wacq-radio

Have a neat summer!

Fri, 29 May 2026 02:47:52 GMT

Yearbook signing is still a thing

Have a neat summer

Last week, Tallassee High School yearbook teacher Traci Evans distributed this year’s edition of TIGER TRACKS, the school annual.

Signing a yearbook, even in our digital age, still carries so much importance.

My daughter Lydia came home with her yearbook and was reviewing some of the autographs. One of her classmates wrote, “you are an angle.”

An angle?

Lydia said, “I wonder if she means an acute or an obtuse angle.”

The person had, of course, meant to say that Lydia was an “angel,” not an “angle.” But it got me thinking about some things people have written in yearbooks over time.

Looking back at my own, one year a classmate took up an entire page and wrote, “Bird, STOP EATING, OK?” A lot of folks wrote things like “Big Bird. Big, Big, Big, BIG Bird” or variations on a weighty theme. But since I wear the same size today that I wore in high school, I can quote Lynyrd Skynyrd: “this Bird you cannot change!”

In a memorable second-season episode of the television series THE WONDER YEARS, our main character Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) anxiously awaits his yearbook to cycle back around to him on the last day of school. As any viewer of the series will remember, Kevin has a huge crush on Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar).

In this episode, Kevin’s agony as he watches Winnie write in his yearbook turns to potential glory, as he thinks maybe she is finally revealing her true love for him.

Kevin gets the yearbook back at his desk, and is shocked to see that Winnie has written the very generic, “have a neat summer!”

Such is the life of a middle or high schooler.

When I think of all the incredibly stupid things I did as a teenager (not to mention … as a grown-up), I am ashamed and embarrassed by some of them. One of our former middle school teachers, Mrs. Mahua Ghosh, famously used to tell the students, “don’t be ignorant and proud of it!” In other words, never stop learning and never stop bettering yourself.

As we stand on the cusp of a brand-new summer break, we have around 90 days to make a difference and make good choices. So, as Winnie wrote to Kevin, “have a neat summer.”

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Pitiful

Fri, 22 May 2026 22:59:50 GMT

People fought and died for this?

The Alabama Legislature, after five months of slow-moving sausage making, bounced back into the State House last month after a special session was called by Governor Kay Ivey. The matter at hand: bringing back the Congressional district map that was in effect until 2023. This affects districts 1, 2, 6, and 7.

Reaction was immediate. Last week, a rally was held in downtown Montgomery. The protesters retraced the steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. Key national-level politicians were in town. The major news networks had reporters in Alabama covering the story.

All of this was met with a shrug. Ho hum. The politics of grievance, of division. We are Alabama, of course, where being pro-life means you are pro-gun and pro-death penalty. We don’t need out-of-towners telling us what to do!

The actions by the Legislature threw the entire 2026 electoral process into a tailspin. Beyond this primary, there is a run-off in June. And then, a special election in August for the districts that were modified to the old map, and a run-off if needed follows that. Finally, the real deal happens in November. Clear as mud?

If you were to dig deep into a social media site – let’s say, Tallassee CityWatch Uncut – and note the number of people who are reading and participating, it’s at over 26,000 people. That’s most of Elmore and Tallapoosa counties contributing on a discussion board.

Nearly everyone has an opinion. Many use aliases but have no problem calling the names of others.

My point is, that many people live around here and care about what is happening in our community.

You wouldn’t have known by the voter turnout last week in the primaries. And sure, it’s a primary, which is not as important to many people as a major election – but with all that has happened the past month to modify these elections, one would have thought that there would at least have been some moderate interest in it.

This was the start of a rare election cycle that featured open races for both Governor and U.S. Senate. We also had two of our U.S. Senators both vying for the top of the ticket on the Democrat and Republican sides.

On the day after the election, the Alabama Secretary of State’s office reported a statewide voter turnout of 23.1%.

That includes huge counties such as Mobile County, which saw 17% of their citizens voting, and Morgan County, which had over 24% of their registered voters participating.

Here in Tallassee, we have nearly 4,000 registered voters ages 18 and above. Many of those 4,000 people love to share their opinions on social media, griping and fussing about things in our town.

In the primary, 866 people in Tallassee took part and cared enough to cast ballots.

For last year’s election of mayor, school board and city council, 766 people voted.

There is only one word for this: pitiful.

Everyone in the world knows about the civil rights struggle that had its origins in this part of Alabama. It doesn’t matter about political party affiliation – what is tragic is that so few people care to participate. The decisions made by these politicians will affect all of us, and we are handing that over to 23% of the people?

I understand the viewpoint that one vote doesn’t matter. There are some great people who choose to sit out elections because they feel the fix is already in – and I can understand why they feel that way. Yet, just giving up and not participating at all is a mystery to me.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor at Faulkner University.

CBS: Good night, and good luck

Fri, 15 May 2026 16:12:08 GMT

In 24 hours, both CBS Radio and "The Late Show" on CBS come to an end

Good night, and good luck

When the story of broadcasting is told, this week will be remembered for a 24-hour period in which two legendary entities came to an end.

This Friday, May 22, CBS Radio will cease after 99 years of service; that same day, “The Late Show” franchise on CBS is also concluding.

Times are changing fast. Local newspapers are on the chopping block, while traditional radio and television struggle for space in a crowded media multiverse as they compete with the likes of YouTube and TikTok. However, a quick glance at some recent statistics shows that 10,073 students are graduating with journalism degrees this year. That hardly sounds like a prediction for “going out of business”.

What is happening at CBS seems more like belt-tightening, cost-cutting measures with some political overtones. David Ellison, the new owner of CBS, is very friendly with the Trump Administration and, when the President has criticized certain hosts or reporters, action has been taken over the past year.

But first, a fond farewell to CBS Radio.

The Columbia Broadcasting System began as the nation’s second radio network in 1927. However, its legacy of hard-hitting news reporting can be traced back to March 13, 1938, when Robert Trout reported on the Anschluss: Adolf Hitler’s Germany annexed Austria and took over the media. A then-unknown Edward R. Murrow, still in his 20s, was dispatched to report live news programs from five European cities. Murrow’s voice was heard from Vienna:

“This is Edward Murrow speaking from Vienna. It's now nearly 2:30 in the morning, and Herr Hitler has not yet arrived. No one seems to know just when he will get here. But most people expect him sometime after 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.”

And thus began the “CBS World News Roundup,” the longest-running news program on the air when it ends this Friday.

Other than Ed Murrow, CBS would become known for great reporting from Douglas Edwards (who began his career in Troy, Alabama), Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, and Walter Cronkite. In fact, the term “anchor” was first used to describe Cronkite for his journalistic gravitas.

There was a next-greatest generation of CBS news reporters and anchors to come, who continued the legacy: Dan Rather, who worked for CBS Radio and was one of the first to report on the assassination of President Kennedy, eventually replaced Walter Cronkite on the “CBS Evening News.” Don Hewitt, the producer who created and managed “60 Minutes,” was also among this next generation. And there would be no “CBS Sunday Morning” without Charles Kuralt and Charles Osgood, who both emerged from the CBS Radio world and moved over to the television news side.

The writing was on the wall for several months. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss arrived in late 2025 with a mandate for change. In a meeting with CBS staff in January, she invoked Cronkite’s name as a symbol of old thinking. In her first few months, she installed Tony Dokoupil as the anchor of “CBS Evening News,” killed stories on “60 Minutes” that were critical of President Trump, and has worked to recalibrate the editorial slant of news programming from center-left to center-right.

On Friday, 700 radio stations in the CBS Radio Network will lose not only “World News Roundup” but other programming provided for nearly 100 years. It is truly the end of an era.

That same day, CBS is also ending “The Late Show,” a franchise that began 33 years ago when David Letterman departed NBC. As you may recall, Letterman was in the running to succeed Johnny Carson as the host of “The Tonight Show,” but Jay Leno was chosen. Letterman was offered a show on CBS that would compete with Leno. Thus began the so-called Late Night Wars of the 1990s. That didn’t mean Letterman ever took it easy on his bosses!

Letterman was back to blast CBS one more time last week as a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which is not only the end for Colbert but for the franchise itself as it is being replaced next week by a stand-up comedy show fronted by Byron Allen. In Letterman’s final appearance, he and Colbert threw furniture and watermelons off the top of the Ed Sullivan Theater building, landing on the sidewalk below – right on top of the CBS eye logo.

Stephen Colbert has often been referred to as the thinking man’s late-night host, sort of a modern Dick Cavett. He often has one guest and allows them to speak freely and at length on a variety of subjects. His musical guests are very eclectic but always entertaining. His iteration of “The Late Show” has been the number-one rated late-night program for several years.

In a show of solidarity from his fellow late-night hosts, all of his competition is taking the night off and playing a rerun, encouraging their audiences to give Colbert their viewing attention for the evening.

Beyond this week, other than Byron Allen on CBS, the rest of the gang will still be around. Jimmy Fallon is still hosting the decidedly apolitical “Tonight” Show on NBC; despite threats from the President and investigation by the FCC, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is sticking around on ABC; and, NBC is staying behind a stripped-down “Late Night” with Seth Meyers.

Will the current crop of late-night hosts be the last to ever hold these jobs, or are we just engaged in a period of great change? For everyone who claims that late-night television is a dying genre, one need only look at the shows together drawing a greater audience between broadcast and online platforms than Johnny Carson ever did in his day.

Speaking of Carson, he often stayed away from tipping his hand to reveal his political leanings, choosing to poke fun at everyone instead. Going forward, that may be the best path for the late-night hosts who remain as they compete for viewers.

Late night is still where we go for big cultural moments, great interviews with newsmakers and celebrities, and performances by some of the greatest musicians working today. It is also a showcase for variety show-styled skits and sketches and one of the few places where stand-up comedians can be seen regularly.

In other words, just because CBS has decided to get out of the game for now doesn’t mean it is permanent. But May 22, 2026 will be remembered as the end of a couple of eras at CBS, and for that, we pause and reflect with gratitude for CBS Radio and for “The Late Show.”

