With summer around the corner, this is really important...

Please, look out for Motorcycles.

Put your phone down and keep alert as you drive. Please don't be the reason someone doesn't make it home to see their family.

Look twice, save a life.

These aren't just catchy mottos. They're a plead from those who know what happens otherwise. I don't keep a LOFM magnet on my car because it looks cool. I do it because I ride. My father rides. My friends ride. I'd bet someone you know and love does too.

So, please, look out for motorcycles.

You heard the announcement at 10am today on WQMX. Charley Crockett is on tour this Summer and is making a stop in Cleveland July 22nd at The Agora!

Be listening the rest of the week at 8:15 for the Not-So-Impossible Question where I will have your chance to score tickets into the show!

Good luck from the station giving you more in '24...94.9 WQMX!

Keep On Lovin' You  - Steel Magnolia  - 2010

 I liked this when it was out, and I liked them a lot too.  But in music, many times artists don't get to stay for the whole party, but merely a cup of coffee.  That's what happened to Steel Magnolia.  We did a few shows with this duo, including a promotion at Put-In-Bay as I think that was our first show there.  This song was a real breath of fresh air.  Megan and Josh, who made up this duet were engaged in real life and their voices blended together perfectly like DNA siblings can.  There was a real edge to them, especially Megan whose voice I have admired for years.  So bluesy, and full of that muddy water Louisiana sound. This great song written by Trent Willmon and a then unknown Chris Stapleton landed in the right place with SM.  This single went to #4 on the charts on an album with Big Machine Records their future looked great.  Sadly, the award nominated duo split up both on stage and in life as many of life's circumstances caught up to them.  I remember emceeing them at the Wayne County Fair in 2011, and there was no doubt there was something wrong there, as they both were very different than the many times I had worked with them before.  But they had a cool look, image and sound and I was sad to see this not work out.  I thought at the time, they had the stuff to contend. Megan still is a very cool vocalist and they have both since pursued solo careers.  But here  - what a song!

Last Weeks Selection

It's back! After a long couple of weeks without the old thing, my Blazer has found its way back home. I'm elated. 

With that, here's some songs that remind me of my vehicle for various reasons. 

Chase Rice just announced he is going to open "I Hate Cowboys", a cocktail and bourbon lounge, next to his "Welcome To The Farm" on the East Bank of the Flats this weekend! 

The bar's name comes from part of his lastest album - "I Hate Cowboys and All Dogs Go To Hell". Being a new bar in the Flats, what better weekend to open than St. Patrick's Day in Cleveland, right?!

Let's all toast Chase Rice by saying "SLAINTE"... with a southern accent ;)

This is Blue.  Today is his birthday!  I will tell him Happy Birthday for y'all.  He is 16!!  He is a rescue from Texas, when we lived there.  Blue doesn't get around well anymore, he can barely see and snores really loud.  The great news is he still loves his walks, although a lot shorter these days.  His meals still dissappear quickly and snacks have become more frequent.  

He might look like an oppossum but this pup is awesome.  You're my boy, Blue!!

It's been a good while since I've practiced playing any instrument, so over the weekend, I decided to pick up old faithful: my bass guitar. It's like riding a bicycle! 

I've started plucking strings again because my friends hit me up to learn some songs. We've got guitars, bass, drums, and vocals; so, the potential is there for something cool to come about. The main objective is to just have a good time and jam, but if we end up sounding alright, maybe some recording will find its way to the internet. We're by no means a band, just some dudes coming together to play music! 

Making music makes memories, and whenever I get the chance to come together with friends to do so, it's always a great time. I can't wait for it next. First, though, I need to keep practicing. Gotta get back to it- till next time, thanks for reading! 

 As we get older entering different stages of life, things change.  Some are physical, some mental, and some are the things outside of those.  Possessions. Stuff you've had for years and now it's time to let go.  And as silly as this is going to sound, that's where I am with an old couch I have.  I know it's time, and I'm fine with it.

