Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever

Lost Highway/Universal

Moment Of Forever is the billionth album from Willie Nelson. 50 years folks. Fifty years of writing, releasing, and touring. He was doing it when my parents were young, and continues to do it today. I wouldn't be surprised if, when I die, Willie Nelson will still be there, held up with the best electronic limbs and fake organs money can buy, releasing stellar records that, even people in the year 2070 will fully appreciate. The future is in your hands, Nelson.
For this album, Nelson teamed up with producer Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon, two of the best at what they do. The songs Nelson sings are perfect: the album begins with a family demonstration ("Over You Again," staring Micah and Lucas Nelson), ending with Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody", complete with a light funk backbone to it. Mixed in there is an eerie version of Dave Matthew's "Gravedigger", and a number of Chesney and Cannon tracks mixed in as well. Every song on here is solid, tinted with one of the best known voices that has arisen in a few hundred years. Last November he received BMI's Icon award, which he most certainly deserved. I doubt this is the end of Nelson's western/blues legacy. If Moment Of Forever counts for anything, Nelson has a strong career ahead of him.

Ellis Hooks - Another Saturday Morning

Evidence/AEC/Select-O-Hits

Ellis Hooks is raising the dead. Soul and funk, rock and gospel, Hooks is taking the purest of the genres together and putting forth unto this world a sound that hasn't been heard in years. It's something that really went the way of the Dinosaurs, making those interested in actual soul look to bogus R&B impersonators. Another Saturday Morning, sixth album from Hooks, is his finest piece of work to date.
It is so well put together and performed that it is a surprise that this hasn't spearheaded the Soul Revival Movement (I swear to god this is going to happen someday, just you wait). Songs like "Your River" take on a more folk infused blues testimonial than other tracks, but leaves room for things like "Bad MF": straight porno groove. While I don't understand why there are pictures of him playing guitar all over the CD (he doesn't do anything but sing on this record?), Another Saturday Morning is a yearning for the return of the best genre humans have ever created.

Arlo Guthrie with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra - In Times Like These

Rising Son

I'm going to try to mention the fact that this is Woodie Guthrie's son as little as possible here. It is really hard not too: the man is a spitting image of his father, both on record and off. Anyways, Arlo Guthrie, for his 60th birthday, released this heavy-weight album. Guthrie does the story-telling genre of folk music that used to roam the states from coast to coast at the beginning of last century, but has gone the way of the buffalo, minus the few and far between.
He's a story teller: sometimes telling his own comical or intensely serious tales, and other times taking the stories of others, making them strikingly his own. Guthrie teamed up with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra for this release. Luckily, it turned out better than that miserable Metallica S&M album. Some tracks use the orchestra as accents ("Darkest Hour"), while others, like "St. James Infirmary" is a sort of big band medley, with Guthrie as the focal point. Many of the tracks on here are reactions to Hurricane Katrina, with Guthrie's sorrow and attempt to comfort the people hurt by the atrocities shining through.

Air - Pocket Symphony

Aircheology/Revolvair/Astralwerks/Virgin/EMI

I was first introduced to Air through The Virgin Suicides, a movie I didn't much care for but was really enamored by the music. As fate holds, I quickly got all the Air albums I could get my hands on. Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin compose the entity that is Air, self proclaimed "modernists". Air's music is a sort of dreamy scape of organic and electronic instruments making, as they call it "soundtrack music" involving lots of instruments, and fewer tracks (especially so compaired to their earlier work, which was a bit less in the vein of this CD).
The tracks use vocals if they feel like it, solid song structure when they are in the mood, and adds new instruments whenever the urge arises. What I mean is, is that they basically do whatever they want. It doesn't have the quality of most electronic projects where instruments feel sampled and artificial. Air takes notes from Philip Glass rather than other electronic projects. The music is beautiful, and, with the miserable weather we've been having the past few weeks, a really great album to hang out inside with especially considering the apocalyptic showers and tree-toppling winds.