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Devastation from my front porch

Thu, 07 May 2026 23:40:44 GMT

10 years ago this week, the end finally came for Mount Vernon Mills

Ten years ago this week, Tallassee lost perhaps the most important part of its history when the east side Mount Vernon Mills complex burned. This, along with the 2009 fire that destroyed the Hotel Talisi, are two sad but unforgettable events. Here is what I wrote for the following issue of the Tribune.

Last Wednesday night, I heard the screaming sirens of the fire trucks and police cars, but my little East Tallassee Mill Village neighborhood is pretty active. It is a regular occurrence to hear emergency vehicle sirens on Central Boulevard or Lower Tuskegee Road.

This was different: something bad was happening.

I opened my front door, and when I stepped outside I might has well have stuck my head in an oven.

Mount Vernon Mills No. 2 and No. 3 were ablaze. The fire was completely involved by 11:00 p.m. I saw a tornado of fire rising above the building, creating a real-life towering inferno.

Bits of fiery ash sprinkled from the sky. Firefighters spoke instructions on bullhorns and walkie talkies. It looked like every fire department from all surrounding municipalities were here to help us. Help us – what? Say goodbye to the last vestiges of our town’s identity? It was too much to think about.

Yet, as I watched the blaze with my neighbors (my children never even woke up!), I started thinking about my dear departed neighbor Thurman Harris, and how he worked at that place for 53 years in various capacities. How he walked from the house next door, down those mill steps and into his life’s work. He could never admit that the mill was closed; once, when I asked him if he missed it, he just started crying and walked away. I also thought about my grocery store boss Hollis Mann, who was the final Superintendent of Mount Vernon Mills and was the last person out the door when the company left town permanently in 2006. The cotton mill was his life. And now it was really gone – not just closed, but gone. Destroyed.

I watched that fire until almost two o’clock in the morning, unable to take my eyes off the sight. In a way, it was even more terrible as the Hotel Talisi fire. The Hotel was, at the time of its demise, a work in progress and in between owners. And we can see that there are efforts to bring it back to life someday.

All of us saw the east side mill as a lasting remnant of what we once were. Even though it has been closed for a decade now, its memories loom (pardon the pun) large in the hearts and minds of those who worked there and grew up here.

W.C. Bryant, in his excellent book HOT AND HIS BOYS, described Tallassee circa 1939-40 as Coach J.E. O’Brien was beginning his storied career at Tallassee High School. He describes Mount Vernon-Woodbury Mills as presiding over a benevolent dictatorship in Tallassee. They were responsible for the school system itself, as well as the housing developments and many of the businesses. They put together carnivals and circuses, parades and patriotic celebrations. Mount Vernon was the heart of this community.

When I could finally get out of Alber Drive the next morning to drive the BirdKids to school, we peered over the side of the bridge and saw it. A giant barbecue pit, with the sides still up but glowing coals within. I never worked there, but I felt the tears well up for all who devoted themselves to that place.

The smoke began clearing the next day, and gawkers retreated into their regular lives again. The TV news media stopped showing pictures of our former glory and claim to fame, reduced to a smoldering ruin for all the world to see.

That Friday morning, we pulled the van away from the house and looked across the street as we began our school day route. My daughter said, “look, Daddy, you can see the trees on the other side of the river.”

We could never see them before, and now we would not see the mighty walls of Mount Vernon ever again.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Are the Five Families still around?

Fri, 01 May 2026 18:05:05 GMT

New Netflix series examines real-life "Godfathers"

Are the Five Families still around?

As Al Pacino’s mob boss Michael Corleone famously says in THE GODFATHER PART III, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

It doesn’t take much to pull this fan back in to watch the “Godfather” films at any time. They are so well-made, each piece of the puzzle like its own work of art, that one is rewarded by multiple viewings.

Last week, I fell into a Mafia rabbit hole watching the “Godfather” movies again, alongside a multi-part Netflix series called The Five Families.

Of course, if you have never seen the “Godfather” trilogy, even if you are not a fan of mob violence, they are well worth your time. As for the documentary series on Netflix, what follows is a brief review.

“American Godfathers: The Five Families” began streaming on Netflix in April, and quickly became one of the top programs on the service. The three-part series, narrated by actor Michael Imperioli, chronicles the rise and fall of New York’s prominent Mafia crime families: the Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, Colombo, and Lucchese organizations are traced from their beginnings to the present day.

The Gambino crime family, established by Vincent Langano, may be one of the most well-known thanks to the “dapper Don,” John Gotti. It was, at one point, the largest of them all. The Bonanno crime family, founded by Salvatore Maranzano, experienced some dysfunction and were the first family to be kicked out of The Commission, though they later returned to be most powerful. The Genovese crime family, established by Lucky Luciano, is often called the “Ivy League” of the mob, and are powerful and secretive. The Colombo crime family, begun by Joe Profaci, is historically the most volatile, with internal power struggles dominating their other mostly bootleg-related activities. Finally, the Lucchese crime family, established by Gaetano Reina, is known for aggressive leadership and extremely close ties to the world of labor.

This series features some truly insightful material from Selwyn Raab, who passed away a couple of years ago but was a longtime reporter for New York newspapers and magazines. You also see his name in the credits of every episode of “Kojak,” as the character of Theo Kojak is actually based on the real-life experiences of Selwyn Raab. As documentary talking heads go, his appearance lends gravitas to the proceedings. Raab’s encyclopedic knowledge of the underworld players gives his portions of this series a ‘you are there’ feel.

Claire White is the proprietor of The Mob Museum in Las Vegas. While she may seem a little out of place as a barely-30-year-old organized crime expert, her knowledge of the history of these outfits is astounding. She also provides a lot of interesting tidbits about the peccadilloes of the mobsters themselves.

There are some grisly crime scene photos, of course, especially the hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano outside a steak restaurant he owned in 1985; Crazy Joe Gallo’s rub-out at a clam house in 1972 just after his wedding; the execution of Carmine Galante in 1979 at a Brooklyn restaurant that left him dead with the burning cigar still in his mouth.

In order to be a “made man,” one must first be Italian (or Sicilian). Despite all the tales of violence, the mob tactics most commonly used have been loan sharking, bootlegging, infiltration of labor unions, and extortion.

Watching the series, every few minutes we are reminded of the rules of the Five Families that were established by Lucky Luciano in the early 1930s. The rules include “no drugs,” which went out the window in the 1970s as the five families began engaging in cartel-type behavior. Most commonly known, however, is the word “omerta,” which is a code of silence. Nobody broke this code of silence until 1963, when Joseph Valachi testified before Congress and the world first learned about Cosa Nostra and the Five Families.

These days, you don’t hear as much about the Mafia because the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) seemed to have busted up the mob in the 1990s. A lot of bosses ended up in jail. But the Mafia never went away. In fact, a check of some recent statistics show that there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of wiseguys out there. They have moved into other businesses, other levels of government, and areas where they can operate peacefully. For now.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Blonde on Pet Sounds on Blonde

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 01:47:13 GMT

"I'm waiting for the day"

Sixty years ago this month, some music was being released that changed the game of not only rock and roll, but popular culture and music in general.

May 17, 1966 is the day the barn doors blew open in rock and roll.

Only a couple of months earlier, The Beatles had released RUBBER SOUL, an eclectic and introspective collection of songs by John, Paul, George, and Ringo that featured radically different instrumentation and subject matter from anything they had released previously. Sixty years on, it may be that RUBBER SOUL is the greatest of all Beatles records in that it crystallized a moment and influenced the direction of popular music for years to come.

At that time, Bob Dylan had already been anointed (against his will) “spokesman of a generation,” based on his groundbreaking work in the folk music movement of the early 1960s. But he wasn’t done; in fact, he was just getting started. (Dylan performed right here in Dothan, Alabama last Thursday night, still going strong.)

BLONDE ON BLONDE was rock’s first double LP, and it is a wild assortment of musical styles and genres thrown together with Dylan’s raucous, stream-of-consciousness poetry. Nearly every track explores a different facet of Dylan’s musical personality while he was in his, as Rolling Stone magazine later said, “frizzed-out jeremiad period”.

There’s quiet Baroque country on “4 ^th Time Around” and “Just Like a Woman”; fuzzy blues rock on “Obviously 5 Believers” and “Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat”; achingly personal details on “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” and “Visions of Johanna”; even a touch of Dixieland jazz on “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35”. Dylan, working with the cream of Nashville musicians, made an album that sounded like nothing else before or since. It can be said that Dylan’s expansion on BLONDE ON BLONDE is responsible for his continued career success.

Bob Dylan is backed by not only the Nashville session men, but a group formerly called the Hawks – later known to the world as The Band. There are so many good musicians playing on this record, it’s just a feast for the ears. Every time I put it on, I hear something new.

On that same day in May 1966(!), The Beach Boys re-emerged from a period of relative inactivity with PET SOUNDS, often ranked as the number-one most influential rock LP of all time. The creative genius behind the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, crafted a masterpiece of symphonic rock, built upon layers of vocal harmonies and instrumentation unlike any heard on a rock album.

The Beach Boys’ record label had pressured them for new material for months, but as the group took up residence at the studio where all of the Wrecking Crew played, a new kind of musical alchemy was taking shape.

PET SOUNDS is a solid set of songs, working against the sun-surf-cars-girls formula of past Beach Boys success. This album featured songs about uncertainty in relationships as well as the sadness that comes with the realities of growing up.

There are many sublime moments on this record, and many are classics: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “Sloop John B”. But the lethargic “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” and “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” point to the album’s final track, “Caroline No” – a song so personal and direct, it’s hard to believe that only a few months before, these same guys were singing about being true to their school.

The fact that both PET SOUNDS and BLONDE ON BLONDE were released on the same day should tell us all something about the time period that followed: a fertile period of unsurpassed creativity in the world of popular music that may never happen again.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Ten Commandments, Revisited

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:47:46 GMT

Ten Commandments on TV, followed by the President vs. the Pope

Ten Commandments Revisited

The Alabama Legislature just completed the 2026 session, its final year in the State House they have called home since 1985.

While we regular citizens can debate the merits or accomplishments of our senators and representatives, they accomplished a few things during this session – such as placing the Ten Commandments in every fifth through twelfth grade classroom in Alabama.

There is no doubt that our world runs on these commandments, and that our legal system is based upon them. However, placing them in public buildings has proven to be a slippery slope. Remember Roy Moore? He had them installed and they ended up being forcibly removed by a federal order. How about what occurred in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa the past few years? The Satanic Temple had Baphomet statues placed in government buildings thanks to religious expression laws, such as those that put the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

Honestly, with the way things have been going, I’ve been fearful that Alabama could be next when it comes to this sort of thing. The way our politics are becoming so toxic, with people cementing their positions on the far right or far left, I’m surprised we haven’t had to deal with it yet. Someone will come along and challenge the public display of the Ten Commandments and force a school or other government building to accept something that may be repulsive to many. I somehow don’t think that is the intention of the lawmakers who voted for this, but here we are.

But I digress.

A television tradition during the Passover and Easter period each year is the classic film “The Ten Commandments,” which turned 70 this year and has been airing on ABC-TV for over 50 years.

This Biblical adventure motion picture was produced, directed, and narrated by the legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, whose career stretched back to the very beginning of the movie industry in the 1910s. Starring Charlton Heston as Moses; Yul Brynner as Rameses; Anne Baxter as Nefertiri; Edward G. Robinson as Dathan; Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora; and Judith Anderson as Memnet, this may be the ultimate epic. Other stars in lesser roles include Clint Walker, John Derek, Vincent Price, and Herb Alpert. It was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever produced, but did a powerful job dramatizing the story of Moses, the adopted Egyptian prince who became the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrew people.

The actors performed in a theatrical style that was common of that period, which is the only thing that dates the film at all. What makes the action sequences so spectacular is the on-location scenery of Egypt and the middle east. Thousands of extras were on hand, as well as hundreds of animals, immersing the viewer into the desert world of the Old Testament ancients.

Yul Brynner was the perfect choice to play the pharaoh, and who else but Charlton Heston could have portrayed Moses? The set pieces that are so memorable about this film – the burning bush, the parting of the Red Sea, the Nile turning into blood, the staff that transforms into a snake, the ten commandments being cut into Mount Sinai by the finger of God – are just as powerful today as they were 70 years ago when the movie was new.

In fact, even though I knew it was coming, the sequence in which Moses has the faith to believe that he can lead his people across the Red Sea moved me to tears. That is some serious faith!

This year, it may be that I was also moved because of current events. It has been so disturbing over the past couple of weeks to see good, God-fearing people engage in some of the most polarizing commentary in recent memory. President Trump decided to celebrate the holiest day on the calendar by unleashing a very unpresidential and profane tirade; during this same period, Pope Leo didn’t call out Trump by name but he definitely called out warmongers and asked that everyone pray for peace. Trump, taking it personally, started the personal attacks on the Pope, the leader of the Christian church on Earth, and posted multiple images of himself as Jesus or being held by Jesus.

Mocking our Lord is not the way. It doesn’t matter if it’s a joke in poor taste. What we have seen from President Trump is straight-up blasphemy. It was disgusting to read the pandering from the likes of Franklin Graham, who made his usual excuses for this. I just wonder when God will have had enough of all of our fooling around down here. In fact, I started to feel like Christians had been used by politicians for votes and power, and started to lose faith in the whole process.

The media tried to frame this as some kind of fight between the President and the Pope. Political cartoonists had a field day, and there were plenty of comments about a Pope from the south side of Chicago taking on a New York casino owner turned President. Some of these were in good fun, and some were appalling. Trump-as-Jesus being beheaded and cast into Hell was as disturbing as the original; I was also outraged when a friend sent me a cartoon of the devil whispering in a possessed-looking Pope Leo’s ear as the Pope’s cassock turned into the colors of an LGBTQ rainbow. How in the world did we get here?

And then, I recalled the hours spent watching “The Ten Commandments” on TV again this year. Those Biblical characters are a lot like us … they struggled with personal issues as well as with the politicians who ruled over them. Why do we remember their stories? Because they show us what faith looks like. And during that Easter weekend, we also recalled the story of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins as he hung on a cross – and yet, in his final moments, forgave the penitent thief who was there next to him, promising him that he would go to Heaven that very day.

May cooler heads prevail in our fallen world. And, like the sign on Interstate 65 says, “go to church or the devil will get you.”

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Revenge of the Bridge Buzzards

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 02:23:04 GMT

Attack of the Bridge Buzzards, Part II

The Attack of the Bridge Buzzards – Part Two!

NOTE: This appeared in the Tallassee Tribune in 2019. Lo and behold, the vultures are back in my neighborhood, and Alabama Power is in the process of running them off! It seems that we are now experiencing the attack of the bridge buzzards … the sequel!

Some people call them turkey vultures. Others may identify them as black vultures.

Whenever I see one, however, I call them by their Southern name – buzzards.

There has been quite a bit of activity over the past couple of years for these creatures as Alabama Power was working on improvements to Thurlow Dam. As one would cross Fitzpatrick Bridge, there is no way you wouldn’t take note of the buzzards, I mean vultures, roosting below the bridge.

Last week, a representative from Alabama Power came by my house with what looked like a starter pistol for a firecracker. The vultures filled the trees behind my house. This worker set off his roman candle-like device and they scattered, flew in a circle, and came right back. He came again to try and run them off, but thus far they are still hanging around.

It’s pretty unnerving to be watching TV in the middle of the day, with the shades drawn – and giant swooping shadows covering the whole room, as if the grim reaper is sitting right outside.

Vultures have a decidedly morbid reputation. They fly around in a circle pattern, searching for dead and decaying animals to devour. In movies and cartoons, they are often portrayed as ugly, menacing death-eaters waiting for something, or someone, to croak so they can swoop in.

In reality, however, vultures are very helpful. After being scared by the Elmore-Tallapoosa county line flock, I did a little research on them.

The only birds bigger than vultures are eagles and condors. A vulture has a 70-inch wingspan, which can be pretty intimidating if one flies close to you.

Vultures have excellent vision and turkey vultures have a keen sense of smell, which helps them find carrion not only on roadways but even in the deepest wooded areas. In fact, a turkey vulture can smell a dead creature up to a mile away.

These birds are often referred to as nature’s clean-up crew, feasting on what others have left behind. What is most fascinating about vultures is that their digestive system is able to withstand the nastiest, grossest, foulest, most bacteria-filled remnants of a former living being and convert it into droppings which are, for lack of a better word, sanitizer.

While turkey vultures are bigger and non-threatening to humans, the black vulture is a bit more aggressive in its quest for carrion. Black vultures follow their turkey brethren around and may, through sheer numbers, intimidate or even attack turkey vultures that have already identified prey.

These scavengers will eat just about anything, from rotting vegetables to the eggs (or young) of another mammal. Their corrosive stomach acid makes it all go down a little easier. After they have devoured all the things we would never want, they regurgitate it into the mouths of their babies.

I can’t help but wonder what these hissing predators look like as they loom over the Alabama Power workers at the dam. It has to be a bit unsettling even though the buzzards pose no real threat to humans.

One day, I was working in my yard cutting the grass. The buzzards began their daily routine, at around 9:00 a.m., circling in the air. Their shadows seemed to grow larger and I could only imagine I was being marked for death.

And then I remembered one key fact – the only thing a vulture won’t eat is another vulture! I can only hope that this Bird didn’t look too appetizing to them.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University and contributes “Bird’s Eye View” (or “Vulture’s Eye View”?) each week in the TRIBUNE.

Living deliberately

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:05:39 GMT

New documentary on Alabama Public Television worth your time

“I wished to live deliberately”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. That first sentence, the mission statement that opens Thoreau’s book Walden, is permanently in my memory. Our eleventh grade English teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, Mrs. Karen Dennis, had all of us memorize that masterful sentence.

Over the past week and currently continuing on Alabama Public Television and the PBS app is the latest Ken Burns documentary project, simply titled HENRY DAVID THOREAU. This time around, Burns serves as executive producer alongside musician and Eagles drummer Don Henley. The film is directed by Erik and Christopher Ewers. Like every other Burns-helmed project, it is highly recommended viewing.

We remember Thoreau today for a few of his lines of prose that were either genius or prescient. For example, most people are familiar with “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” or “our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify!” Thoreau also coined the phrase “different drummer,” which is used often in our culture to describe someone whose attitude or behavior runs counter to everyone else. It was even featured in the Mike Nesmith-penned song made famous by Linda Ronstadt.

Thoreau’s writings, such as “Civil Disobedience,” also inform our modern world. His words directly influenced champions of the nonviolent protest movement such as Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Henry David Thoreau is presented as the proto-hippie: a great American writer and thinker who ultimately created the environmentalist movement, with his back-to-nature lifestyle and deep commitment to mysticism. The narrator for this documentary is George Clooney, while Thoreau’s voice is intoned by Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum proved to be an easy get for the producers, as he was a tremendous fan of the Ken Burns “Country Music” documentary series and gladly volunteered for duty. Soon, the producers were able to get Ted Danson to serve as the voice of Thoreau’s mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The project grew from there to encompass not only Thoreau’s life as a naturalist, but as a thinker and influencer.

Thoreau was born in, of all places, Concord, Massachusetts: the battles of Lexington and Concord kicked off the American Revolution many years before his birth, but that revolutionary spirit imbibed his hometown. Concord was also the center of transcendentalism, which saw divinity in everything and informed the philosophical, spiritual, and literarary movements of the era. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott were Thoreau’s neighbors, all of them influencing one another.

