Music Appreciation Feb 2026 - Esoteric Perspectives From Deep In The Feed 12Feb26

Well this month's MA is a reach into 2025 for some stellar but more esoteric cuts.

• Canntarireach @ Piping Line 02Dec25 ~ Stellar Scots supergroup. Lean back with respect. 
• Stephen Wilson Jr @ Print Shop in Marietta, GA 17Oct24 ~ Just whoa; play on.
• Bleachers feat Haley Williams @ Beacon Theater w/ Jack Antonoff 27Oct25  ~ Channeling recent Haley is good, even when she’s flat; Bleachers are Bruce.
• Elise Duckworth covering ‘Angle From Montgomery’ 13SDec25 ~ Sweet new version; love Prine.
• Samantha Fish @ Esplanade Studios Can Ya Handle The Heat 08Apr25 ~ Always hairy blues.

Big Richard Concert @ Cervantes ~ Completely Fantastic With Della Mae 08Feb26

Dual Album Release Party... was a  at Cervantes in Five Points Denver last night. I was there especially to see the Colorado all-female bluegrass supergroup, Big Richard, again. I've listened since the beginning and to say their star is rising is understatement. I appreciated the skills and tunes of the 15 year New England area all-female bluegrass group, Della Mae, too. Great night @ Cervantes... I arrived early for doors and was 4th in line for the sold out 1050 house. I chose to sit and therefore headed to the balcony for the center stool above the sound guy. Cervantes sound was "ok" up there but female vocals & highs were not as good as on the floor (where I've been before). I wanted a seat though and there are only ~80 of them. At least as a septuagenarian the long process of GA including: queueing (1 hr), doors (1 hr), opener (1 hr), and show (1.5 hr) makes standing (in the right spot, which you can't leave if solo) taxing. Anyway... all female string bands are having a moment and I am a fan of these madly skilled musicians and their strong musicianship (of course include Molly Tuttle's new band in this reference. Big Richard's 'Pet' and Della Mae's 'Magic Accident' both recently dropped and many songs from these were featured at the show but both bands delivered wicked covers and older releases as well.

Della Mae... opened but didn't make the Cervantes marquee; kindof odd, but it is Colorado. They were excellent with super high energy bluegrass and are all very strong musicians. Left to right on the album cover above are Celia Woodsmith, lead vocals & rhythm,  Avril Smith, lead guitar & backup vocals, Kimber Ludiker, fiddle & vocals, and Vickie Vaughn , bass & vocals... they all write some stuff and have a Grammy nom from 2015. The bassist crushes the beat and has 3 consecutive IMBA wins as 'bassist of the year.' Celia's vocals are excellent; to hear them best from the balcony at Cervantes I was cupping my ears to draw in more of the those frequencies (a theme for the night actually). Avril wailed spectacularly from a seat all night stage left as a recent accident in the snow & ice back east left her unable to stand for the show. Her song “Out Run ‘Em,” was a highlight and featured champion fiddler Kimber Ludiker shredding lines and singing. I have to say I really liked the lead instruments all night. Della Mae did some great covers and even sang 'Burrito' penned by another fav Maya de Vitry. Clearly stellar band and notable that their producer is the brilliant Americana artist Allison Brown. I recorded Helen singing "Home of the Free;" rare find.

Big Richard... is fantastic. If you follow them or me, you've seen outstanding work from the outset in ~'21. They are an all-woman Colorado bluegrass string-band supergroup blazing the streamwaves, festivals, and concert venues. Tonight's offer @ Cervantes, as headliners in a fine local venue, was a return to CO along the tour and played as tight as I've seen them play. Really a treat. Everytime the 3 and even 4 part harmonies grabbed the ring when coupled to their mad instrument skills. Sorry for the fuzzy images... I only have an iPhone 12 and my camera is over-zoomed as I was far away... maybe I need to upgrade, or sneak my tiny rig into the venues.

