There aren't many brights sides to growing old.  But for those of us just barely old enough to remember 45 rpm records, being able to hold on to memories of B-side songs represents one of the bright sides of growing old. 

One of my favorite B-side 45s was the B-side of Andy Kim's Rock Me Gently.  The reason?  Because it was a straight instrumental mix of the A-side song, so it was a self-contained Karaoke back-up track.

For those just barely old enough to remember the vinyl 45 rpm record, what are some of your favorite B-sides? 

Now, for the trivia question.   What was the B-side of Kenny Roger's cover of Ruby (Don't Take Your Love to Town)?  If you don't remember the song (but you're old enough to remember it), this should trigger your memory. 

Dr BLT's cover (sorry, no B-side included)

http://www.drblt.net/music/...

 

Welcome to my new BLOGame show, I Wanna Be a Rock Star. 

Where's the drummer? As you can see in the photo, and as you can hear in the song: Something's missing.  Someone's missing, and that someone is you!

Today, Kern County drummers will be invited to download this Dr BLTune for free, add a drum track, and enter it, by sending the drum-augmented mp3 as an attachment to my email address. 

The song will be featured on a brand new DrBLT CD.  You will receive credit and your track will be featured in a future blog thread, along with a brief interview so others can get to know you better. 

But wait, it gets better.  You don't have to be a drummer to compete.  If you think any of my tracks suck, you can to have a crack at replacing them with your own vocal, guitar, piano (etc.) track. 

Just send me an email requesting a version minus the track)(s) you want to add.  If you think that's it, you're dead wrong.  Engineers, producers and arrangers, if you think you can do a better mix of the song, take this and mold it the way you think it should sound and email me the results as an mp3 attachment.  The deadline for the contest is August 31, 2007.  It's free of charge.  Go!

What I Tell Myself

Dr BLT

words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2007 Smash Records

http://www.drblt.net/music/...

 

To catch up from the prior episode, hit this link:

http://people.bakersfield.c...

Ed grunted in frustration as he walked around the large cable TV camera now focused at the center of the table, where the Bakers, aka, the Bloggers, were about to have another family dinner together, while pretending that they were not  the subjects of a new reality show.

Janet sat down with an eager expression on her face.  "If you haven't heard, Billy's been in some trouble."

"Shut up, stupid!" Billy was clearly growing sick and tired of his sister's eagerness to get him in trouble. 

Mrs. Baker's curiousity was immediately, and quite visibly, aroused.  "What is it this time, Bill?"

"The teacher gave him an F on his paper---said he copied it," Janet continued, ignoring Billy's interdiction. 

"Copied it? From whom?!" Billy's father was now fuming at the gills, his face visibly flushed. 

"I swear, dad, it's all just one big misunderstanding.  Mrs. Bevenns said she read my fictional story from the internet, insisting that that blogger, allRED was the original author.  But how could I steal it, if it had been removed by the dudes that run the blog site?  If it's removed, it's no longer a piece of published work, and besides...."

Billy was cut off by his father, who was not buying a word of it.  "Is that the story about the hippies and that VW van?!"  His voice had gone from a controlled loud to a booming cacophony.   

Billy gradually tilted his head down, not wanting to face the wrath of his father.  "Yeah, dad, but the van in my story was not a van, it was a Hummer, and it was all red. And it didn't even belong to the same character as the one in allRED's story.  I used blognroll as the father, and all of the neocon bloggers as his children. 

It was actually just the opposite of what allRED had in mind in his piece, except using allRED as the father would have made it look like I was ripping off his piece, so I used the doctor who claims to be a moderate.  He's a hard-core conservative, and everybody knows it.  Sure he was in a Cake video, and so he's earned a bit of street credit from my buddies, but, hey, I made him the driver of the Hummer and the father of these neocons...ah... just to expose his true nature." 

Billy was now rabbling.  Furthermore, he appeared decidedly defensive, his voice trailing as he ended his statement of defense, revealing a marked sense of diffidence. 

