Heard word this morning that a mentor of mine from my teenage years has gone into hospice. The fellow has always had impeccable taste but he also had an affection for cheese.
One time years ago while visiting him, he had tonight's song in the music club playing on his record player. I kinda made a joke about it and them found myself getting schooled on the singer.
"Sure, the producer, Billy Sherrill, is responsible for turning a lot of country music into lounge schmaltz," he told me "but he had a great ear for singers with a lot of personality in their voices."
A week or so later I stopped by his shopfront to get some critiquing of a project I was working on at the time. H handed me a cassette with Charlie Rich written on it in ink pen and
"It's time for you to learn about this singer and where he came from."
The tape not only contained some of Charlie's Sherrill produced stuff from the '70s but mostly it was his rock-n-roll from the 1950s and 60s.
I thought about picking a song from the earlier part of Charlie's career in tribute to a guiding light of my youth this evening but "Rollin' With The Flow" seem the appropriate one for quite a few reasons.
What are you listening to tonight?
PS. Daniel Johnston has passed away. Our remembrance of him is here.