But in fairness, this to me isn't an ordinary couch.  It has a story as I look back on that's pretty cool and that's why it's been with me all these years.  You see in 1983 I was a very young broadcaster who moved to Columbus just starting off on my own and had zero money.  So I built this couch, because I couldn't afford to buy a real one, and it served me well for the next 40 years or so.  As I look at it today, it amazes me that I made it.  I made a matching chest too and that's in Florida at my house there full of pool toys.  But the couch was first.  It's what I could  - sort of afford.

I designed this humble couch as a day bed type of thing, and it was measured to fit the dumpy apartment I was living in.  I drove to my moms farm house in Berea late one Friday night and spent the weekend with her.  I used her -  I think -  70 year old table saw in the scary basement that was my "Grandpa Doc's" for the majority if not the entirety of the 20th century that I'm not sure was at all safe.  I cut all the pieces and there was a ton of them, labeling them with pen.  That took most of the weekend, then I loaded all the pieces up in my Buick Skyhawk and drove back home to my one bedroom apartment in the worst part of town along with some tools. I assembled it in my living room while watching the World Series over the course of a few nights with wood glue and nails.

Every Piece Was Labled

I belt sanded the entire thing, completely trashing my place for a couple of days. After the frame was together I nailed and glued on the platform, only to discover I had nailed in a drop cloth that was an old table cloth to the under frame and it's still there.  I bought an expensive piece ($15) of 4" foam that has lasted wonderfully. (The guy said it would and it did)  After I stained the couch, I covered the foam with a piece of tan herculon I stapled on that's still on there.  That was it.  Whole thing I think cost me $45 to make as that's what I could afford, if I even could then.  Sheesh!

Drop Cloth Nailed And Glued Under By Accident

That couch has been used for all these decades, mostly as a window sill couch after the first few years. My friends kids have slept on it, I have slept on it, company has slept on it, it survived party's, in short it has done its job.  That couch moved with me to Richmond, then to Jefferson City (2 addresses) then to Lakeland (2 addresses) then back here, (3 addresses). A few of the decorative pieces have had to be re-glued back on a few times.  Movers have loaded it on and off trucks and been in storage sheds and now it sits in the basement, warm and dry where it's been for the past 4 years.  The truth is, it just outlived its time. It's still in great shape, and I hate to part with it. But I get it, it's the memory of a different time that's the issue.

Am I proud of it?  I guess, it's not a classic piece of work, but it was my work as a broke 22 year old.  I had zero idea in 1983, I'd be writing about this is 2024, I guess I should be proud it lasted all these years and lived an exciting life - for a couch.

When I think about it, it lived my life too.  - Thanks old couch.  Maybe you'll find a new home.  (BTW it's PERFECT as a window sill couch)

In case you missed any of my articles this week from WQMX.com , here is a recap. Grab a coffee and earbuds anbd let's get you caught up.

BROWNS - People Are Different

Eat Of The Week

50 Most Important Country Songs 1980-Today #40

Forgotten Jukebox - CM-02

CMML - Terri Clark (Revisit)

Wynn At The Movies And More

Box Office Results - Kung Fu Panda 4 - (59 Million)

#2 – Dune 2  -  (46 Million)

#3 - Imaginary  -  (10 Million)

New This Week - Arthur The King  / Knox Goes Away / Snack Shack

Oscars - Oppenheimer wins 7

Razzies - Winnie The Pooh Blood And Honey 2 (sweeps)

Neve Campbell – Will be in Scream 7 – got the money worked out she skipped Scream 6

The Batman Part II, - With Robert Pattinson, postponed a year, It will now open on October 2026 instead of October 2025

WOW! - Screenwriter Simon Stephenson accusing the makers of Holdovers of plagiarism. Says he has evidence Holdovers screenplay was "plagiarized line-by-line" from his screenplay for a movie script called Frisco

This Weekend – Check out my Country Music Memory Lane (link)

Also - 50 Most Important Country Songs 1980 – Today #40 (Link)