So I get These Questions...

I noted on the internet some thought the Grammy Awards were terrible. Some thought there were great. I did not watch. I happened to be holding down my regular Sunday evening gig at St. Patrick's Catholic Church 5pm bilingual Mass. I don't really get TV anyway, no dish, no digital, no big screen so no matter that I was busy. The Grammys did bring to mind a question my youngest daughter asked me the other day. She said, "Dad was pop music good when you were a kid?"

I'll try to answer that question. When I was a kid I was playing a horn in the school band. Seemed like the horn was a big thing in Pop music. I listened to bands like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears and Bill Chase. Those guys had the same kind of training I was getting in the good old Lufkin High Band and that could be heard in their arrangements. So that was good pop music even though as my interest began to gravitate to records by long dead black men I thought the sound of those bands got softer and accused them of "selling out." Then came Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Foghat, Barry Manilow and a lot of other terrible stuff. So I guess the honest answer is yes, pop music was bad when I was a kid. So that clearing of the air brings us to the fact that there is always good music. You just have to find it. 

Here's a guy I like and own all his cds. I have seen him twice including the time the bass player played the wildest solo quoting from "Seven Nation Army" with Jack White and the Dead Weather being the next band up. Who thought a trombone player could be out front? In fact I just download his brothers cd. He's also a bone player. 

Here's another good band, The Tin Men. I'll see them soon on a trip we have planned to New Orleans. 

Here's the kind of stuff Cathy likes. Might have to travel a bit more to see it and I sometimes wonder if the kids playing horns these days have clue this exists. 

Now I know you have a question. What CDs do I own that won a Grammy this year? I own best Blues, Ben Harper and Charlie Musslewhite, Best R &B Gary Clark Jr and Best Americana, Rodney Crowell and Emmy Lou Harris.