cagney1950

keepingfaith That interview was very interesting. I really have never read such direct answers on how to do deal with radio. It helps me understand Decca and their approach better as well. It seems that they are a perfect match for Clay. I thought Jennifer Hudson's performance was the best I have seen since she was on idol. She was my favorite during AI3 and i was sad to see her go. I really haven't like many of her performances since then including Dreamgirls. But last night she looked amazing and sang with such confidence and control. I was very impressed. I enjoyed John Legend too-he has a great voice. I actually enjoyed all the performances I saw, DH had the remote and he was not too keen on watching it. If I were Clay, I would be irritated that some would post that he might have made a mistake about the date.

The news is so exciting. The timing is perfect for me as I am on spring break then. But my husband's and mom's health will figure heavily into my decision. I really won't know until must closer to the date. I am in my if-it-it-is-meant-to-happen-it-will place. FearH2O, your "promise" to your DH cracked me up. It reminded me of one of my favorite Mark Twain's lines: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." or something like that. I would place your promise in the "damn lies" category. KeepingfaithThank you for bringing over that information about Celtic Thunder and Decca's promotion. I have never heard a single from CT. I continue to wonder if we will have a single from this album. I really hope so. I love the surprise of hearing a Clay song on the radio and love to follow spins on yes.com. Yes it is about me! Listening to Weekend Edition on NPR right now. They reported that organizers hoped to raise a million dollars from the celebrity studded telethon last night. Considering the celebrity wattaage and the fact that it was broadcast world wide (I believe that was a case), a million dollars seemed sort of low. Didn't Clay manage to raise 200,000 in a campaign for Unicef-my memory is hazy on that and of course that was over a period of time, not an evening. I thought many of the performances last night were excellent.

Watching a retrospective of Sam Cook's career on PBS, American Masters. He is one of the most amazing singers ever, imo. Voices like that don't come along very often. Clay is special like that.

Just had to say what a beautiful banner. What a wonderful variety of Clay's expressions. couchie, that Insider look from the Emmy's is one of my favorites as well. I thought he looked incredibly handsome. Thank you for bringing that over, bottle. FearofH2O Is it typical for you to have contact with your son's MIL? Is she an ally for you? Can't wait to hear new music from Clay to think, write and ruminate about! Anyone going to watch idol? I skip the auditions typically-i get too embarrassed for the contestants and don't enjoy seeing the judges make fun of them. Of course, there is that inevitable comparison to Clay for one singer or another by the judges but those typically aren't too pleasant either. But once the finalists are chosen, I will be watching. .

treenuts, thanks for the hug ( I am assuming I got one as I am a proud member of the fandom!) but I really don't need one. I did read some posts from individuals, some who were there and some who were not and they were (1) concerned by the voice, (2) concerned about the song choices, (3) worried about what this means for his career. I just don't share those worries. He sounded so amazing on Moon River to me that I would be delighted to hear that song recorded professionally. And based on his nuanced, and polished performance on that song, I have to believe it might be something they have been working on it in the studio. Some say that it was his best performance of the night because he had warmed up by that point but I think it was because it may have been the song he has sung the most lately. I was embarrassed for Clay when he forgot the words to Grace of God. And I admit momentary irritation that he made that error. I can only imagine if he thought that would be how the rest of the evening would go. Many factors might have factored in on it, not the least being exhausted by the emotional events of the week. Clay is a hard worker, a professional who cares about his craft. If there are vocal issues, I am confident he will or is addressing them. What I heard in Moon River, though, was one gorgeous, soulful voice, that interpreted a song I am pretty meh about, beautifully. And, Couchie, I love Clay's version of Mandy and I hated the song with a passion. Along with Sailing. But Clay made me love those songs. How does he do it?

