Tuesday‘s edition of “Talk of the Nation” featured an interesting interview with Chick Corea and Béla Fleck. They‘ve collaborated on a new album, and they played a few cuts from their CD live in the studio. You can catch the broadcast here.

Yesterday on the NPR radio show, “Talk of the Nation,” I heard an interesting interview with unsigned songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Her music was discovered on her MySpace page and consequently is being used on the TV show, “Grey‘s Anatomy.” In a discussion with host Neal Conan, she asserts that record company support is unnecessary to make a living composing music, and that companies searching for talent are as likely to look on MySpace as anywhere else. And because she‘s unsigned, she gets about 2/3 of any sales on iTunes. If you‘re an independent musician, I recommend that you listen to the program here.

I spent last week vacationing on Ocracoke, an island in North Carolina‘s Outer Banks. Ocracoke is many miles from the mainland and can be reached only by air or by sea. The National Park Service administers most of the island as part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but a small village near the south end has been occupied for nearly 300 years. Ocracoke is best known for its picturesque lighthouse, in operation since 1823, and for the pirate Blackbeard, who lived and even threw parties there and was beheaded there in 1718.

Armed with a Korg MR-1 recorder, I was struck by the variety of island sounds and how they differ from the city sounds I‘m accustomed to. I naturally anticipated the roar of the Atlantic Ocean, but the west side of the island faces Pamlico Sound, a body of water whose sounds range from gentle lapping to turbulent sloshing, depending on the weather. Ocracoke‘s birds sound quite distinct from the birds around my home in Charlotte, with lots of seagulls, ducks, and other aquatic birds, as well as red-winged blackbirds and many species I couldn‘t identify.

Ocracoke has a thriving tourist trade, and an assortment of windchimes was on display on the front porch of a shop called the Island Ragpicker. I positioned a stereo mic between the metal bells and bamboo chimes and captured not only their ringing and clacking, but also the “Wooo!” of exuberant college girls on break as they drove past the shop. Almost everywhere I went, the constant breeze made itself an issue while recording, and I often had to use my hat as a windscreen.

Over a dozen families have lived on the island for many generations, and some lifelong residents speak with an unusual brogue I‘d never encountered, pronouncing “high tide” as “hoi toid,” for example. I recorded Jimmy, owner of the local garage, and Della, who ran a small crafts shop behind her home, telling stories of how the island had changed since the days when locals depended on rain as their main source of drinking water. Though I‘m not sure just what I‘ll do with my collection of field recordings, it captures Ocracoke aurally in much the same way that photographs do visually; however, I‘m sure they‘ll take much longer to edit.

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.”

– Paul Gauguin

South by Southwest is happening in Austin this weekend. Anybody out there attending? If not, and you’re a DirecTV subscriber, you don’t have to miss it. Today and tonight (March 17) on DirecTV channel 101, you can watch live broadcasts of musical performances for free.

A new album from Nine Inch Nails is slated for release in April. For anyone who‘d like to remix a single from the album in Apple Logic or GarageBand, you can download a GarageBand file of the song “Survivalism” from NIN‘s Web site. You should be able to open the file in any application that can open or import Apple Loops, including most audio editors.

Okay, so the rebate I mentioned below has expired, but even without the rebate, the prices are still pretty good bargains. If you‘re shopping for an M-Audio Keystation 49e, though, it‘s not too late to save a few bucks. Until the end of March, you can get a very similar $20 rebate from newegg.com. It brings the price of the M-Audio Keystation 49e down to $64,99, plus $10.34 for 3-day shipping.

If you‘re a GarageBand or Logic 7.2 user who wouldn‘t mind owning a nice control surface at a bargain price, have I got a deal for you! The Apple Store has the M-Audio iControl on sale for $99.95 (plus tax) with free shipping, and you can apply this $20 rebate for a total price of only $79.95. That’s $100 off retail!

If a Mac-specific control surface isn‘t what you need, you can use the same rebate for two other M-Audio products at the same price. The Keystation 49e is a USB MIDI keyboard controller with 49 Velocity-sensitive keys and pitch-bend and modulation wheels, and the Fast Track USB is a stereo audio interface that‘s compatible with Pro Tools M-Powered.

You‘d better move fast, though, because the rebate expires on March 7. To find these deals, just go to the Apple Store Web site and search for “iControl,” “Keystation 49e,” or “FastTrack” (not “Fast Track”).

I read an interesting story this morning on MSNBC‘s Web site. It was written by a reporter who made the switch from Mac OS X to Windows Vista. You might enjoy reading about his experience. Just don’t skip to the end, though, or you’ll spoil the surprise ending. The URL is http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/

One of the high points of last weekend‘s NAMM show was a concert by the Tony Levin Band. Tony Levin is one of the most sought-after bassists in the world. He has recorded with such luminaries as Pink Floyd and John Lennon, and he spent many years as a key member of Peter Gabriel‘s band and of King Crimson. The outstanding musicians he‘s played with are literally too numerous to mention. He‘s also well known for his mastery of the Chapman stick, and he‘s one of my musical heroes.

The band played on Friday night at the Clarion Anaheim Resort, a hotel just down the street from the Anaheim Convention Center. Passes were free from beyerdynamic. The Orangewood Ballroom in which the stage was set was almost too small to accommodate the standing-room only crowd that was lucky enough to catch the performance.

Another Peter Gabriel alumnus, Larry Fast, has been part of Levin‘s band since it began in 2000. He held down stage left, playing a Kurzweil 2661. Fast is probably best known as the pioneering recording act Synergy, who had a run of electronic music success in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Once upon a time, he was a regular contributor to EM, and in 1986 he wrote the foreword to my second book, The Rock Synthesizer Manual.

Also on keyboards, stage right, was Tony‘s brother Pete Levin, whose playing credits range from Gil Evans to Korn. Like Fast, he has been part of the Tony Levin Band since its inception. Jesse Gress, a member of Todd Rundgren‘s band for ten years and the Tony Levin Band since 2001, proved his mastery of the Fender Stratocaster. I was especially pleased to see and hear Jerry Marotta on drums. He was a member of Peter‘s Gabriel‘s band beginning with the latter‘s first solo album. Marotta has played with Paul McCartney, the Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, and others too numerous. He‘s another of my musical heroes.

The concert began with an impressive set by Marotta Griesgraber, a duo consisting of Marotta and virtuoso stick player Tom Griesgraber. The music was genuinely amazing, and the audience definitely dug it. It was almost difficult to believe that so much sound came from a duo performing live. With its complex textures and intelligent rock arrangements, Marotta Griesgraber won over many converts.

Then came the main act. The Tony Levin Band took to the stage with a barbershop quartet composed especially for NAMM, followed by “Break It Down,” the opening track from their latest album, Resonator. The band rocked their way through most of that album‘s songs and eventually included Peter Gabriel‘s “On the Air,” King Crimson‘s “Sleepless,” Synergy‘s “Phobos,” and “Back in N.Y.C” from the 1974 Genesis album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, all of which members of the band had played on the original recordings.

Todd Rundgren joined them onstage about halfway into the set, whipping the crowd into a frenzy with a few of his hits, and then left the stage. He returned again for the encore, for which he sang a rousing version of the Call‘s 1984 cult hit, “The Walls Came Down.”

The evening‘s music certainly met my expectations, which were very high to begin with. A splendid time was had by everyone present. Unfortunately, the Tony Levin Band was so loud that from my position near the front of the audience, their entire performance was audibly distorted. Nonetheless, the concert was an experience I will remember for a very long time.