Various Artists - The Music Of The Wild West

Varese Sarabande

So this an odd record. It's 45 tracks long, which the first sign when something isn't normal. Then we have about half these tracks laying well below the one minute mark, things entitled "Cowboy Holler", a ten second opening track, and multiple songs on here twice. So what's the deal? The deal is this is the music to the 10 hour documentary about the Wild West, 1886 to 1896.
The CD takes songs, sounds, and random tidbits from the shows production and puts them on record. There isn't much music on here you wouldn't expect: banjos, mandolins, bugles, etc. While this is strange and not what you usually see in an album these days, it is still worth the listen. Strange songs that you've never heard before with a haunting beauty, folk tracks that feel like you've heard your entire life but can't put your finger on where, and songs about cowboys and Native Indians. If this at all strikes up your fancy, check this out! Included on here are Lyle Lovett, Red Steagall, and Marty Stuart.

Ben's Brother - Beta Male Fairytales

Relentless/Virgin/EMI

Jamie Hartman, the entity that is Ben's Brother, is finally getting what it seems he's deserved for a while: his 15 minutes in the spotlight. He's been writing songs since he was a kid, performing them on street corner's and demo Cd's, and later writing songs for bigger artists (Spice Girl Emma Bunton and Natalie Imbruglia). The break came in the form of a commercial for Dentyne Ice featuring "Stuttering," a fairly hopeless love song with the cute little stutter by the lead singer that gives it a sort of cheesy-but-soulful feel. The song has made major success online (some really high number of downloads from iTunes music store) and, for those like me who don't own a television, seems to becoming an overplayed advertisement.
Beta Male Fairytales is almost a modern day folk album. The songs are a bit too complex to be your typical Dylan-ist revivalism, but there is still an element here that holds true to whatever it is that makes folk what it is. Soul, meaning, and a singer that actually has a way of singing that makes it feel real and timeless? His voice is almost painfully gruff and high pitched, resulting in an auditory double-take, completely unsure the gender of the singer. It's a quality I personally appreciate. The music is an injection of jazz to Oasis: pop-rock with jazz melody as the wooden backbone. The songs change enough between tracks to not be a repetitious mess, but still remains similar enough to make Beta Male Fairytales a flowing train of thought from Hartman's mouth to our ears.

Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

Martha's Music/Reprise/Warner Bros.

With years of experience and a mindless drone that is Smashing Pumpkins fan base, Corgan finally decided it was time to fully give up on the chart-failure that was Zwan, open the casket, and take the old Smashing Pumpkins suit out to wear like a badge. Yes, 7 full years after the fact, Corgan releases another Pumpkins record. They somehow managed to take a hard rock sound, full of down tuned guitars and over-driven amps, and make it a household name. How that happened is beyond me, but if there is a formula, please Corgan, fill in the general public.
While Zeitgeist is not a step above or a step below Pumpkins past releases, there is something missing. They haven't changed the progressions, they haven't cut down on the nasal appeal or added more pop sensibility. No, that isn't it. The only thing I get is that it is lacking the brute force that Siamese Dream possessed. This is the same Pumpkins for sure, Corgan didn't restart the band to blast it to pieces again. But it just lacks the flair that the last few records had. While this is, for me personally, a sub-par Smashing Pumpkins album, it is still five steps beyond everyone else. It contains enough of Corgan's untouchable voice that everyone fell in love with to make me at least content, and solo's like the one on "7 Shades Of Black" make me a bit weak at the knees.
On the bright side, Corgan and band (let's face it folks: Corgan is the band, despite half of the line-up from the last record not coming back for this one) have fully embraced piracy culture. He's done everything short of encouraging pimpled-faced 15 year olds to download Zeitgeist in full. He's made it clear that is more than fine to bring recording devices (cameras, tape recorders, video recorders, etc.) to the shows, especially to showcase the endless amount of new songs being played every performance. On top of that, Explosions in the Sky opened a handful of dates, which is enough to get me to buy a ticket next time.
************LATE BUT GREAT***********

