You've been a good ole wagon →[More:]

The headphones I've been using at my computer for the last year or two have a broken headband and some auditory shortcomings. So I told Mrs. Beese a while ago that, for this year's holiday present, I'd want new headphones.

Today she suggested that, to tide me over until then, I might want to use her headphones - which she seldom uses, and which she bought in the expectation that they were a good model, having been told so by an acquaintance.

To test them, I listened to "The White Tree" from the Howard Shore soundtrack to The Return of the King. [It's the passage with triumphant brass flourishes as the camera follows the chain of beacon lightings across the top of the moutains. Makes me tear up every time I watch the DVD.] They seemed like a distinct sonic improvement - especially in the clarity of the strings. But I haven't formed a real impression of them yet.

Still, it was clear that the old headphones' time had come. As I bunched up their cord for the last time, I thought back on how much pleasure and excitement I had experienced through them during my amateur self-education in American blues - thanks to the miraculous bounty of the music blogs. In concrete terms: These would always be the first speakers through which I heard Freddie Green sing "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do".

So I felt they deserved a moment of recognition at farewell. In their honor, I played - through some small desktop speakers - Bessie Smith singing "You've Been A Good Ole Wagon".

So long, pal.