I'm trying to find some new-to-me bands to expand the variety of my library
My favorite bands are
Grateful Dead and Dead and Company
Dire Straits
Crosby, Stills, Nash including or excluding Young
The Moody Blues
Later Beatles
Jefferson Airplane
The Kinks
I also like singer/songwriters like
James Taylor
Gordon Lightfoot
Al Stewart
I have some greatest hits from Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd , Steve Miller, but don't think I'd go beyond that.
I have some vinyls of Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, ELO but never bothered to get the CDs
I don't really like Led Zeppelin too much. Never much liked the Rolling Stones. I've tried some Phish and Goose but they are a bit too edgy for me.
Given my tastes any suggestions on bands or musicians I should look at to expand my library?
Any suggestions I'd sample on YouTube so any suggestions appreciated.
By the time I got to your point, it became obvious I was going to have to dig really deep to find mainstream artists I hadn't heard, and even then, I either would have heard it, or the theme of the band was so engrained from overexposure from the past, that it wasn't really different or unfamiliar at all.
This sent me straight to jazz, based on a few criteria, or stepping stones from my R&R leanings, based on some instruments that cross over into other genres. Like Ian Anderson's use of the flute in Jethro Tull, or D!ck Parry's from Pink Floyd saxophone solos, etc. I also recalled being hooked on the horns on the intro (Harlem Nocturne) to Spillane's Mike Hammer tv series. David Bowie had some songs (Golden Years and Fame) with an obvious funk beat, and I had always wanted more of that, or at least find out where it came from. This led me to early Herbie Hancock and Maceo Parker from James Brown's (J.B.'s) band.
It's been a music rabbit hole ever since from about the '40s onward. If for no other reason to like it, it was for the percussion aspect. Apparently, I like a lot more percussion instruments than just conventional drums. The effects some of those instruments inflict via good speakers is just worth doing. The marimba, vibraphone for example, just sounds killer on revealing systems, or the shimmery bell bits and sounds from something like castanets, tend to just plant me further down into the obvious skill level of the record that perhaps I hadn't appreciated before.
When all else fails, I choose a musician or band that will contain odd things I like and create a radio station on Pandora and choose the "discovery" mode. I created a radio station based on Maceo Parker for starters. That alone took me pretty far. It gave me a bunch of side shoots to investigate, which led me even further out into jam bands and Indie music, and a bunch of underground stuff that led back to my rock music.
Lately it's been a lot of poser reggae/dub type stuff. I don't mind the use of synth and overproduction in this music so much. I appreciate that much of it, regardless of the cheaty technology aspect, that many of it's creators actually play the instruments, regardless of how it's technically arranged. It also is yet another valid use of subs. Some of this music has the tightest bass and percussion.
My problem with jazz was, that I was not willing to spend my money on it to discover it. Now with streaming and discovery algorithms, it's much easier and pretty much free to do so.
