Big Jim, nothing you say can convince me that at the heart of this, its not about personal taste and, for the industry, about impersonal demographics.

If I recall tight, you've played with the folks from Nazareth. Now being Scottish yourself, I can see how you like them. They've had some widespread success with some of their stuff, had others cover some of their work, and they continue to release CDs. And they've had a long career.

But although I thought some of their stuff was fine, generally, they're not my cup of tea...

Now to the Scottish music scene, they're probably awesome...to a large segment of the the hard rocking crowd, they're awesome, to music purists who are into hard rock, they're masters of their craft....,

Me, I really like Everything But The Girl...another Scottish duo...their "unplugged" , I believe, started the "unplugged trend" and their covers of say "Time After Time, and "Allison" are great and their own "Driving" is a really good song...but again, not everyone's cup of tea.

You and I have both had a lot of exposure to music. I think Audience was one of the most influential bands that ever came out of Britain...but many folks go duh? who are they? I have to think you know who I am talking about.

But in the end...all this just says...it's subjective.

As far as what the industry does with acts...I can't agree more....but record companies are like venture capitalists. No amount of backing, publicity, cajoling, payola is going to save a bad act, so many CDs end up in the remainder bin and footnotes in music history, and record companies lose millions...but do make up for it with the Neil Youngs, Paul Simons, and yes, LGG.

Time will tell if she lasts.

This is not meant to invalidate your point...it only re inforces what I'm trying to drive home. Your opinion is your opinion, it is "fact" for you....but that does not make it a universal truth.

If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop