Of course, there is also something special about something "new." After all, there's only one "first time." That's probably why some of the earliest folk music I heard (Jimmie Rodgers of Honeycomb fame) was exciting because I hadn't heard a lot of the songs. Same for Rusty Draper earlier in the 50's. When I go back to listen to them, I don't enjoy them because I've heard so much more folk music by better, more creative people that now the music sounds bland.

Not all "new" things get old, though. I can listen to just about anything by Chuck Berry and get the same rush I got when I first heard his music. It's all personal, though. There are others who have probably tired of Chuck Barry but still get a thrill every time they hear Barry Manilow, or Barry White.

The music that has stayed fresh for me as a generality, seems to be the simpler things, like folk, small combo jazz, old gospel music, soul music and rhythm and blues groups. That's just my personal taste, but at least it seems to be consistent.

I just put together a 5 CD set of rhythm and blues groups, starting with the roots of rhythm and Blues in the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, and ending up with a song from Paul Simon's Capeman, which was steeped in rhythm and blues group sounds. Most of that music was very simple and unsophisticated but it is still fresh to my ears.

And as an aside, last week my Gospel Quartet did a program of old black gospel at a Jewish Home For The Aged and our tenor wasn't able to come. I invited a new friend I've met to sing tenor with us and we had a terrific time. He stepped right in and found his harmonies immediately. He's been singing in quartets since high school, and when Bill Kenny, the lead singer of the Ink Spots went out on his own, my friend Jimmy Foster replaced him and was the lead singer with that group for twenty years.

What a time we had!

Jerry