by Charly Mann

The Pozo-Seco Singers are probably the best vocal group on the 1960's, yet they remain largely ignored by the public and music critics. It is ironic that after they disbanded their male singer, Don Williams, went on to become a country music superstar, and Susan Taylor, the female half of the duo, whose lead vocals and harmonies defined the group, has disapperared into realative obscurity.

The group had one legitmate hit, Time, which was wriiten by Taylor’s friend Michael Merchant. They labored for their first two album as a trio, with Lofton Kline as an additional male vocalist. It was not until 1968 though, when they became a duo, that they created one of the great albums of music history, Shades Of Time. Note for note, song for song, vocal for vocal it equals or surpasses other masterpieces of the era like Abbey Road, Let It Bleed, and Nashville Skyline. The problem with the Secos is that their music never fit into a commercial or radio friendly category. They were too folk for rock, too rock for country, and too easy-listening for folk. Remarkably they excelled in all these categories.

The album opens with an incredible song called Good Morning Today in which Williams and Taylor magically merge into one, creating one of the best opening tracks in album history. The group then seemlessly moves on to create one of the best covers of a Bob Dylan song, with a lovingly joyful version of You Ain’t Going Nowhere. Next Taylor takes the lead with a beautiful relationship song, Hey Babe, Open Up Your Mind. Taylor shines on several other tracks on the album including a wonderful version of John Lennon’s You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, and extraordiary song called Keep On Keeping On, and the definitive version of Bye Bye Love.

Another highlight of the album is another Dylan cover, Spanish Harlem Incident, a version which has not been surpassed, and which Taylor most minimal contribution makes all the differnce in making this a great song. Finally I would be remiss in not praising their cover of Ian Tyson's The Renegade. It is one of most moving and poignant songs ever written about the effects of white man on Native Indian culture.

Sadly, this is only Pozo-Seco album that has not been released on CD, but we’ll let you hear a few of our favorite selections here. The album was co-produced by Bob Johnston, the same guy who produced Dylan's Highway 61 Revisted, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline, and New Morning, as well as Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence, Parsley Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, and Bookends.

Susan Taylor has not totally disappered, but now goes by the name of Taylor Pie. She continues to sing and record, and will we do a feature on her soon.

For now we'll let you know that you can buy her music and find out about her amazing life at:

http://taylorpie.com

"The past is never the past. It is always the present. And you better reckon with it in your life and your daily experiences, or it will get you really bad. It will come and it will devour you. It will remove you from the present. It will steal your future. Your past is your past. You carry it with you always. These are your sins. You better learn how to live with them, and learn the story they’re telling you. Because they’re whispering your future in your ear, and if you don’t listen, you will be contaminated by the sins of your past."
Bruce Springsteen – ( from a January 2009 interview)

Bob Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom is one of greatest and most inspiring songs ever written. The imagery of its poetry takes us into one of the most visual and sensual experieces commited to rhyme. This is the one song in which Dylan, the master of ambiguity, says exactly what he thinks about politics, war, poverty, injustice, and hope. It is a song for all times.

Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1964 at the age of 23. It appears on his album Another Side of Bob Dylan.

The definitive version was recorded live by Bruce Springsteen in 1988, and gives the song the energy it needs to give full power to its words and images.

                            Chimes of Freedom

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the poet an the painter far behind his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a clouds's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmfull, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

by Bob Dylan

Both Bruce Springsteen’s and Bob Dylan’s music can be purchased at iTunes, Rhapsody, and Amazon.

Bob Dylan's website is bobdylan.com
Bruce Springsteen's website is brucespringsteen.net

I’ve been in the business side of the music industry for almost forty years, and have received thousands of demo recordings by aspiring artists. Only a handful, had any merit, and all but one of those acts went on to have successful careers. The following is a brilliant essay by the leader of the one group I was sure was destined for stardom that did not make it (yet). It is about the song that first drew my attention to them, and the peculiarities of being an especially creative artist in the music business.

Charly Mann

Through the wonders of the Internet, Charly found me recently to tell me one his favorite songs was "World Eat Dog," a song I hastily wrote for a film never released that my band at the time, 4 Who Dared threw together in a local studio. As with any artist, songwriters are often confused at how their audience perceives their work. This song is particularly curious to me, as I consider it to be as disposable as it is unmemorable to me. It was one of the few pieces I've ever written with a specific and externally defined purpose in mind. In this case, the song was part of a two-song submission for the soundtrack of a movie about ambition and insecurity in the context of Hollywood. Although the filmmakers loved it and its accompanying submission "California," the film, "Pitch," not surprisingly met the fate of many films by aspiring filmmakers - no doubt sitting in someone's attic as a sad testimony to the very subject matter it sought to depict.

