Does anybody out there remember Concrete Blonde? Those of you who do probably know the band best by one album - 'Bloodletting'. That's not the music that introduced me to the band (actually, I first heard 'God Is a Bullet' from their preceding album), but it is the first Concrete Blonde CD I owned, and that's an album I certainly got into 20 years ago. If I like a recording that much, I'll usually buy up all the other albums by the artist in the hopes of hearing something as good or better from the back catalog. In most cases, that approach has yielded huge results for me, and I'm fascinated to hear an artist or band's evolution. In the case of CB...well...I found Bloodletting to be the band's highwater mark, and still do now. Why might that be? Let's see...they changed drummers for that album...but I don't know of anyone who listened to that band for the drumming. The only other factor at play that differed with that album was that, apparently, frontwoman/songwriter Johnette Napolitano had just had her heart broken and was writing as a way of catharsis, therapy, or just howling at the moon. Sting says that he was under the impression for many years that he had to be feeling emotional pain in order to write music effectively (with a name like 'Sting', who would be surprised?)...and Elvis Costello would often pick fights with his first wife in order to find inspiration for new material (brave man). So the question to ponder is - does pain make for better art? I'm guessing that if you're writing out of emotional need rather than stroking your ego or stuffing your bank account, you're more likely to put genuine feelings on the page rather than contrivances...and I believe most music listeners know the truth when they hear it, at least if they're accustomed to hearing it. Is pain necessary for good art? For what it's worth, Sting doesn't believe so anymore. And me? I must admit I've got some incredible songwriting mileage out of some of the more emotionally disastrous events in my life...but it hasn't been an essential ingredient in the tunes of mine I like most...at least not absolutely. As the band completes this current recording project and gets to work on new material, perhaps I can give you a more conclusive answer. And in the meantime, if you find me picking a fight with you, you'll know I'm merely suffering writier's block, and you can lovingly knock my block off. Thanks in advance.