JRE Home Tour: Halfway There

Welcome BW readers. Sorry I've been away, been a busy week.

I wanted to say that Edwards is having a relatively successful book tour with his new edition, Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives. I'm about half-way through it as he is on his tour.

(Pic from AP & librarian's vision: READ poster in foreground with a voricious reader himself, JRE)

The best review I have read is from the Associated Press, which the Cincinnati Enquirer published this morning. I also borrowed the pic to the left from AP.

Arranged alphabetically by last name, the 60 people featured in the book share their experiences more than the descriptions of the house, except where certain rooms carried the themes of family life of their in lives. In this post, I am writing about two I enjoyed reading in which music became a major influence.

For example, Mary Catherine Brouder, a college student, wrote about her family's apartment in the Bronx. When her older sister was run over outside of their building, it was a long time in the hospital then in a body cast when she returned home. Brouder's mother was so grateful that her daugher was recovering, albeit slowly, so she decided to do something uplifting: turn the family in a musical group that would sing at hospitals, nursing homes, and rehab centers. The group, the Spirits of Gilbride, became well enough known that they were asked to perform at the White House, Disney World, and Yankee Stadium.

While they have pursued their own interests, they still get together and do a gig. Brouder says each time they do a show, she is reminded of where they started: at home, in their living room.

Another musician, a tad more famous, and one of my favorites, Nanci Griffith, remembers hangng out at her grandparents' house, in which her grandfather rested in one of the original Barcaloungers, and she sat in his lap and took a nap. Her grandparents were also musical, in which her grandfather sang in a barbershop quartet and he played the piano. Griffith says that "to this day, when I hear a song, I hear it in four-part harmony. Every song."

Those are two stories not on the One America site, but if you wish to read Danny Glover's and Robert Carr's, go here. Senator Edwards also invites any BW reader and other bloggers to share their pictures and stories there too.

Coming soon: I will post his links to tv and radio appearances that occurred this past week.

More buzz l8tr..

Tags: John Edwards, Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives, music, benny's world