Praise for Pandora.com

A couple years ago, I lamented the fact that my music choices were becoming calcified - I saw myself receding "into a world where, I fear, I won't hear anything recorded less than a decade ago, unless it's put down by Neil Young, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, or Bob Dylan."

An anonymous commenter recommended Pandora.com, and the recommendation was seconded by Chris, the criminally under-appreciated creative force behind the816, and "thirded" by no less an authority than musical polymath Happy in Bag.

So, finally, more than two years later, I gave it a try. It's been spectacular. Go there, create a free account (just an email address and password), and it's off to the races. You enter the name of an artist you like, and it goes out and finds others you might enjoy. You won't believe the connections it makes . . .

(As an aside, though, do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, admit that you like Dwight Yoakam. Pandora will treat you like a half-witted hick until you convince it that you were just kidding . . .)

You can have multiple stations - I'm using Pandora to expand my knowledge of jazz, leaning more toward Dave Brubeck than smooth jazz crap or inaccessible fusion noise.

I've also heard great things about Last.fm, so I'll be giving that a try over the next few days.