Episode 400 - Richard Thompson: Poor Ditching Boy

Well it’s time for another assessment on this blog as I do every 100 posts. Today it’s the 400th post. By the time you read this, we will have reached our 10,000th unique visitor. At midnight, we were 7 shy of that major number. If you are interested in the stats for Reading between the Grooves, go to the bottom of the page. It has been a monumental several months. More on that later.

It’s no secret that there are some artists of which I am partial. Of those are the collected and individual works of the alumni of Fairport Convention. That includes today’s featured artist for Traditional Tuesday, Richard Thompson. In April 1972, Richard released his first solo work – “Henry the Human Fly.” In the US, the LP was originally released on the Reprise label.

I bought my copy in 1973 or 1974 and it has been one of my favorites for many years. I probably will get around to featuring the album as a Saturday Album feature, but until that time, I thought I would tempt you with a tantalizing taste of Thompson.

Had I not known that “The Poor Ditching Boy” was a Thompson original, I would have thought that it was a traditional lament. It just sounds like it was written centuries ago and Richard’s voice lends credence to these thoughts.

I considered using a cover of this song for a Monday; however, I never could find anyone that did the song any justice – although many had recorded the tune. It’s best to stay with an original by the original.

RBTG’s 400th Post Retrospect

Like I had reported with the 100th, 200th, and 300th posts, I took a look backward on how we are doing visitor wise. I began this blog on September 26, 2009, but did not start monitoring the visits until October 16, 2009. Since that time, we have had the following:

Variable	Statistic
Unique Visitors	9,993
Times Visited	11,949
Number of Pages Viewed	19,773
People Visiting 200+ Times	423
People Visiting 101-200 Times	223
People Visiting 51-100 Times	163
People Visiting 26-50 Times	104
Number of Visitor Countries Represented	104
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Search Engines	52.44%
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Other Sites	36.66%
Percentage of Visitors via Direct Access	10.90%

The Top Ten Charts

As one would find in music trade magazines, I have prepared some Top Ten Charts for "Reading between the Grooves."

The Top Ten Visitor Countries

Since the 300th post on July 27, 2010, the number of visitor countries increased from 88 to 104. The same countries made the Top 10 at both the 200th and 300th anniversary; however, the order changed somewhat with Brazil and Italy moving up and Australia moving down.

Rank	Country	Visits
1	United States	6,723
2	United Kingdom	911
3	Canada	579
4	Germany	492
5	France	260
6	Italy	254
7	Brazil	237
8	Australia	211
9	The Netherlands	156
10	Japan	139

The Top Ten Pages via Direct Access

While most people (1,634) have visited the home page for “Reading Between the Grooves,” others enter distinct pages through page specific links and via search engine returns. Two new pages joined the list and overtook the number one and two slots.

Rank	Artist: Song	Visits
1	Deep Purple before “Smoke on the Water”	778
2	Mungo Jerry: “In the Summertime”	428
3	Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks: “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away”	383
4	Walter Egan: “Magnet & Steel”	302
5	The Who: “Join Together”	298
6	The Hooters: “And We Danced”	294
7	Fairport Convention: “Matty Groves”	285
8	Moody Blues: “On the Threshold of a Dream” LP	262
9	The Talk Box Guitar Effect	259
10	The Heavy: “How Do You Like Me Now”	248

The Top Days by Total Visits

This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits and the content that was featured on those particular days. Only one was on the list at the 300th post – “The Prescription is More Cowbell.”

I have to thank some of my friends from college for some of the success within the last three months. Three of the posts were from violin/fiddle week – a suggestion from Greg Rector. Two additional posts were inspired by Stuart Shepard when he sent me a story about the reunion of Buffalo Springfield.

Rank	Day	Date	Associated Content	Visits
1	SAT	27 SEP 2010	”Buffalo Springfield Again”	162
2	MON	08 NOV 2010	Elliot Murphy “Wild Horses”	160
3	WED	14 APR 2010	Episode 200 “The Prescription is ‘More Cowbell’”	143
4	THU	07 OCT 2010	Kansas “Dust in the Wind”	127
5	TUE	28 SEP 2010	Elliot Murphy “Eva Braun”	126
6	SAT	09 OCT 2010	Elton John “Honky Château”	120
7	TUE	05 OCT 2010	Fairport Convention “Crazy Man Michael”	119
8	SUN	26 SEP 2010	Richie Furay “I Am Sure”	119
9	FRI	27 AUG 2010	Joni Mitchell “Big Yellow Taxi”	111
10	SAT	02 OCT 2010	Lynyrd Skynyrd “Street Survivors”	109

The Top Days by New Visitors

This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits by first time visitors and the content that was featured on those particular days. All of these posts came within the last 100 posts. I am intrigued that two of the top 10 on both lists were by Elliot Murphy. Who would have thunk it?

Rank	Day	Date	Associated Content	New Visitors
1	THU	07 OCT 2010	Kansas “Dust in the Wind”	79
2	TUE	05 OCT 2010	Fairport Convention “Crazy Man Michael”	78
3	TUE	28 SEP 2010	Elliot Murphy “Eva Braun”	74
4	MON	08 NOV 2010	Elliot Murphy “Wild Horses”	71
5	SUN	26 SEP 2010	Richie Furay “I Am Sure”	67
6	SAT	27 SEP 2010	”Buffalo Springfield Again”	67
7	SUN	19 SEP 2010	Livingston Taylor “Tell Jesus to Come to my House”	66
8	SAT	31 JUL 2010	Marshall Tucker Band	64
9	MON	27 SEP 2010	Noa Johannesson: “Roxanne”	61
10	SAT	06 NOV 2010	Duran Duran “Rio”	61

As always, I want to take this time to thank all of you for your support of this site and the encouragement to keep going forward. Thanks again for Reading between the Grooves.