When Thoreau was 27, with his own hands he constructed a 10-by-15-foot cabin on Walden Pond, on land owned by Emerson. Thoreau would live in Walden Woods for two years, two months, and two days. During that period, he spent much of his time fascinated by nature, documenting his every observation or thought in dozens of journals.

Despite what some may say, Thoreau was not a hermit during this time. He regularly walked into town to sell vegetables he grew, to do his laundry, or to visit with neighbors to hear the local gossip. It was during one of his visits to town when police arrested Thoreau for being six years behind on paying his taxes – Thoreau had withheld paying his taxes as a form of protest against the federal government’s condoning slavery. He spent the night in jail, but someone paid his tardy taxes for him, to his displeasure. The entire experience led to his work “Civil Disobedience.”

The documentary gives the viewer so much more to know about Thoreau than his Walden adventure. Thoreau worked in his family’s very successful pencil factory – ensuring that he always had writing implements for his over two million published words. He also worked as a surveyor and map maker, spent time as a school teacher, and traveled as a public speaker.

However, like any human being, there were occasions of inconsistent behavior. He was a passionate supporter of the man who started the Harper’s Ferry rebellion, John Brown, who was an anti-slavery fighter – and murderer. A few lines of truth: “the winds and the waves are not enough for him; he must needs ransack the bowels of the earth that he may make for himself a highway of iron over its surface” is a line about railroad tracks cutting through the wilderness; despite those words, Thoreau used rail travel in his public speaking career. “A government which deliberately enacts injustice and persists in it will at length ever become the laughingstock of the world … I say break the law; let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine,” he wrote, and despite his abolitionist ways he did not always defend or even understand the Native peoples, at the time called Indians, the original inhabitants of our land.

Henry David Thoreau never married, never had children, and died from tuberculosis at age 44. The documentary concludes as Thoreau is fading away, as Goldblum reads some of his final words. “There is a season for everything. You must live in the present. Launch yourself on every wave. Find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land. There is no other life but this.”

HENRY DAVID THOREAU is available on Alabama Public Television and the PBS app. Michael Bird is an assistant professor at Faulkner University.

It Might As Well Be Swing

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 10:40:54 GMT

Second annual Jazz Festival held at Faulkner

It Might as Well Be Swing

"It Might as Well Be Spring," by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song eighty years ago this week, in 1946. It was featured in the film musical “State Fair,” and is fondly remembered for its wistful lyrics having to do with spring fever. Many musicians over the years have taken the last word of the title and created albums called “It Might as Well Be Swing.”

We officially entered the season of spring on Friday, March 20. And traditionally, spring also means … Swing! March is Arts Education Month and Music in Our Schools Month, and April is Jazz Education Month.

To celebrate spring, swing, and jazz education, we cordially invite you to the Faulkner University Jazz Festival this Friday night, March 27, at the Tine W. Davis Gymnasium on the Faulkner campus. Admission is free. Concessions, including everything from hamburgers and chicken fingers to chips and candy, will be sold upstairs from the gym at The Grille.

Jazz music is a uniquely American art form, created in the early 20 ^th century. It reached its peak popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with the mass appeal of the Big Band era. Jazz continues to influence our culture through films, television shows, and commercials as well as its signature instrumentation still being heard in the popular music of today.

Here is the lineup for our festival Friday evening, and we invite you to come!

4:00 p.m. – Faulkner University

4:30 p.m. – Orange Beach High School

5:00 p.m. – Alabama State University

5:30 p.m. – ASU Combo

6:00 p.m. – Montgomery Recreators

6:30 p.m. – JAZZIN’

7:00 p.m. – Auburn University

7:30 p.m. – Pike Road High School

8:00 p.m. – Capitol Sounds Lab Band

8:30 p.m. – River Region Brass Band

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Beware the Ides of March

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 02:54:41 GMT

Beware the Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March

March 15. Does it really mean anything extraordinary?

The soothsayer gives a foreboding warning the soon-to-be-ex-Roman emperor Julius Caesar on this day back in 44 B.C.: “beware the ides of March.”

Of course, by the time Julius Caesar made it to the Capitol, he was stabbed 23 times. His final words were, “et tu, Brute?”

Full moons, black cats and broken mirrors aside, there’s something ominous about the William Shakespeare play JULIUS CAESAR, and it may be this famous line that has made us feel so uncomfortable all these years.

According to Roman history, their calendar was based around lunar phases. There were other names, such as Kalends and Nones.

Ides, however, referred to the first full moon of a given month. Like this week, these usually fell somewhere during the week that includes the 13 ^th , 14 ^th , and 15 ^th . Prior to the connotation discussed in this article, the Ides of March was actually a time of rejoicing.

Since the time of Shakespeare 500 years ago, however, the phrase has become more and more sinister. If a television series has an episode with these words in the title, look out.

Bad things didn’t happen for a Chicago-area rock group that took the name The Ides of March back in the early 1970s. Led by guitarslinger and songwriter Jim Peterik, the Ides of March created one of the most memorable brass-rock songs of that, or any, era: “Vehicle.” In fact, to this day, many marching bands across the country perform this song.

An interesting side note – Peterik went on to form another band, Survivor, in the 1980s. They had a #1 hit we still hear all the time: “Eye of the Tiger.” Peterik’s name may be unknown to the average music fan, but his musical compositions are heard constantly all over the world. In the case of “Eye of the Tiger,” we hear it much more often in Tallassee and Auburn than in most places.

The Smithsonian Institution has listed the top ten reasons why we should beware the Ides of March. In conclusion, I submit these 10 memorable events from the Smithsonian, with their comments included.

1. Assassination of Julius Caesar, 44 B.C.

Conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus stab dictator-for-life Julius Caesar to death before the Roman senate. Caesar was 55.

2. A Raid on Southern England, 1360

A French raiding party begins a 48-hour spree of rape, pillage and murder in southern England. King Edward III interrupts his own pillaging spree in France to launch reprisals.

3. Samoan Cyclone, 1889

A cyclone wrecks six warships—three U.S., three German—in the harbor at Apia, Samoa, leaving more than 200 sailors dead.

4. Czar Nicholas II Abdicates His Throne, 1917

Czar Nicholas II of Russia signs his abdication papers, ending a 304-year-old royal dynasty and ushering in Bolshevik rule. He and his family are taken captive and, in July 1918, executed before a firing squad.

5. Germany Occupies Czechoslovakia, 1939

Just six months after Czechoslovak leaders ceded the Sudetenland, Nazi troops seize the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, effectively wiping Czechoslovakia off the map.

6. A Deadly Blizzard on the Great Plains, 1941

A Saturday-night blizzard strikes the northern Great Plains, leaving at least 60 people dead in North Dakota and Minnesota and six more in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

7. World Record Rainfall, 1952

Rain falls on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion—and keeps falling, hard enough to register the world’s most voluminous 24-hour rainfall: 73.62 inches.

8. CBS Cancels the “Ed Sullivan Show,” 1971

Word leaks that CBS-TV is canceling “The Ed Sullivan Show” after 23 years on the network, which also dumped Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason in the preceding month.

9. Disappearing Ozone Layer, 1988

NASA reports that the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere has been depleted three times faster than predicted.

10. A New Global Health Scare, 2003

After accumulating reports of a mysterious respiratory disease afflicting patients and healthcare workers in China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, the World Health Organization issues a heightened global health alert. The disease will soon become famous under the acronym SARS (for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

Michael Bird is an assistant professor at Faulkner University.

Music Hyperhydonia

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 02:26:10 GMT

fris·son

/frēˈsäN,ˈfrēˌsäN/

noun: a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill.

Have you ever experienced frisson?

Frisson is a French word meaning “a sudden strong feeling of excitement,” or a thrill.

It is the feeling you get when you hear a certain piece of music and all of a sudden you have chill bumps all over your body.

You may also get that feeling when there is enough foreshadowing in a television show or film and you kind of know what may happen next, yet you start to get excited anyway.

For many years, I have been interested in the people who serve as music supervisors for TV shows. And, until recently, I had no idea that one of the very best music supervisors is also an actress on several programs: Christa Miller.

Miller is the music supervisor on the AppleTV+ series “Shrinking,” currently in its third season and rightfully noted for being one of the very best shows on TV these days. She also plays the character of Liz on the show. Her husband, Bill Lawrence, is the co-creator and showrunner.

This husband-and-wife team has been operating in Hollywood for decades. Lawrence created “Scrubs,” which had a 10-season run and has just returned with new episodes; Miller served as the music supervisor for that show and appeared as Jordan. Later, Lawrence co-created “Cougar Town,” which also enjoyed a respectable run, and Miller served as the music supervisor as well as played the role of Ellie.

Admittedly, I never really watched “Scrubs” nor “Cougar Town” – they seemed to be on at times I wasn’t around. But a few years ago, I fell in love with “Ted Lasso” – also co-created by Bill Lawrence, with music supervision by Christa Miller.

Which brings me to “Shrinking” and a term Miller introduced on a recent podcast about frisson: a condition called hyperhydonia.

What in the world is hyperhydonia?

Hyperhydonia is a condition in which music becomes so powerful, it touches you on a deeper, more spiritual level. Miller says she has a playlist of 4,000 songs that give her that feeling, but she is always listening out for the newest artist who might have something different to say than what we’ve heard before.

Think of the times a particular song is used for a scene in a show – what would that scene have been like without the music? Christa Miller has demonstrated an unerring choice of songs for, in particular, “Shrinking,” as the characters experience different life events.

In the movies, imagine what some of the greatest sequences in cinematic history would have been like without the musical soundtrack.

I found Christa Miller’s comments fascinating, but even more so, I have come to appreciate her ear for great music on “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso.” Both shows are great, but thanks to hyperhydonia, they are a cut above all the rest.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

Easter Dates, Explained

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:08:34 GMT

Now we are in Lent

Now, we are in Lent

Last week, we celebrated Mardi Gras, better known as Fat Tuesday – the beginning of the season of Lent.