Medeski Martin & Wood - Let's Go Everywhere

Little Monster

I'm usually a little old for kids records. I like cartoons as much as the next 20 some-odd year old, but as for music, I generally stick to the variety that understands life as a little more than toys and cleaning up after yourself. This album is the exception to the rule. Where most of these sorts of children's albums fall short of worthwhile backing music, Let's Go Everywhere strives off of it.
Medeski Martin & Wood write amazing up-beat jazz to back the sounds of children singing. Somewhere about halfway through my first listen of this, I think I fell in love with it. While I couldn't really let myself go head-first into childhood emotions and the needed 5 year old mentality to fully connect, I still find myself virtually singing along to the drum and vocals track "Pat A Cake" and the closest thing I do to dancing to funk-groove "Everyone Poops". If that won't entice you to buy this album, nothing will.

Annie & Rod Capps - In This Town

Yellow Room

The Capps are a powerhouse duo. It seems that marriage either ruins or makes your music. As of late, I seem to have gotten quite a few releases from couples, and more often than not it ends up being superb. With Annie and Rod Capps, we have a couple from thirteen plus years, writing and performing folk-esq stories of leaving home and finding it: little vignettes in each song.
While having an album flow from beginning to end is a great way to take your recordings, having each song stand alone, independent from the rest of the record definitely has some appeal. It's not only lyrical content: songs range all over the board in the realm of folk music. We have songs like "The Ring" which takes a sort of country twang, and "Back in '75" traces the mold of the singer/songwriter genre.
Rod focuses on the stringed instruments (slide guitar, electric guitar, bass, yada yada ya...), while Annie seems to be responsible more for the vocal tracks. I don't know if I'd say I love her voice, but it's most certainly different. A childlike quality to her range and vocal inflections reminds me a bit of Rilo Kiley, but not quite as "cute", if you can imagine that. Not that it detracts from the rest of the music, rather Annie's voice adds color to the already vibrant music that the Capps have created together.

The Commonwealth - Self Titled

Lets Be Quite

Oh man. My favorite part about this job is finding things that I would probably never find on my own. Commonwealth is one of those bands. They call themselves a mix of jazz and folk, which works I guess, but doesn't fully give a clear picture. The folk is certainly there at times, but in the same way that you could call Neutral Milk Hotel a folk band. It works, but doesn't fully describe it. Actually, this album sounds a lot like NMH: heavy on the vocal melodies that take more influence from indie rock and punk than Guthrie or Dylan.
Commonwealth's use of instruments is what sets them apart I feel. Odd tempos, well orchestrated dynamics, polyrhythms (quick music lesson: polyrhythms are when there are two different time signatures on top of each other. Example: 4/4 and x, so every 12 measures they line up, then break up again), and more all fill this album not only to the brink with interesting music, but also music that is pretty enough to fully grasp. I hear the jazz influence, but it seems to pull more from the free-jazz movement rather than the Kenny G. most people might think of. This is an amazing release.

Five Times August - The Independent Double CD

Self-Released

Five Times August, which is just a big stamp on the head of solo artist Brad Skistimas, is getting success in a way that most musicians could only dream of. Let's start with the music, then the success message. So Five Times August isn't really original in genre: at first glance it's just another acoustic alternative rock band with personal lyrics and decent hooks. After those first few seconds of listening, you start to hear something more. His voice sets him apart, with a bit of gruff that you don't here in this genre. The music isn't just a four chord repetition on every song and a boring mess of meaningless lead lines and ruff edges. Five Times August is incredibly well developed (especially for a first album) with really strong melodies, lead lines that don't just sound like everything you've heard since '92, and, for being a one man project, really well written songs.
Now for why people are dropping their jaws at him. No, not his boyish good looks, or his lyrics directed to 15 year old girls hearts. The man is doing this completely independently. All of his records, all of his booking, the whole package is done by Skistimas and his personal manager. People do this all the time, but they don't pay off their mortgage on it! Not only that, he has had his music played in over 14 different television shows, over 100,000 online downloads, and 11,000 Cd's sold. That isn't much for most, but for doing it all yourself? It's mind blowing being able to do that on your own. He isn't saying he will never sign, just hasn't had the right offer. The man doesn't know how lucky he actually is.