Big Richard are (left to right as I watch them on stage): Eve Panning - Fiddle and Harmonies, Bonnie Sims - Mandolin & Lead Vocals, Hazel Royer - Bass & Vocals,  Joy Adams - Cello & Vocals. They all write and they all play like demons and sing like, well, not angels exactly. Joy is a Phd of music with a tenor almost baritone voice that she breaks and rewinds regularly for a wild sound, and with keen carried cello as her main axe, she's unusual all around. But she's a multi-instrumentalist and played banjo and octave mandolin this night, and she often writes and leads as on "Pet," the title track on the recent drop. She has Grammys. Eve organized the lineup initially for a one off festival (and wow, she chose wisely) and plays a mean violin and occasionally joins in the 3 and 4 part harmonies. She slams all the time and when featured in a lot of fiddle tunes which are often traditional or Appalachian or Irish like "Circus Jerk." Hazel is a recent hire replacing the initial bassist; great bandmate as her writing and lead vocals are beginning to really shine through as on "Alaska" and others. Core to lead singing and keeping the beat on mandolin as percussion, when not wailing the lead, Bonnie has a look too. BR did a breakthrough song "The Missing Stair" penned with friends and sung by Bonnie, awesome... she has TV show hits. Big Richard often do some costuming for shows, clowns (like the album cover), the founding fathers (@ Millennium in DC), and more but tonight they were mellow except everyone was wearing their own "Fuck Ice" garb. Their songs and covers, like Thorne's "Run, Red Fox Run" or "Millionaire" are political with policy and social comments sometimes... they do it well and are heard.  Protest songs are appreciated. I recorded the opening song and Joy's Pet at the show.

Big Richard is excellent and I had a great night at the Cervantes with them. I did leave a skosh early as I was late to pickup Kala from MLC's and head back to the Springs, so I did not see the mini-set featuring all 8 women.

Dave's Audiophile System Summaries ~ A New One, The Nest GR8 Room Theater 30Jan26

Nest GR8 Room Theater ~ Three Unique TABA Designs... The latest audiophile system I've finished is the Nest GR8 Room Theater. This 5.1 system's front and surrounds are all custom built using 4" titanium TangBand W4-1337SDF drivers, so timbre is consistent throughout. The L/R mains are quarter wave transmission line speakers with front firing rectangular bass ports (TABAQs) delivering down to 45Hz in these horn cabinets - amazing; the center channel is a unique dual chamber bass reflex speaker with two rectangular bass ports (TABAD) delivering effortlessly to 70Hz; the surrounds are tiny (2.9L) PicoOnkens using aperiodic rectangular bass ports (TABAOs) smoothly tuned to 78Hz. This array is backed by a classic 400w Velodyne ULD-18 Series II servo subwoofer for the very lows (resonant frequency of 4Hz). The TV monitor (Sony 55" XBR HD) and AV receiver (Denon AV-1912) are serviceable but dated. The 90w/chan receiver does do Dolby Digital+ for discrete though and Dolby ProLogic IIz and other DSP settings derived from PCM 2 channel and all other analog stuff needed. My sources for the Nest GR8 Room are all digital: Roku Ultra, iPod, Denon Blu-Ray, and BT or Apple AirPlay. The recently added speakers are a substantial upgrade from the stock NHT 1s, NHT surrounds, and NHT CC they replaced.

