Pat Blythe – The Stories Behind the Songs Part 4….

It’s a miserable, cold, sodden, rainy, pathetically dreary, rather dismal night. Moisture and freezing temperatures will create your very own skating rink on the sidewalk, front lawn and even the roadway. I look out the window and see everything enveloped in ice. Jane Harbury had very kindly invited me down to her Discoveries series at Tranzac tonight but between prior commitments and the weather, my ass is safely ensconced on the couch writing this. I have one artificial hip…..I don’t need two and I’d prefer to keep any modicum of dignity intact.

Frank Gutch Jr: Before Radio Was Radio, It Was Television, Part Two… Plus Notes

If I hadn’t known rock radio was cool before I saw Gentleman Jim Hunter, drivetime disc jockey for KRKT Radio in Albany Oregon, lean out and wave to the crowd which had gathered beneath the huge T&R sign, I would have known it then.  The sign was HUGE, the main section trucked in on a double-flatbed , and was the talk of the Willamette Valley as it was erected right next to Interstate 5, then a fairly new project itself.

Pat Blythe – I’m Oh So Loving the Music

Again, the best laid plans…..my previous ideas have now taken a 90 (may be a full 180) degree turn, all based on a single song I heard a couple of days ago.

Roxanne Tellier (Veronica to my Betty) posted this song, “Home to Me”, a couple of days ago. It is such a wonderful, heartfelt piece. I fell in love with it instantly. Meaningful and tragically real, these kids have taken their misfortunes and turned them around in such a positive way, creating something so  deeply beautiful. I dare you not to move.

Wait for it………

Doug Thompson: ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE MISSES THE MARK…..AGAIN!

Rolling Stone Magazine recently released their latest ‘list’, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters” rollingstone.com).  Let me repeat that title, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters”.  Their descriptive line states “From Brill Building tunesmiths to Punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.”

Frank Gutch Jr: The Chicago I Never Knew (and the Chicago I did)

I have to come to the conclusion that if there weren’t major sports in the US of A, the youth of America would not know where they were.  Sure, they would know they were in Dallas or Little Rock or Minneapolis if they happened to live there, but knowing where you are does not equate to knowing where you are.  You have to be somewhere in relation to somewhere else to really know where you are, don’t you?  Well, maybe not.