Up in my room listening to Little Big Town on my iPod before I head off to this club Fuel, for a showcase starring Doc McGhee’s new act. Supposedly one that’s half bluegrass and half rock, but really neither. Or maybe it’s a different one. This one Alex Hodges told me about it, said it was really good. But it’s so hard to break a record today with such narrow radio ghettos.

But before this all took place, I went to the IEBA awards show. Probably my favorite part was the Lifetime Achievement award for this guy who ran the Big E, a fair in New England. He was introduced by Barbara Mandrell, who was reading boringly off the prepared script, but just when we thought she was done, she looked up and started TESTIFYING! How this guy booked her year after year, until she made it to the main stage. Told her where to buy fresh vegetables at the fair. Helped her along. It’s these people who make a difference, who aren’t doing it for the glory, but because they love show business, even if it’s in a small tent in a town most people have never heard of, because they love the PEOPLE! I was truly convinced that without Wayne McCary, Barbara never would have made it.

And right before Barbara took the stage, a strange smell permeated the ballroom. It was Alice Cooper’s dinner. He didn’t want to eat the steak. He ordered White Castle! Boxes and boxes! I gripped Danny Zelisko by the shoulders and made him fork over a few…he ended up passing over a whole box, with seemingly hundreds of the little burgers.

And Alice got an award. And was just as cool as I thought he was back in ’72, when I saw him at Boston’s Music Hall, during the "Killer" tour. The way he’s just slightly removed, off in his own world. I think we call this charisma. As he spoke I couldn’t help thinking of "School’s Out", with the panties encasing the record, and the semen stained box containing "Muscle Of Love". Did you know that Shep Gordon was a probation officer when he signed Alice? Neither did I.

And before the whole shebang began, Charlie Brusco introduced me to Tommy Shaw. Who was so nice! He told me of telling Van the Man about listening to "Tupelo Honey" on his way to Nashville. I asked him what Van said, since the Irish bard is so prickly and recalcitrant. Tommy said it didn’t matter. It was HIS story!

They’re all our stories. That’s what the artists provide us.

And then we started discussing the plane ride here. Didn’t I see Emmylou Harris? She was RIGHT BEHIND ME! And Carnie Wilson, on the other side of the aisle? Tommy may have been on AOR stations all across America, on MTV, even VH1’s "Behind The Music", but at the heart, he’s no different from me and you, he’s a FAN!

So the Little Big Town song I’m listening to is "Evangeline".

You know how we used to listen to albums? Before they were seventy five minutes long and full of crap? When we’d buy them for $3.99 and play them, not to get our money’s worth, but to uncover their truth? That’s what I’m doing with Little Big Town’s new album "A Place To Land". Not as an assignment, but because every time through I hear another song that didn’t reach me the first time through that I now LOVE! And I’m sure I’ll love more over the next months, and new songs will become my favorites. That’s how we fall in love with bands.

We don’t fall in love seeing them on TV. Certainly not reading about them on TMZ. But listening to them, almost always alone. At first, anyway. Then, memories are built around the tracks. And we MUST go to see them in concert, to hear our favorites live, creating a whole new memory.

They call this the music business.

It’s not the agent business. Or the manager business. And although radio and television can help, it’s really all about listening. By ourselves. Letting the music enrich and complete our lives. Suddenly, we share something with the performers, a bond. We’ll follow them anywhere, give them all our money, because they gave us this music, because they gave us this LIFE!