Kevin House - World Of Beauty

Bongo Beat/Outside

Kevin House is known equally for being a musician and an artist. World Of Beauty showcases both, but obviously focuses more on the former. The layout is his artwork, with 4 pieces from his "painted 78's" series. The cover, which I like the best of the art on here, is really awesome. It's just a strange textured painting of a deep-sea scuba suit. I don't know what it is about it, but it fits the album really well.
House's music lies somewhere in the realm of folk and blues, but still out of place in that category. It actually reminds me of an organic version of Magnetic Fields, but with a constant slow tempo. His voice relies on the similar low, almost emotionless feel that Stephin Merritt (front man of Magnetic Fields) carries with him. Country elements sink through at points ("Carnival Song" string procession) along with other genre blending (an almost soft jazz feel to "Down River"). This is original and sweet. Its been called "a make out album for weirdos". Hell yeah.

Sinead O'Connor - She Who Dwells...Double CD

Vanguard

O'Connor is one of the few outspoken musicians in the mainstream these days. While she later took back some of her comments (in particular, labeling her ripping of the picture of the Pope as "rebellious and childish"), she still remains a woman who will not back down. Besides the ripping of the picture of the Pope, she's been banned from the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey for refusing to have any national anthem play before her set, a wrestling match between her and her label when she became pregnant from a studio musician, a public coming out as a lesbian, then a public retractment (stating "I'm three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay. I lean a bit more towards the hairy blokes."), and coming out with bi-polar disorder at the end of last year. She grew up surrounded by domestic abuse, then to a reform school. She's a survivor, living through more than most people can in a lifetime.
She Who Dwells...is a really well rounded experience of O'Connor. It contains her performing a wide range of genres: everything from indie pop to reggae, folk to electronic country. Yeah, she really is all over the place on this record. But when the record ends, it doesn't feel like a bad mesh. It really blends well together somehow. All the songs have a feel to them, a sort of quality which lets her experiment with sounds across the board, but not sound like a pop artist trying to work out a country song or Green Day trying to do an electronic ballad. It's organic and beautiful, not to mention that the woman, and her courage, is amazing.

Saosin - Saosin

Capitol/EMI

I liked Saosin's old singer much more. His voice is a few octaves higher, he had a much more dynamic presence in the music, and, not to mention, it sounded original. And annoying, but in that sort of endearing way. I mean, I do like Saosin's first full length, released years past when it should have. Saosin lie in the grave that was dug for them by major label pop-punk and MTV metalcore. I refuse to call this post-hardcore: Saosin neither sound like Fugazi nor evolved from hardcore. It would be like saying Mandy Moore is post-jazz: yes, elements can be seen in her music; yes, at some point in history, the people who played blues started drifting more in the direction of R&B and then to whatever came next. But you don't call it post-jazz because they have nothing in common. End of rant.
So, the album. Laced with pop hooks mixed super low in the mix, heavily distorted guitar parts with heavy melodic under-tones, and some of the worst lyrics I've read in a long time, Saosin's self-titled is bound to sell millions. It has that sort of pop-sensibility and edgy-ness that is perfect for a certain audience. I can't say I don't enjoy listen to this. It's most certainly interesting, and fun, along with the fact that the band can play their instruments. Now, if only it had soul to boot...

Carmen Rasmusen - Nothin' Like The Summer

Lofton Creek

I've never watched more than probably an hour of American Idol my entire life, but something is certainly funny about it. Maybe that it's so obviously rigged, or maybe it's the fact that people's careers are inconsequential of the placement of the contenders. Prime example: Carmen Rasmusen. Sixth place on Idol, yet still a huge record deal. I'm in no way bashing her: she sounds like she's been doing this, professionally, for years.
Her voice isn't that of an amateur, nor is her production. She co-wrote her first single, the album's namesake. The rest was written by "insert music industry writer #4012", if that gives you the idea of what sort of album we have here. It's crisp and incredibly polished. Where Kelly Clarkson infused dance-beats into her pop mold, Rasmusen adds a full dose of healthy country, complete with banjo and country twang.