In 40 days, we’ll celebrate Easter - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which changed everything, including the calendar.

Even in cultures around the world that either don’t know about Christianity or choose another religion, their calendar is still moving in the time of anno domini – in the Year of Our Lord. That is an amazing fact, that the birth of Jesus is memorialized to this day by our very calendar! People who do not even know Him are still counting their days with a Gregorian calendar dedicated to Him!

Easter marks the end of Lent, the forty days of fasting and abstinence that began with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday. Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the regular calendar. It always occurs during the spring, in March or April.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. Passover and Easter are interchangeable terms in many European languages, so the similarities are even greater for the early Christians who translated the Bible.

Secular customs, such as the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations and are often observed by Christians and non-Christians alike.

The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith. The resurrection established Jesus as the true Son of God.

Easter is strongly connected to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt that is outlined in great detail in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, however, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning. He says to his disciples, “do this in remembrance of me,” as he prepared himself and his disciples for his death in the upper room during the Last Supper. He took the bread and the chalice of wine and said that it represented His body and blood.

Jesus, as the Passover lamb, was crucified at roughly the same time as the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple. To this day, on Good Friday at 3:00 p.m. is traditionally the time observed.

Every Friday during Lent, many Christians observe the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross are fourteen points on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, from the Lions' Gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is one of the most powerful Lenten traditions, even more so than fasting and abstinence.

Speaking of fasting and abstaining, it is also a longstanding tradition to fast (eat one meal a day or none at all) and abstain from meat on Fridays of Lent. This has led to many restaurants having fish and seafood specials on Friday nights.

Why is Easter on a moveable date? The date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea – the same Council that wrote the Creed (“we believe in One God …”) -- established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox, way back in the year 325.

The equinox occurs on March 21, therefore Easter always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. There are 35 potential Easter dates!

It last fell on March 22 in 1818, and will not do so again until 2285. It fell on March 23 in 2008, but will not do so again until 2160. Easter last fell on the latest possible date, April 25, in 1943 and will next fall on that date in 2038. However, it fell on April 24, just one day before this latest possible date, in 2011. The most common date is April 19. This year we will celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

The Grammys: end of an era?

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:21:19 GMT

Grammys end 54-year run on CBS; moving to ABC in 2027

The Grammys: end of an era?

Last Sunday night, the Grammy Awards aired on CBS for the final time.

Since 1973, CBS has been home to the biggest night in music each year; prior to that time, the Grammys were telecast on ABC. When ABC lost the Grammys, Dick Clark created the American Music Awards for ABC.

And in one of the industry’s craziest switcheroos, the Grammys are moving back to ABC in 2027, while the American Music Awards are moving to CBS!

The Grammy Awards are named for the Gramophone, invented not by Thomas Edison but by Emile Berliner. Edison had invented the phonograph in 1877, but Berliner’s 1887 reinvention allowed for the mass production of recorded music and his record label, Victor, later became part of RCA – the same company that launched the first radio network (NBC) and television network (NBC).

Awards shows are a celebration of entertainment and popular culture. There are dozens of great moments from the Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys out there on YouTube. One can also find plenty of red carpet highlights.

Industry observers say that the Grammys are the most-watched of the big four awards programs. The mixed-genre crossovers that only happen on Grammy night have often been some of the best moments on the show.

Over the past decade or so, the Grammys have given airtime to some artists who chose this performance opportunity to shock the national TV audience. Examples: Nicki Minaj (now President Trump’s best friend!) and her Satanic-themed mock possession and exorcism complete with a fake Pope in 2012, perhaps the most tasteless and excessive Grammy performance in recent memory; the most complained-about performance in Grammy history, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s 2021 performance of “W.A.P.” (don’t ask); Katy Perry being burned at the stake in a ritualistic performance of “Dark Horse” in 2014; and more.

This year, the best news to report is that the performances and award-winners were mostly great! The stars of the night were British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, who was presented her Best New Artist Grammy by last year’s winner, the barely-dressed Chappell Roan; and the Icelandic sensation Laufey, who won the Best Traditional Pop Album and gave one of the best acceptance speeches of the night in which she honored music educators.

Speaking of speeches, how about country star Jelly Roll? Upon winning the Grammy for Best Country Album, he used his time on stage to thank Jesus for saving him, saying that Jesus knows no political party nor denomination.

The tribute portion took up most of the last hour of the show and it was simply amazing. So many legends passed away in 2025, it was tough to squeeze in appropriate tributes to them all. Yet, somehow they did: Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark, and Lukas Nelson performed “Trailblazer” over projected photos of the artists we’ve lost. This was followed by two all-star tribute bands. Post Malone, Slash, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, and Duff McKagan rocked the house in a big way with their tribute to Ozzy Osbourne; then, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean honored Roberta Flack and D’Angelo, as well as Gospel composer-performer Richard Smallwood (who had been one of Roberta Flack’s students when she taught middle school music).

Other big winners included YUNGBLUD (for those who haven’t heard him, he’s a modern-day cross between Freddie Mercury and Steven Tyler); Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande (you know them.. from WICKED); R&B sensation Leon Thomas; and Lady Gaga, who had the most showstopping performance of the night with her recent hit “Abracadabra.”

At the end of the show, host Trevor Noah thanked CBS for 54 years and there was a beautiful montage of so many historic Grammy moments across the decades. It was a great way to go out.

And so, now that the Grammys are moving to ABC, what can we expect? We will have to tune in and see.

Michael Bird is assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

The Presentation of the Lord

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:53:27 GMT

February 2: the Presentation of the Lord

Presentation of the Lord

Jesus didn't need to be born to save us.

He did it for us, partially to show us how important we are.

Jesus didn't need to be baptized.

He did it for us, so we will see how important it is, and that he experienced literally everything, so we can be convinced that he is a compassionate God, who wants us through baptism to be part of this new cosmic everlasting family of children of God.

And God himself can be called now: my older Brother, Jesus my Savior.

We also have a Father in heaven. His is a perfect love. And until I truly taste, or experience his love for me, I haven't started to be alive yet.

Am I living my life as someone very treasured and loved; over whom Guardian Angel watches constantly, eager to help me, in any possible way, to grow in holiness, virtue and love for everyone and God especially?

Am I happy? Am I convinced that God really loves me?

How would I react with my family and friends if I was truly a happy person?

What about those unfinished chores, or the homework not yet done? What about that apology I should have made to someone?

We have a very special mother here on earth, Holy Mother Church.

In Heaven, we have our Blessed Mother. Both Mothers care for us dearly. But are we completely convinced of their love?

Do we allow ourselves to be loved by Our Blessed Mother? Are we eager to learn from her?

This is a challenge within our own families, because we may never be completely reconciled with or truly understood by our parents. This makes it even more difficult to understand the depth of love and the treasure of our Heavenly Mother.

If you learn how to love, by praying the Rosary, you will learn also how to truly love your parents as the Blessed Mother loved all the people there, even those who hurt her Son – our Savior.

This is a quality of love I would love to be able to embrace, too.

On February 2, our church celebrated the Presentation of the Lord. This commemorates Jesus being presented in the Temple.

He didn't need it. He did it for us.

Jesus was consecrated in the temple, so I can start the day with morning Consecration, and finish with evening prayer for an awesome death. To be honest, how could I expect to achieve these things any other way?

A day should begin with a prayer like the Morning Offering:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day

for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart

in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,

for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians,

and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.

A good prayer to end our day is the Simeon Prayer:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Why should we pray? Maybe a good prayer for the grace of good death. A prayer to become a friend with this strange moment that will someday transport me to my final rest. That’s something we should be looking forward to – right?

Truly, if I'm loved and treasured and saturated in the love of my heavenly Father, then death itself is not scary at all.

Heavenly Father I am your loved and treasured child, with such an amazing older brother, truly a Savior of my life. And looking around I see all these beautiful people, my family and my siblings.

Help me my Beautiful Father to embrace your love and start to live my life in happiness and tranquility of order. May my heart hunger after your love and be courageously open to its presence. Help me then like Simeon to become a grateful servant of the Holy Spirit.

Help me to not to be afraid of my death, but rather let her coming transform my temporary living here, into a time of grateful walking with my human family toward a better future and fullness of happiness in heaven. To you be Glory in Everything. Amen.

Father Matt Rudzik is the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Tallassee.

Driving and Praying

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:42:53 GMT

Father Matt recommends prayer alone and together

Driving and Praying

By Father Matt Rudzik

For many people today, prayer does not begin in a church pew or a quiet room at home. It begins in the car. With busy schedules and constant demands, the drive to work or school often becomes the only uninterrupted moment of the day. Playing something uplifting, encouraging, or prayer-inviting through the speakers can change the tone of that drive. Many people find they drive more calmly and arrive more centered when prayer or reflective words accompany them on the road.

These are a good starting point. I drive more peacefully when there is something uplifting or encouraging coming through the sound system. Prayers in the car gently invite God into ordinary moments and remind us that spirituality does not belong only in certain places. Yet, like any spiritual practice, they are meant to grow. After a few months, whatever form of spirituality one enjoys, it is good to take it home and create a space there for a deeper encounter with God. Car and walking prayers can and should continue, but prayer deserves more than divided attention. Giving prayer our full focus allows it to shape us more deeply.

Community prayer also plays an important role. Bible study groups and Rosary prayer groups, for example, offer ways to move from private devotion to shared faith. Spend some time reflecting on devotions that carry you through life and consider whether others might benefit from joining you. Praying is powerful alone, but together with others is even better. With simple invitations—announced in person or through social media—prayer groups can form and flourish. In this way, prayer grows from something done alone in the car into a shared practice that strengthens individuals and builds community.

Fr Mateusz Rudzik is the pastor of St. Joseph in Tuskegee and St. Vincent de Paul in Tallassee. A native of Poland, he has been serving as a pastor in central Alabama since 2016. His radio program, “Our Life’s Journey,” airs on WACQ-AM 580 & FM 98.5 in Tallassee and at www.wacqradio.com.

