What song, artist, or album got you into music?
DT: I bought Weezer's Blue Album the day before I started sixth grade. Before that, I sang along to the oldies station on the radio, but the listening to the crashing distortion guitars and the lyrics about love, surfing, and music was the moment that I discovered rock and roll. I still have that original album and it still always comes up big when the moment is right.
What's the best concert you've ever seen?
DT: I saw Robert Earl Keen in Memphis in the fall. His energy, storytelling, the smooth sound of the steel pedal guitar, and bottles of Miller Lite combined to create pure redneck bliss. I wanted to buy a cowboy hat and wander around Texas after that show, but somehow ended up back in Maine.
What have you been listening to lately?
DT: A lot of country music. Norman Blake, Gillian Welch, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Bragg and Wilco, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle.
Favorite artist?
DT: At the risk of conforming to a stereotype, the Grateful Dead. They were so much more than a psychedelic band that played "Truckin'" and "Casey Jones." Robert Hunter wrote pure poetry for those guys and the band captured so much in their music from folk and country to rock and even a little bit of funk. Some periods over their long career were certainly better than others, but through it all, you can really hear how they grew together and apart as a band, their personal struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, and their excitement to create new music and a new sound every time they hit the stage.
Favorite album?
DT: The Band's Music From Big Pink. The heartache, humor, voices, storytelling, and musicianship combine to create the perfect album.
Favorite Beatles song?
DT: Whichever song I happen to be listening to at the time. They're that good.
Tobin's show is Monday from 8:00-9:30 p.m. "It's a musical journey that consists of mostly whatever I'm in the mood to listen to-which I like to think is mostly good."