Daniel Smith - The Swingin' Bassoon

Zah Zah/Albany

Jazz bassoon, hu? In reality, this is exactly as you would imagine. Well, maybe not everyone can imagine bassoon being used in anything but long, drawn out classical compositions, and many even then might have the wrong idea. In this recording, Smith essentially replaces the jazz-staple of saxophone and replaces it with the more earthy, wooden sound than the brass instrument. While it flows better, it doesn't quite have the resonating tone that its metallic counterpart does. It's similar enough to replace the other easily, but different enough that you probably wouldn't mistake the two. The tracks on here are straightforward: Monk, Parker, Ellington. Smith picked some of the best pieces, tracks that I've heard thousands of times, and reinvents them with a whimsical approach, yet never missing a beat.

Buzz Cason - Hats Off To Hank

Palo Duro/Fontana

Musical legend anyone? I hadn't heard of him before this CD, but I'm sure I'm going to start noticing his name from now on. He has had a part in so much of twentieth century rock music its impressive. Songs of his have been performed by this ridiculous list: the Beatles, U2, Pearl Jam, Gloria Estefan, Jimmy Buffet, and Martina McBride. And that is just the top of the pick, not even jumping in to the endless amount of other artists he's written for. Along with writing songs for some of the best, he's also played with some of the best (Elvis Presley and Kenny Rogers) and has a long career of recording every popular act under the Sun.
Hats Off To Hank is exactly what you would expect from someone with a history like that: a stellar rock & roll album. As the name suggests, there is heavy country influence here. The album really is a sort of odd tribute to Hank Williams. Maybe a re-imagining, or even Williams through Cason's eyes. His voice is not impressive on its own, but his melodies are genius and his inflections are perfect. While the music isn't technically impressive, they flow in a way that makes you know that this is a legend encased in a jewel case and plastic wrap.

Growing - Lateral

The Social Registry

Relying on texture rather than melody, tone rather than notes, and volume swells rather than rhythm, Growing are, in my humble opinion, one of the best noise/drone groups out there. The genre of noise/drone is picking up in the underground hipster scene, becoming more and more accessible to the crowds looking for the strange and pretentious. I don't feel Growing necessarily fall under the last adjective, but just the same, they are mind boggling.
Their sound isn't one that you will find on the radio, in most movies, on television, or in most record stores. In fact it's an underground sound which is slowly rising, despite the inability for it to become accessible. Actually, the closest they can come to appealing to a wider audience is what they did on Lateral: make songs under 8 minutes in length. While I prefer the drawn out buildups and harsher pretty noise, Lateral is definitely their growth. To define what they do, I think the best thing possible expression of their sound is to describe their music less as notation and genre, but rather as a sound scape: imagine an electronic version of the ocean, crashing and wailing with the tides. That is Growing.
***So Nice, Gotta Do It Up Twice (Created by the Original NYC DJ, Jocko, 1955)***

Olivea Watson - Way Down Deep

Ramblin Rose/Burnside

With a blues guitar and a solid voice, Olivea Watson moved from New York to Los Angeles, attempting to further her solo career, and make her living by following her passion: music. She's on the right path. Way Down Deep, her first album, is getting commercial success from the charts, radio, and for her political activism. She's on a compilation to raise awareness of War Child International, an international network of independent organizations working to help children worldwide affected by the ravages of war.
She also is involved in the struggle to stop world hunger, putting another song on another compilation. Her backing band is phenomenal: immense amounts of violin and rock organ, taking this for a different turn than expected. She makes her presence known in the music, filling out the music with a (as stated above) solid voice. It's more blues than folk, more folk than rock, and still that doesn't quite describe what she's doing here. A lot of pop influence in the vein of female songwriters such as Jewel, and a lot of really interesting twists. Not that I think her comps are going to actually stop world hunger, but at least her music is great.

