Given and Taken in Ink

Getting started

Posted by Greg , Tuesday, May 11, 2010 2:09 PM

Welcome!  For a while, I've been thinking about starting a music blog, but there's been one seemingly insurmountable obstacle: I could not think of a title!

My first idea was to simulate a record label, something like Rewind Records.  I'd been listening to some of the albums I loved as a teenager, so I had an idea to start a blog featuring exclusively older releases.  However, I spend far too much of my time looking for new music, so I knew that the "rewind" idea would never last.  I tried coming up with other [Something] Records titles, but nothing else resonated like the original.  My fiancee suggested I abandon anything having to do with "Records," since, after all, I'm not creating anything.  (Ouch, right?)

Instead, she started pitching song lyrics as blog titles.  Her favorite artist is Iron & Wine, so of course every suggestion was from one of their songs.  Finally, she suggested one that sounded as good to me as it did to her: "Given and taken in ink," a line from "History of Lovers," a collaboration between Iron & Wine and Calexico on their In the Reins EP [2005].

The problem here is obvious: If we ever get divorced, I have to change the blog title.  If I'm willing to take that risk, it should suggest how serious I am about this thing. (Hmm.  I think I just wrote my half of the vows...)

What you can expect from this blog:
I love music, I like to write, and I like to share the music I find with other people.  I'll do my best to post links to actual song files when I can, but I don't really know how other music blogs coordinate this.  I assume they have FTP servers and permission from artists (or at least a posted agreement to honor any requests of copyright-owners to take anything down).  It'd be great if I could get artists/labels to send me CDs/mp3s for promotional purposes, and from my time as a radio DJ I have some sense of how this is accomplished.  However, I currently do not have any such relationships.  As a result, for now my posting of mp3s will probably be somewhat limited.  In the meantime, I'll try to link to other blogs also featuring these artists, YouTube videos, or online distributors.  Sometimes, you'll just have to take my word for it that these songs are awesome.

Posted in Calexico, Iron and Wine