A lot of people confuse the interest for music with the interest of how music sounds. For the uninitiated, it may seem like the same thing, but there's an abyssal difference. No one have formulated it better and more accurate than English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer Alan Parsons. "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment." If you want to read an old blog post about audiophiles, read more here (opens in a new window). Audiophiles have created a canon of reference albums to try their equipment on, preferable released as Super Bit Mapping (SBM) which converts a 20-bit signal from master recording into a 16-bit signal nearly without sound quality loss or SACD which allows multiple audio channels (i.e. surround sound or multichannel sound). To name a few reference albums; Alan Parsons Project — I Robot, Rumours - Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life, Peter Gabriel - So, Gino Vannelli - Brother to Brother, Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms and Roxy Music - Avalon. The true audiophile makes no difference between Steely Dan - Aja and Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair. In their world, it's just a matter of sound spectrum. There are no audiophiles and reference albums in the gothic country genre. We are perfectly happy if we are able to listen to the music on vinyl, cds or lossless files. This is the sound of music.  

Those Poor Bastards are productive. They released their thirteenth album "Back To The Primitive" on February 27, 2024. The limited edition vinyl options are as follows: 10 signed and numbered test pressings, 100 copies 180 gram black with signed sideshow poster of Lonesome Wyatt and The Minister (original art by Lonesome Wyatt), 200 copies “Bone Rot (natural/black)” and 300 copies “Blood Storm (transparent red/black)”. I don't belong to the primary target group for vinyls. On the bright side, Those Poor Bastards continue to release cds for people like myself that don't have the slightest interest of changing format back to vinyl again. Those Poor Bastards combine a high production rate with consistent good quality. However, this isn't one of their best albums. The new album consists of ten songs delivered in a furious tempo. The distorted songs goes in one ear and out the other. Not bad songs per se, but the songwriting doesn't live up to their usual standards. One song stand out, the closing song "The Hanged Man". To sum it up. "Back To The Primitive" doesn't cut it. Only "The Hanged Man" will take place on my prestigious TPB compilation list. However, my main complaint is the short running time. The revival of vinyls have led to shrinkflation. You could easily fit a total of 44 minutes of music on a vinyl. It’s technically possible to fit in 52 minutes of music at 33 1/3 rpm and even possible to exceed that, if you’re willing to live with a slightly poorer sound. In the old days, most albums were between 37 and 45 minutes in length, and this was conducive to their being taped, as 90 minute cassette tapes could then carry two full albums of material. This album is 31 minutes and 31 seconds long. For me, this means that the music/dollar ratio is less than 1 (cd $12, shipping $20 and $10 import taxes and administrative fee). This is madness and the sort of trade exchange the world can no longer afford. However, this statement is valid on the aggregate level, not on the individual level. I will buy their next album. 

You can accuse me of many things, but being sensitive to trends is not one of them. Running a website dedicated to gothic country music isn't very trendy. To be honest, this isn't a 24/7 job covering breaking news and an endless stream of upcoming events. The best days have come and gone. I like to see myself as a part of a stay-behind operation. I'm collecting information and filling in the historical gaps, documenting for posterity, keeping imposters and fakers out, and waiting for the liberation to come. And, in the meantime, writing impertinent things and speaking truth to power. I'm a private person. I like to remain anonymous and protect myself from the followers of this cult. My avatar is Mik Ezdanitoff. He appeared in Flight 714 and helped Tintin, Captain Haddock and their friends to escape. Mik Ezdanitoff is the editor for the magazine "Space-Week" and mediator between Earth and extraterrestrial influences. Flight 714 is one of the touchstones that shaped my view of the world. Nowadays, we resemble each other. I didn't see that coming. I launched the website on March 1, 2014, which is exactly ten years ago. The first blog entry I posted had the dramatic title "So it begins...". Of course, there was nothing to report at that time. Since then I have posted an anniversary blog post every year. The second blog post (2015) had the expectantly title "So it continues...". Here, I discussed the past, present and future for the site. The third blog post (2016) had the prosaic title "And so it goes on and on and on and on and on...". Here, I did some merciless following up on ambitions and promises. The fourth blog post (2017) had the patronizing title "The necessity of content gardening". Here, I stated that a website, with proper content gardening, could live forever. The fifth blog post (2018) had the technical title "Ratchet effect through organic growth”. Here, I speculated how web indexing and algorithms drove traffic to unprecedented levels. The sixth blog post (2019) had the glorifying title "5 years and 100 000 hits". Here, I rattled off statistics lengthwise and crosswise. The seventh blog post (2020) had the dutiful title "The show must go on". Here, I concluded that the responsibilities I have towards society are too important to be calling it quits. The eight blog post (2021) had the explanatory title "7 is the number following 6 and preceding 8". Here, I complained about muddling through in the time of the pandemic. The ninth blog post (2022) had the cheerful title "Eight is great". Here, I made some random remarks. The tenth blog post (2023) had the rhyming title "Nine is fine". Today, it's time to summarize the last year in a blog post. The visitor counter indicates 261 578.

Assessment

Executive summary: The website has operated successfully for the last ten years. New content has been added with regularity and to a sufficient degree without any deterioration in quality. The website is in need of a minor review, primarly with the intent on updating existing pages and removal of dead links. A plan for this has been developed and implemented. Minor disruptancies in the operation of the website have occured, but this haven't affected production or quality. The coming year we will see a strong focus on content and the management and development of the site.  