EleFrugalKit ~ High Efficiency Stereo Horns With 4 Watt Amp... The EleFrugalKit is built upon the incredible Frugel-Horn Mk3 cabinet design; I built and tweaked this keen design from Scott Lindgren. After rolling and measuring 5 different 4" full range drivers, my favored are Mark Audio Pluvia 7.2HDs. The MAs are smooth and and completely round sounding and deliver down to 45Hz. Driving the transducers is a DRC hand-built Elekit TU-8200R 4 watt SET tube amp loaded with modern Russian Tung Sol 6550 power tubes and a 1960's NOS Valvo ECC82 pre-amp section. There was a significant roll through power tubes and driver tubes to get to this optimum. Offering source material is a keen Bluetooth aptX HD receiver called DS200Pro on one input (for phones and other transient wireless stream sources), and a mele Linux computer streaming from JRiver MC networked to my .5TB of flac files spun from my ArchLinux server on the 2nd input. The hardwired source is rendered through a Schiit Modi Multibit 2 "multibit" DAC, the least expensive MB DAC I could find (tested great); the DS200PRO has its own ESS Sabre 24/192KHz delta-sigma DAC. The stereo only sound is simply fabulous; I trialed DSP and a subwoofer and ultimately removed these adulterations and just relocated the horns forward and placed damping pillows behind.

Blodgett Schiit ~ Reference Headphone Kit... The best headphone system in the quiver is my Schiit & Mr Speakers gear in Colo Spgs. This setup, most often featuring closed headphones, does not suffer the incursions into folks' personal space that speaker systems do. My preferred drivers are the awesome Mr Speakers EtherC Flow planar magnetic over ear headphones with balanced cabling. Alternatively, when dynamic driver sounds are warranted, I am stocked with Sennheiser 600HD dynamic open back headphones for this system, also with balanced cabling to the amp. Driving the cans is a hybrid Schiit Mjolinar 2 tube amp. I've evaluated many driver tubes and my favorites are all early 1960s: the Amperex "Holland D Getter" E88CC (fun) and the Telefunken E88CC (clean). Again I selected a multi-bit design (vs delta-sigma) DAC... to me they sound more organic (at least when the resistance ladder is very accurate). Matching the amp in the Schiit line is the Gungnir MB version (updated with Unison USB subsystem). Notable is that I've balanced the system all the way from digital stereo sources to my ears - meaning each channel is driven directly from source to ears via separate  circuits (except for any initial signal processing). We come to the cans from 4 wire XLR connectors and cabling and prior through the amp, via XLR interconnects between amp & DAC, and then back from that, fiber or USB digital stereo sources inbound to the DAC from the macOS Studio. The source, mostly flac files from JRiver MC as bit-perfect streams, or YouTube vids. My headphone system corrects for even tiny abnormalities (non-flat frequency response curves) via Sonarworks directly in the mac via digital signal processing. I used this because I can't do the measurements on headphones myself - I sent my headphones to Lithuania for measurement and they sent me correction curves! This is definitely my reference headset and Kala sleeps soundly.

Other DRC HiFi Systems... have been profiled and summarized prior, and include these in no particular order:

• Nest Music Theater ~ NestMT: 6.1.2 Immersive Sound
  
• Mobile Nirvana ~ Fine Portable Music Gear
  
• Blodgett Theater ~ Paradigm Reference 5.1 Theater... The Integra Research RDC-7 decoder/pre-amp/controller in the image has recently been replaced with a newer (for modern decodes) Integra DHC 80.6 controller I found cheap on eBay... the 9 channel amp still rocks.
  
• NestDesk ~ Bamboo Blanda Bowls All Around With Massive Monitor And Planar Magnetics. condenser mic for podcasts and zoom calls, Black Ice FX10 amp and Denfrips ENYO DAC. The front 6" bowls are built with 4" Fostex FE108NS drivers and they're supported by an 11" Blanda serving bowl subwoofer carrying a 6.5" Tang Band WS-22536 driver driven by an external 100w class AB plate amp. Yeah, that's a bamboo dog bowl holder carrying the sub. The kit is driven by a Black Ice FX10H tube amp updated with Tung-Sol 7189 power tubes and winning the DAC-off was a Denefrips Enyo 15th R2R DAC. I added a cork-backed desk pad (not shown) to absorb some bounced mid-high waves but otherwise this has killer near field sound, with some thump. I didn't scrimp on the monitor either; it's a 42" 4K/HDR LG OLED on a monitor arm. Works for lots of workspace, or killer desktop concerts... that's the amazing Anna Moss on screen. Too, the kit has some nice headphones: Audeze planar magnetics or AKG dynamics when right; a condenser mic is lashed in through a mixer for podcasts and a Logitech camera delivers for Zoom calls. Source material is spewed by my MacStudio YouTube/Music, FlacBox or JRiver MC apps.
  
