More than just another Johnny Cash biography, Robert Hilburn’s latest volume reexamines the rags to riches details of this unique example of the American Dream with its extremes of peaks and pitfalls, as lived by one the nation’s most iconic musical artists.

The result is an insightful yet sympathetic analysis that conjures up the late Man in Black in living color, and argues that his was a life worth recounting, just as his art will be worth revisiting long after his era has passed.

“…While he makes a point to credit each and every source, it is Hilburn’s ability to include the many quoted snap-shots within the smooth emulsion of his own smart prose that keeps the focus on events as they happen, present and alive. And his insistence on allowing others to speak with emotion and opinion, while he sticks to the facts and resists any temptation at grand conclusions that provides a sense of authenticity to the story, and keeps the pages turning….”

Read the Full Review

“Your Christmas Photos are In!”

Some of these are so funny it is painful.

And vice versa!

Funny Christmas Photos

Showing my age, I was 3  when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

I was sitting there happily enjoying some sort of cartoon show on the black and white TV, in the center of the long, low hi-fi console in the living room of our three-bedroom, one-story house in Findlay, Ohio, about 100 miles south of Detroit, which I had not heard of yet.

I still remember that tall chair with the upholstered cushion and padded arm, and how out of place it seemed, somehow old fashioned in a postmodern room, but how it soaked up sunlight through the long window, so it was sometimes warm, and sometimes too hot to sit in.

I certainly had not heard of Dallas.

But I did know who Mike Nelson was. He was the “frogman” on Sea Hunt. And any time I saw the commercials for Newport cigarettes, with the boat out in the middle of the sea, I thought Sea Hunt was about to begin. Mike Nelson was even more important than Mighty Mouse.

And if I had heard of the President of the United States it went in one ear and out the other.

Suddenly there was the looming, sun blotting figure of Mary Nydick, our next-door neighbor with the too-tight curly hair, who had the pear tree in her front yard.

I didn’t like pears; they were too pithy.

Like some crazy animal she shouted out that someone had shot the President. Actually, I had no idea what she shouted. All I knew was my mother switched the TV to some other channel.

I put up a fuss and, then a bigger fuss. For the first and perhaps only time in my life, my mother slapped me across the face, and dragged me to my bedroom and threw me inside.

I had no idea why this horrible thing befell me. But soon I was recovered, amd sitting on the lower of the bunk beds, I returned to my cartoons, on a very small TV with rabbit ears, which was on the chest of drawers in the room I shared with my older brother, Lee.

I was blissfully unawares of what had just happened to cause such a disturbance in my routine.

Only this past week did I see a documentary on PBS about Jack Kennedy that explained the depths of his serious physical ailments. We all learned long ago that he had back problems and was in pain, and had to wear a brace. But I had no idea of the extreme disabilities he had to overcome just to survive out of his twenties – made all the worse by swimming 3 miles to an island with a badly burned sailor on his back, after his PT boat was rammed in two by a Japanese destroyer. But then his father and many others took great pains to make sure nobody knew the extent of his issues and the drugs he took just to get out of bed.

Warts and all, the man withstood a lot to live beyond the chances doctors gave him, and to make it all the way to Dealy Plaza and go out the most powerful man in the history of the world.

Much has been said about his life, and his death, and people will continue to discuss and decide what matters most regarding both. For good or ill, his life changed the world, and so did his death. Not many can say as much.

Is fifty years too soon to see what it might all mean, if it really shakes out to mean anything at all in the long run?

We have had a busy June

After getting the sites up and rolling, we have dedicated much of June to research and development. Over at One Man’s Guitar, July is shaping up as Martin Month, as we delves deep into the Authentic mystique, with reviews of all the new Authentics, in many respects more authentic than ever.

Read The Lead Article

From the idea conceived by the late Stephen Bruton, designed by his friend Eric Schoenberg, and built by luthier Randall Kramer, the Schoenberg Quartet Stephen Bruton model brings together classic, pre-war guitar traditions, cutting edge luthiery technology, and the scientific method of Chladni plate resonant frequency tuning, which was used by nineteenth-century violin makers and led Benjamin Franklin to invent the harmonium.

“This guitar is so finely tuned in terms of dynamics and response that it is basically effortless to play, in any tuning. There is a gorgeous complexity to the harmonics, but an unperturbed clarity to the fundamentals, and an organic sensibility to the sustain and decay of each, which makes it a delight to play.”

Read the Full Review of the Schoenberg Quartet

The latest guitar review is up:

Huss and Dalton TD-M Custom Sinker Mahogany

And boy, that sinker mahogany is very special!

In a time when more and more people are working harder and longer for less benefit to anyone but their billionaire overlords, it is fitting to take the time appreciate those who work hardest to feed their families, and do their part and whose labor helps make our society a decent place to live.

For those in civilized nations that actually give their workers May Day off for rest, relaxation and remembrance, I hope you have as lovely a day weather-wise as it is here in New York City.

And for those who enjoy music and good spirits, I hope you find time for both, even if you had to work today.

Homemade Granola smells great when its cooling

My homemade granola beings by mixing together 3 cups of old fashioned oats, 2-1/2 Tablespoons of organic coconut oil, 1/2 cup of organic raisins, 1/2 cup of sliced almonds, freshly crushed, 1/2 cup of a trail mix with cashew pieces, punkin and sunflower seeds and several types of dried berries, a pinch of sea salt, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Then I baked it on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 300 degrees, gave it a raking and baked for another 4 minutes.

It smells good enough to eat right now. But it is actually going to get mixed with a large box of cheerios, put in glass jars, on its way to many a good breakfast, with the addition of a fresh banana.

While I do use yogurt sometimes, lately I have been using organic oat “milk”, which I like every bit as much as almond milk. It has more sugar, but also more protein.

Homemade granola costs a lot less

In the short haul it seems like a good bit of money to get all the ingredients together. But I have enough to make months of the stuff for about the price of 3 weeks worth of the store-bought variety, if that. Pre-made granola has tons more sugar and fat, even the health food store versions.

“Emerson’s style is easily recognizable, by its authoritative thumb-driven rhythms matched with an intelligent use of mid range and treble that weave texture and highlight around simple yet fresh melodies. And there is always that impeccable timing, with flow and tension, space suddenly appearing and just as quickly filling up again. That is all notably present on tunes like “Pop Top” and “That’s What She Said.””

Read Full Review over at One Man’s Guitar

The headers for One Man’s Guitar and One Man’s World were remade today, when it was brought to our attention that the artwork in the foreground could not be seen on iPads and other mobile devices.

So they have both been moved in toward the center in an effort to solve that issue.