The song reflected a brief fascination with 12/8 time signatures. In layman's terms, that a song with 4 major beats per measure, each of which is subdivided into three minor beats. Every other chord in the verses is "pushed," meaning they tend to anticipate the beat by a half count, giving the song a sense of impending urgency. The chorus was intended to offer a light relief to the relentless motion of the verses. It's sung in a falsetto, to further distance its mood from the verses, then the chorus transitions back into the verse groove with a keyboard line that devolves into triplets.

The lyrics (and song title, for that matter) are obviously constructed on turning common hackneyed phrases of hope and encouragement inside out. This was an attempt to show the breakdown of conventional wisdom as it can apply to a ruthless world of cutthroat ambition and backstabbing. The chorus lyrics continue this theme, and then speak of the puppet masters who make decisions.

The song was recorded in a kind of rambling fashion, alternating verses and choruses ad nauseum, then spliced together into a coherent form. The band wasn't sure what was going on with the song until the final product was displayed. It was recorded a year or two after the bulk of the "Kids With Dynamite" album was tracked, so it has a different vibe from the rest of the album which has, for lack of a better term, an angry optimism.

The album was released on a private label which was utterly novice to the intricacies of distribution and promotion, as well as unable to understand the market niche of the band (post-new wave smart-ass power pop?). We had envisioned the song "Urine Trouble," a satirical rant on the politics of drug testing, to be the novelty hit of the album, given the right juice and a bit of good luck, but the juice was as wrong as the luck was bad. The song "Don't Give Up," featured a theme of encouragement to the gay community, ravaged in the late 80s by the scourge of AIDS. Thanks to our North Carolina roots, this song caught the notice of several fundamentalist church groups who heard it on the radio and sought to condemn the devil worshippers who would dare wish something other than an early and painful death to homosexuals. We tried hard to further foment this sentiment by sending provocative letters to the churches and inviting them to our shows, thus creating a publicity firestorm (we hoped) which we could leverage, but sadly these churches' outrage was not matched by a vigorous work ethic, so they moved on to their next act of spineless condemnation rather than engage in a fruitless (for them) campaign to retain 19th century prejudices.

I'm glad the song caught Charly's attention, but I admit I am dumbfounded as why my own assessment of songs is often completely divorced from the public's. I continue to write, record and perform songs in my private studio overlooking the Eno River in North Carolina. I have long since given up any adolescent dreams of making music the centerpiece of my life. Instead I have found the rewards of family and public sector technology work far exceed the illusory rewards of success in the world's arguably most dysfunctional industry - music. Free to pursue any lyrical content regardless of its market merit, I freely write songs like "My Pet Tapeworm," "The Asshole Trap" and "Crank Up the Booty Machine" for the amusement of any like-minded nutcases and myself.

I guess that's why I'm not Burt Bacharach!

-Todd Jones
Lives in his dream house in tick-infested woods overlooking a river
http://www.toddejones.com/jukebox.html

by Charly Mann

The Cremation Sam McGee is a great poem about loyalty and friendship that ends on a humorous note, written by Robert Service in 1907. It is set in the Yukon Territory of Alaska during the Alaskan gold rush. It has been popular for over a hundred years, and helped make its author wealthy and famous. Kirt Kempter put the poem to music in the early 1990's, creating the definitive rendition of this epic.

There really was a man named Sam McGee whom Service knew, but he was never cremated and was not from Tennessee. He died in 1940 at the age 73.

Listen to the song and read along with the lyrics. You will note how often the term "Strange Things" is used in the song. Kirt is a magnificent composer and lyricist, and his greatest composition, by coincidence, is entitled Strange Things, which you can also listen to here.

Mr. Kempter is also a PhD geologist, a highly regarded nature photographer, tour guide for the Smithsonian, and gourmet cook. Check out his tour schedule at: http://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/study_leaders/kirtkempter/

The Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee,
Where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam
'Round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold
Seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way
That he'd "sooner live in hell".