couchie, loved your post. Motown was a huge part of my formative musical years. And I loved Marvin Gaye, his voice was such a marvel. Really one of the best ever. I put Sam Cook in his league. The only singer today of that genre that moves me like Marvin and Sam is Robert Cray. Speaking of music, I heard something during that countdown I described a few days ago that reminded me of some of the stuff djs used to say about Clay fans. WXPN, an alternative Public Radio played their top 885 songs on the radio based on top ten lists submitted by over 7.000 listeners. It is rare that a song played on pop radio is played on xpn. But Jason Mraz' I'm Yours made it to #23. The host (they don't call themselves djs) said that this was a real head scratcher and that the Jason Mraz fan club must have voted en masse to get that song so high on the list. I wrote on their face book page that the song set some music record for being #1 on several formats so it was possible that regular listeners of xpn voted for that song. I really dislike music elitism. Interestingly, their are alot of people on their facebook page suggesting that they do a "guilty pleasures" countdown. And their were posts in support of Jason Mraz' song.

If anyone wants to listen to some great eclectic music, my favorite radio station wxpn out of philly is playing their final top 50 songs of all times as submitted by the listeners. Their music skews alternative but the mix that is playing is fantastic. The list is 885 songs long and they are now at #48 Baba o"riley. I always call it Teenage Wasteland. Steely Dan's Aja up next. They stream xpn.org ETA: Just had to add, and I already posted it, but that banner is gorgeous.

What a beautiful banner to wake up to! Great, great pic, great guy. Thank you soooo much ldyjoceln for organizing this wonderful diversion for us this past few weeks. Look forward to whatever you have coming up next.

I had sense of relief when I saw that this pic of Clay had won. (And I cannot believe how invested I am in the results!). I had actually voted for the other pic because after tons of internal wrastlin'' I went with hot Clay because that has been my internal criterion throughout- vote for pics where Clay looks handsome, droolworthy, GAH, etc. But this pic of Clay and that child is one of the best pics of capturing Clay's essence ever. ever! I loved that it made it into national print -was it TV Guide or People? The picture exudes Clay's humanity and his playfulness at once. That man is just so darn lovable. In his Q & A he talked about how ironic that he got to kiss the most popular attractive girl in his class during Oklahoma and was the envy of his friends. I can only believe that he was struck with the irony of all those women of every age being head of heels for him when he performed. And now that he is out, some still find him sexy as hell. I must say that combining the sexy with the humanitarian is almost more than a girl can take. For me, those inlcuded his Afganistan visit and was it Somalia where he did that brief video for the malaria tents? I cannot tell you how many times I watched that video. I cannot wait to see him again. I have a feeling that things are being carefully orchestrated to re-introduce Clay to the public. The hot, surfer dude image captured so well in our banner was no accident. And that he looked like that when doing some official business (I am assuming) with Decca, tells me that perhaps this is part of an image that will introduced. The fact that he answered a question about a calendar and indicated that one might be in the works suggests to me that multiple formats will be used. Hoping so at least. I cannot wait. To see him. To hear him.

ldyjocelyn, did you share a birthday with ATDW? Happy Birthday belated birthday to both. Still enjoy ATDW. And I am so loving the photo tourney. What surprised me about myself, however, is my reaction when one of my personal favorites of all time lost a few days ago (clay sitting on a stool, great jeans, black shirt, open stance). I realized that I am really, really attached to some of my images of Clay. And although we all love clay, those personal favorite images differ. There is no universal agreement on any pic to my knowledge. keepingfaith, when you mentioned the White Album, I remember, I think it was last year, that there was a syndicated public radio show through prx (?) where, for two hours, a group of musicians, music critics, etc. took each of the White Album songs played it, talked about their impressions of each song then and now and the influences on the songs, etc. It was a fascinating two hours. I know it was made available as a podcast but I can't find it. I remember Personal Best. I thought it was well done. I am thinking of a movie that doesn't quite fit into this genre but it had a funny, poignant scene (at least to me) that dealt with parents discovering that their daughter might be gay. It had "Beckam" in the title and it co-starred a very young Kiera Knightly. It was about a girl's soccer team in England. Anyways, the parents of the Knightly character thought that she was gay and the mother was in tears trying to come to terms with this new reality. The father comforted the mother by reminding her that she still loved Wham even after she found out that George Michael was gay. Through her tears, mother nodded in agreement and all was accepted in movie fashion.

hmmm....wonder how you guys voted. neck and neck at 9 AM EST 8 votes a piece. Voted for #1. I just love that pic. And happy belated b-day ldyjocelyn!

