Thursday, July 3, 2008

Nobody Said That It Don't Come Easy

After a brief post last night, hopefully I can get my playlist and backstory posted today.
Here's the set list for my summer mix.

  1. Skateaway - Dire Straits
  2. It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr
  3. Cocaine - Eric Clapton
  4. I Thank You - ZZ Top
  5. Love Is Strong - The Rolling Stones
  6. I'm Not Drowning - Steve Winwood
  7. Stay With Me - The Faces(Rod Stewart)
  8. Lonely Road - Paul McCartney
  9. Tempted - Squeeze
  10. Thing Called Love - Bonnie Raitt
  11. Nobody Said That It Would be Easy - Alan Jackson
  12. Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen


I started working on my mix sometime in April. My original concept was "Guilty Pleasures". It was mostly 80s pop, which was the music of summer for me growing up. I had the idea that we could take the mix contest global and that anyone could be a judge. When I learned we'd have mostly the same judges as before, I sweated and rushed to make the mix more grown-up sounding. Less "guilty" but just as pleasurable. It wasn't working, but I couldn't think of a better idea. Finally, about a week and a half before the deadline I had the idea to do a blues-rock mix. After all, Lazy Acres mixes were mostly blues-rock and it figured heavily in Timmay's mixes as well; and they both did better than mine. I really surprised myself with how well I knew the genre (thanks in part to my "education" from Tim and Tom). I had five songs lined up within an hour and the rest came within 3 days. I went against Tim's advice of not hitting people over the head with the same genre over and over. The way I see it I'm putting people into groove that they won't want to get out of. I made a couple winks at the judges in the mix as well. For Jack, I included "Glory Days", which he played over Adelphia's last conference call. I also hope Julie appreciated the hint of Texas twang. The effort payed off with my first ever second place finish.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

And the Winner Is...

Our official distributed the results of our 2008 Summer Mix contest.

In Selection:
1) Timmay's Woodside with 4.33 points
2) Senor Blanco with 4 points
3) Ol' Lazy Acres with 3.33 points
3) The Monkey with 3.33 points

In Sequence:
1) Timmay's Woodside with 4.66 points
2) Senor Blanco with 4.33 points
3) Ol' Lazy Acres with 3.66 points
3) The Monkey with 3.66 points

Overall Mix:
1) Timmay's Woodside with 4.33 points
2) Senor Blanco with 4 points
3) Ol' Lazy Acres with 3.33 points
4) The Monkey with 3 points

The obvious winner is... Timmay's Woodside with a combined average of 4.44 points. Senor Blanco comes in second with 4.11. Ol' Lazy Acres finishes third with 3.44. The Monkey in his first attempt will buy the next round of pie with a combined average score of 3.33 points. The full tally of results can be found here.

Track listings for the mixes can be found online at each contestants web home:

The Woodside
Lazy Acres North
The Monkey

(We'll add Monkey and Blanco once they post)