The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 29

SALINA JOURNAL encore! FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2005 D5 FICTION BEST SELLERS of Joly, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro True Believer, Nicholas Sparks The Mermaid Choir, Sue Monk Kidd The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown No Place Like Home, Mary Higgins Clark In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexonder McColl Smith Star Wars Revenge of Hie Sirfi, Mattfiew Stover The Innocent Harlan Coben Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk Ya-Yas in Bloom, Rebecca Wells NONFICTION BEST SELLERS You: The Owner's Manual, Roizen and Oz The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren And One More Thing Before You Go, Maria Shriver Winning, Jack Welch with Suzy Welch He's Just Not That Into You, Behrendt and Tuccillo Blink Malcolm Gladwell Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt A Lotus Grows in the Mud, Goldie Hawn My life So For, Jane Fonda Source; Publiihor's of May 4-May 10 NEW BOOKS AT SALINA LIBRARY No Mountain High Enough, Linda Armstrong Kelly Sick of Shadows, Marion Chesney Maximum Ride, James Patterson Oh My Stars, Lorna Londvik A Lotus Grows in the Mud, Goldie Hawn MUSIC John Prine returns 'Fair Square' WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 to lAST WEEK lAST WEEK 2 4. 6 1 10 9 TOP POP SINGLES Holloback Girl, Gwen Stefani Oh, Ciara We Belong Together, Morioh Carey Hate It or Love It, The Game Just a Ul Bit, 50 Cent Lonely No More, Rob Thomas lonely, Akon Slow Bobby Valentino Since You Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson Candy Shop, 50 Cent TOP POP ALBUMS With Teeth, Nine Inch Nails The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Corey Something To Be, Rob Thomas The Massacre, 50 Cent Devils Dust, Bruce Springsteen Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Love.Angel.Music.Baby, Gwen Stefani II Divo, iT Divo From Under the Cork, Foil Out Boy Who is Mike Jones? Mike Jones Bout with cancer, fatherhood change sound, style of music By JOHN GEROME The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. Over his 35-year career, singer-songwriter John Prine has been called a keen commentator, a wry humorist and a master storyteller.

The one thing he's never been called, it's safe to say, is a gifted singer His voice rattles like spare change in a tin can. But on "Fair Square," his first album of new material in nearly a decade, he's come to peace with his croaky voice though it took a bout with neck cancer to make it happen. "My voice dropped almost an octave after I had my cancer surgery," said Prine, who worked as a Chicago mailman for six years before he released his first album. "When I heard it back on tape it sounded more comfortable to me than it ever did before." The surgery seven years ago took part of his neck. When doctors told hiim the lump was cancerous, they started discussing ways to pi-otect his vocal cords.

"When I found out I said, 'You have heard me sing, haven't you? As long as I can talk when you guys are done with this I can "I said, 'Do whatever you've got to do. I'll make a living. Just make sure I'm alive to make a That's how Prine seems to view his work as much a job as an art. That long lapse between albums? That's just how long it took to come up with enough songs he thought good enough to fill a CD after he became a father at 49, then again at 50. "I finally found out that I can't just sit around and wait for lightning to strike like I used said Prine, now 58 with two sons.

"I actually have to set time aside and say, 'I'm going to write a It took me a while to figure out that was the only way it was going to get done." Prine, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of IVIaywood, might be the most unassuming big deal you'll ever meet. He's short, thick in the middle and his hair tousled. He could pass for the guy in the wool cap washing cars down on Broadway As he spoke at Oh Boy Records, the independent label he started with longtime manager Al Bunetta in 1984, birds kept flying into a big office picture window with a thud. It was the kind of absurd distraction that seemed fitting for the author of observations like, "Have you ever noticed, when you're felling really good, there's always some pigeon, that'll come on your hood." Those lines are from the new song "Some Humans Ain't Human," and they're followed by a zinger: "Or you're feeling your freedom, and the world's off your back, some cowboy from Texas, starts his own war in Iraq." The song wasn't meant to be political, he says. Indeed, those few words are the only thing political about it.

But they're genuine, coming to him while in Ireland, his wife's native land and the place where his family spends its summers. "(President) Bush had just made a visit to the airport and they had it closed down because there were so many protesters. They kept the pi-otestei's 15 miles away so Bush wouldn't know what they thought of him," he recalls. "It's real evident when you're living over there two or three months at a time what the world how they're looking at us." "Fair Square" is a textured, literate piece of work. There are gentle reflections on love and home, a slow bluesy groove called "Morning Train," a driving guitar- drenched cover of the Carter Family's "Bear Creek Blues" and quirky characters like the one in "Crazy as a Loon" who has a pictui'e of another man's wife tattooed on his arm.

Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Dan Tyminski and Mindy Smith make guest appearances. Click Five Salinan an early composer FROM PAGE D1 Source: Billboard of May 4-May 10 TOP COUNTRY SINGLES My Give a Damn's Busted, Jo Dee Messina Homevifrecker, Gretchin Wilson Making Memories of Us, Keith Urban Whafs a Guy Gotto Do, Joe Nichols If Heaven, Andy Griggs Songs About Me, Trace Adkins lot of leavin' left to Do, Dierks Bentley Thafi What I Love About Sunday, Craig Morgan Anything But Mine, Kenny Chesney Ifs Getting Better Brooks Dunn TOP COUNTRY ALBUMS Delicious Surprise, Jo Dee Messina Feels Like Today, Rascal Flatts Be Here, Keith Urban The Right to Bare Arms, Larry the Cable Guy Here for the Party, Gretchen Wilson Twice the Speed of life, Sugarland Live Like You Were Dying, Tim McGraw Be As You Are, Kenny Chesney Greatest Hits, Shania Twain When the Sun Goes Dovvn, Kenny Chesney Source: Billboard of May 10 THIS lAsr WEEK WEEK 1 1 2 2 3 9 4 7 5 5 6 8 7 8 3 9 6 10 4 IHIS lAST WEEK WEEl 1 1 2 4 3 3 4 2 5 6 6 7 7 8 10 9 10 8 wake up in the morning with them in your head." Paul Stanley of Kiss co- wrote the strutting "Angel to You (Devil To Me)" with Romans, and Elliott Easton of The Cars contributed a guitar solo to the track. A summer beach vibe comes alive in the tune "Catch Your Wave," which layers Beach Boys-styled harmonies atop a jittery, new-wave melody There's also the track "Friday Night," telling the tale of a young lovers lust-fest. Going national The Click Five has opened for Ashlee Simpson, Alanis Morissette and Aaron Carter. The band was chosen for a coveted spot on MTV's "You Hear It First" program this spring.

Teen People also selected The Click Five for its "16 Artists Who Will Make Your Summer Sizzle" issue. 'You Hear It First' is a cle MTV news has to sort of feature bands we think are going to make sort of impact in music. That doesn't necessarily mean sales, and it doesn't mean being pop stars, either," said Joseph Patel, an MTV correspondent who has covered the band, said Tuesday from New York. "Right now, they're just starting out. They seem to have a good story and a good sound," Patel said.

"They got a good break opening for Ashlee Simpson on her tour They won over a lot of those fans. The other thing that's surprising is they're classically trained musicians. They have the technical chops to make the pop songs they want to make. They're good musicians and good guys, and as long as they keep doing that, they'll have a good following." 'Pushing buHons' When Romans was 18 months old, his mother, Beverly, recalled, he was attracted to a toy piano and "pushing buttons." He started with piano lessons and writing his own compositions in the third grade. At Salina Central High School, band director Ben Rohrer recalled when he first became aware of Romans, as a sophomore.

"We had an activity period toward the end of the day, and he snuck into my class a couple of times and was playing piano in the back of the room. Ordinarily, I would have gotten upset, but it was really pretty good," Rohrer said. Soon, Rohrer founded a jazz combo with Romans as the centerpiece, doing his own compositions. "It was all outside stuff that he conjured up on his own," Rohrer said. "I think Ben separates himself from everyone else, because he thinks like a composer.

He's generating ideas in his head all the time. He's hyperactive musically. That's one of the secrets to his success." Romans counts among his musical influences songwriters Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. McCartney, he says, wrote tremendous melodies that every generation can sing. McCartney was focused on the hook of a song and very smart about the way he arranged the instrumentation around the vocals, he said.

"I'm a big Beatles guy. I'm the kind of guy that likes an obvious lyric. The best lyric to me is something simple," Ro-. mans said. "Our style (suits on stage) is another thing.

