April 26th, 2011

Here are two songs that were inspired by listening to the rhythm of the rain. The first song—a lonely boy’s lament for a lost love—was a number three pop hit in early 1963. The second—a celebration of the simple joys of love at hand—was a country chart-topper in the summer of 1986.

Little does [...]

When your children play games…                 Skip a Rope         Playground In My Mind         Rebecca Lynn                

Henson Cargill had been a deputy sheriff in his native Oklahoma before establishing himself as an [...]

For all April fools…

Send In The Clowns · Judy Collins · 1975
  Play the song.       Lyrics   (Read the lyrics while you listen to the track.)
Download MP3: Send In The Clowns

Where are the clowns?
(aka: Fools)

Judy Collins sang contemporary folk songs in the late sixties and and in [...]

March 1st, 2011

Here in Texas we know that we are only a few weeks away from the bluebonnet highways, fields, pastures, and parks. In this state, a good family photographer could get rich just by taking pictures in April.

Between the Red and Rio Grande
This one is for my nephew and his family.
One lone star [...]

February 14, 2011
Sealed With A Kiss · Brian Hyland · 1962
  Play the song.      

There was a time before Facebook.
It was in an age long before Twitter. Before texting. It was an era when young lovers didn’t have cel phones.
(They actually had to write notes to one another.)
And if [...]

I was lucky that she was my mother. She was there with me when I was born, and while I was growing up.

It might be an up-beat pop tune from the sixties, or a country music song — or both. It’s an old-fashioned love song. Listen to some for me.

In 1981, two songs with the same title (written by different people and recorded by two different women: one a well known American Country Music artist, and one a relatively unknown Scot) topped the Billboard™ Hot 100.

To avoid confusion, the name of one of the songs was changed. Here’s the story.

“The Yellow Rose of Texas” by Mitch Miller is considered by many to be the second #1 hit single of the Rock era. Johnny Lee charted with it too. Hear the music.

David V. McLeodMarch 1, 1934 – January 23, 2009
My father died when I was just twelve years old (after having been sick for several years), and my mother didn’t re-marry until I was seventeen. In those in-between years, I was raised by my mother and my father’s mother. One of my primary male influences was [...]