Ralph and Warren In my life right now, there are two records being played incessantly, over and over again. One happens in my car, the other while I'm at work.

The Car:
Because I take my son Sean to school each morning, we listen to his music on my iPod.
Sidebar: If you don't have an iPod you are truly missing out. It will flat change the way you interact with the music you love and will also get you to broaden your horizons to genres, artists etc.

Anyhow, when I was in LA a few weeks ago, I was watching TV when I caught the tail end of a live performance from a band called Ralph's World on one of the morning shows. I immediately dug the instrumentation -- acoustic guitar, bass, keys and a mandolin -- I also enjoyed the fact that the first song they played was a rocker and the second was a country song. Hmmm, I thought.

Then I realized the song was about wanting to be a puppy dog. A puppy dog, a-ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff a puppy dog. Oh, I said to myself, Ralph's World was music for kids that adults won't hate. Interesting.

So I went to ralphsworld.com, ordered the two most recent records and Sean and I been loving them -- loving them -- since Christmas.

Seriously, if you have kids and would like a break from the Thomas the Tank Engine soundtrack, the Wiggles, Disney et al, check out Ralph's World. Plus, for daddies and mommies who play guitar, Ralph conveniently posts the lyrics and chords to all his songs on the site. Sean likes when I play Puppy Dog. (I like it too.) I can't wait until he gets the chords for the new record up there. Sean's fave is "Kid Astro." He calls it the planet song. Listen and you'll hear why.

At Work:
Bottom Line: Warren Haynes is sucking my will to listen to anything other than him or Gov't Mule.
The Mule's most recent record, "Deja Voodoo," is killer jam music and if you like the Dead or Allmans (Warren is also a member) you will love the Mule. They have a great site at mule.net with tons of stuff to learn and hear.

But if you really want to get a taste of what Warren can do, get yourself a copy of "Warren Haynes: Live at Bonaroo." It's avialable everywhere, including iTunes Music store. Man, this is a sweet record. All Warren, all acoustic. He opened one of the days at Bonaroo, and by the time he ended his set with a spectacular "Soulshine" there were around 30,000 people listening to him and his guitar. Also pay close attention to "Patchwork Quilt." If you like jam music, you might be able to figure out who he's singing about.

As Bono once said so eloquently, all you need is "three chords and the truth."

Peace.  ¶ 10:35 AM