Tag: music

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Raspberry Pi Streaming Music Player – Built!

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For a long time I have been meaning to get a Raspberry Pi and create a dedicated streaming music player that I can connect to my surround sound system. With lockdown 3.0 I finally bit the bullet and ordered the kit from HiFiBerry.com and got it done.

Step 1 – Building the kit.

This was really straight forward. It took around 30 minutes. It didn’t come with any instructions so took some figuring out but I got it worked out in the end.

Step 2 –  Loading the PiCorePlayer software

I was going to use this to connect to the Logitech Media Server. It’s a low key piece of software running on the Pi Core OS and implementing the Squeezelite software all bundled together and running as one.

I used the Raspberry Pi Imager software which made the job of loading the OS onto the SD card super simple. You can download that from the Raspberry Pi site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/

You can read more about the player software at https://www.picoreplayer.org/

3 –  Enabling WiFi on the Pi

WiFi isn’t enabled by default so I had to load a file onto the SD card with SSID details for our network. The Pi loads this on boot and voila. I used this guide to configure: https://docs.picoreplayer.org/how-to/setup_wifi_on_pcp_without_ethernet/

4 – Playing some music

I am using the device as a headless unit, ie without being connected to a screen… so was looking for a nice and free way of doing this. You can use iPeng but that’s costly so I did some hunting!

I found the following plugin for Logitech Media Server: https://github.com/CDrummond/lms-material

This plugin, called Material, uses HTML5 to give you a nice layout for playing music from a webbrowser.

You can watch me putting it together in the video below:

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“Low Rider” and car culture in music and film

Who doesn’t love cars and 70s culture? I’m a big car fan and it was probably through the film “Gone in 60 Seconds” (remake) that I first heard this song.

Reading into it a bit more and looking at the background behind the song and what it was all about got me looking at the low-rider scene. This is where paint, wire wheels and hydraulic suspension are all used to jack the car up at individual corners, often controlled remotely as well so the driver could use the car as a show piece whilst not driving – all very cool.

Ford Galaxy – lowrider. You can download this here: http://getwallpapers.com/collection/lowrider-backgrounds

The band itself was made up of a multi-ethnic lineup and at the time did wonders to improve the acceptibilty of different races in pop music.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and now invite you to listen to the original video for the song. https://youtu.be/hg_KZQ7k3kI (unable to embed, sorry).

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Rebel country music and the rise of “The Highwaymen”

L-R – Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson

I’ve loved country music for quite some time, and among all the country greats, you have the likes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash. They all had very successful careers spanning decades.

Why is it called rebel country music you may ask? If you didn’t already know they all had run-ins with the law and were in jail or prison at various points throughout their lives. Looking back, this is what gave them more of a following and infamously boosted their careers.

In 1985 they came together to record their first record together but at that time didn’t yet have a name. The album “Highwayman” was credited to the band members individually.

In 1990 they came together again for a second attempt and produced another album of songs, dubbed “Highwayman 2” and toured extensively.

In 1995 they released their final release “The Road Goes on Forever” before Waylon and Johnny’s deteriorating health.

Since Waylon and Johnny both passed, the supergroup has become increasingly more popular. There have been several remasters or original recordings and releases of concert footage on Blueray.

You can read more about the group at AllMusic

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The Music of Bon Scott

I love AC/DC. I love rock music in general. I love loud music and it is without a doubt, and a pretty good fact, that AC/DC wouldn’t have been so successful had it not been for Bon coining a very large number of their best known hits.

I’m not going to bother compiling a list of my favourite tracks, as Ultimate Classic Rock have done that for me – see here: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-bon-scott-acdc-songs/ – but what I did want to do is list some of the music he was involved with before AC/DC came about.

Bon was the eldest member of AC/DC when he joined, but probably had the most experience out of them all.

He had sung in three bands prior to AC/DC.

  1. The Spektors (co drummer and singer)
  2. The Valentines (vocals)
  3. Fraternity (lead vocals, recorder)
I’ve created a playlist featuring some of the songs – feel free to add some of your favourites too!

I don’t think Bon Scott gets enough credit for his songwriting or the impact he had on AC/DC after he died.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.