Radio Days, Part I

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 03:39:53 GMT

Bird recalls live on-air disasters

Radio Days, Sort Of

Last week, social media celebrated National DJ Day. What, indeed, is a DJ? A disc jockey. Someone who spins records. It’s all I have ever wanted to do with my life!

My parents set up two turntables, a microphone, and a tape deck for me when I was just a preschooler, which fed my lifelong passion.

I wanted to be a disc jockey when I grew up.

Music geek that I am, from earliest memory I was quoting facts and figures from Billboard and Rolling Stone. I could tell you the backup musicians, the side men, the track listing on sides A and B, the record company that released the album (or single), who wrote the songs, and what A&R man signed them.

Finally, a chance mid-1990s encounter with the brother of a PD (that’s Program Director, fellow babies) changed my life. This Program Director, Doc Kirby, gave me the opportunity to hone my craft after hours on WTBF-AM & FM in Troy, when the transmitter radiated all the power of a hair dryer.

Over the next decade, I worked all kinds of shifts and remotes, spun records, wrote and produced commercials, and worked on promotions in the after school and weekend work hours.

There are many stories to share, but a memorable one crossed my mind this week.

One time, our station was promoting a new Paul McCartney LP, and we did a couple of days of all-Paul playlists. I had the chance to see Sir Paul on his tour that year, and was excited to work out a deal with the local record store and Paul’s label.

I found myself on the telephone with a rep at Capitol Records – that famous stack-of-records-shaped building at Hollywood and Vine, home of so many storied recording sessions. This person was my contact for free merchandise to give away in trivia contests, but decided to give me the contact number of Macca’s manager in New York City.

Not knowing any better, I called him.

As it turned out, he was in New York, all right – on his cell phone. I asked my idol’s manager for free T-shirts and records. He exploded when he found out that a girl in Hollywood had given me his private number, and before angrily hanging up on me, unleashed a profanity-laden rant and told me that the girl at Capitol was about to be fired.

Who said dreams don’t come true? I got the giveaway merchandise anyway, and the promotion was a success for WTBF.

Also at WTBF a few years later, the Troy University Trojans appeared in the San Diego County Community Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl – or whatever the name of it was. All I knew was that Troy had been invited to a bowl game in California.

I was selected to run the board during the broadcast, as it was Christmas week and many of the college students who normally worked were out of town.

From the beginning, the broadcast was plagued with one mishap after another. Qualcomm Stadium was deluged with rain. ESPN’s audio equipment malfunctioned, which disrupted their television transmission. Soon, without our knowledge, ESPN picked up our signal to use as their audio.

Within an hour of kickoff, I was operating Master Control for the Troy University Radio Network – and ESPN.

One of my co-workers, the morning show sidekick (and perhaps the most popular disc jockey at the station), came by to pitch in at Master Control when he heard what we called “dead air,” where there is no sound. We were scrambling to stay on air.

I was filling all the spaces with songs like “It Never Rains in Southern California” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” No one seemed to find the irony in either tune.

ESPN phoned and explained that we were the only audio they had, and we were now being carried nationally. I was so puffed up when thinking of my new coast-to-coast audience, I did not pay attention when the hotline would ring, my co-worker would answer it, then abruptly hang up.

Finally, I asked him who was calling.

“Someone named Bristol,” he said. “They keep saying they can’t hear the game.”

Bristol, I thought. Bristol, Connecticut – home base of ESPN – we were causing the national audio feed to go silent! No wonder they were calling. I got them back on line in a hurry.

We made it through the evening, but by the time the game actually ended, it was way too late for listeners on this side of the country to still maintain an interest. But even with the passage of time, I’m still proud of my small role in the broadcast of Troy’s first-ever Division I bowl game.

Michael Bird is still making mistakes on the radio every Saturday morning on WACQ-AM 580 & FM 98.5.

The Sweetest Sound I Ever Heard

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 02:56:38 GMT

Bird remembers high school band experience

The Sweetest Sound I Ever Heard

I can’t recall exactly when I fell in love; it seemed meant to be from the start.

After years of not really fitting in anywhere, band, and later choir, gave me a home.

By the second semester of my last year in junior high school, I was so band-obsessed, so overboard in my devotion to band, that my parents actually moved to a different neighborhood so that I could attend a high school that I felt was my destiny: Robert E. Lee High School.

Our band director was Dennis Johnson. Mr. Johnson was only about 25 or 26 years old when he was my teacher.

Mr. Johnson was tough as nails. He had come out of the Auburn band and was a part of the Spirit of Atlanta drum and bugle corps. He was a percussion instructor with Southwind, the drum and bugle corps based in Montgomery. It’s hard to imagine now, but in the 1980s, the DCI activity was more than a movement; it was a way of life for many young musicians.

What was interesting to me was that Mr. Johnson was also a Lee graduate. Lee High School (now Percy Julian High School) did a really good job of maintaining its traditions and history, mainly by moving up longtime employees into administrative positions and hiring from within. Lee High also loved to hire its own graduates once they finished college. So, for many years, even decades, Lee High School was insulated in a protective bubble on Ann Street in Montgomery.

The Lee Band tradition was so important to Mr. Johnson, and to all of us, that we started band camp the week after graduation. I still have the paperwork from my rookie year: drums came back June 5-9. Then, beginning June 13, we had Tuesday and Thursday night rehearsals from 4:00-8:00 p.m. In July, we went Monday through Thursday, from 4-8 p.m., four nights a week! By August, we were ready for full-blown band camp. Two weeks of 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night, Monday through Friday. By the time school began, we were more than ready.

But as enjoyable as marching band was, what I really loved was concert band. We had a magnificent set up at Lee. The top 40 players were in the Symphonic Band, which played the most difficult of the classic band literature. The other 90-100 players were in the Concert Band. We also had a Jazz Band that was by director’s invitation only.

I made the Symphonic Band on trombone my first year. And I still remember the hours and hours of rehearsal on those pieces: “Procession of Nobles” by Rimsky-Korsakov and “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” by John Barnes Chance were the hardest pieces of band literature I’d ever played. I can remember looking out the transom windows at the overcast February sky, with Lee High School almost seeming like one of those black-and-white pictures in my parents’ yearbooks.

Flash forward about 25 years, and Mr. Johnson showed up to test fifth graders for the sixth grade band at Tallassee, where I was working. When he was at my band room, even after all the times back in the day that he’d made fun of my geeked-out band recording habits, he had a request. He asked if I had any recordings of us. I walked into the storage closet and produced a box of tapes.

I put the cassette of our 1990 State Contest performance on the sound system in the band room. For a moment, we were transported back 30-plus years. To me, it sounded like those old recordings of the 1950s-era Lee Band, back when Johnny Long was putting the school on the map, and the fidelity of the recordings was not so great.

Now, removed from the era in which these recordings were made, they are older than the original Lee Band recordings were when I first heard them in the 1980s.

But what fascinated me was not the recording of those great musical works, amazing as it was that we played such difficult music so well; it was what I saw in my mind as the musical notes drifted by. I saw Ann Street in black and white looking out of the transom windows in the Lee band room, and a young Mr. Johnson drilling us on some of the hardest music I’d ever played.

How could my teenage self have known that I would still get that thrill, just listening to the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard.

Michael Bird is assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.

River City Classic January 31

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 23:11:15 GMT

Same competition, new venue

Same competition, new venue

It was the last week of January, 2009. Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Pilot Chesney “Sully” Sullenberger landed a U.S. Airways flight on an icy Hudson River, saving his passengers and becoming a hero in the process. In California, a woman gave birth to eight children and became known as the “Octomom.”

And in the brand new Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, Tallassee High School hosted its first Capital City Classic, a show choir competition.

Tallassee High School had distinguished itself in the music world for a long time. Between the accomplishments of the Long Blue Line and, later, the Pride of Tallassee, the band program was noted around the region for its superior-rated performances and increasing participation during an era when many school bands were downsizing.

Similarly, the choral side of the program had really taken off during the decade of the 2000s, as more and more students began participating in the award-winning, nationally recognized show choirs at THS: New Image, Gold Edition, Voltage, and Divas.

By the 2008-09 school year, choral director Jerry Cunningham had planned to begin his own competition. After decades of attending contests hosted by other schools, Mr. C planned this one with a twist: instead of hosting the competition at our school, we would rent the nicest auditorium in the tri-county area instead.

And the choral directors all over Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia began flocking to this event, which has become one of the greatest successes in Tallassee’s music department. From 2009-2024, the event was held at the MPAC, and thousands of students from all over the southeast got to experience the joy of performing on one of the finest stages in the country. The panel of adjudicators were as top-notch as the facilities themselves, and the THS music program benefitted greatly from the exposure.

The exciting news for Tallassee is that the Capital City Classic is transitioning into the River City Classic. For the 2026 competition, Tallassee High School is hosting the competition for the first time at home – in the Tallassee High School Auditorium!

This year’s competition features choirs from Saraland, Tift County (Georgia), Enterprise, Opelika, Homewood, Eufaula, Lakeside (Georgia), Oxford, Chelsea, Pike Road, and Appling (Georgia). Many of these schools have participated in our competition from the beginning and their continued support through the transition is appreciated.

Also appreciated are the sponsors who help fund the festival, and the parent volunteers who keep the contest day flowing smoothly.

Please support the Tallassee music program with your attendance on Saturday, January 31 at Tallassee High School.

The Year in Info-Tainment

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:19:21 GMT

The Year in Info-Tainment

The Year in Info-Tainment: Part 2

The Roman god Janus is where we get the name January. Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, is always depicted with two faces: one gazing backward into the past, with the other gazing forward into the future. (Interestingly, the word ‘janitor’ also comes from this word etymology.) And so, here is the second part of our look back at 2025.

