I cannot listen to any conservative talk radio. The reason is the tone of the broadcasts. With few exceptions, the hosts grate and the callers don't have anything interesting to offer. The incessant & repetitive advertising doesn't help. It's a little ironic for me that WABC is the flagship talk radio station, since I composed and produced WABC's on-air jingle package back in the late 80s, when it was a news & sportstalk station.

The Liberal Credo is, after all, "I feel therefore I am."

"The Flinstones" should be on the list. Hilarious & concise. Brilliant tune. Amazing orchestration. Still a favorite of jazz musicians. And "Peter Gunn" is in a class by itself, written by Henry Mancini. It has never left the stage since its introduction in the late 50s.

I hold to the opinion that Jim Nantz may well have the best job in the universe. He gets paid handsomely to go to huge sporting events of all stripes and talk about them. 

Oh, and Freddy Couples is his best friend from college.

Made me laugh.

John Murdoch wrote: "Artist in residence." Cool.I'm telling the pastor and the web site committee that I need a new job title."

Wait. Wait. Can I apply for the gig, too???

Aside from the 50 or so short years (1950-2000-ish), when a rock-n-roll musician could actually get crazy rich, the history of professional music-making is one of gifted creative people barely making a living. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, for all their collective genius, were working musicians, writing to please their patrons.

But somewhere in the 1960s, rock music, FM radio and television all matured in a perfect storm, making it possible for a bass player in a rock band to become world-famous and insanely wealthy. (One particular lefty-bassist comes to mind.)

Those of us who grew up in that heady time believed it would be ever thus, despite the fact that nothing in the history of mankind supports such a belief. Today, using the Kickstarter model, in some ways we have returned to the old patronage system: individuals with money directly supporting the artists they believe in.

In my own musical niche (church music), it's much the same, with individual churches hiring songwriters, orchestrators and performers as artists-in-residence, essentially.I don't look for a return to the halcyon days of the 60s in my lifetime.

Empty Nester wrote: "When the Low Information Voter becomes a majority....Turn out the lights, the party's over."From the results of the last national election, i'd say we're already there.

I would agree that an exceptional teacher and a devoted student can accomplish great things. But that doesn't account for raw, God-given talent. Nashville is blessed with a lot of masterful musicians. A good number of them don't read music at all, and probably never had more than a smattering of formal music education.

Hi-larious.

Duane - You barely look 12 in that photo.

You make a good point. Country music is, on a whole, more easily sung by the Average Joe than pop music. Probably because it's more straight-forward.

In the 90s there was an emergence of Christian country music. It never really got much traction and eventually disappeared. I think the closest thing to country music in the church is Southern Gospel. But it's not the same as country by a long shot.

(Duane Oyen)"Wish I'd been there to spend hours whining at Songwriter....:Duane: We could've had some cheese with our whine!It was great to meet some Ricochet folks and reconnect with one (Hey, Emory!). My conversation with Dave reminded me that we are all more closely connected than we realize.

Everything we need to know about how to behave in this life can be learned from "The Andy Griffith Show." From the importance of a day of rest, to not judging people by the clothes they wear, to how to make a proper citizen's arrest - it's all there in black & white. That said, I think I'll go over to Thelma Lou's and watch a little TV. Yep. That's what I'm gonna do.

Triple Dawg Like on this comment, which I had to edit to say "triple dawg like." So - go back and read the full comment above.

KP wrote: "Rather than striving to get everyone the best deal possible, in this instance the union has ensured that everyone will receive an equally bad deal. "Correct me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't that pretty well sum up the over-arching philosophy of Leftism, in general? They won't be happy until everybody's equally unhappy.

It's much the same in Nashville. And it's hilly here, so a little ice on the roads turns the entire city into a giant frozen Slip-n-Slide.

So we tend to shut down all work and schools and race off to the grocery store at the mere mention of the word "snow" to empty their shelves of milk and bread.

I've long suspected that the local grocery stores pay off the weather forecasters to predict snow when business is slow.