Ptss, I also grew up in the country so, for the most part, experienced the same serene quiet that you mentioned. On the other hand, though, because it was a working farm there were many times when machinery noise was overwhelming for hours on end, day after day, and on and on, which probably started my hearing decline. I, too, had a crystal radio which I could only listen to in one exact spot in my room. Another parallel is that one of our most memorable vacation experiences was in Nova Scotia at a particular Scottish Highland games which featured music over field competitions.
Anyway, by now I've received quite a few CDs that I've been ordering since the beginning of this thread. Listening to them has been enjoyable and the recordings that I've ordered most of are under the Chesky, RR and Gramophone labels; they're all good and I appreciate the advice. As it turns out, quite a few of my existing recordings were also under these labels; I just hadn't previously paid attention to that aspect of my choices.
Just to make sure that I stay true to form and deviate from the subject of this thread, Ive noted your obvious considerable appreciation of great artists' genius based on your list of future chat partners. Because my education and work background has been in the sciences, my appreciation of genius was was relegated primarily to works in physics and mathematics. I've come to the realization, though, that genius in music composition is at least as remarkable and, possibly more rare.
