With God Every Day Is A Chance To Serve

by Kevin Burton    Got my rap name from the Bible. Gather round and hear the story.    When I first got saved, I started my Christian studies in the book of Ecclesiastes. Not sure how that happened.    Nobody steers new Christians in that direction. But for some reason I sought out Ecclesiastes in …

Singer Gladys Knight Turns 78

by Kevin Burton    Happy 78th birthday to gospel singer Gladys Knight, and all aboard that midnight train!    I think we’ve all taken that midnight train. It’s the one you ride when you are forced to leave cherished dreams behind and build a new life.    The song “Midnight Train To Georgia” hit number …

Rapping To The Ladies, Wishful Thinking

by Kevin Burton    I love the Doobie Brothers, but I have a complaint.   Let’s engage in a little wishful thinking, shall we? I wish Michael McDonald would enunciate.    Wishful thinking is “the attribution of reality to what one wishes to be true or the tenuous justification of what one wants to believe,” according …

Can’t Stop Dancing? Read This Cautionary Tale

by Kevin Burton    You say the YMCA dance made you sick in the 70s? The Bump?  That Saturday Night Fever pointing dance?    But did anybody ever die from it?    From reporter Rosalind Jana on the BBC, comes the story of a dance craze that was truly crazy.    In Strasbourg, France, in …

A Magic Carpet Ride To New Orleans

by Kevin Burton    While at the Quiet Knight bar in Chicago, Steve Goodman saw fellow singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie, and asked to be allowed to play a song for him, according to a story on Wikipedia.    “Guthrie grudgingly agreed, on the condition that if Goodman bought him a beer, Guthrie would listen to him play …

Put The Carpenters In The Hall Already

by Kevin Burton    Hope I’m not too early but I want to be the first to congratulate The Carpenters on their 2023 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.    It has to happen now, right?     I say this because some committee just voted Dolly Parton of all people, into the …

Skunk Baxter’s Unlikely Second Act

   His parents named him Jeffrey, you know him as Skunk.    How did he get the nickname Skunk? He isn’t saying.     He played guitar for two of the best rock and roll bands ever, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a …

For All Mothers, A Musical Bouquet

by Kevin Burton    Don’t you dare forget Mother’s Day. It’s coming real soon. Why not make it happen for mom the way she made it happen for you?    This post is especially for the mothers out there.  I hope others will enjoy it too, but a special shoutout to the mothers.     This …

More Songs That Peaked At Number 22

by Kevin Burton    Yes you do know the song “But It’s Alright” by J.J. Jackson, but maybe not by its title.    If I mention that Huey Lewis and the News did a just about carbon copy of the song in 1994, that might help your recognition.    (No I’m not talking about “It’s …

A Scientific Study Of Groove In Music

by Kevin Burton    As a consumer of popular music for more than 50 years I thought I knew exactly what a groove was, until I tried to define it.     I have no trouble feeling the groove in “Ain’t That Peculiar,” by Marvin Gaye for example. But how to define it?     The website …