As promised, here is my first artist in the “this-stuff-should-be-on-your-ipod” section!

David Gray found fame with his pop hit “Babylon” on his 1998 album “White Ladder.” While the song isn’t bad, it’s actually the worst song on the album. But, it had an up tempo and was catchy to sing and so radio ate it up.

Why David Gray? Here’s why, he simply is one of the best song writers there is and has written so many. Ok Ben, I will give you Paul Simon - he too is a legend song writer.

So it’s about quality and quantity.

I often make “best of” albums so it was a matter of time before I made the David Gray Best Of album. But after filling the first album with 16 tracks I realized I had not even touched the surface. I then made Part II with an additional 17 tracks, but it too was incomplete. It took 3 best of albums just to come close. When an artist can put out over 50 brilliant songs, that is a great artist.

David Gray is not a flashy guitar player and if you’re looking for good dance music, he is sure to disappoint, but if you like good lyrics and great songs like Van Morrison, David Gray is your man.

So head over to iTunes and try these 5 songs for a small sampling:

• Shine
• Birds Without Wings
• Flesh
• Flame Turns Blue
• Freedom

Most of you know by now that I am a big fan of music; I probably have over 500 cds. My wife calls me a music snob and she might be right. I like lots of different music, music from different genres, different time periods, whatever. Good music comes in all shapes and sizes and has no boundaries. We all have different taste and certainly we are all entitled to our opinions, but just know that my opinion is usually right…did I sound like Simon Cowell right there

Recently, I told a good friend of mine, a guy who is a big music buff (probably even more than me) that I thought David Gray may be one of the top 5 best musicians of all time. He said, “you must be joking.” I told him that I wasn’t. I told him to give me 5 guys that are better. He listed off some pretty good musicians that certainly could be up there, but they still fall short of David Gray in my opinion… and remember, my opinion is usually right…

So what I am going to start doing is from time-to-time (maybe twice a month) is introduce you guys to a new artist. You may or may not already know the artist. They will come from all genres, all time periods, some old, some new, some dead, some alive, some punk, some country, some rock, some slow, some fast, some popular, some not-so-popular, whatever.

I will give you five songs that you should then go buy off of iTunes and put in your iPod and listen too. This will give you an introduction into the artist and hopefully wet your appetite for more. So I will start it this weekend.

You all do have iPods right? Good, just spend 5 dollars on the songs for the artist and get to know the artist as I post them. You shall not be disappointed…

What are your favorite Christmas albums?

For me, I prefer the old school stuff, that Trans-Siberian Orchestra stuff does nothing for me. Here are my favorite Christmas albums:

- Nat King Cole
- Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas [ play ]
- Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas

Check out: Live from the Steve Jobs Keynote — “It’s Showtime”

Also check out the webPod, now in black!

Also, be sure to upgrade to iTunes 7, it rocks!

This may be the coolest thing ever. I have been tormenting my coworker this morning by playing a ringtone that only he can hear. He sits in the cube behind me and so we usually banter back and forth all day. So now I have a new weapon; I play this ringtone to annoy him and I can’t hear a thing. Old age has its bonuses.

Can you hear it? If so then how old are you?

[ Play Ringtone ]

[ MORE HERE ]

Our good friend hubs in his post ‘For Lovers‘ has spurred me to ask the question, “What music gets you in the mood?” Say, you have that special someone coming over for a nice dinner that you have prepared and you are looking for a night of romance; what would we hear playing in the background?