Please, please, please, fans of #2 vote for one of the best pics ever, imo, of clay. There is so much to love, the expression on his face, the dropped boot, the openness, (takes another look), where was I the jeans, the shirt, the shoulders, VOTE FOR #2!

This has been my most difficult decision yet. #1 is really a classic clay pic, one of my early favorites. But he was so gorgeous at the DF thingy and this is such a great, full on picture of him, and singing to boot without the mic hiding his face. Gotta go with number 2. Now back to staring at the current banner. just wow.

#1 hands down for me. I always preferred this picture in the Elle shoot to the one that ended up in the article.

Wow, never saw that first pic. I absolutely love it. Must vote for it.

#1 Perphaps the sexiest picture of clay ever, at least in the top 5. Thank you for including this spectacular pic.

eenie, meanie, minie, moe, catch a tiger by its toe...no just can't decide but I will before the day is up!

Number one, gotta be. And I think that Clay said that the pic from the photo shoot for LTS was his favorite pic of himself. Now this many not have been the one he is thinking of but close enough. I am a sucker for any pic where Clay looks directly at me, I mean the camera.

couchie :thbighug-1: thinking about you. Did you know that the obama montage just went over 700,000 hits yesterday? I check in on it regularly. I think the winner of yesterday's photocontest is one of the most special pics of Clay's ever. It seems so authentic Clay. Today is the 60th anniversary of my parent's anniversary. We lost dad suddenly earlier this year. I plan to keep mom busy. We are going to catch the Julia Child film later today and I will cook a favorite meal of mom's, maybe shrimp scampi.

The first pic is one of my all time favorites of Clay ever. I love all the pics from that Unicef trip so much. But the second pic, wow oh wow what a look. The parted lips, the look, the cheekbone... But it has to be number one, just gotta be. One of the best pics ever taken of Clay, IMO. My prediction to go far into the tourney. He has such smiling eyess in that pic.

Had to go with #2, what a long, cool, drink of water!

I had the pleasure of seeing Bonnie Raitt with Taj Mahal last night. Even though Clay and she are from different genres, there are some parallels for me. Here is a review I wrote on CV. The parts I bolded remind me of Clay, and "commercially underachieving" would certainly apply to OMWH IMO. In reading this, I think that one of the reasons Bonnie finally got recognition is that she had contributed more of her own maconcertterial.to the Nick of Time album -perhaps she seemed more legitimate to the music world because of it. But it seems, like Clay, Bonnie enjoys discovering and performing other's music. Throughout last night's concert, she credited the song writers whose songs she was singing. She also thanked and introduced the crew- really other than clay, I don't see this at concerts and I attend alot. For those thirsting for some great live music, I heartily recommend Bonnie and Taj . This one was more blues, and alot in the funky vein. more like what she was doing in the late 60s. She was in terrific voice and looks amazing. Her rendition "Angel from Montgomery" was beyond superb. She sang it stripped down and solo. I so wish there was someone taping it. That version needs to be preserved. One of my fantasies is for Bonnie and Clay to sing together, sometime, somewhere. Although they are from different genres, I see similarities in them as they both seem to prefer covering others' songs to writing them, are amazing interpretive artists, and have experienced underappreciation as artists. I had the pleasure attending the concert with the lovely vjm, a Bonnie in concert virgin! We both agreed that Clay could have sung alot of the songs she performed, he could pull it off. I think he could have fun with Something To Talk About.

gosh, I missed yesterday's vote. But love the winner pic. Today, I agree, amazingly sexy and beautiful in that first pic.

No brainer for me although I too like glasses Clay. Number 1 all the way baby. This is classic sexy Clay. Love it.