Still Alive at Number 5

BB's 5th B-day

Well, believe it or not, but this week marks the 5th anniversary of this blog. That's right, BB Chronicles has been around for a full five years now. And in these days (especially the last year and a half), with the struggles, closures, shutdowns and changing rules and carriers for file sharing, where it has become very difficult to maintain any music-related blog with downloadable content, that this little endeavor has lasted 5 years is pretty amazing. I know that very few of the music blogs that I used to visit when I first started this project are still around today. So, I guess that is quite an accomplishment in itself.
Of course, this has been and will to continue to be a small, personal undertaking, where I try to provide insight, information, commentary, and (perhaps most importantly) links to unreleased music content for artists that I feel deserve to be heard and appreciated by more people. In that sense, I do believe that we have something at least a little bit special here. Over the last 5 years, I have made available here nearly 300 different concerts, shows, and other unreleased music, most of which are still available here, and much of which is not generally available from other sites or blogs (or is very difficult to find). Sure, there are many other sites that deal in much larger volumes, quantities and varieties of offerings, but generally with little to no information or commenary on what is being offered. I only present and post those things that I truly feel are worthwhile and that I hope others will enjoy. I never post anything that I have not listened to myself, and if there is any issue with the content or quality, I will surely let you know.  So, hopefully, this is a somewhat unique place to check out.

Once again, at this time I also feel obliged to thank and celebrate all the others out there who have made so much of this great music, which is not available for purchase anywhere, freely available to all who wish to download and enjoy it. I am only able to offer these downloads because others before me have made them available. So, to all the other bloggers, tapers, forum posters, and music fans that have collected these recordings and made them available over the internet, as well as to all the great artists and musicians out there that allow these recordings to be freely exchanged, I offer a huge and heartfelt Thank You.

As for the future of the blog, well, at least for the immediate future, it will continue pretty much as it has been, that is, on the same limited basis (one or two posts a week, tops). I very much enjoy doing it, but just have a very limited time I can devote to it. So, please be patient, as it may take me some time to get around to posting things, etc. But I will always strive to provide new and interesting content that is generally not available from the other usual music blogs. Frankly, though, I don't really know how long this will be able to continue, but I'll keep it going while I can. One disappointment has been that I had hoped that we could build a sort of community of followers that would comment on and discuss some of the music and artists that are presented here (like the active groups at Willard's Wormholes and some other sites), but, sadly, that has not happened here, with generally very few comments (this year so far averaging less than 1 comment per post) and virtually no discussion. So, I really would like to hear from you more, if possible.

Next up for the blog, in celebration and commemoration of this 5th anniversary, as well as to memorialize the loss of so many other excellent music sites and blogs, over the next few weeks I will be featuring some of the 'classic' bootlegs that every fan should have. These will include some of the greatest bootleg albums of all time. These are all downloads that I have not previously featured here simply because they were readily available elsewhere and were not needed to be posted here. However, in the meantime, with the demise of so many great sites, some of these are no longer so easy to find, and many of the 'newer' fans may not have them, so I will now offer some of them here. So, get ready. Most of you veterans and die-hard fans of these artists should already have these, but if not, here will be your chance once again to collect them.

Up first will be one of the all-time great unreleased albums, Neil Young's Chrome Dreams from 1976. so, stay tuned for more great music adventures, as we start our 6th year here at BB Chronicles.