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way
Over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold
It stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze
Till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one
To whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight
In our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead
Were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he,
"I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you
Won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no;
Then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold
Till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead -- it's my awful dread
Of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair,
You'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed,
So I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn;
But God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day
Of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all
That was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death,
And I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid,
Because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say:
"You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you
To cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid,
And the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb,
In my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight,
While the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows --
O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay
Seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent
And the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad,
But I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing,
And it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge,
And a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice
It was called the "Alice May".
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit,
And I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry,
"Is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor,
And I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around,
And I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared --
Such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal,
And I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like
To hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled,
And the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled
Down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak
Went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow
I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about
Ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said:
"I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; . . .
Then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm,
In the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile,
And he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear
You'll let in the cold and storm --
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee,
It's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

by Charly Mann

"Genius," like the words "phenomenal," "fantastic," and "fabulous," is overused today to hyperbolize a person's abilities. The fact that someone is very talented or innovative does not make them a genius or even exceptional. A true genius is someone who is not only very smart, but also has the imagination, focus, and creativity to regularly discover or create something outstanding in their field.

One common trait of genius is a combination of high intelligence and a low level of latent inhibition. Latent inhibition is our ability to shut out most of the stimuli we encounter that we are not interested in. For example, you visit a new neighbor, and walk into their living room, which is full of antique furniture. On the walls there are more than a dozen original pieces of art, there is a song playing on the stereo you have not heard, and your neighbor is wearing a tight green polka dot dress, blue loafers, a ruby ring and strong perfume. You may notice the room is filled with unusual things, but you are focused on sharing information with your new neighbor, and learning some basic facts about her. You do not absorb much about the room or how she is dressed.

Someone with LLI (Low Latent Inhibition) will notice more, hear more, and smell more, without any conscious effort. People with LLI can focus their mind automatically on anything that interests them. For example, if they were interested in music, while they were making small talk to the neighbor, they could store the lyrics of the song being played in the background, and dismantle the song's arrangement. They are constantly assimilating new information which they consider useful to them.

LLI gives people who are smart great memories. They can usually recall in great detail things that they observed many years ago that interested them. It also gives them a remarkable ability to make quick connections between seemingly unrelated information. Creativity is second nature to such a person, because of their high degree of comprehension on subjects that interest them.

One clue that someone has LLI is that they are innately organized and they often quickly lose interest in talking about anything that they do not care about. They can also easily see through people who are lying or being deceptive.

High intelligence, combined with LLI, creativity, and passion for a subject is the impetus for the final component leading to genius, which is hard work. Every great genius did their most important work when they were working the hardest. Mozart and Einstein worked the hardest when they were young. Beethoven and Van Gogh became obsessive about  their art as they grew older. Some, like Bob Dylan and Jane Austen, had long periods of hard work and great output, followed by years of rest, and then a resumption of focus on their work.

Finally, I think someone has to be eccentric to be a genius. I believe a non-eccentric genius is a contradiction in terms. Everyone on my list of great geniuses was an eccentric, including Orson Wells, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, George Gershwin, Tolstoy, Bobby Fischer, Socrates, Sir Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, and Oscar Wilde.

I personally only know one person who exhibits all the qualities of genius. Her name is Emily Kaitz, and she is a songwriter extraordinaire. She has written more than forty tunes of exceptional quality ranging from the sublime and romantic to the hilarious. Though currently better known for her whimsical and sarcastic songs like, The Scrabble Song, The Shallow End of the Gene Pool, and I Will Stay With You, it is her brilliantly sophisticated and romantic songs like, Worn Out Getting Wise, When I'm With You, Don't You Want a Love That's Real, In Love and Out Of This World, and I Don't Know Where I'm Going, that are destined to become standards in the Great American Songbook.

At the present, Ms Kaitz's talents are better known in the songwriting community than among general public, but as more people make recordings of her exceptional compositions her fame will spread. Most of her recent songs and albums are available on Rhapsody, iTunes and .

You can hear a few samples of her work here, but I recommended buying several of her albums to experience the delight and genius of Emily's extraordinary music.

by Charly Mann

A great love song captures the essence of the best thing in life – true love – with a combination of rhyme, music and a great voice. These are songs that will live on into posterity because of the combination of powerful romantic lyrics and sublime music that perfectly convey the ideal of everlasting love.

1. Emotionally Yours by Bob Dylan. This is from his most underrated album Empire Burlesque (1985). One of the greatest songs ever written and probably with a great deal of divine inspiration.

Best renditions are by:

• Renee Safier and Andy Hill  (You will truly experience the feelings, passion, emotion, and romance of true love in Renne’s incredible take on this song. The song is from their album It Takes A Lot To Laugh. Their website is http://www.andyandrenee.com.)
• Jimmy LaFave
• The O’Jays
• Bob Dylan

2. Love Is All Around, written by Reg Presley, lead singer of The Troggs. (These guys are best remembered for their version of the silly song Wild Thing.)