"I demand to see this trashy commie piece you dredged up, from your atheist imagination, son!  Where is it?!"

Mrs. Baker's curiosity had been replaced with her sense that Ed was too hard on the children.  She had been taking a Family Systems course at Bakersfield College and had decided that she must do something to intervene in the dysfunctional pattern of communication that had grown increasingly apparent the relationship between her adult-child-of-an-alcoholic-husband and their children.   

Ed stood up and moved towards his son angrily, his knuckles now visibly white from the pressure of having clenched his fists. 

"Go for it, Ed, rough him up a bit, like you used to do to all the kids as a young bully back in junior high," she said contemptuously.  She knew that he couldn't hit his own son.  But he had come sooooooooooo close on so many occasions, and she was growing impatient over his impatience and his short temper. 

Mrs. Baker took a deep breath, glanced at Janet, then at Billy, bowed her head, and said, "Let's all just calm down and say grace."

Ed reluctantly sat down, and bowed his head.  The children followed his lead.

"Dear Lord," Mrs. Baker began, initially not knowing what she was going to say next.

"Help this family, today.  You know that they can restrict us from media access, leaving Bakersfield.com and Bakotopia.com our only media resources.  But they can't restrict our direct line to you. 

"You know that all families face hardships, challenges and unexpected upheavals," she continued.  "And you know about all of the great things that are coming from Walsh's studies on resilence in familys.  So help us to learn from your child, Mr. Walsh, the theorist discussed in my new textbook, by teaching us to view disruptions as...hmm..How did he put it?   She hesitated, then continued more confidently, "Milestones, without assigning blame, and help us to recast our crises as examples of manageable challenges.  And Lord..."

"And Lord, we're getting mighty bored," Ed added as an expression of his growing frustration over his wife's prayer-turned-lecture-on-family-dynamics. 

"Okay, enough said, Ed,"  Mrs. Baker insisted, now, more than ever, determined to make peace in her increasingly volatile household.   I can take a hint.  Her prayer/lecture ended, and the family began to eat.  

Janet reached across the table to serve herself some of her mother's scrambled eggs, left over from breakfast.

"Dammit, Janet," Ed's face had grown flush with anger so many times on this mid-August day, that Billy began to picture his father's head as a giant police siren.  

"You're a young, lady, not some troglodyte.  When are you gonna learn some manners?"

Janet simply ignored her father.  She too was sick of his hot temper and negative attitude. 

"Dude," she said to her brother, Billy.  Are you gonna submit an ad for your band at Bakotopia.com? "Forty bucks----that's all it takes to get a color ad in the special Korn issue."

Mrs. Baker looked at Billy Herdell, the MTV director, and said, "Hey, I thought we weren't going to be doing commercials."

"That was spontaneous, Mrs. Baker.  I assure you, I didn't tell her to say that," he said with a decidedly sycophantic tone. 

Now that the subject of bands came up, Billy was tuned in to the conversation.  "Yeah, Janet, I thought about that.  I still have to save a little more..."  He turned conspicuously towards Ed, his father.  "... since dad reduced my allowance for reading too many of tkozy's and mattloch's pieces!!"  The room momentarily grew tense, once again, then the tension began to gradually ease.  

"That's not why, son, and you know it. I always encourage you to read a wide range of views,"  Ed had calmed down considerably, but had to defend the indefensible. 

"I wanna be like that dude in Adema---that dude from Bakersfield.  I found out on the novelist's blog that Channel 23 had dude's dad taking about his son, and how proud he was that his son was on the front cover of Bakotopia and all.  I wish my dad was as proud of me, or I wish he could at least be as cool as Korn frontman, Jonathon Davis's dad is, the dude that runs Fat Tracks here in town." 

Ed was growing bored with his son's rock 'n' roll rant.  He grabbed his blackberry and logged on to Bakersfield.com

"Strange days, indeed," Ed said to himself.  "You've now got TomW. agreeing with Dick Cheney.  I thought that would be a cold day in hell.  And you've got woofwoof lusting over Putin... of all people."