The Wreckers: Michelle Branch & Jessica Harp - Way Back Home: Live from New York City Double CD

Warner Bros.

After releasing only one album, The Wreckers release their live album entitled Way Back Home. The Wreckers are country-star Michelle Branch and her close friend/backing singer on her solo work Jessica Harp. Starting in 2004, the group put out their first full length, Stand Still, Look Pretty in 2006 after a slew of delays, as these things seem to happen. Harp was working on her solo career when Branch asked her to join in this duet group, and the rest is essentially written in the two records. Commercial success on the Billboards, success in the Grammy's, and most importantly the fans. Which is understandable, because this music is superb.
Originating in country, but moving more in the direction of pop-rock, The Wreckers are one of more interesting country bands to come out in the last few years. Both Branch and Harp sing simultaneously almost throughout the whole record. The backing band, relying heavily on fiddle and electric guitar, is different that most of these sorts of acts. Its interesting, and has rock elements that you don't usually find in powerhouse performances such as this.

Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!

SideOneDummy

This band is closer to a circus than a band. This is just the soundtrack to their live performance. They are not as much a musical group as a stage act that happens to sell more records than most bands across the world. Gogol Bordello is a Gypsy-Punk band. That's right. Gypsy-Punk. What is the world coming to?
Singer Eugene HŸtz's voice has been described as halfway between film-parody Borat and puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which I think is the funniest and most accurate portrayal of this man's voice that I could possibly think up. The audio portion of this band sounds like a circus erupting in the middle of CBGB's in the early 1990's. Accordion, fiddle, and even saxophone exist in the same paradoxical existence as heavily distorted guitars and mid-tempo punk drumbeats. It feels like an explosion in your head, trying to fully grasp what on Earth is going on in this music. This might be the best thing I've ever heard, or the most annoying. Either way, I will be listening to this album for the next few months on repeat.

Battle hymns for the broken
Battle hymns for the misled
Battle hymns for the wretched
The forgotten and the dead
Battle hymns of redemption
Of solidarity and pride
Battle hymns we will be singing
At the turning of the tide

Can you explain to the mothers
And the fathers of those
Who come riding home in coffins
In their military clothes
Shiny medals pinned
To their dead teenage chests
While the trumpets blare
And you lie your best
So ask all you want
From the dusk til the dawn
The answer's still no
'Cause brother I'm gone

Battle hymns for the broken
Battle hymns for the misled
Battle hymns for the wretched
The forgotten and the dead
Battle hymns of redemption
Of solidarity and pride
Battle hymns we will be singing
At the turning of the tide

Can you explain away the sleight of hand
And the criminality
Of spending souls for oil
Well in the mirror I can see
I am the path that leads down
I am a dark and bloody hall
I'm the reaper, executioner
Hangman, judge, and the law
So tie a yellow ribbon
Round the oak tree on the lawn
But the cavalry's not comin'
'Cause brother they're gone

Battle hymns for the broken
Battle hymns for the misled
Battle hymns for the wretched
The forgotten and the dead
Battle hymns of redemption
Of solidarity and pride
Battle hymns we will be singing
At the turning of the tide

So I'm sharpening my shovel
I'm firing the kiln
I'm blind and I am purposeful
A martyr on the hill
The dream you might be dreaming
Might be someone else's dream tonight
I'm the whisperer of misgivings
I'm the fading tail light
I'm the call for retribution
From the back of the smoke filled hall
I'm the vow of bitterness
I'm the poison in the well
I've a photographic memory
Of the deeds I will avenge
I'm the cold in the river hollow
I've a hatpin, I've a plan
I don't care of cause or consequence
Head shaved and body lean
I'm the go-getter, the score settler
I'm the shadow on the green
There's a flock of blackbirds flying
Nearly ten thousand strong
Who set off this morning
And brother they're gone