Best versions are by:

• Wet, Wet, Wet (probably the definitive version)
• R.E.M. (from an MTV live concert – check it out on )
• The Troggs

3. Always, written in 1925 by Irving Berlin as a wedding present for his wife. His wife as part of the gift received all the song royalities, which were substantial.

Our favorite renditions are by:

• Sarah Vaughn and Billy Eckstein (duet)
• Tish Hinojosa
• Patsy Cline
• Leonard Cohen

4. (Our) Love Is Here To Stay, was the last piece of music George Gershwin wrote before his early death in 1937. His brother, Ira Gershwin, one of the greatest lyricists of all time, wrote the words soon after George died as a poignant tribute to him.  

The best renditions are by:

• Natalie Cole
• Gene Kelly (from the 1951 Film, An American In Paris)

5. My Funny Valentine, lyrics by Larry Hart and music by Richard Rogers from 1937. There are more than 600 recorded versions of this song.

Best recordings of this song are by:

• Frank Sinatra (There are two great versions of this by Frank. Our favorite just became available in 2009 on the album Seduction.)
• Chet Baker
• Diana Ross & The Supremes
• Ricki Lee Jones

6. I Only Have Eyes For You, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. Composed in 1934 for a Busby Berkeley Musical called Dames.

Best versions are by:

• The Flamingos from 1959
• Art Garfukel from 1975
• Carly Simon
• Jamie Cullum
• Maureen Christine
• Nancy Lamott (our sentimental favorite)
• Frank Sinatra with Count Basie

7. True Love by Cole Porter from the 1955 film High Society starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Grace Kelly

Best versions are by:

• Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly (This was one of the biggest hits in 1955)
• The Everly Brothers
• George Harrison
• Margaret Whiting
• Patsy Cline
• Ashley Judd and Tayler Hamilton (from the film De-Lovely)

8. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, by Van Morrison

Best renditions:

• Van Morrison from his 1989 album Avalon Sunset, and his incredible live version from A Night in San Francisco 1994
• William Bell from the album Vantholgy
• Rod Stewart from1993
• Van Morrison and the Chieftains 1996 (this version won a Grammy)

9. Baby I Love You, by Jeff Berry and Ellie Greenwich

The best version is the original by The Ronettes from 1963. It was the follow-up to their huge hit Be My Baby. It was produced by Phil Spector.

Other great versions are by:

• Linda Ronstadt
• Ellie Greenwich

10. Never Ending Song Of Love, by Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett 1971

Best versions are by:

• Delaney & Bonnie
• Earl Scruggs Review
• Patty Loveless
• Rice, Rice, Hillmann & Pedersen

Mike Scott and the Waterboys magnificent song, The Whole of The Moon, pays tribute to a composite of extraordinary people who have blazed trails in creativity and wisdom that are unlikely ever to be surpassed. Such individuals include Socrates, Bob Dylan, Jane Austen, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi. Not only is it an enchanting and rousing hymn glorying the astonishing achievements and pioneering efforts of these individuals, but it also inspires the listener to “reach too high, too far, and too soon” so they too can make the impossible possible.

There are more than twenty cover versions of song, in addition to the original by the Waterboys. One of our favorites is by singer Mandy Moore.

Click on the informZoo icon below to see a great live video of The Waterboys performing The Whole of The Moon.

Check out Mike Scott and The Waterboys website at www.mikescottwaterboys.com.

You can hear some of their other music and see their tour schedule at .
 

More inspiring words from exceptional individuals:

You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'

George Bernard Shaw

There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things. I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll

by Charly Mann

Bob Dylan is perhaps the greatest songwriter of all time. The people and events in his life inspired most of his songs. Many consider his Like A Rolling Stone the best song in rock history. It was written about a tragic girl he knew named Edie Sedgwick. What makes the song great is the transcendent lesson it imparts on us about life, for it is really about the values he considers most important, integrity, honesty, and family. The person he describes in the song has forsaken all of these for a world of fun and glamour. She is able to enter this world because she is attractive, well educated, and has the means, for a while at least, to enjoy these people’s company. The girl has nothing to offer of substance to them, as they entertain her in their exciting and superficial world. When her money and looks are gone, she is no longer welcomed by this crowd. Unfortunately, she no longer has a family (home) to go back to because they too have abandoned her, because of her secrets and lies. In the end she is “invisible now,” and has no more “secrets to conceal”.  She literally is “without a home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.”

