Tessellated blooms with the voids at their centers...

Today I have to teach a lesson to a very smart young piano player, and then I hope to see The Richmond Philharmonic concert today at 6 pm, which is free...and outdoors.  Hoping the weather holds out. ("Just for Fun: A Free Summer Family Concert" - The Gardens at Sunday Park in Brandermill, 4602 Millridge Parkway Midlothian, VA).  The saxophone player in the E-Street Band has died, and too young--sad.


I am furiously updating my concert calendar, which I hope will be a useful resource to Richmond-area music lovers and students.  But as the curator of yet another calendar of the arts, I am forced back on the same old question--what is classical?  The Modlin series has an eclectic mix of genre-defying performers.  For example, writer, songsmith, guitarist and all-around genius Josh Ritter is coming to Modlin this fall.  I know very little about him, so I listened to his song "Remnant" which is posted on the Modlin website.  
I'll admit--I'm under-impressed by the music itself.  It is spare and reminds me of the "White Stripes," (whose disbanding broke my heart), but doesn't strike me as startlingly original.  
Ritter's lyric-making, however, is a splash of cold water in the face.  If Cormac McCarthy wrote songs, they would sound like this: