How We Choose What We Post At So Many Roads

I wanted to take a minute to explain how we decide on what to post here at So Many Roads/. I consider 4 things in deciding what bands and concerts to post:

• Sound Quality: Basically, no show gets posted unless the sound quality is top notch. Over 90% of what we post at So Many Roads are soundboard or FM broadcasts. When I first started this site almost 13 years ago, I took the advice of Tunzmaster Dino, from the legendary D&P’s Bootleg Tunzworld, that no one wants to hear a show that sounds like it was recorded in your bathroom with the water running. Sound quality is king. And sound quality should never be confused with file type.  Just because a show is captured on FLAC files doesn't automatically mean it sounds good.  Dino's drunken rant on Guitars 101 on the FLAC vs MP3 debate is the stuff of legends! In any event, while we have increased the number of audience recordings over the years, we do our best to make sure they sound great. Maybe 1 or 2% of the time, we’ll post a less than great sounding show for historical or sentimental reasons, but mostly, we’re bringing you a soundboard or broadcast quality show.


• The Date: Given that this blog has evolved to feature a "this date in history” approach, the show we post each day has to be from that day! So, if its November 14, then we’ll find a concert from November 214 from some year between 1955 and today. When you see posts like our re-post days or some other type of announcement, it means I couldn’t find a show from that day that I felt was worth posting.

• The Theme: Some years ago, we thought it woukd be fun - and make this blog unique - if each month of posts reflected some theme. For example, we have months featuring "Back To Back" concerts, like this month, or ones featuring a particular decade, or ones even centered around an event, like Woodstock.  Having a theme does help fiocus what we post, thoug of course, it does restrict which shows we can choose.

• My Taste In Music: In the end, I post shows that feature the music I enjoy. You'll see lots of shows at So Many Roads from the Grateful Dead, Paul McCartney, CSNY, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, the Allman Brothers, etc. because that’s what I listen to every day. I’m not a fan of heavy metal, grunge or progressive rock, so you don’t see any posts from bands that play those styles of music. I like the blues, but in small doses, which is why you only get occasional posts from artists such as Muddy Waters, Robert Cray or Stevie Ray Vaughn. I’m into live music, not studio outtakes, so you’ll see very few of the latter type of posts here at So Many Roads. I know that my musical tastes may differ from others, which is why I link to sites such as The New JDP, Arizona Jones, The Ultimate Bootleg Experience, and Heavybootz, just to name a few, where you can often find music I may not post. By the way, the number of times I post a band usually reflects how much I enjoy their music but not always. You would see far more Beatles posts, for example, but unfortunately, there are far too few high quality concert recordings available. Same goes for The Band from the Robbie Robertson era, Rockpile. Marshall Crenshaw and Derek & The Dominos, just to name a few. In the end, given that we've posted shows from almost 200 bands, I think we've covered a wide spectrum of rock & roll.

Hope all the above helps. Thanks for visiting So Many Roads and enjoy the tunz.