A lot of people like to wear jeans and T-shirts. But we thought, 'Let's just take this up one more There's something very together about wearing the same thing. Reporter David Clouston can he reached at 822-1403, or by e-mail at journal.com. Wives Book recounts Vietnam years 1985 Salina South Reiinibti June 10-12 sign guestbook to receive reunion updates FROM PAGE D1 "I thought those women could be anyone or everyone," Frisbie said. She thinks the book in general offers an accurate look at the time and place.

LOCAL NEWS MOREAU "Walter Cronkite she captured amazingly well," Frisbie said. "Even though I didn't necessarily watch Walter Cronkite with a group of ladies as a nightly ritual, it was something that just was not missed. "In fact, I can remember the television was on as many hours of the day as TV was on then. If there was any newscast at or any breaking in, as there was frequently, regarding Vietnam or the peace tallcs, one's very life was completely tied up in that. "I remember the significance of Walter Cronkite in all of our lives.

She captured very well what all of us, in every home, experienced. That was our visual connection to the Vietnam War" BOOKS Frisbie, who read proofs of the book before it was published, said that sometimes, it felt as if she were reading about someone she knew very, very well a long time ago. She was referred to as Bonnie, she said, because that was her nickname when she was growing up and when she was a young wife and mother Frisbie has remarried since her time at Schilling. Frisbie said she plans to attend Moreau's reading at the library, along with her daughter Colleen Nunn and granddaughter Chelsea Nunn, both of Flower Mound, Texas. Moreau said members of her family, inculding her mother, will attend, along with others from Salina and elsewhere who were interviewed as part of the research for the book.

But, she said, Vogel is not expected to be at the reading because of other plans. Moreau said that writing the book and conducting the research helped her to come to terms with her own feelings about the Vietnam War "It was hard to live through that time without being affected in some way," she said. "It was hard to live through that time without being affected in some way. This was my own reconciliation with the war, growing up very patriotic, then discovering the truths about some of our less honorable leaders and sort of moving on from there." Donna Moreau author of "Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to fhe VIefnam War" "This was my own reconciliation with the war, growing up very patriotic, then discovering the truths about some of our less honorable leaders and sort of moving on from there." She said it was more difficult having her family read the book than it was for her to write. "For me, it was very personal, writing about my family's very personal life during not such a great period," she said.

"I think it was freeing for me to write it and to share it with my family, so that, all of a sudden, we could listen to each other about that time period so that my dad could hear what I had to say about his detachment, so that my mother could try to understand maybe why I was so horrifying." She said she never wept while writing the book. "It was more of a feeling of vomiting emotion, you know," Moreau said. "Getting it out and seeing it on paper made it seem more real and less of my own fantasy of what went on during that very short period of time." Reporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411, or by e-mail at journal.com. EDUCATION Summer Classes 2005 DatiuloCdmputeTs Internet Jun.6 Jul. 18 Jun.

6-Jul. 18 Jun. 6 Jul. 18 fkgeimltEr 7.0 DT Pub. Jim.

7 Jul. 21 6.00-8:1 Op Graphics ft Web Design Photo Editing Jun. 14 Jun. 23 TH Photo Shop for Educators Jun.7 Jun. 30 ftont Page WebPagp Design Jun.

6 Jun. 29 Power Point in the Classroom Jun. 7 Jul. 14 TH Technical Sidlls to Adv. Commerical Driver's Lie.

Test Jun. 6-Jul. 27 JuL 21 22 TH (Day-time) Salina Tech 2562 Centennial Rd. Salina, KS 785-309-3100 1 www.salinatech.com Small publishers bring in billions of dollars By Jhe Associated Press iiEW you Uve in Boys Town, or work in education or family services, you likely haven't heard of Boys Town the publishing arm of the youth care founded by Father Flanagan and made fa- mqus by the Spencer Tracy movie. Boys Town Press, an 11-year- old company that publishes parenting and educational materials, generated sales of $1.7 million last year, a fraction of what Random House, Scholastic and other biUion-dollar companies bring in.

Boys Town may appear an industry exception, but a new study says it's more the rule. A report by the Book Industry Study Group says there are thousands of such publishers, earning between $1 million and $50 million on their own, but adding up to an estimated $11 billion market. Jeff Abraham, executive director of the study group, said that traditional studies assume that the solid majority of book sales coiries flrom the larger organizations, with the top 50 making at least $20 biUion out of a $28 billion market. This recent report, titled "Under the Radar," asserts that the industry is both larger and less concentrated than previously believed. for Harvest Longshot Enterprises, LLC.

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