STAR MAKER MACHINE

For a song chain theme, one writes quickly and posts the first song that comes to mind. When I heard the beautiful silky smooth voice of Loreena McKennitt singing "All follow this and come to dust," it made me think of the Blue Sky Boys(Bill and Earl Bolick) harmonizing on "Dust on the Bible." It's one of those sweet traditional bluegrass gospel tunes that comes from the brother duos of the 1930s and 1940s. We like to pick and sing the song with my own band here inOregon, the Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band. The song has a message which is still relevant today.

 
The song was interesting written by Walter and Johnny Bailes. Walter once said, "I was born and raised in West Virginia in an area now considered a part of Charleston. My dad, being a minister, and my Christian mother led us children to believe in Christ and go to church. It was in church while in my late teens that I found the origin for 'Dust on the Bible.' A young minister by the name of Willard Carney came there and started a church in store basement. Since our parents had always taught us respect for all Christ-believing churches, I started attending Brother Carney's church pretty regular. In one of these services, I heard him relate this experience of going into a home to visit, which story is told in this song. I just put his story in song and bless him for it. I believe him to be a very sincere minister of Christ! "

2012 NFL Draft: My mock

The NFL Draft is probably my favorite non-competition sporting event of the year and it begins this Thursday. As you're probably aware the format changed two years ago when the league decided to break up the chicago bears jersey cheap online draft from a two day format to it's currentthree day format. This new format has earned it's own spot on prime time and even spurned some creativity in the war room as trades are more prevalent now than ever.

The first round of the draft may now be second only to the playoffs in the interest it receives. It doesn't hurt that there's months of talk and speculation building up to this day (got to give the NFL credit for capitalizing on the marketing potential here). So, in the months weeks leading up to the nfl jersey 2012 nike draft you're sure to come across someone talking about their mock draft. There are plenty of well known people who make them like Peter King, ESPN's Todd McShay and Mel Kiper, as well as thousands of unknowns at sites like www.draftdebacled.com and www.mockingthedraft.com. With all that as a preface, I'd like to take my first shot at creating a mock draft. Please keep in mind that this draft will NOT be close to what actually happens. Correctly predicting the first five picks is hard but predicting picks from 15-32 is futile. Still, it's a lot of fun. Here I go ...