I vividly remember Jeff Herbert, a piano-playing friend of my parents and a goldmine of old popular songs and styles, singing "Small Hotel" (among many others of the pop songs he loved) in his brusque voice at their cocktail parties. As a little kid, picturing everything to myself, I imagined that small hotel with its wishing well, what it looked like, what it must feel like to stay there ... in fact I still do today.

Even though I'm a rugged devotee of authentic traditional songs, I also delight in the best pop songs from the musical Golden Age of the 1920s-30s—like "Mountain Greenery," or "You're the Cream in My Coffee," or "Me and My Shadow," or "My Blue Heaven," or "April Showers" (along with many more). They have an uncanny power, and a way of investing your mind with visions that stick with you ...

Bob