  
  
• Blodgett Family Room ~ Front Array Onkens & Updated Surrounds... The referenced post is about the front array of Onkens but I've now updated the in-ceiling surrounds for this install as well.
  

You cannot go anywhere in Blodgett or the Nest without finding stellar audio and fun music. At this point I think my work is done; listen intently.

Rolex 24 Hrs @ Daytona ~ Lots Of Great IMSA Racing & A Dodge Of The CO Weather 26Jan26

Intro... Matt & I headed to Daytona Beach for the biggest IMSA race of the season, the Rolex 24, the kickoff race of the season. We flew to Orlando in one stop and rented a manual Mazda Miata via Turo for the runabout driving... it was fun, but tiny. Here we were caught on TV for the opening of the Rolex 24 as we chose the best seats in the facility right at the end of the front straight and at the heavy breaking zone into Turn 1. We saw the entire technical infield from here. Matt & I met up with our friend David and Matt's work mate and iRacing buddy MattR and his friend Jeff.

MX-5 Cup... But I'm getting ahead of myself above... Matt & I started with a keen Miata in Orlando and drove down to Daytona Beach. We did decide the top down is not nearly as comfy as in the FlyBox. Then Fri AM we caught a decent breakfast out. Then we saw the MX-5 Cup Race. Daytona is huge and IMSA fans didn't make a dent in seating on Fri. It was a hoot with drivers going 4 wide into corners and the Miatas all belching and whining like mad. It was a gorgeous day in FL while Colorado began to suffer.

Target Run... After the MX-5 Race we headed to the car for a moment to drop coats and hit Target and the liquor store for some supplies. Rather than $8-$10 beers at the track we acquired some cooler-backpack tech and brought our own beers into Daytona! The local peeps at Total Wine were not too hep on FL craft brewers so I self-served. Matt carried it full of ice & brews, not light, so I was fine with saving money. I did find a DDH from Tipping Animals; tasty.

Garage Walk... Back at the track we went to the infield and walked the garage lanes. We saw almost every one of the cool sports cars for the Rolex 24 here... there are 4 classes of cars that will be on the track at the same time... top class is GTP (grand touring prototype), LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2), GTD (grand touring Daytona ~ really just GT3 cars) Pro, and GTD. No wonder the IMSA's tag line is ~MOVE OVER~; everyone is passing all the time... though classes tend to jumble together until a class of cars needs to pass another class ~ then it's mayhem. We're Porsche supporters so we rooted for them and were more interested in them, for the most part but the Caddy rolled by close as a GTP, and the Aston Martin V12 Valkyrie is sure to make some sound. The GTD Pro Mustang is formidable here and the McLaren is, well, McLaren; the only LMP2 I show is AO - they all chose the same chassis and engine. I showed the Lexus for Kala; the design and car is the same 3 years running. The safety cars are Porsche GT3RS machines, as is Rexy and the yellow Manthey GT3. Some were heading out for tech assessment.

Autographs & GT4s... We headed to the merch shop and Matt scored a hat for signings from his favorite drivers and I scored a keen IMSA hoodie. While TK queued for signatures I went to the International Corner to watch the afternoon race of BMW M3 and other GT4 cars, including some Porsche Caymens (not unlike my Boxter GTS).

Once Matt returned we took in the rest of the GT4 race from a grandstand above the International hairpin with the team. Awesome. We then headed to Daytona One mall for a car show of exotics and a good BBQ dinner Friday night with Rowe and Jeff. I got us back to the hotel afterward in the Miata. Lots of racing and car stuff today but tomorrow brings the big show.