Visitor statistics

To go from zero to 260 000 visitors took 3 637 days. The site didn't have many visits from start. Then the web indexing and Google algorithms began to kick in. The average number of days to reach another 10 000 visitors has normally been around 130-140. The last year has been a record year. More than 40 000 visitors during the last year. All time high.  

Department statistics
I wrote zero new articles last year. As I have stated before, new articles have no intrisic value. I don't want to lower my standards. I have a list of 4-5 bands waiting to be included in my prestigious article series. I promise to write at least one new article the upcoming year. Moreover, I listed one new artists in the table. I created zero new lists. Who knows, maybe I will make a list after all these years. I wrote 52 blog entries, which is once a week. However, "blogging is not writing, it's graffiti with punctuation" as someone have pointed out. 

Most visited pages
The five pages below are the most visited. The order has shifted over time. The start page (Home) is and have always been the most visited page. Not very surprising. The second page "Artists" is a simple list with links to Discogs and articles. Still, very popular. The third page is the list "10 essential gothic country albums", which comprises a canon of must-have gothic country albums. The "10 best version of Wayfaring Stranger" list has become quite popular in recent years and is placed as number four. Review of "Fossils" (Sons of Perdition collaborative album) is placed as number five. The Sons of Perdition article page belonged to the five most visited pages for many years. It's now placed as number eight. 

 

Flaws
The website has been up and running twenty-four seven. No disruptions of any kind. On December 27, 2023 a spam bot made 5 000 calls to the website. Nice try. I have done a lot of maintance, but still has a few things to fix. If you stumble over any obsolete or incorrect information or any dead links don't hesitate to contact me and I will fix it. I take some pride in that the website is updated. The website has succesfully been migrated to Joomla 5.  

Reflections
Nothing to report under this section. 
  
Future
I will go on untiringly within the limits of family, work and other duties.

Muddy Roots Music Festival is a recurrent musical event in Cookeville, TN. I don't have any plans to attend, but I checked up the line-up. I'm familiar to a couple of the bands and artists: Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Munly & the Lupercalians, Gogol Bordello, Viva Le Vox and Possessed by Paul James. They are all renowned. However, I have never heard of the other artists and bands that are announced. I don't know what to make of this. Is this a sign of the festival becoming a minor-league event or just the sign of the times? Or could it just be that I'm living in oblivion and have not yet discovered all the new branches and twigs that are growing in the darkness. Hmm, I venture to doubt that this is the case. I do credit myself for having some insights in the dark roots genre. The pricetag for these two days is high, $175. This include entrance, free camping, free hot showers and bring your own beer. Personally, festivals are not on my bucket list. I have never had any desire to crawl in mud, to engage in crowd surfing or use portable toilets. In Sweden, there's an urban legend that has flourished since the 1980s. It's about the "poop man" who allegedly appears at music festivals, where he is said to overturn portable toilets when people visit them. The result: people were covered in urine and feces. It's also said that the "poop man" smears feces on people, in tents and on bicycles. A few events have occurred in Sweden that include at least some of what is described in the urban legend. To be honest, that is all the basis of information I need. No hot shower in the world can change that. 

I found this badge on an auction site and it triggered childhood memories. Back in the early 1970s, I wore the badge myself. This is the member badge of Bridgnorth Stamp Club, located outside Birmingham in the UK. The stamp club had members all over the world. In retrospective, their business model was of Byzantine dimensions. This is how it worked. You received a booklet with stamps in the mail, and selected the stamps you wanted to keep, and returned the booklet together with your payment. The payment was, if I remember correctly, made in unstamped Swedish stamps. They must have been redeemed in a mysterious way. In hindsight, randomly chosen stamps in booklets are in conflict with serious collecting. But, nevermind. I was young and at the bottom of the collecting pyramid. Back then, you didn't need to be a nerd to collect stamps (but it helped). It was quite common. If you are an ambitious stamp collector, a certain monomanic disposition is an advantage. I could spend many hours trading stamps or arranging and re-arranging the stamps in my albums. Not to mention, the time-consuming procedure of removing used stamps from envelopes, rinsing and drying them and, last but not least, putting them under pressure to wrinkle them out. This process was conducted in an almost industrial scale.      

Nowadays, stamp collecting is dead. It peaked in 1980, and has been declining ever since. There are many reasons for this development. The hard core of collectors have grown older or/and died. There's no younger generation standing by to take over. When I grew older and lost interest, I always thought that I would give my collection to some deserving kid. However, very few kids are interested in stamps. In fact, I haven't even found an undeserving kid to give it to. I still got my collection. The prices of used stamps have plummeted. Many older stamp collectors finds this fact hard to take in since they lived under the impression that their collection would be worth money some day. However, if you have one of these gems, read more here (opens in a new window) you can retire. The rise and fall of stamp collecting isn't just about the actual collecting. The internet and use of e-mail have reduced and replaced letter writing, resulting in lower stamp sales. Metered postage have replaced stamped postage för business and government agencies. And moreover, self-adhesive stamps contains oil-based glue, which means that stamps can’t be soaked off paper anymore (they can still be removed, but it's a more complicated process). Stamps are definitely not a collectible item anymore. The development is not unlike cds. Some, but far from all, will be valuable in the future.    

Whatever happened to Bridgnorth Stamp Club? They became insolvent and went belly-up. A meeting was held "on 26 February 2009, at 11.15 am, for the purpose of having an account laid before them, showing the manner in which the winding-up of the Company has been conducted and the property disposed of, and of receiving any explanation that may be given by the Liquidator, and also determining the manner in which the books, accounts and documents of the Company shall be disposed of." And so ends the tale of Bridgnorth Stamp Club.