What questions about his sexuality have been posed? Is this just the imagination going wild since Kenny has given only vague statements regarding his former failures?

The recent grammy nod has certainly redirected the spotlight on Mr. Bishop and, I think, will introduce newfound interest about his fall in recent years. Time will tell how well his skeletons will remain buried now that he is the subject of new and more scrutinized media and internet coverage.

Uh huh, that’s right, I’m Nader, I’m a crusader,
You wanna stay, stay alive?
Corvair is a death trap, that ain’t no jive,
Get out while you can, listen to da man,
Don’t be gettin’ in that little tin can,
I’m Nader, I’m a crusader,
Uh huh…uh huh.

(With apologies to…everyone)

“Here’s how I imagine Grammy picks for sg happening. There’s some catching of a few bars of a song on the radio while visiting one of those southern cities with Ash in its name, there’s some listening to whatever buzz makes it out of sg’s tightly knit subculture and into the mainstream, there’s some asking around among friends or acquaintances who know more it than you do, and finally there’s waiting for the lobbyists or someone who impresses you (or just buys you a nice enough dinner) to tell what you really should think and viola … another obscure downballot Grammy category covered. This is precisely the kind of approach that would yield a Crabbs nomination, for instance, from a bunch of sg outsiders. Young, interesting story, don’t wear ties, have messy hair.”

You have a unique way of writing that captures what we were all thinking. Thank you.

On this topic, I think we may have reached a time where we know too much about the artists. It might be a healthy thing, were it possible, for us to go back to the ’50s when no one really knew what the singers were doing after the concert. Today, with e-mail, slick magazines, and the Net, we know everything about a singer’s background and his falls & failures. Had this whole thing with the Bishops happened in 1955 instead of four or five years ago, we wouldn’t be here discussing the validity of his nomination, because the general populace of SG fans wouldn’t even know much about Kenny other than his name and that he has a great voice.

I like Bishop’s CD, by the way. In the end, though, does a Grammy nomination or even a win really impact the SG industry in any significant way? I suspect not. It will draw some attention to Bishop, which is probably good for his album sales, but I really don’t see how having a notoriously clueless group choosing nominees for the SG category in the Grammys would do anything to bring new fans to our industry.

It’s a bit like Ralph Nader trying to recognize the top five rappers in the world.