Daytona Fan Experience... We donned our 4 day pass bracelets and arrived early on Sat AM to again walk the garages and queue for the grid walk and full Daytona experience ~ I even liked the healthcare banner. During the morning, vintage cars were on the track... likely the coolest old one is a winning Mazda with a rotary engine ~ it roared. For IMSA at the Rolex 24 we were able to get to the infield and actually walk and sign the track. We brought sharpies from Target yesterday and Matt & I signed the start-finish line. Matt's good friend David found us in the infield after coming down from Daytona Airport and he shared that experience with Matt's guidance. During the track experience we also walked the LMP2, GTD Pro, and GTD grid for a bit but it was crowded ~ then we were there for the GTP car parade as they wended to the front of the grid. The drivers highlighted with flags of their countries, their cars and their teams rolled by the appreciative crowd ~ I offer the movie at 2X speed. This whole up-close experience was awesome.

The Rolex 24 Hrs... Soon enough we were ushered off the infield; we made our way to our prime real estate in Turn 1. Air was electric, cars were hybrids, grid was set, Daytona fans were ready. And so it begins ~ great start... Porsche #6 leading into Turn 1. He and Porsche #7 would remain up front for a lot of the race... the Cadillac challenged on occasion; there are >50 pit stops over 2400 miles for tires and lots of cans of gas after all.

Porsche Leaders... Ultimately this day, the yellow Manthey Porsche took the lead in GTD Pro for a while, and the Porsche GTP #7 led in GTP for a good bit. There are stills and movies for both. For #7, the fastest car on the circuit, the gangway attendant at the start-finish line flashed "faster car behind" yellow stripe on blue flag, often. In fact this race official was very busy at the Rolex 24. We headed down to the start-finish line for a bit, to observe the obscene speeds on the straights, ~200mph; that's a GT3 in the still but don't blink watching the movie.

Night Running... We went for nosh and returned after replenishing the cooler-backpack for the youngsters. Long after sunset we weren't even halfway in the 24 hour race but cars kept rolling fast. It is very cool and presents a whole new set of challenges for racers here and at Le Mans. I left early after an already long day but Matt & Dave stayed till midnight ~ troopers. Wicked racing with lights continued until soup-thick fog enveloped the facility at 1am, after which 6 hours of safety car running ensued. Good we weren't there to endure both the cold and the stacked up, no passing, racing; just miles. Slept well that night.

The Finish... I dined on the odd foods in the Comfort Inn till TK brought me an egg McMuffin from his run for a Red Bull. I drove the MX5 to a close parking spot to the gate proximate to our prime seating; Matt joined DaveV for the Uber to the track; we met up at the gate for the last several hours of the race. The Porsche-Penske 963 #7 won it's 3rd straight Rolex 24 with 705 laps! Brazillian Fellipe Nasr piloted the 963 across the finish line. Check the tire debris scrapes.

In LMP2, the Crowdstrike ORECA #4 won with 686 laps.

Despite the top qualification of the Miller BMW M4 GT3 in GTD Pro they started last in the class after post-quali tech revealed they exceeded camber wear. This didn't stop them though as they went last to first over the 24 hour and finish with 662 laps. It was an exciting 2 sec lead finish over Mercedes-AMG GT3! The Manthey Porsche 911 GT3RS finished 5th in class on the same lap as winner. The Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG won the GTD class with 661 laps ~ these cars are the same GTD vehicles but require some non-pro drivers on the team.

The Daytona Rolex 24 was an awesome outing in racing and I've been to Indy and Indy car races, and dirt tracks, and watch F1... endurance racing is sports cars is the best racing for sure. It was especially fun to be with TK in his element in sports car racing. Dang, it's too cold with snow on the roadsides to roll the FlyBox on the Front Range right now.