"Yeah, I saw that, dad.  It kind of reminded me of when Bush looked deep into his eyes and said something like, "Dude can be trusted.  What a terrible mistake that turned out to be."  Billy loved to put Bush down in front of his dad.  His dad voted for Bush in both elections, and would vote for him again if he could run a third term---quagmire in Iraq, or no quagmire. 

"Sounds like you've been reading too much mattloch.  Next thing you know you'll be wanting to attend that atheist convention that Xaurieaux has been promoting." Ed changed course abruptly. 

"No, I'm not going to go there.  Instead, I'm going to choose to ignore that," Ed said, feeling notably proud of his self-restraint.  Instead, I'm going to check out these projected headlines that allRED has posted.  Oh, I just love this one...check this out---Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.  Yeah! Over my dead body!"

I'll never put a mortal above the king of kings.  John Lennon gave the appearance of putting himself above the King of Kings and paid for it, dearly.  But notwithstanding the King of Kings, there is, was and will always be, only one king---The King of Rock n Roll---Elvis Presley. 

No man has ever touched the hearts and souls of people of all ages across the world in the way that Elvis did. 

I did have the chance to interview the only man giving him competition in the 50s when he ruled radio, Mr. Pat Boone.  But today is reserved for Elvis, and that's who I want to honor today. 

So let's hear some of your memories of Elvis and/or his music.  Let's hear some of your own personal reflections in the comments section below. 

Only One King
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2007

there's only one Blue Suede shoes
only one Graceland too
there's only one king
there's only one king
there's only one Heartbreak Hotel
only one king
if you couldn't tell
there's only one king
only one king

well
singers are a dime a dozen
and the same goes for
guitar pickers too
but there's only one king
only one feelin' he would bring
only one king
only one king

there's only one
swivel of the hip
only one rebel's curled up lip
only one king
there's only one king
there's only one man
who captured souls
only one king of rock n roll
only one king
only one king

well
singers are a dime a dozen
and the same goes for
guitar pickers too
but there's only one king
only one feelin' he would bring
only one king
only one king

at 17 I moved to California
from Canada
mid-August don't you know
I woke up 'neath
in a hammock 'neath
a palm tree
when I heard
the news
on my transistor radio


well
singers are a dime a dozen
and the same goes for
guitar pickers too
but there's only one king
only one feelin' he would bring
only one king
only one king

I haven't been breaking any new records out there.  But I've been making them.
Here it is.  The full Dr BLT's One Man "Banned" mix of my response to Barry Bond's big "record."  Barry, this record's for you!

On Saturday, June 30, 2007, my wife sent me to the corner of Coffee Road and Olive Street in our hometown of Bakersfield, to pick up a pre-ordered party pack of Subway sandwiches for my now 2-year-old daughter, Kassidy's 2nd birthday party.
When I walked into Subway, there, at the head of the line was none other than Brian "Head" Welch with his soon-to-be 9-year-old daughter, Jennea. You guessed it, they were picking up a pre-ordered party pack of sandwiches and cookies for her birthday party.

For the interview in its entirety, visit Christian Music Times at:

http://www.christianmusicti...

 

 

For those who missed episode I of my part fact/part fiction sort of blog reality show/gradually unfolding novel, here's the link that will get you all caught up:

http://people.bakersfield.c...

Since the last episode, following a meeting with Bakersfield.com and Bakotopia.com staff, and VH-1 staff, a decision is made and announced to the Baker family that they may now leave the house on occasion, but continue to be restricted to Bakersfield.com and Bakotopia.com in terms of their access to media sources.  No radio, no cable TV, nothing more than these blog communities. 

The first scene of the second episode begins when Billy Baker enters the front door of the Baker residence, carelesslessly slams the door and announces his arrival.

"I'm home," Billy proclaimed to his parents, whom he left just a couple of hours earlier as he headed for school.   

"Dammit Billy! You're home early," replied Ed, Billy's larger-than-life and meaner-than-strife father.  "Just when I was hoping for no interruptions.