2025 = 2+0+2+5 = 9: 2025 was a “9” year in numerology, which brought endings to patterns. It could have been a relationship or a job. Last week, with our ‘hail and farewell’ article, it appeared that it also brought an end to the lives of a lot of celebrities.

2025 may go down in history as one of the most exhausting years on record! The news broke fast and furious, there were mergers in every corner of the media world, and it seemed like the deaths of noteworthy celebrities and leaders quickened their pace as the year went on.

With apologies to Cousin Rendell at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, here is part two of the 2025 edition of the Year in Info-Tainment.

Christianity Changes: Pope Francis made it to Easter Sunday, then passed away after one last ride through St. Peter’s Square. His successor was Pope Leo XIV – formerly known as Bob Prevost from Chicago, Illinois and the first United States citizen to be elected Pontiff. Leo immediately became a media darling thanks to his unabashed love of the Chicago White Sox, Chicago-style pizza, middle-America humor, and easygoing charm. His favorite movies include “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Blues Brothers,” and “The Sound of Music” – choices with which anyone could agree. For the first time in history, an American is holding the top job in Christendom. Closer to home, Archbishop Thomas Rodi retired and was replaced by Archbishop Mark Rivituso, who comes to Alabama from his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri where he has lived and worked his entire life.

Tiffany Troubles: CBS was often called the “Tiffany Network” for the perceived quality of its programming over rival networks. This year, CBS became a political pawn, as Paramount (owner of CBS) sought to merge with a company called Skydance. “60 Minutes” was sued by President Donald Trump for their editing job on an interview with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris; “60 Minutes” was forced to apologize and pay the President $16 million in damages. Skydance-Paramount mandated immediate changes as soon as the merger was complete, including the installation of far-right blogger Bari Weiss as head of CBS News -- which led to the departures of key members of the CBS News division and an overhaul of both morning and evening programming including the flagship “CBS Evening News.” Late night was perhaps the most affected, for Stephen Colbert – host of the top-rated program in late night television – wasn’t just fired, but the entire “CBS Late Show” franchise was cancelled, ending decades of broadcasts from the legendary Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City.

Kimmel Kerfuffle: On the heels of Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS came Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension at ABC. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host had been a vociferous critic of President Trump, and after making some careless remarks during a monologue about the death of Charlie Kirk, Kimmel was forced off the air for a few weeks. Kimmel returned and tearfully apologized, then was hit with the unexpected death of his bandleader and lifelong best friend Cleto Escobedo. The episode dedicated to Cleto was a must-watch in 2025 and was one of the most sincere expressions of friendship seen on television in a long time.

Fire and ICE: The Texas floods and California wildfires were big stories in 2025. The devastating Pacific Palisades fire killed 29 people and destroyed 16,000 homes and businesses, while the Texas floods killed 135 people including children at Camp Mystic. An immigration crackdown was also big news, with ICE agents busting cities and towns all over the map. The National Guard was sent in to several large American cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland to assist in law and order. In better news, the U.S. brokered a peace deal between Israel and Gaza, bringing a cease fire to the area after two years of war.

DOGE, Death, and Darts: Elon Musk took a chainsaw to government spending, eliminating 260,000 federal jobs by firing or transferring employees, or paying them to retire. Political violence was big news this year. Two Minnesota lawmakers -- Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed at their home and State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were injured at theirs – and conservative speaker Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah – were all killed. In happier news, Luke Littler, at age 17, became the world’s youngest-ever darts champion.

Artificial Intelligence Arms Race: Chatbots ruled 2025, including “Character AI,” an app in which the user can chat up famous people – sometimes with dangerous results. There was a new movie star named Tilly Norwood, completely computer-generated by AI. “Walk My Walk” by an AI-generated country artist named Breaking Rust became the first AI number-one hit. OpenAI launched its newest, strongest version of ChatGPT, while Google gave us a powerful AI tool called Gemini and embedded it in our latest Google Chrome browser update.

A Penny for Your Thoughts: The U.S. Treasury ended production of the penny in 2025. The one-cent coin had been a money loser for many years; it was reported that it cost 3.7 cents to make a single penny. Not to worry, however: the penny will remain in circulation for years to come. Numismatists say that a penny may last 25 years or more, but I still see wheat pennies from the 1940s in my change at Super Foods nearly every time I run a cash register so I am not concerned that pennies will ever truly disappear!

My college fraternity has a song called “On and Ever Upward.” May we strive ever higher, on and ever upward, in 2026.

Michael Bird is an Assistant Professor of Music at Faulkner University in Montgomery.

Hail and Farewell

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:17:22 GMT

Hail and Farewell

HAIL AND FAREWELL (PART I)

With apologies to Cousin Rendell, here is part one of our annual round-up of the Year in Info-Tainment as we remember those we lost.

Entertainers who crossed the way this year included Robert Redford , who dominated cinema for years with some genuinely genre-defining classic films including “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Sting,” “The Way We Were,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Candidate,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and more. Diane Keaton was also a star for decades and, like Redford, appeared in iconic films such as “Annie Hall,” “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Baby Boom,” “The Godfather,” “Sleeper,” “Father of the Bride,” and others. Brigette Bardot was the ultimate sex kitten in French films of the 1960s and her celebrity status endured beyond her retirement. Chris Rea will be remembered for his bluesy vocals and the often-heard hit “Fool If You Think It’s Over.” Lalo Schifrin composed for films and television but will be remembered into perpetuity for his intense 5/4 theme to “Mission: Impossible.”

Lou Cannon went from Washington Post reporter to presidential biographer with his books on Ronald Reagan. Christina Chambers , who once served as a sports reporter for WAKA-TV 8 in Montgomery, died in a shocking husband and wife murder-suicide in Birmingham. Gil Gerard did a lot, but will be remembered for Buck Rogers. Carl Carlton was the original performer of “Everlasting Love,” but we’ll be singing and playing “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” for a long time to come. Gordon Goodwin led the Big Phat Band and was responsible for a lot of modern jazz we hear everywhere. Ace Frehley was the Spaceman of KISS, and quite the guitarslinger though he sang precious few of the band’s hits. D’Angelo was the ultimate R&B artist in that he appealed to generations of listeners with his recordings across the years. Hulk Hogan may have been the most famous wrestler in history. Ruth Buzzi had enduring comedic appeal from her days on “Laugh-In” through more recent appearances in films and television. Lulu Roman was a gospel singer, but was best known for being a part of the cast of “Hee-Haw” from 1969 until 1992.

Steve Cropper was responsible for some of the greatest music ever recorded as a member of the house band at Stax Records, then as the guitarist for Booker T. & the M.G.’s and the Blues Brothers. He also wrote, or co-wrote, some of the biggest R&B hits in history: “In the Midnight Hour,” “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” and many more. If you were a fan of “General Hospital,” this was a tough year: Anthony Geary (Luke), Denise Alexander (Lesley), Tristan Rogers (Robert), Chris Robinson (Rick), and Leslie Charleson (Monica) all passed away in 2025. All of them played major roles on GH in the 1970s and beyond, but are perhaps best remembered for their early 1980s heyday when “General Hospital” was not only the top-rated program in daytime but the highest-rated program on television! Margaret DePriest was the head writer for those years, and was so successful at GH, she was hired by “Days of Our Lives,” where she wrote a lot of memorable stories in the 1980s. She also died this year. Eileen Fulton was the greatest star in soap opera history, as Lisa on “As the World Turns” from 1960 until 2010. She is, to date, the only soap opera character to be given her own prime-time spin-off series.

Rob Reiner ’s death continues to send shockwaves through Hollywood. It is a tragic, sad ending to a life that contributed so much to the entertainment world. Son of legendary writer-director Carl Reiner, Rob first found fame as Mike (Meathead) Stivic on “All in the Family” in the 1970s before becoming a director of classic films in the 1980s and 1990s: “This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride,” “Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery,” “A Few Good Men,” and more. He also was one of the executive producers of the “Seinfeld” television series. Raul Malo was the lead singer of the Latin-country band the Mavericks and kept the Roy Orbison style alive. Tom Stoppard was a legendary playwright (“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”) and screenwriter (“Empire of the Sun”), and was able to polish the scripts of others without taking credit (“Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith”). Reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff passed away, but left dozens of classic recordings behind including the soundtrack to “The Harder They Come.” Jimmy Swaggart was more than just a cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley; he led a televangelist empire from home base in Baton Rouge. Val Kilmer was a part of some of the most successful films in recent memory: “The Doors,” “Tombstone,” “Top Gun,” and more benefitted from his intensity. David Lynch was an iconoclastic filmmaker, whether it be “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” or “Twin Peaks” – one could not look away.

Sally Kellerman and Loretta Swit both played Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan: Kellerman in the “M*A*S*H” film, Swit in the TV show. Both passed away this year, having made their mark on the culture. Diane Ladd was the star of generation-defining films like “Chinatown” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” but was also known as the mother of actress Laura Dern. June Lockhart was a fixture on television for seven decades, from “Lassie” and “Lost in Space” to more recent work on “General Hospital” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Rick Davies was the lower-voiced member of Supertramp and sang lead on hits like “Goodbye Stranger” and “Bloody Well Right.” Mark Volman of the Turtles had success in pop music (“Happy Together,” “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “You Showed Me,” et al), but enjoyed life as a music professor at Belmont University later in life. Bobby Whitlock was there when Eric Clapton and Duane Allman decided to make a record as Derek and the Dominos: “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is one of the greatest albums in Clapton’s catalog but also rock and roll history. Jeannie Seely was a star of the Grand Ole Opry from the mid-1960s onward, her biggest hit being “Don’t Touch Me.” Tom Lehrer was known for his musical satires and parodies. David Johansen went from glam rock with the New York Dolls to a made-up character with Buster Poindexter.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was a part of government most of his life, from the Ford administration through Bush 41 and Bush 43, and alternated between lightning rod for controversy for his handling of the Gulf War to hero of the “never Trump” movement in recent years. David Gergen was a presidential advisor for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Jane Goodall dedicated her life to the study of chimpanzees. John Lodge was the bassist of the Moody Blues; he had been in the band since 1966 and wrote or co-wrote some of their biggest (and best) songs. Bobby Hart, along with partner Tommy Boyce, wrote dozens of hits for the Monkees and had some hits of their own including “Out and About” and “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight.” Boyce & Hart also wrote one piece that has been heard every weekday for 60 years: the theme for “Days of our Lives.” Charlie Kirk was assassinated at an event on a college campus in Utah. He founded Turning Point when he was 18 and became a frequent staple on college campuses with his “Prove Me Wrong” series. Danielle Spencer played wisecracking Dee on “What’s Happening!!” in the 1970s, before attending Tuskegee University and becoming a veterinarian. Loni Anderson was married to Burt Reynolds and they became tabloid fodder in the 1980s, but she will always be remembered for playing the beautiful receptionist Jennifer on “WKRP in Cincinnati.” George Wendt was the go-to guy for one-liners as Norm on “Cheers.” Richard Chamberlain went from “Dr. Kildare” to king of the miniseries with “Sho-Gun” and “The Thorn Birds,” among others.

