Ever wonder what your bluegrass heros are listening to? Well now you can find out what Doyle Lawson is listening to by checking out his celebrity playlist on URGE.
URGE talked to Doyle and got the inside scoop on what he listens to and what has influenced him over the years. His current playlist includes a wide selection of music that isn’t surprising considering Doyle’s own proclivity for drawing songs from other genres into his traditionally styled bluegrass sound. His playlist includes names like Bill Monroe, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Ray Price, Buck Owens, George Jones, Swan Silvertones and The Soul Stirrers. Doyle’s URGE list includes specific song recommendations for each artist. Each song on the list is accompanied by comments from Doyle about the song and artist.
In case you’re sitting there wondering what URGE is, it’s the new proprietary digital music service provided by MTV Networks. MTV Networks is a division of Viacom International Inc. which owns more than 100 television channels worldwide, including MTV, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, and CMT.
Closely resembling Apple’s iTunes, the service includes an application (Windows only) for purchasing, downloading and organizing digital music. The music can be purchased by the track or by monthly subscription. Music purchased by the track, as well as via the more expensive subscription plan, may be loaded on an mp3 player, sorry no iPods allowed, you’ll need a Plays For Sure device, and that excludes Microsoft’s Zune music player as well. The cheaper subscription will allow you to download the music to your PC but that’s as far as it goes, you won’t be able to load that music onto any other device.
Being a Mac guy I haven’t had the opportunity to use URGE so I can’t say one way or the other how much bluegrass music they have available. If you’re on a PC and want to try something other than iTunes, it might be worth a look, if for no other reason than to check out Doyle’s play list!