"Yeah, what could be so important that you wouldn't even want your own flesh and blood around to keep you company?"  Billy tried to be a thick-skinned kidder, but his voice revealed a conspicuous hint of rejection. 

"I'm sorry, son.  Nothing personal.  It's just that I was getting into this item posted by mattloch.  Although he generally tries to avoid the typical liberal Groupthink, I'm frankly surprised he would post something with a conservative slant.  The author of this op-ed piece is raising questions directed at libs.  Check this out, son!"

He squinted as he strained to read each word slowing and carefully:

"If George W. Bush is as stupid as so many liberals claim, how did he manage to steal an election, mastermind 9/11, cover up his administration’s involvement in that event..."

Billy interrupted. 

"They were going to air some cabel news coverage on Barry Bonds new record, so I had to go home...you know...our media restrictions.  Can you believe nobody else in the class had heard Dr BLT's new song about the Bonds record?  I guess there are some advantages to having our media access restricted.  We actually get some things quicker than others."

Billy's mother gingerly entered the computer room. 

"You guys are both ethno-centric.  Why don't you ever talk about ChicoEsquela's blog?  Did you know his friend is building one of those Mongolian bows?  Can you imagine?  Now that takes real skill.  Ed, I wish you were as good with your hands as Chico's friend seems to be.  I wish you were as good with your hands as you are with your head."

Billy now walked up to the computer and his eyes were locked on mattloch's blog, as were the still squinting eyes of his father. 

"That's it, I'm outa here, as you young kids say!"  Julie's voice was becoming increasingly bitchy as she began to realize how valued her words had become around this household she ran. 

"Yeah...don't let the door wack that big fat b..." Ed stopped, notably regretting where his comment was heading.   

Julie was now more than a little hurt by her husband's insensitivity. 

"I'm glad you didn't go there, Ed, and you better not even think of going there again.  Just look at that gut of yours before you point to my butt." 

"Stop it, Julie.  Two wrongs don't make a right.  Unlike you, I did manage to stop myself.  By the way, where are you going?"  Ed turned his head and glanced at her briefly, then turned back to the screen.

"Not that I have to tell you everything, Ed, but I'm going to the gym.  And it has nothing to do with trying to meet your unrealistic expectations of me.  I'm doing this for myself," she replied. 

"Well, make sure you don't bring any guests, mom.  Did you read the regulators' blog post over at Bakotopia.com?  Dude's guest pass wasn't even good enough for his own son." He paused.  "They wouldn't let him in the gym," Billy added, as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Yes, Billy, I read the regulators' blog.  But that was at some 24 hour fitness.  I am bringing a guest, but they welcome guests with open arms over at my gym."  Julie reached down to tie her left shoe, and then stood up and began walking towards the door.

"Oh, Julie.  Don't go driving around all over the place.  The fuel shortage is getting worse, and you know how high our fuel bill was last month," Ed said. 

"Oh, that's a bunch of bull, dad," Billy declared confidently.  Haven't you read the latest from tkozy? The Bush administration is all trying to fool us about an energy shortage, just so we'll let them drill up in Alaska, and screw up the environment."

"Don't believe everything you read," Billy's father replied.

By that time, Billy's mother, having now realized just how appreciated she was in the very kingdom she worked so hard to nurture and maintain, had left the building. 

TO BE CONTINUED 

If it flies, it’s going to be like the man, and the legend of the man, Johnny Cash—part fact and part fiction.  Magic realism, introduced first in Germany via the visual arts, juxtaposes elements of both reality and magic, or fiction, if you will.  And that’s the approach I’m taking to this experiment. 

 

It’s a story about the Baker family.  First, the fiction part: A family of four, including a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter, are asked to move from New York City to Bakersfield to participate in a reality show experiment. 

