Floyd Cramer...

Do you guys know who Floyd Cramer is?
  He was a great pianist with a style all his own.  He played for Patsy Cline on "Crazy".  He had a big hit with "Last Date" in 1960.   It reached #2 ...runner-up to Elvis Presley's, "Are You Lonesome Tonight."
  Mr. Cramer also appeared on countless other artists works.  From Loretta Lynn to  Roy Orbison.
  He also was a great solo artist and as I write this I am listening to him play "Tennessee Walt" and I gotta tell you it is so moving...
  It just goes to show you that all great musicians don't play guitar.
  He died on New Year's Eve of 1997 of lung cancer at the age of 64.

Homemade CDs...

  I sometimes make homemade mixed Cd's.
  I was going through my "library" the other day, and I found about 32 (?)(!) of these.  Some of them were made over 10 years ago.
  Ten Years!
  Listen to these disks and you will discover "Pieces Of Me",  (The title of my upcoming book...ahem).
  "I Touch Myself"...well maybe not that song..."Here Comes The Sun", "Walking The Floor Over You", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Waterfalls"...
  Nothing like popping in a CD and listening to songs YOU want to hear huh?

Television Theme Songs...

"La la la la la, la la la la...
  La la la la la , la la la la...
  La la la la la, la la la la...
  La la la la, la la la , la la la la la..."
  That my friends is the theme song to the '70s hit, "Rhoda."
  Thank you...thank you very much...
  I miss the old TV theme songs, don't you?
 "Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed,
  A poor mountaineer barely kept his  family fed,
  and then one day he was shooting at some food
 and up through the ground come a bubblin' crude
  Oil, that is...black gold...Texas tea,,,"
   "The Beverly Hillbillies" was a very funny show and the theme song set it up for you
How about this one?...
  "Green Acres is the place to be
  Farm living is the life for me
  Land springing up so far and wide
  Take Manhattan but give me that country side..."
  Then there was the themes from "Andy Griffith", and
  "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Gilligan's Island" and "All In The Family":...
   I am thankful for calculators and microwaves and the ability to e-mail, but I still believe in the classics...
  

Yusuf Islam...

  When I was a junior in high school, I had a music class and we students were told to bring in a favorite album.
  This was before cassettes and 8-Tracks were popular.
  This was the first year of court-ordered busing and being in an integrated class the music was varied and intriguing.
  One kid brought in "American Pie" by Don McLean...someone else serenaded us with "The Soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever".  We also heard The Commodores , and Elton John and Donna Summer and Barry Manilow.
  A very eclectic group that junior class in 1977.
  One kid brought in an album that featured a tune called ""Wild World" and I was instantly entranced by the haunting melody and lyric.  I soon discovered that the singer/ songwriter was a guy named Cat Stevens.
  Stevens , who late changed his name to Yusuf Islam because of religious beliefs, was an interesting dude.
  He went on to pen such songs as "Morning Has Broken", and "Father and Son", and "Peace Train."
    People wonder why I have such a varied interest in all types of music...this is just one more reason why...

Peter, Paul, And Mary....

  As I was sitting around last Sunday with a friend chill-axing...I decided I wanted to hear folk music,
  I told you guys I was weird...
  Well, I went to the "music library" and retrieved "The Very Best Of Peter, Paul And Mary." 
  What songs!  "This Land is My Land", "Leaving On A Jet Plane", "Where Have all the Flowers Gone",  'If I Had A Hammer",  and my favorite and yours, "Puff The Magic Dragon."
  I didn't know Mary Travers was a Louisvillian til I saw her obit in the paper.
  She had a hit called "Follow Me" in 1971.  It was written by John Denver.
If you enjoy good old -fashioned harmonies and music with a simple message.  give this CD a listen.