Music, music, music . . .

. . . take two.

I watched an Amy Winehouse special last night. That soulful voice is not what I expected. I loved it. But Amy, here's a thought. With that HAIR! and those random tattoos, you not only look like you just fell out of the ugly tree - you hit every branch on the way down. Girl, look in the mirror. Just sayin'.

Music, music, music . . .


. . . all kinds of it. I like it. From Robert Johnson to AC/DC. Ladysmith Black Mombazzo and South African township music. I have four Gregorian chant albums. Mountain music via the Stonemans. Flatt & Scruggs, Allison Krauss, Ralph Stanley and the Cox Family bluegrass. Anything Clapton. Satriani's Surfing with the Alien to Pachelbel's Canon in D major. Ludwig's Piano Sonato No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor (especially the Adagio Sostenuto) to Dark Side with Floyd at The Wall. (Can anyone play more music with fewer notes than Gilmour?)

Waiting for Wilson Pickett with The Committments. Unemployment and Red, Red Wine with UB40. From Winds of Change with the Scorpions to Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Crazy Patsy Kline, Crazy Fine Young Cannibals and Crazy Gnarls Barkley. Guns 'n Roses was One in a Million, but there was that Appetite for Destruction. Offset by Mancini and Days of Wine and Roses and Middler's . . . razor, that leaves the soul to bleed.

Riding the City of New Orleans with Guthrie and Dylan or the big waves with Dick Dale and the Deltones or with Wagner, Robert Duvall and Die Walkure. Standing before the Great Gate of Kiev or the front door of Hotel California or The Hall of the Mountain King. One with Metallica and One For My Baby with Sinatra.

I have tapes or CDs of all of this stuff. The music I don't have is from these guys. That's my dad on the left, a cousin in the center and my grandfather on the right. The photo was taken in 1928 when my dad was 14. I still have the banjo and the guitar. When I was trying to learn to play the guitar when I was in college, I played one song with my grandfather. You Are My Sunshine. I never played a song with my father . . .