Battle hymns for the broken
Battle hymns for the misled
Battle hymns for the wretched
The forgotten, for the dead
Battle hymns of redemption
Of solidarity and pride
Battle hymns we will be singing
At the turning of the tide

Political Article: Whither The Working Class Hero? By:Sean Gonsalves Back To Top "A working class hero is something to be" - John Lennon Dear John, What do you think about a "Working Class Hero" remix? Maybe change the chorus a bit. "A working class hero was something to be..." In the years before your death, compassionate politics focused on the poor and the working class. The politics of today, at least the "compassionate conservative" variety, has cut-and-run from the "War on Poverty," proclaiming the half-hearted effort a failure. In the new millennium, the "War on the Middle Class" is all the rage. Oddly enough, John, serious people - mostly Art Laffer lovin,' Ron Paul Republicans - still argue we live in a "classless society," which means you're considered a "radical" provocateur of "class warfare" if you talk about class out loud. It's classy not to talk about class. Apparently, panhandling policies geared toward removing the poor from sight aren't enough. Now, we don't want to even hear from poor folk. Today's motto is: the poor should not be seen, or heard. Next stop: eugenics. Survival of the richest. It's no longer compassionate to serve the poor anything other than a nice, warm cup of shut-the-hell-up to go with their healthy portion of Bill Cosby sermon. Outside of pious worship services and stop-gap charity organizations, you can't talk about poverty without explicitly or implicitly implying that the poor deserve to be poor because they're stupid and lazy. Even the leading Democrat candidates are careful not to utter the words "poor" or "working-class" in their speeches. It's all about "the middle class" - a phrase more slippery than a hockey rink covered in Crisco. Of course, there's lots of vague and vacuous verbiage slithering out of politicians mouths. Words like "change" and "hope" and "experience." And "middle class" - for which, there's simply no consensus on how to clearly define. Ask the world's economists for a definition, line their answers up next to each other, and you still couldn't reach a conclusion. OK, that's an exaggeration. Economists have a squishy sense of what kind of loot qualifies as middle-class. But even that's misleading because being middle-class isn't just about income. What's middle-class on Cape Cod is different than what's middle-class in Charlotte, N.C. or Marin Country, California, for example. Depending on where you live, the price of middle-class life varies. And depending on what expert you ask, middle-class income ranges from $40,000 to $100,000 a year, give or take. But if you ask Mr. and Mrs. Average American, you'll get a much different picture. According to the National Opinion Research Center, 50 percent of families who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 a year think of themselves as "working class" or "middle-class." Nearly 40 percent of families earning between $40,000 and $60,000 annually, and 16 percent of families who earn over $110,000 a year, think of themselves as "middle class." Congress recently asked its research service to define "middle class." Using 2005 Census Bureau data, and beginning with a look at income levels, CRS found 40 percent of the nearly 115 million households in the U.S. earned less than $36,000 a year. The next 40 percent rung up the economic ladder made between $36,000 and $91,705 annually. The top 20 percent made $91,705 or more. But, as MSNBC reported, "those numbers don't adequately reflect the state of mind of those who consider themselves middle class. Surveys have shown that, while people consider $40,000 a year to be the low end of what it takes to buy a middle-class life, some people who make as much as $200,000 a year still consider themselves middle class." The popular middle-class state-of-mind may explain why politicians pander to the mushy middle but that shouldn't be confused with populism or appealing to the true American majority. Close to half of all American households are bringing in less than $36K a year! Of course, John, it's ridiculous to think the life-opportunities for a family earning $40,000 annually - a quarter of which might go to pay daycare expenses - is even in the same ballpark as 200K a year families. And that's what's got me scratching my head. When presidential candidates talk about "the middle class," are they talking 200K or the 20 to 40K range? It would be interesting (and maybe disheartening) to hear the candidates get more specific about which "middle-class" they're referring. I won't hold my breath, waiting for an answer. So I figured I'd write to you, John, because you have a better view. Maybe you can tell me: where's the working-class hero?

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