When I launched this blog as occasional essays on the Hatboro-Horsham Patch in February 2012, I was a few years shy of 50. As a result, as many middle-aged folks do, I looked back as often as I looked forward. My goal was what I articulated in that first post: to celebrate music—old and new—built for the long haul. Some of the missives that followed focused on new artists, others old favorites, while a handful dove headfirst into wistful nostalgia. When I moved my musings to WordPress in July 2014, my mission remained pretty much the same. As before, I shared memories, most notably with my Of Concerts Past and Essentials series, not to mention many of my Top 5 posts. I also shared essays culled from the original Old Grey Cat website. But I wasn’t entirely in nostalgia’s grip. That August, for instance, I included a roundup of (relatively) new artists capturing my ear.
I also wanted this blog to reflect something often missing from “music criticism.” As I explained in this post from 2020, “Making great music isn’t akin to making a model airplane—it’s about intangibles that, as often as not, have more to do with the listener(s): Who we are, where we are in our lives, and what’s going on in the wider world. There’s no right or wrong, per se, just right or wrong for us.” It’s why I only spotlight those artists, albums and songs that speak to and for me, and sometimes share tidbits from my life while doing so.
The biggest surprise to me about this blog’s evolution has been just how much and how little my goals have changed. I’ve shed much—though certainly not all—of my nostalgic tendencies, essentially embracing a mindfulness approach to music, focusing more on the now than the then. Yet the overall goal remains the same: celebrate music in an entertaining way.
The Old Grey Cat 