Charlie Daniels

[Karen Newcombe <kln@staralliance.com>]

>BTW:  Karen.  You are a great lady with taste and skill, 
>but for your information, Charlie Daniels is one of the 
>a talented, productive and generous guy in 
>Nashville.  Think what you will, but for a certain 
>time, place, and people, he said what needed to be 
>said, and he did it very well.  He deserves his place 
>on the bus because he made it work for both himself 
>and the people he supported.   Leave the longhaired 
>country boy alone.

Sorry to offend, len.  I'm sure Charlie's a fine gentleman, and I didn't
mean to pick on him in particular.  Growing up in the South was (for me) a
frustrating exercise in coping with wholesale ignorance, stupidity, and
prejudice.  Of course most of us felt that way about our home towns when we
were teenagers.

I came to associate the big Southern Rock boom of the 70's with the type of
guys who leaned out of their gun-laden pickup trucks and tried to punch me
in the head as they drove past my bicycle -- or beat the hell out of black
farm workers on Saturday nights because "The South was going to rise again"
as their blaring car stereos proclaimed.

Try as I might, I just can't shake my dislike of those songs or bands. One
GOOD consequence for me was that I spent most of my teen years listening to
the soul, jazz and alternative stations -- so I developed an abiding love
for soul music, a beginner's appreciation of jazz, and discovered Joni
Mitchell's more eclective ouvre, and Pink Floyd who were absolutely not
played on the "popular" radio stations.  I suppose each of us has formed
our musical preferences in different ways.

Karen  kln@staralliance.com