that train don't stop here anymore

I'm not sure that it's much of a milestone, but I now have more than 5,400 songs on my notebook. I've spent part of the day listening to Los Lobos, particularly Kiko and Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos.

Los Lobos are probably hands-down winners when it comes to the ratio of critical reception to public acclaim. "Who are those guys," you can imagine the average radio listener saying. Wait a minute. They're probably rarely heard on radio. But that's okay. That's always been okay, at least in one respect. They can sort of remain our secret, even though they've been recording the better part of thirty years. We need more bands like that. Working bands, making the best music they can. For some reason, my iTunes library classifies Kiko as country. But you know what? I like that. It is country, as folk music is country. It's representative of an entire ethnic and aesthetic experience.

So, who else have I listened to today? Mazzy Star. Louis Armstrong. The Beatles. The Verve. 10,000 Maniacs. It's been an...eclectic...day.