For a period of one year, they will be sequestered in their newly adopted Bakersfield home, with all media outlets blocked, except for the blog communities known as Bakersfield.com and Bakotopia.com

 

All of their news, all of their information, and all of their entertainment, notwithstanding non-media sources of entertainment, will come from Bakersfield.com and Bakotopia.com

 

Without further ado, let the part factual/part fictional account of this fictional reality show:

 

It was dinnertime, and the Bakers were eagerly seated around the darkly stained (not with wood stain, but with all sorts of gross spillages), table-cloth-covered, old oak table.

Mrs. Julie Baker served up a hearty helping of her beloved roast beef dish, featuring baby carrots, cooked to perfection, with a soft-as-silk serving of mashed potatoes and gourmet gravy.  She was a great cook, and took pride in every meal that she so solicitously prepared. 

Yeah!  In their dreams.  Truth be told, Mrs. Baker couldn't cook worth a damn.  Though it was dinner, and not breakfastime, all she had prepared were left-over scrambled eggs, so, after they bowed their heads and Mr. Baker offered a family prayer of tepid thanks, that's what they ate.  He raised his head, and the rest followed his lead. 

 

“So, Barry Bonds finally did it.  He, single-handedly crushed Hank Aaron’s record,” proclaimed Ed Baker, the heavy-set husband, and proud father of two, proclaimed.   

 

“Duh! Dad? Let’s not forget, those were the steroids talking!”  His son, Billy, cringed with his own retort.  He was all-too-keenly aware of his father’s quick temper and need to go unchallenged. 

 

Mr. Baker clenched his fists, then, reluctantly relaxed them, clearing his throat in a transparent effort to subdue his growing irritability. 

 

“Didn’t you read Steve Swensen’s blog? Anybody can take steroids, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a champion of anything.  You’ve got to have something else going for you to make it that far.

 

“Let’s just drop it,” Billy replied as he dropped his fork on the kitchen floor.  As he began to search for the fallen fork, he noticed a huge cockroach darting across the kitchen.  “Where’s that darned cat when you need her most?”

 

11-year-old Janet saw the bug, as she let out a loud, uncontrollable, but conspicuously fake scream. By that time, all eight eyes had taken note of the roach, even as it darted from spot to spot with the utmost celerity. 

 

“I’ll get the spray.”  Mrs. Baker, looking completely composed, walked towards the kitchen cabinet below the sink where she kept the pesticide.  She then paused before opening the door and grabbing the bottle.  “You all need to do a little better at helping your mother clean up around here, so we won’t have this problem.”

 

“Leave it for the cat.  That’s what ehagedorn would do," Janet suggested, as she watched Billy finally pick up his fallen fork,”  She then let out a disturbingly loud belch, followed by a half-hearted “Excuse me.”

 

“Damitjanet! Where are your manners?” Mr. Baker’s patience with his own children was clearly diminishing at this point.

 

“Now, daddy, please don’t go lecturing me.  I’ve already read her blog post.  I know all about the ‘gentleman’ she referred to.  Notice, that, though she witnessed him pigging out like a troglodyte, she still referred to him as a gentleman.”

 

“Well, Janet if you’re expecting me to call you a young lady after that disgusting eruction of yours, you’re sadly mistaken,” he replied in a notably harsh tone.

 

“What are you going to do, pull an Alec Baldwin?”  Being bolder than brother, and eager to get under her father’s thin skin, but also afraid of her father's wrath, she sported a smug smile and then giggled nervously. 

 

At that point, big Ed stood up, pulled back his minatory frame from the table, his face flushed with a burgeoning anger.  He stormed off to the computer where he logged in, first, at Bakotopia.com, where he checked out BtownBobby's profile,

http://www.bakotopia.com/ho...

and stopped by a post by op stylee that included one of his favorite op jams.

 

Then he hit Bakersfield.com and began reading the latest religious rant from paxchristi3. 

Reading the rant may not solve the separation of church and state issue for him once and for all, but he figured it may help separate himself from the pesky roaches, and shelter himself from the deleterious effects of his incorrigible children. 

TO BE CONTINUED THE NEXT TIME INSPIRATION RANDOMLY HITS. 

