Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Sometimes things surprise you...

So, my daughter sent me a link to Pandora, a "trainable" streaming music site. Basically, you tell them what kind of music you like by giving them artists and songs that you like, then they start playing stuff that is similar...and you tell them whether you like or dislike what they offer you. After a while, Pandora is pretty much playing only stuff that you like...whether it is by artists you know or new artists.

Well, a while ago, one of the other streaming music sites (Radio Paradise) played a song by James McMurtry which struck a chord with me. Now, James is the son of genre writer Larry McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame. James is, as you might suspect, classified as a country singer, and I normally don't listen to that genre of music...but, shit, this guy writes stuff that really resonates. The latest song of his that I have discovered, courtesy of Pandora, is a little ditty titles "We Can't Make it Here" (which I have learned is my bad...the damn song has won all sorts of awards). This guy comes out of the heartland, for God's sake, and he is trashing both the conservative right and the Harvard MBA-types who have spent the last 20+ years exporting American jobs overseas. This cannot bode well for the Republicans in next month's elections. At least I hope it doesn't!

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