Just had an interesting experience: Several months ago I picked up a jazz cd from Terje Rypdal & Ketil Bjornstad & fell in love with it. I wanted to hear more from Bjornstad, so I bought one called The Nest cheap on either ebay or Amazon.

It ended up being a new age cd with a female vocalist, not at all what I was expecting. I hated it & filed it away in my large to be listened to again someday pile.

I pulled it out today for the first time in months, & enjoyed it quite a bit! I suspect the difference was my expectations; I was no longer expecting a jazz album, so while it's a genre I usually avoid I really did enjoy it. I think there's a lesson here somewhere...............

Geff, you're absolutely on the mark on this one.

I've put on songs that are all-time favorites and just not been in the mood for them.

Sometimes when you hear something new, you may not be in the right frame of mind or mood to get it.

That's happened to me before too, where a second or third listen did the trick and I got something.

It took me several listens to appreciate Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything before I began to finally like it.He's probably an artist that needs some perseverance.

I love that album.

I'll buy a compilation, tribute/benefit or soundtrack CD out of a completist need for a particular artist, and invariably find myself turned onto other artists on the disc that I've never heard of.

I discovered Kim Richey & Sarah Harmer that way off the top of my head. Certain there were many more.

+ of course the old $1 per disc Warner sampler LP's we've discussed here in the past.

I used to avoid music from the '80s, or at least give it very low priority. Now I'm grooving to Yazoo, who'd have thought it!

My father is a classical music purist/snob, and he used to scorn the Elvis Presley ballad, "Love me Tender". Years later I found out it was an old song from the American Civil War, and when I told him, he suddenly thought it was an okay song.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.-- that happens to me more often than not; I rarely absolutely love a song the first time I hear it. I find it weird that I'm like that.

Ditto.

Sarah Harmer is one of the very best singer-songwriters working today. Can't recommend her highly enough. My experience with her also fits this thread. I read a good review of her CD "You Were Here" and bought a copy. Skipped through it, thought it sounded OK, but not special, and filed it away. Got it out a couple years later after reading positive reviews of her next album, took a good listen, and it really sank in. It's a great album, as is the next one, "All Of Our Names". She's taken more of a country/bluegrass direction with her latest, "I'm A Mountain," but it's excellent, too.

I wish she'd play some dates in the U.S. (she's Canadian). I'd love to see her live.

My mood definitely influences my enjoyment of music. Or does music influence my mood? More the former I think, but I can get into a vicious circle some times.

That said, I agree with the sentiment above (including the thumbs up for Sarah Harmer).

I think one would be abnormal if it didn't. For me, music can affect my mood, and vice versa.

Good lord! Can all this be true?

This could explain so much about my music collection and how those cds got in my car.