As kids, my brother and I loved “The Bird,” simply for what it was … a funny, tongue-in-cheek story of a naive man who was scammed by a con artist who sold him a “musical bird.” I also seem to remember his roles in the “Smokey and the Bandit” movies; never saw “Waterboy,” though, but I do remember a guest role he had on the sitcom “Alice.”

Another sad day in country music with the passing of this talented guitarist, songwriter and singer … and all-around musician.

Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” has a simple, but great opening: a pounding snare on every downbeat, and the hi-hat on the eights. It takes a genius to keep it simple and make it sound distinctively at the same time.
The genius in this case is Budd…

Um, you get these claims sometimes, where a famous person dies and then weeks later, an individual comes forward claiming he/she was their biological parent. Some were legitimate claims; others were proven to be little more than fortune seekers.

I don’t have any facts to back up how often stories such as this occur, except I’d venture to say it happens more often than you think. I guess it will be up to the courts to decide which category Mr. Tanner fits — “legit” or “fortune seeker.”

To me, it wouldn’t make a difference who was doing the critiquing, be it Merle or George or — and I know Todd you’ll cringe, but — Kellie Pickler. A great singer is a great singer, no matter who does the judging on these talent shows, and a non-distinctive singer will have a hit or two and then fade from the limelight. It’s not a knock against them at all; after all, I do think Buddy Jewell and Erika Jo worked hard, but in the end each of them didn’t have what was needed to make them lasting successes.

My recommendation is to avoid most of these talent shows. Too much focus on the backstage activities, mean-spirited and inane comments that have little to nothing to do with the performer or his/her talents and merits, and way too much focus on particiularly bad performers rather than the “outstanding” ones. At least “Star Search” didn’t air clips of bad singers’ auditions (although there were probably quite a few bad performances for varied reasons that did make it to air).

As for picking John Cena and Larry the Cable Guy — entertaining, but not music critics — to judge, my only guess is that they give real-world, listener insight into whether fans may like a singer. Which is fine, except that these are just “one man’s opinion.”