If you've heard rumors about me releasing The Bases are Loaded (And so are the Playas!), a song about the Bonds (perhaps Pyrrhic) victory, they are probably true (Yeah, like I'm really that famous, or that infamous enough to have rumors circulating about me!?).

Like so many of my songs, I don't know whether the end result will be "strike three," a "foul ball" or a home run, but I've stepped up to the bat and I'm getting ready to swing. 

Here's the best part.  You can help me hit a home run, and get an honorable mention in the song credits as a winning prize.  I'm going to incorporate the best one-liner (if there is one that seems to be a sure winner), among all of the one-liners that you all may have to offer.  So throw me a fly ball in the comments section, and I might just take a swing at it. 

For the few, if any, that are interested, I'll keep you posted (no pun intended). 

I've always been a loser at using a tuner.  So when I became frustrated with this 99 cent Conservarte guitar pitch pipe of mine, I used it as an harmonica.  I'll let you be the judge as to whether its a winner or a loser when it comes to musical accompaniment. 

I'm doing fine in most areas of my life.  But when it comes to music, I'm on a losing streak.  And it feels pretty damn awful, and pretty damn good at the same time. 

Sure, I had a cameo on a top hit music video that was ultimately nominated for Groundbreaking Music Video of the Year at the 2202 MTV Video Music Awards, but I wasn't even performing music, just sitting in front of Starbucks on 19th and J Streets in Sacramento with my guitar, listening to Short Skirt/Long Jacket, while casually offering an impromptu mini-critique of Cake's new song from a psychological point of view. 

Sure, I've had rock critic Al Barger dub one of my songs (Neil Young, Have you Forgotten), the number 8 best record of 2006, but that was 2006.  And I had a song make the top 30 mp3 downloads, landing at #21 in December of 2005 at mp3000.net, but that was in 2005, and with that song, Black Santa, I had lots of help from rap artist Michael C.  Furthermore, it took 15 years for this song to reach, and subsequently climb even this relatively obscure chart. 

And yes, I had a little national airplay and lots of local airplay in 2004, thanks to local talk show hosts Ralph Bailey and Jaz McKay, and I'm eternally grateful to these risk-takers for all the props,  but that was in 2004. 

And yes, I've had heavy downloads on a couple of songs in 2007----When the Bee Gees were 3, and Playin' Politics with the Dixie Chicks, but has that translated to anything else but a few thousand free downloads?  No. 

For the most part, in 2007, when it comes to my music, I've not only been a loser, but I've rightfully gained the self-appointed title of King of Losers. 

I wrote and recorded this song on Saturday night, when I should have been out performing in front of devoted fans, of which I have few, if any.  To find success in this life, you first have to know what it's like to lose. 

I'd like to introduce Dr BLT's One Man "Banned"

lead vocals: Dr BLT
harmony vocals: Dr BLT
rhythm guitar: Dr BLT
lead guitar solo: Dr BLT
guitar pitch pipe (tuner): Dr BLT

In other words, we're a triio: Me, Myself and I.  Sometimes we even have group therapy together, if we don't have too many other patients to see. 


King of Losers
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2007

I'm the king of losers
I'm the king
of nothin' left to gain
I'm the king of losers
I'm the king of
All I feel is pain

every time I set myself
up to win
my whole world comes crashin' in
every time I set myself up to lose
I succeed
and then I sing the blues

you tell me
I'm a shrink
I should watch what I think
and my self-esteem
should be high as the sky
but my job as a shrink
and as a singer
is to be real
and tell you
exactly how I feel

every time I set myself
up to win
my whole world comes crashin' in
every time I set myself up to lose
I succeed
and then I sing the blues

I'm the king of losers...

Do you ever have a day when that which you'd most love to perfect seems to be so far from perfection that you feel like an utter failure?  If so, follow my example, embrace your imperfections, and share them with the rest of us, so we too, can embrace them.  And, if this song sucks, so be it. 
















