I am the farthest thing from “edgy” in any constellation of the universe of American pop culture.  I do listen to Channel 12, Cross-Country on XM, and though I have lobbied virtually everyone I have met for the last three years to buy XM and tune in to my personal channel, I’ve so far found no one who’s taken my advice.  I know that there is a following for the bands featured on the channel though, and I’ve even begun to see some of them show up around Jackson, and Mississippi in general. For people like me, satellite radio must survive and thrive. I can never go back to Clear Channel Classic Rock.  But for XM, I’d be ignorant of Robert Earl Keen and Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Shooter Jennings, and I’d assume Todd Snider never made it past the southeast college circuit I first heard him on 15 years ago.  

But I heard a song today that I’ve heard a few times before, and I figured I better invest the 99 cents to get it on the Ipod.  “Alpha Male and the Canine Mystery Blood” by Tommy Womack.  If you know the song, you’ll maybe understand why the disclaimer regarding my trendiness quotient in the above paragraph.  But nobody I know has ever heard of it…..so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.   (Blank stare)  Anyhow, number one, it’s the coolest song title I can think of.  Number two, the title refers to a band, presumably fictional, but real or fictional, the coolest band name I’ve ever heard.  And three, it’s a pretty damn good song, and captures a lot of what it means to be a thirty something year old white boy susceptible to daily surprising reminders that “Time flies like an arrow; Fruit flies like a banana.”  (Late Friday quote of the day—Groucho Marx.)   *Note for my long time audience–this song is a prime example of why some might say the easiest job in the world is to be a country music drummer; and for Ashley, I don’t think it would be so good for dancing.*

ed. note, since this post got back on the front page, I thought I’d add a “you tube” video. The sound and video are awful, but here it is: