Art, If I had the money I'd buy the rights, tapes and masters from Fantasy and send them to you. And the Boston Globe piece is wrong, it's over 40 years. Like, what, 45 years?

I sing and play a lot of bluegrass and it hasn't escaped my notice that most bluegrass songs deal with death and loss. I can't think of more than one or two memorable songs that celebrate success. People don't often express elation in art. It's loss that gets us brooding and thinking wanting to express that feeling just to get by it. And it's sympathy or empathy that connects us with art and artists.

I hear a voice out in the darkness,
It moans and whispers through the pines,
I know it's my sweetheart a-calling,
I hear her through the walls of time.

I don't know how one could fail to be touched by that. Or by this...

Tomorrow as the sun goes down,
The shadows will cover her face,
Her last sun goes down as she's laid beneath the ground,
And my teardrops are falling like rain.

These things are timeless. Themes of death and loss will continue to endure and be the songs that are most often sung.

      - Mark