Heh. And here I was thinking for months that a country music version of "They Don't Know" would be brilliant!

And here I was thinking for months that a country music version of "They Don't Know" would be brilliant!

I don't know -- Ullman made that song so much her own.

One of the most charming pop songs of 1984 -- which may have been the best year ever for pop music in the U.S.

Although the new (acapella) Bjork album is as gorgeous as anything she's done, combining Aphex Twin, Tim Buckley, Kate Bush and Scott Walker to brilliant effect, there's this moment on the last track where someone starts mewing like a little kitten that just makes me giggle and notice the preposterousness of the preceding hour - beatboxing! throat singing! Snyder! - and almost ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I don't know -- Ullman made that song so much her own.

Hardly. If you hear Kirsty's version (recorded first) it's pretty clear Ullman is once again doing an imitation. And a pale one, at that.

Ah, Michele. I haven't heard the original.

Speaking of Bjork has anybody picked up one of the slew of live albums she recently released?

I'm on a seventies country kick at the moment - listening to a Hoyt Axton collection on Raven. Raven is an Aussie company, sort of like Rhino in that they specialize in reissues and compilations. They have a real soft spot for those musicians who slopped around at the nexus of country, blues, folk and pop in the late sixties/early seventies. Of the several Bobbie Gentry compilations out, I prefer the Raven. Also picked up Willie Nelson's Phases and Stages (Mr. Boucher has written about it for the book), and a David Allan Coe twofer on Bear Family ( Once Upon a Rhyme/Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy - we wrote about Coe in the book too).

Hoyt is best known for the songs which Three Dog Night covered ("Joy to the World" and "Never Been To Spain") and, as an actor, for being the dad on the ship in the movie The Black Stallion.

He came up folkie (his first hit was recorded by The Kingston Trio) and while he obviously knew how to write a pop hook, his own stuff is rootsy and wry.

Essential Hoyt Axton Trivia Tidbit: His mother, Mae Axton, is one of the co-writers of "Heartbreak Hotel."

I haven't heard it yet, but Bjork may have gone too far into the ether for me to follow with this latest effort.

Essential Hoyt Axton Trivia Tidbit: His mother, Mae Axton, is one of the co-writers of "Heartbreak Hotel."

And he wrote Ringo's hit "The No No Song".

And he scared the crap out of Dr. Johnny Fever.

Speaking of Bear Family and 70s fringe country, try their James Talley twofer that combines his first two albums, Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love and Tryin' Like the Devil. You'll especially like the former's western swing homage "W. Lee O'Daniel and the Light Crust Doughboys". (O Brother, Where Art Thou? fans will recognize many of the real-life characters.)

Enjoy the Willie... uh, you know what I mean.

Didn't Hoyt also play Zach Galligan's dad in GREMLINS?

Didn't Hoyt also play Zach Galligan's dad in GREMLINS?

Yep. He was on Bonanza way back when, too.