music

I was working on my Vatican blog when producer Jeff Levack stormed in, excitingly announcing "Richie! here's a subject for yo to blog about-Billy Joel's Piano Man album was released on this day back in 1973".   And that does excite me for sure.  But what is Billy's connection to country music?  Glad you asked!

We're getting there.  The end of summer vacation.   Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here, but it's true!  So I'm trying to do a little more advanced planning here and put out the call to teachers who would like to sign up for the Readin', Writin' and Rhymin' school program.  Here's all you need to do!

Remember the boombox?  That huge, obnoxiously loud , rather expensive piece of equipment that folks used to rest on their shoulders while walking down the street?  Can you even imagine carrying that thing around today?  Well, maybe if it was lighter and more portable it would be marketable, but that's not gonna happen, right?  Wrong!

It's been quite some time since we've heard anything new musically from Shania Twain. The Last few years she has gotten a divorce, gotten remarried, written a book and started her own reality show on the Oprah Winfrey Network called Why Not? with Shania Twain.

I always like to get the Reading, Writing and Rhyming progam out there toward the end of the school  year to see if we can capture (in song) the excitement of moving up to the next grade level.  Remember those days?   Well, these kids are ready!  They'll tell you about it in song.

Every class that I visit on the Reading Writing and Rhyming Tour is very friendly to me, don't get me wrong.  But sometimes you meet OVER THE TOP friendly kids. Kids that make you laff so hard, you want to do something insane like play the piano with your elbow, nose and head.  (Been there,-now I've done that at Hadley Luzerne Elementary School.)

We spend so much time in this country concentrating on negative news.  Well, we have to change that.  Let's start now.  Musicians from the Albany area  performed recently at a festival in the historic Carnegie Hall.  This deserves a mention, don't you think?

That's what I read this morning, and I couldn't believe my eyes. You always wonder where these little traditional songs come from and who originally wrote them. But now there's an actual LAWSUIT?

Remember the days of rifling through your living room shelves to find a great CD to play?  Or maybe you'd buy one of those plastic tree stands with the slots in it  that stores 200 of the latest and greatest Country CDs that feature music you heard on WGNA?  Can you say OLD SCHOOL?-

Recycling is an important part of modern life.  To just throw things out of your car window to rot on the side of the road is an insult to the beauty of our landscape, don't you think?   Old toasters, blenders, electric razors--the list is endless.  Well, you know the saying..." one man's garbage is another man's.....MUSIC"

Everybody loves funny country songs.  Brad Paisley's made a mint writing them . And you've seen that email that goes around every once in awhile-- a list of actual song titles.  It'll confirm every single stereotype you have about country music, fer sure! (but you can't help but laff!)  And I couldn't help but try to rhyme them...

Here in beautiful, snowbound  Albany, NY, Beatlemania still lives on.  It actually felt like we were seeing them live.  But I didn't want to blab about this in front of my on air comrades....here's why!