Dylan has always emphasized family and loyalty to one’s home in his songs. Two of his best early works Bob Dylan’s Dream and Girl from the North Country sentimentalizes his love of home. That theme continues throughout much of his body of work. His 1970 album New Morning is a hymn to home and family.

For information about Bob Dylan's touring schedule and latest releases, visit www.bobdylan.com.

Kim Forehand may be the best singer-songwriter you've never heard of. She has been creating musical gems of sweet charm and romantic insight for more than a decade. You will fall in love with her unique voice, and her lyrics will make you smile. She has won songwriter competitions from Texas to California, and is a legend in her sometime hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Unfortunately for us, Kim is slightly reclusive and unconventional, and has chosen not to spend much time playing the music business game.

This is a rare performance from my television show -- Austin Music Showcase. There is a semi-reliable rumor that our meadowlark will soon emerge with a new album.

© Video copyright Charly Mann

Michael Smith is one of the five great songwriters America has produced in the last one hundred years. The other four are Cole Porter, Bob Dylan, Irving Berlin, and Paul Simon. He has an exceptional ability to compose masterful lyrics which are brilliantly welded to his extraordinary music. His body of work includes classic compositions that range from the thought provoking and passionate to the light hearted. Stranded in the Moonlight, Three Monkeys, and Spoon River are three of the most lyrically evocative songs ever written. He has also created at least five comic song masterpieces including Dead Egyptian Blues, Zippy, The Prince and The Frog, Move Over Mr. Gauguin, and The Last Day Of Pompeii.

For more information on Michael Smith check out:

www.artistsofnote.com/michael/index.html

© Video copyright Charly Mann

by Charly Mann

Geniuses have exceptionally creative minds and can think better and faster than most people. They are also usually fairly eccentric and often psychotic. Not only does a genius have a very high IQ, they are uniquely original in their thinking. A genius can, unlike a normal person, process several ideas simultaneously in their brain.

One of great geniuses of all time was Ludwig Beethoven (1770-1827). He was the most innovative and imaginative composer of all time. Even more amazing, he created most of his greatest work after he became totally deaf at age 32, including his Ninth Symphony and the Moonlight Sonata.

Beethoven had no doubt about his genius even though he had very little formal education. By the time he was a teenager he was virtuoso pianist and excelled at improvisation. He was also extremely rude and introverted. Beethoven’s deafness was probably the of severe beatings by his alcoholic father. He also suffered from chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, alcoholism, respiratory disease, and depression. Yet despite this he was able to compose music that was beautiful, full of joy, powerful and innovative. Even though he was deaf he could imagine highly original and complex music in his head, which he would translate to musical notation. That so much of his music still touches us emotionally today is the real magic of his genius.

Does America really need rock stars? Can't it simply have musicians -- great ones, who enjoy what they do, and do it for love? Well we have one like this – Chuck Pyle – called the Zen Cowboy, but more accurately described as the Cosmic Cowboy because of the spiritual intensity of his songs and the metaphysical banner that he intersperses between songs at his concerts.

Chuck has written an array of great songs that have become popular by Country, Americana, and Folk artists like John Denver, Chris Ledoux, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Suzy Bogguss. His "Remember Song" by Tom Rush has more than 3,500,000 views on YouTube! The song in this video was a hit and a popular music video for Tish Hinojosa.

For more information on Chuck Pyle go to www.chuckpyle.com

© Video copyright Charly Mann

by Charly Mann

What makes a great song? A combination of memorable verse and melody that express a feeling which deeply touches our soul. The lyrics are actually more important than the tune in reaching us emotionally. The music of a great song amplifies and compliments the sentiments of the words. A great song ultimately needs a great singer and arrangement to translate the lyrical sentiments into an audio expression that we will never forget.

A great song is also harmonic perfection that gives charm to life and opens our heart. In just a few minutes it speaks to you, and creates a vision as powerful as a great novel or play. Such songs are gifts from God, and are the only great art I have experienced on this earth that I think the angels in heaven would truly enjoy.

As humans, we have a very special relationship with music. It seems to be able to connect to our soul, lift our mood, and give us pleasure and inspiration, yet the music that resonates with you is unlikely to have universal appeal. This is because the music we most appreciate is almost always what we were exposed to from our childhood to late adolescence. Thus the music that touches you deeply is unlikely to resonate with someone of another generation or culture.