Music to Soothe the Savage Beast: Stan's 7 Top Musical Acts | Eastern North Carolina Now

     Creative genius Mark Knopfler, who never wastes a musical note, built a steady solo career, continuing to write meaningful, substantive melodies, while playing many different genres of music with a wildly eclectic group of musicians from Celtic Folk to Traditional Country, and everything in between. To that effect, when my wife and I set a "Music Station" on a Music App, we quite often choose Mark Knopfler Radio, where we are presented songs from the likes of Van Morrison, to Delbert McClinton, to Emmy Lou Harris to Bob Dylan, to Iris Dement.

Mark Knopfler performing parts of "Sailing to Philadelphia" (a song I like to play), which is part of this story of a most historical feat, a feat born out of measuring what is real (something I spent nearly 5 years of my life doing as a surveyor) - the Mason Dixon Line: Below.


     Now, juxtapose the last video segment against this very early Dire Straits hit, "Sultans of Swing" done by the band when they were at their prime point as a distinguished band, and one would have to agree that Mark Knopfler has had full, and evolving career for the last 48 years. Still, the resourceful Mark Knopfler still plays on.

Mark Knopfler, and band performing an extended version of the first Dire Straits hit, Sultans of Swing": Below.




     6. Dave Matthews Band /Dave Matthews    One library of a collection of fine melodies that I know to my core that I will most probably never be capable of recreating is almost any one of these esoterically brilliant creations by Dave and ensemble of outstanding musicians. These jazzed rock personalization's of near perfect melody, created by the Dave Mathews Band, are a musical expressions of what they know to be as near to perfect as their soulful effort demands them to be, forcefully placed in every purposeful note rendered.

     Since the band formed with its 5 original members in Charlottesville, Virginia around 1991, a plethora of creative wonders have streamed from out of Dave Matthew's Band, and creative leader Matthews, while the titular member of the group, is not self-admittedly the sole creative force, giving full credit to his extra talented and creative bandmates, including writing credits when due. Creatively speaking: How else can a group of musicians create such a robust, and uniquely individualistic sound? Great musicians should never be blocked from their full expression, and that is the beauty of the Dave Matthews Band; they are not, and that is fully representative in every note created and expressed.

This anthem for the adolescent male, full of latent "toxicity," is a classic communication to all of us that lived through it, or were exposed to it, maybe influenced by this inevitable process The Dave Matthews Band performing, "Crash Into Me," as their dramatic recreation of the near constant consciousness of what constitutes boys begrudgingly growing into young men: Below.


"So Much to Say" pretty much says it all for anyone that really lives on the edge, which is a constant for most fully functioning Americans. The lyric from this melody: "Treading, trotting trails for a long, long time" has a visceral connection for me: Below.




Like all ofThe Dave Matthews Band best compositions"#41" is simply a tremendous melody in every sense of its composition performed live by the entire band: Above. The acoustic version with just Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds : Below.

     7. Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas    Not unlike, the Dave Mathews Band, Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas is a band formed in the late 1980s, early 1990s; is instrumentally near perfect in all efforts, with outstanding vocals, playing a level that must be addressed as highest echelon. Both groups mostly hail from "Middle America," and while both bands play differently genres: Dave Mathews Band would be classified as Jazz /Rock; Allison Krause and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas would be classified as Traditional Country /Bluegrass /Progressive Bluegrass, both American bands perform the best of what is an amalgamation what is the best within the deep vat of American Music.

     Not to be too technical regarding both bands similarities for such opposing genres, but consider these rarities: Neither band uses an electric guitar with any regularity; however, both bands use a multiplicity of lead instruments, one of which for both bands is a fiddle - Alison Krauss plays a violin styled fiddle, Boyd Tinsley plays a stripped down electric fiddle.

    Another obvious similarity are the vocals, ever present as the driver of melody. Alison Krauss's vocalization of so many of their well constructed melodies are clear as a bell, and the Union Station lead guitar player, Dan Tyminski, has a perfect Traditional Country voice as evidence in "Man of Constant Sorrow," the breakout hit from the classic film "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" For the Dave Matthews Band, Dave Matthews could well be one of the most unique vocalist of a generation, singing straight from his heart and his soul on every melody, with so much guidance of note acquisition, one would believe this expression would be his last opportunity to ever sing that song again, believing the force of his willful song will indelibly mark that moment, a moment that must matter completely for posterity.

    Alison Krauss's stylized vocals are more measured but just as passionate but controlled, perfect in every pitch. Couple those heavenly harmony of Alison's sweet voice the underlying perfectly produced harmony of Jerry Douglas's dobro (one of my favorite instruments) that moves from latent perfect backing harmony to full lead, every note as well placed as anything the great Itzhak Perlman might render with his violin, and you might understand why I dub Allison Krause and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas as the Led Zeppelin of another generation, just no drummer. This is a brilliant ensemble of musicians as evidenced in the videos provided below.

The flexibility of moving effortlessly between genres for Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas is that what is paramount about what they create is it is always done by an inexhaustible level of skill as evidences in "Let Touch You For A While": Below.