Ah, music!

Since my Amazon Echo (Alexa) entered my life, there's no limit to the music I can listen to: I'm discovering singers who were dead before I was born and digging up singers I heard on the pop charts in the '50's.  It's so easy!  Of course I have Alexa's little portable clone now, so when I go to the bedroom for the night, so does she.  Sometimes I ask her to shuffle my "white noise" playlist, which is a mix of thunderstorms, rain, and ocean waves, to put me to sleep.

Night before last, for some reason, Nat King Cole came to mind.  I remembered his relaxing songs and soft voice and told Alexa, Jr.,  "Shuffle Nat King Cole".  Wow.  Nat's voice was as magical and sleep-inducing as the white noise.  I always tell my slave to stop playing in one hour; that way the noise doesn't bother Cliff when he comes to bed.

Testerday I remembered that there was another black singer who was popular around that same time as Nat King Cole, but his name escaped me.

I was still trying to recall that person today.  A while ago, I asked Cliff if he remembered another black singer from the same era as Nat King Cole.  He suggested Harry Belafonte, who came much later.  As we discussed this, I realized all I had to do was come to the computer, do a search for "O, Holy Night", and see the guy's name, because he does my very favorite rendition of that song.  Wouldn't you know, before I could type in the name of the song, I remembered his name:  Johnny Mathis!

Cliff couldn't recall much about him, so I told Alexa to play Johnny Mathis for him and the golden tones of "Chances Are" came floating across the living room.  I was surprised to learn that Johnny is still living.  I guess that's not so surprising, though; he's nine years older than I, which makes him 81; isn't it strange how a person my age tends to forget she's old?  

Guess who will be singing me to sleep tonight?


Alexa and her offspring have replaced other forms of music in my house to such an extent that the fabulous Bose I bought six years ago sits idly, gathering dust.  But that's about to change!  We listened to a book on CD on our last road trip and never finished it, so we're wondering how it ends.  Plus, there's another such book in the car we haven't even started.  I moved the Bose in the living room this morning and we are going to spend parts of our days listening to books.  I realize a talking book doesn't really do justice to a Bose, but it's just so much easier to say, "Alexa, shuffle Gene Watson"  instead of digging through a bunch of CD's looking for what I want to hear.  Not to mention that Alexa can play thousands of songs I never personally owned.  So the Bose is now relegated to reading books to us, like a kindergarten teacher.  

How the mighty have fallen.