(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Chances are if you've seen a recent picture of me, you've seen a Building A Better Spaceship hoodie. I have several. I don't wear them when the temperature gets above 90-- unless I'm worried about being forced into an air-conditioned enclosure. Aside from really nice hoodies, this South Bay-based L.A. band also makes some really good music. I've been listening to their demos and seeing them play live shows for a couple years.

And today I realized that they'd probably have something shareable via YouTube. They do-- "This Time:"

And tonight's contest will take some sleuthing, and looking in the right place. I have to admit, it's a hard one. But I've come up with a great prize: a boxset called LEGENDS OF COUNTRY-- CLASSIC HITS OF THE '50's, '60's & '70's. (There are songs by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, and lots more... 57 songs including 49 #1 hits.)

So just tell me the relationship between Building A Better Space Ship and the Bush compound in Crawford. In the explanation I'm looking for two words-- a 3 letter word and a four letter word. Good luck-- and send your entry to downwithtyranny@aol.com

A few nights ago, we gave away a Sire boxset and all you had to do was name your 3 favorite Rough Trade songs. I thought LNMC members might be interested in knowing which artists came up the most frequently in the approximately 250 entries: Arcade Fire, The Smiths, Libertines, The Strokes, Cocteau Twins, Soft Cell, Delta 5, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Stiff Little Fingers, Sufjan Stevens, Gang of 4, Kleenex, James Blood Ulmer, Pere Ubu, Cabaret Voltaire, Young Marble Giants, The Fall, Scritti Politti, Antony & the Johnsons, Swell Maps, Sebadoh, and Ian Dury. All good stuff.

The winner was Eric with Galaxie 500, Delta 5 and Jarvis. Congratulations, Eric.

Three of America's most celebrated singer-songwriters will be touring minor league ballparks this summer. Bob Dylan will be bringing John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson along for this year's ballpark tour, which kicks off on July 2nd in Sauget, IL, a St. Louis suburb.

Dylan will be touring in support of his new album Together Through Life, which comes out tomorrow.

Dates after the flip.

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Break Up The Concrete is the new album-- the first since Artemis released the mostly unheraldedLoose Screw six years ago-- from The Pretenders. I love it. So many great references to Dylan! And, like most Pretenders' albums I love it because of Chrissie's songwriting. And yet, tonight we're listening to one of the two songs on the album, the other being "Rosalee," not written by Chrissie. Actually this isn't even officially on the regular album. It's a bonus track offered by a certain unnamed big box retailer for CDs sold in their store. And, fittingly, it's a song, "Both Sides Of Goodbye," by Hank Williams, Jr. Fortunately Chrissie chose Willie Nelson to sing it with her.

Honeysuckle Rose
	Artist: Willie Nelson

Got a favorite musical movie moment?

Another sad loss this week, as bassist Chris Ethridge succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Monday. Although he was best known for his bass paying with the Flying Burrito Brothers and Willie Nelson, Ethridge also co-wrote gems such as Hot Burrito #1 and tonight's selection. R.I.P.

Shotgun Willie (LP Version)

Happy Friday! Got a favorite Willie song for 4/20?

Patsy Cline - The Definitive Collection
	Artist: Patsy Cline

It's been a, uhm, crazy week for yours truly. Time to relax. Music and lyrics by Willie Nelson, vocals from the gods, via Patsy Cline.

Nashville songwriter Hank Cochran died Thursday at age 74 of pancreatic cancer. Thompson's hits included Make The World Go Away (Eddy Arnold, Elvis), I Fall To Pieces and tonight's gem. Cochran is also known for giving Willie Nelson his first big break, successfully lobbying Liberty records to sign the young singer. Cochran once said about his songs: "I have a theory that somebody beside me must write my songs because half of the time I don't have the slightest idea where they come from. I even wake up out of a dead sleep and write a song completely." R.I.P.

My good buddy Rick considers this Townes Van Zandt penned song one of the greatest ever written. It's hard to disagree with him. Either way, it's certainly a masterpiece, and in my opinion, Willie's and Merle's cover proves it.

PS Tonight's backstage weekend at our sister site Newstalgia features highlights from Friday night's Glastonbury Festival, with Gorillaz, Broken Bells, Groove Armada, and Flaming Lips in concert.

Today is Irving Berlin's birthday; he'd be 120 (except he passed away in 1989). With a repertoire like his, where do you even start? He wrote music and lyrics for thousands of songs, from "God Bless America" and "White Christmas" to "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," "Puttin' on the Ritz," and "How Deep is the Ocean"... and "Blue Skies, a personal fave. But even with "Blue Skies," what direction? Frank Sinatra? Ella Fitzgerald? Willie Nelson? Count Basie? Rod Stewart? Fiona Apple? Dozens of people have covered the Berlin classic. So I decided to go to a version that Berlin didn't write. This was one that BT (Brian Transeau) wrote and then got Tori Amos to do some lyrics for. It came out in 1996 on his Ima album and then on the Party of Five TV soundtrack LP (put together by yours truly). By early 1997 it was the #1 dance song in the U.S.