“Born Again,” is the most misunderstood, and one of the best, on the CD.  Many who hear the hook think it’s about finding religion, but Misisipi Mike Wolf wrote it to describe losing a friend who fell into taking Jesus too seriously.  “I don’t have a thing against Jesus/I just don’t think that he is/The only thing to put your faith in.”  Cree Rider wrote “Plain Jane” when he was suffering a dry spell in the girlfriend department.  Not particularly into Match.com, he thought he’d use the stage to let the regular gals know they’re okay by him.  Doug Blumer wrote “Bessie’s Song” in memory of his former octogenarian landlady who experienced quite a life as chronicled in the song.

The strength of the CD is that a listener can connect with any one of the songs and think, “I know someone like that,” or, “That happened to me once.”

There’s also much to be said about cohesion in this CD.  The band started as a duo, hence their name.  Then Blumer and Katy Rexford (Burning Embers) came on board to play bass and fiddle.  The band seasoned their songs and worked on the arrangements until everything was just right.  When the moment came, they were able to go into the studio fully loaded.  The result came out as real and cohesive as a CD gets, and a treat for fans and newcomers alike.

Dilks & Alpert?

swing four-piece, are revving up for their CD release in May…  Johnny Dilks is coming out of hibernation with a new band, JD & the Barroom Roses. This time around he’s planning a horn section and looking to develop a Herb Alpert meets “Ring of Fire” sound…   The Rockin’ Cabbie checked in with a fool-proof random plan that anyone can use to name a band, title a CD and select a CD cover photo.  First, click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random and use whatever Wikipedia returns as the band’s name.  Wikipedia named HWS News’ imaginary band Regular Verb. Second, click on http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 and use the last few words of the last quotation on the page for the CD’s title.  Quotations Page gave HWS News F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.”

Faux CDs, Cheap!

Next, pick one of the nine pictures at http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting /7days for the CD’s cover.  Put them together using the drawing tools in MS Word or some other word and picture crunching software.  For an added touch, revisit Wikipedia for the name of the label.  This faux CD will be released on the 4177 Kohman pseudo-label, named after an asteroid found in 1987.  Send your CD cover, using the subject line “15-seconds of fame” to HWS News to get your entry into the next newsletter.