Paxety Pages

Eric Olsen over at Tres Producers has come up with an interesting idea - bloggers blog about music. I've been doing that in a more straight news manner over at the North Florida Music Association site, but here I'll take advantage of the opportunity to express more of an opinion.

First, is the great work done by Mike Fitzgerald in documenting the history of music in Jacksonville and North Florida. He has found and charted an astounding 92 acts who have signed record deals with nationally distributed record labels since 1926. That's an amazing number for a city no larger than this one. Names include, of course, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Synyrd, and .38 Special, but also Ray Charles, Hoyt Axton, Pat Boone, Judy Canova, Phil Driscoll, Blind Blake and newcomers The Julius Airwave.

Mike is also the author of the North Florida Music Hall of Fame page on the NFMA site. Take a look for lots of good information.

We lost another musicologist - Alan Lomax - a couple of weeks ago. I was a college music major when I discovered his work - a book titled "Folk Songs of North America." It was just that. I learned than Alan and his father, John,  had spent decades traveling about the country recording ordinary people singing. They recorded cowboys, prison gospel groups, Mississippi delta blues singers, mountain singers and preserved their music, much of it in the book Pete Seegar ("This Land Is Your Land") credits Lomax with starting the modern folk movement.

John discovered Huddie Ledbetter, Lead Belly, at a Louisiana prison camp, recorded his songs, and helped him get out of jail. Alan was true to his New Deal political ideals and hired Lead Belly as the family chauffeur. He helped publicize Lead Belly's songs and get covers recorded by other artists, such as "Good Night, Irene."

Later in life, Lomax traveled Europe and Africa collecting folk songs. He developed an idea that there was a common connection between folk music regardless of culture. We'll all miss him a lot.

Today's CNNRadio funny - in a story about Pope John Paul II traveling to Mexico to canonize Juan Diego, the reporter said, "The Pope makes this journey despite a public opinion poll that shows more than 90% of Mexicans felt the Pope could not make the journey because of health concerns."

What? Now the Pope is supposed to travel to a country only if the polls show the population feels he will make the trip?

Today's Cheap Channel update - from Media Week:

Randy Michaels 'A Political Liability' For CC?

An article in this week's issue about Michaels' dismissal as Clear Channel Radio CEO says the executive's move to the company's new technologies division was done because "the consensus is that Michaels was a political liability that Clear Channel could ill afford to carry as the company's radio operations came under intensified scrutiny in Washington for questionable business practices, many of which Michaels spearheaded." Following Michaels' removal, Clear Channel's market cap fell by close to $4 billion. CCU shares have recovered somewhat since Michael's July 22 transfer. The Media Week piece also anonymously quotes one top radio analyst as saying, "Michaels had become a political liability" and that - in the words of one competing radio exec - "Clear Channel Radio did not have a CEO - it had a morning man." Among the possible candidates for Michaels' former duties, according to Media Week: CC Radio COO John Hogan, former AMFM COO Ken O'Keefe, former AOL executive Bob Pittman and investors Tom and Steve Hicks.