) CDs that I have received promotionally over the last 12 years. Every CD in the box is from an artist featured at least one time on Fingertips. So while I can’t vouch for the consistent quality of every track on every disc in the grab bag, I do know that each album contains at the very least one very good song. Which is something!

For more information, visit the Contest page: https://fingertipsmusic.com/?page_id=15489

The Fingertips Contest returns, with a prize to read rather than to listen to. The Kinks’ front man Ray Davies has a brand new memoir entitled Americana, which is yours for the winning. Visit the Contest page and check out the details.

The Fingertips Contest returns, with a classic prize. 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Paul Simon’s landmark album Graceland, and the record label has packaged up some worthy material. I’ve got a combination CD/DVD to give away. If you’d like to know more, go to the Contest page and check it out.

Fingertips summer hiatus begins now. I will be rather far away for a while, and largely without the services of internet tubes. New songs return near the end of July. Enjoy your existing music libraries and/or go find some cool new stuff and come back and tell me about it. Also, listen to the birds.

See you in a month.

Memorial Day is coming a bit early around here, as it has been decided that the Fingertips Home Office will be shut down as of Thursday, and that all work in progress shall be halted until at least Monday. Who am I to stand in the way of not getting work done? This week’s songs have been selected but they will now become next week’s songs. Next week’s songs have not yet been selected, and lord knows what will become of them.

The good news out of all of this is that instead of being quite late (this week), the songs will be quite early (next week), arriving online some time on Tuesday. For the insatiably curious, check out the Fingertips Facebook page, where the songs have been announced. (Did you know that every week the songs get announced a day or so in advance on the Facebook page? I didn’t think so.)

For those in need of music more quickly than that, consider a visit to the Fingertips Top 10, a sturdy haven of recent favorites, some of which you just may have missed along the way.

So I’m not going to SXSW. Perhaps you aren’t, either. In honor of this I humbly offer up the latest Fingertips Playlist: the Not At SXSW playlist, more formally entitled the I’m Not At SXSW and Neither Are These Guys and Neither Probably Are You mix. As usual, the playlist is constructed of free and legal MP3s that remain available online.

This time, I feature only artists who will not be at SXSW this year. Turns out there are many such artists. Good ones, too. Go figure.

And for this new playlist, I’m offering, for a limited time, the entire list as one MP3, complete with segues and (I hope) volume equalization. Check it all out on the Playlist page.

Due to a post-new-year, snow-induced malaise, the Fingertips Top 10 found itself languishing without the requisite amount of linen-changing during the endless yet fast-moving month of January. I woke up in February and found a fair amount of housekeeping to do. (For newcomers, the deal is that songs remain in the Top 10 list for no more than three months. Barring snow-induced malaises.)

Thankfully, we’ve been having a bit of thaw both outside and inside. The last week or so has seen an infusion of six new songs to the Top 10 list, and not a flake of snow. (Well, maybe a flake.) Check it out when you have a chance.

Didn’t win the Laurie Anderson CDs? Have no fear. Another contest is immediately upon us. You can win a copy of Over the Rhine’s about-to-be-released album The Long Surrender, if you go to the Contest page, follow the instructions, and get very lucky. First prize is the vinyl record, second prize the CD.

I’ve got a copy of Laurie Anderson’s 2010 album Homeland as well as a copy of the 2007 reissue of her classic Big Science album to give away. Go to the Contest page for the details.

Checking in on the Fingertips Top 10 is always a good way to stay in touch with the best free and legal downloads being featured here week to week, especially if you have a hard time listening to all the songs as the weeks go by. Songs stay on the list for a maximum of three months, so the list is continually undergoing a slow evolution. The player will let you hear them as a 40-or-so-minute stream, and a very pleasant 40 minutes it is….