I was a blogger for a few years starting in late 2006. At the time, inspired by the writer Richard Louv, I was writing about human connections to nature on my blog People and Nature Journal. It was a tough job to research and write substantive posts while I was working full time, but I (http://childrenandnature.blogspot.com/) was still able to pen over 500 posts before I tired of it all. I had to google myself to find it, but it is still there, inactive for eight years. I scrolled through a few months, and damn, it's not bad, even today. With the experience under my belt, I have great respect for the solo blogger and understand fully that a solid topical blog has to have multiple writers, researchers, and administrators to be successful.

With the blog in the bag, I started thinking about music more and began writing columns for The Observer over in Jefferson County. I had to really catch up on the current music blogs to immerse myself. Many of these blogs exist today, and a new generation of writers has also emerged, helping all of us discover new music, dig into the details of our favorite band, and give us the inside scoop on goings ons at the myriad festivals that happen year-round across the country. The whole format of blogs has changed over the years, becoming more complex and amalgamated in their format. Once you find a blog you like, you'll want to be able to come back again and again and find new, decent content every time. The stale blogs die fast—clicks are their lifeblood.

Here are some great music blogs to help you broaden your musical palate.

DC Show List—A simple database of daily concerts in DC. It is a decent one-stop resource, except for its antiquated format, where you have to scroll down to find the latest dates. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the National Symphony, and Kurt Vile and the Violators are all there. www.showlistdc.com

Capital Bop—a non-profit online media outlet dedicated to building a community of jazz fans in DC and the surrounding area. This is the real deal, with album reviews, concert reviews, new artist features, and concert dates with a map to help you find the venues. There's also a great listing of local jazz musicians with links to their websites or social media. A super blog for Middleburg folks who want to explore the DC Jazz scene. www.capitalbop.com

DC Music Rocks—with an artist database, podcast, and a music resource amalgamation page, DC Rocks is a go-to resource for any local music aficionado. The local music calendar is superb, the resource page brings together hundreds of links on venues, festivals, blogs, social media groups, record stores, local music labels…it's all here, you just have to look. www.dcmusicrocks.com

NPR Music—a broad website with a number of vital components, not always good. There are elements of the NPR page that promote the writers' musical tastes as better than everyone else. The same writers tend to pick music that fits a very narrow niche of sound and refuses to broaden their horizons. At least that's been my experience with the unbearable and pretentious All Songs Considered—you can only listen to so many Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie sound-alike songs. Luckily, most the NPR Music site is amazing, with excellent feature stories, the sublime Tiny Desk Concert Series videos, some amazing radio station music feeds, and great concert videos. NPR music also brings you the great radio programming, including Mountain Stage, the Thistle and Shamrock, and the greatest Jazz radio show in history, Piano Jazz, hosted by the indefatigable Marian McPartland. All sins are forgiven, NPR. www.npr.org/music/

Allmusic—along with the album version database discogs.com, AllMusic is the best overall recording database to find out about an individual artist, song, or recording. You can look up an artist, get his/her discography, and then dig through their credits on other albums. Five-star reviews are few and far between. There are also new release reviews, star ratings, critical reviews, fan reviews, and fan ratings. It's my first stop whenever I need details about an artist. Best to sign up for an account so you can record your star ratings for your favorite albums, and avoid at least some of the annoying ads that are needed to monetize and thus pay for the page. Who knew Sam Bush played mandolin on a Hootie and the Blowfish album? www.allmusic.com

This month's playlist is Thanksgiving Dinner Acoustic tunes, hope you enjoy them. Listen here: https://tinyurl.com/yauoqy5r and give me a follow on Spotify.