Some Days My Music Sucks
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2007 Smash Records

some days
my music sucks
some days
it really does
some days
my strings are out of tunes
some days my music rocks
some days it
knocks off your socks
but good or bad
my music's all I've got

so bear with me on days
when my vocals all go flat
and my strings all seem to stumble
as I strum
bear with me on bad days
and I'll bring back the good
and I'll bring you songs
that sound just like they should

some days
my music sucks
like cars that stall
and beat up trucks
some days
It seems I've lost the beat
some days, well
my words all seem to rhyme
but somehow I'm just out of time
why am I a big
cacophony


so bear with me on days
when my vocals all go flat
and my strings all seem to stumble
as I strum
bear with me on bad days
and I'll bring back the good
and I'll bring you songs
that sound just like they should

here I go
here I fumble
here I fall smack, dab
upon my butt
here I go
some days I stumble
and some days
my music sucks

bear with me on days
when my vocals all go flat
and my strings all seem to stumble
as I strum
bear with me on bad days
and I'll bring back the good
and I'll bring you songs
that sound just like they should

As we approach Buck's birthday, the interest in this CD has been building.  People want to know if its a CD of Buck covers.  No.  Not that there's anything wrong with Buck covers, but it seems to me that few people, if any can do Buck songs as good as Buck himself. 

As far as I know Confessions of a Buckaholic, by yours truly, is the only CD to feature strictly original songs about the life and music of Buck Owens.   So, what else sets this CD apart from the others, you ask? Well, it's the only Buck Owens tribute CD that demonstrates the broad musical genres that Buck has influenced.  Buck has influenced country, alt country, folk, rock, and even R&B and dance music.  I've demonstrated this by including songs of all the styles he has influenced on this singular CD. 

I should tell you, however, that I am a songwriter before I am a singer, musician or studio engineer.  As an engineer, I, frankly suck.  My musicianship varies, but don't be surprised or shocked to catch me going flat or missing the beat here and there.  If you're looking for polish and perfection, you'll have to find that elsewhere. 

It is presently only available at Russo's Books, at the Marketplace in Bakersfield, California, where I was interviewing Brian Welch the other night and there are only a few copies left.  But it will soon be available once again as a series of singles that you can order from my website.  I'll keep you posted on a release for the internet edition.  Stay tuned to www.drblt.net for new announcements.

It won't be the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  You've already been exposed to a number of interviews with Brian "Head" Welch, former founding member of Kern County's pride and joy: Korn. 

Phantom Tollbooth, a popular, internationally respected entertainment ezine that examines entertainment from a Christian perspective, has first publisher rights, but after it's posted there, you'll find it here.

Here's what you'll get from my interview with Welch that you may not fine in the otherwise outstanding interviews he's done for the mainstream press:

1. My questions are mostly coming from a Christ-centered, psychological point of view.  This extends to you, the reader, a unique perspective, and tends to foster an interview environment leading to a more personal and more intimate level of self-disclosure.   

2.  You'll gain insights into the psychological impact of modern music, and, in particular, the nu metal movement that Brian helped to usher in as a founding member of Korn. 

3.  Since we talk, not only as interviewer to interviewee, but, as brothers in Christ, and the Bible says "Where two or more of you are in the midst, there I am," you, the reader, will have an opportunity to meet Christ in the process.  No matter how clumbsy I can get as an interviewer, he is made strong through my weakness, and through Brian's admitted weaknesses as well.  So, even if I end up leading Brian down a dark tunnel, you'll be able to see some light at the end of it.

4.  The interview will be presented in the context of a unique, locally-based story, marked by a series of "coincidences" that seem to point to the distinct prospect that more was at work in the securing and manifestation of this interview than luck or chance.  Will my presentation of these "coincidences" represent wishful thinking at work, or divine intervention?  God only knows, but, I'll let you be the judge of that. 

5.  You'll either get the benefit of links to original songs of mine that have been inspired by Brian's encounter with Christ, or, if my music sounds more like hell than heaven to you, you will share in the suffering of Christ as you embark upon my less-than-perfect, often off-key, out-of-time musical reaction to Brian's spiritual journey. 

Any questions?