Chuck Mangione brought jazz – and fluegelhorn – to the mainstream in the ‘70s with his top 10 hit “Feels So Good.” He also starred in the animated TV series “King of the Hill.” Ozzy Osbourne also moved between recorded music and television, as the lead vocalist of Black Sabbath and as a solo performer before starring in “The Osbournes.” Malcolm-Jamal Warner was note-perfect as Theo Huxtable in the 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.” Alan Bergman was a composer’s composer and wrote hundreds of songs for performers across the decades, including a fruitful relationship with Barbra Streisand. Connie Francis had her greatest success in the early 1960s, but re-emerged in the 2020s as a TikTok star. Rick Derringer was the ultimate guitar hero, as a member of the McCoys and later on his own. Gene Hackman was one of the best actors of his generation: “The French Connection,” “Unforgiven,” “Superman,” “The Poseidon Adventure” – the list goes on.

Bobby Sherman was a good-looking teen idol as star of “Here Come the Brides,” but after guest-starring on “Emergency!” in the 1970s, decided to become an EMT – which is what he did with his life until his recent retirement. Jay North was “Dennis the Menace” but did other things, too. Peter Yarrow ’s earnest tenor gave Peter, Paul, and Mary the folk credibility and gravitas they had for so many years. Mick Ralphs was the guitar man for Mott the Hoople as well as Bad Company, where his indelible riffs will live on in rock history forever. Roberta Flack was classically trained, but found success in the pop world. Garth Hudson was the quiet member of The Band, but they were what they were because of his musicianship: he could play every instrument and taught the other members of the group music theory. Brian Wilson was the man behind the curtain for all those incredible Beach Boys records that we all know and love. His passion for harmony has inspired many and will continue to do so. Sly Stone did more to influence the course of popular music than just about anyone else over the last 60 years or so; as a disc jockey, then record producer, then writer, then performer – he did it all, and did it well.

More to come next week.

Revisiting the Bicentennial Year in Music

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:09:38 GMT

Revisiting the Bicentennial Year in Music

The Bicentennial Year in Music, Revisited

1976 is now 50 years ago. I was only beginning my love affair with radio and records at that young age, but as I reviewed a list of albums released during that Bicentennial year, I was amazed at how many of these albums remain in regular rotation on not only my own personal playlists, but within pop culture itself even five decades later.

Consider that the multiplatinum hit “Chicago X” was released alongside “Takin’ it to the Streets” by the Doobie Brothers. Linda Ronstadt put out “Hasten Down the Wind,” another fine collection of songs; Barry Manilow’s best-ever effort was “This One’s for You”; Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and “Crystal Ball” by Styx are still heard constantly on radio and streaming; “Arrival” by ABBA was truly an arrival of the best things about that band, while ELO came into their own with “A New World Record.” Finally, John Denver’s clean-living songs on “Spirit” capture a time, place, and era.

While there are many more from which to choose, here is my personal top ten submitted for your approval.

10. SONG OF JOY (The Captain and Tennille, A&M Records) – Montgomery’s native daughter Toni Tennille really showed what she could do on this record with her husband, Daryl “the Captain” Dragon. The title track just soars, and my personal favorite single of theirs is also on this record: “Lonely Night (Angel Face),” written by Neil Sedaka. There’s also a fantastic version of Smokey Robinson’s “Shop Around,” as well as Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song.” The Captain and Tennille were never better than on this record.

9. HOTEL CALIFORNIA (Eagles, Asylum Records) – Sure, the title track gets overplayed. But you know what? Play it in the context of this album experience and have a whole new appreciation for what it means. The Eagles had given us the sunny side up in their early years, with the laid-back California country sound of their first few records. Nobody could have foreseen where they would go with this LP: a dark meditation on the underbelly of life in Los Angeles, particularly in the entertainment world. “Life in the Fast Lane,” generated from a Joe Walsh riff, became shorthand for the drug culture of the era; “Victim of Love” was one of the hardest rocking statements the Eagles ever produced; “New Kid in Town” is the sole representation of the Eagles’ former country-rock sound; and the lush orchestration of “Wasted Time” belies the bitterness and reservation in the lyrics. A stellar record that deserves all the hype.

8. FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE! (Peter Frampton, A&M Records) – Simply put, this is one of the greatest live recordings of all time. Frampton had completed his tour of duty in several blues-rock outfits during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but had lately stepped out on his own. And boy, did he. The gatefold album cover alone is the very definition of the sexy guitar god, but the music inside features some of the most imaginative and inventive playing ever caught on tape. “Do You Feel Like We Do,” “Show Me the Way,” “It’s a Plain Shame,” and “Baby I Love Your Way” are staples of rock radio to this day, and deservedly so.

7. WANTED! THE OUTLAWS (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, et. al., RCA Records) – RCA had Willie under contract for years and never quite knew what to do with him. They had also let Jessi Colter slip away, and were about to lose Waylon Jennings and Tompall Glaser. And yet, RCA executives saw how wildly successful Willie Nelson was becoming, just by being Willie, on stark albums like Red Headed Stranger. So, RCA did what record companies do: they scoured the archives. And this time, they came up with a mighty fine platter of what makes these guys the founders of what we today call Outlaw Country. With an album cover influenced by the Old West, Dodge City and Tombstone -- and an unerring song selection – “Wanted” became the best-selling album in country music history. Songs include “Yesterday’s Wine,” “Good Hearted Woman,” “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” and “Me and Paul” – a virtual greatest hits of outlaw country, all in one place.

6. TURNSTILES (Billy Joel, Columbia Records) – Billy had wandered to the West Coast in the early ‘70s, and after marrying his best friend’s wife (a long story) and inheriting his new brother-in-law as a manager, got a record deal and made albums with studio bands that didn’t fully realize the New York-ness of Billy’s music. Columbia gave Billy one last shot at the big time. He returned home to New York City, used his real touring band on all the recording sessions, and came up with a classic. The Wall of Sound-influenced “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and Great American Songbook-styled “New York State of Mind” have rightfully become standards, but the album tracks have also aged well: the apocalyptic fantasy of “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” somehow sits well alongside the Caribbean jam of “All You Want to Do is Dance” and the coming-of-age tale “James.” Joel’s most beautiful melody of all time may be in the elegiac ballad “I’ve Loved These Days,” a farewell to his L.A. life. A great effort and well worth your time.

5. SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE (Stevie Wonder, Motown Records) – Stevland Morris was on quite a roll in the seventies. This winning streak continued with perhaps his greatest album, this sprawling double-LP. His boundless creativity is all over the place, from an ode to a newborn baby with “Isn’t She Lovely,” to the intense funk workout “I Wish,” to the scary synth-strings of “Pastime Paradise,” to the Big Band horn blasts of “Sir Duke,” to the rubbery fusion of “Contusion” – this album is so good, and there is literally something for everyone.

4. HEJIRA (Joni Mitchell, Asylum Records) – There are partisans for every Joni album, because she basically reinvents herself on each one. This is my all-time favorite. It’s a travelogue of Joni as she drives across the country, coast to coast, stopping in various places and meeting interesting people, such as the dying bluesman in “Furry Sings the Blues,” or the adulterous playwright in “Coyote.” Her backing band was the cream of the jazz fusion crowd of the day, featuring members of Weather Report and Return to Forever. A simply magnificent album.

3. SILK DEGREES (Boz Scaggs, Columbia Records) – Boz had been kicking around for years, notably as a member of the Steve Miller Band. By ’76, the stars aligned for Boz and the then-unknown future members of Toto who rocketed themselves into music history: “Lido Shuffle,” “Lowdown,” “We’re All Alone,” and simply stellar album cuts make this Exhibit A for the foundation of yacht rock.

2. BOSTON (Boston, Epic Records) – As someone once wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, this album is “the sound of my older brother washing his car in the driveway.” But it’s so much more than that. MIT student and Polaroid employee Tom Scholz crafted an entire virtual band in his basement, playing all of the guitar and drum parts to create recorded multi-tracks. He invited vocalist Brad Delp to sing over the virtual band, and a group was born. There’s more to the story than that, but was there ever a better debut LP than this? “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Let Me Take You Home Tonight,” “Smokin’” – every track on the album is still on classic rock playlists, and deservedly so.

1. THE ROYAL SCAM (Steely Dan, ABC Records) – There’s no such thing as a bad Steely Dan album. By this point, the band was down to the duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, with a studio band filled with side men, all of whom were the best session players in Los Angeles. The songs themselves, however, are the darkest in all the Steely Dan discography, which is saying a lot: the mad bomber of “Don’t Take Me Alive”; the jewel-thieving attacker of “Green Earrings”; or the drug dealer of “Kid Charlemagne”. The usual skeevy cast of characters is somehow seedier than usual on this album, but that’s kind of what makes it great.

Michael Bird is an Assistant Professor of Music at Faulkner University.