My Favorite Things

The greatest rock band of all time? My old friend John Whipple and I were debating this in the swimming pool a few years ago. John voted for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. My choice was Orleans (of  "Still the One" fame). Great multi-part vocals; great songwriting; great guitar solos that are obviously planned out (two guitars playing in harmony) but sound like as fresh as if they were spontaneously improvised. Their album "Waking and Dreaming" is one of the great albums of all time. I enjoyed Huey Lewis & the News when they were popular in the 80's, which had a sound similar to Orleans, but Huey Lewis's band didn't have any great ballads. Orleans' song "If I Don't Have You" has beautiful lyrics.

My favorite author: This would have to be C.S. Lewis, who wrote fiction (the Narnia books) and Christian 'apologetic' works (explaining and defending Christian doctrine). I think that reading Lewis starting in high school framed the analytical, logical way I have of thinking.

More recently, I wait with bated breath every summer for the new novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They write "techno-thrillers," the first of which was "Relic." There was a mediocre movie made from Relic which omitted the best character in the book, FBI agent Pendergast. Many of the novels since have revolved around the unforgettable Pendergast.

My favorite piece of classical music: The Pines of Rome, by Respighi. I used to play a recording of this as I woke up in the morning in my apartment in college - it has a 15-minute long section that starts with bird calls and slowly builds up into a great ending with thundering brass and percussion. Never failed to wake me up (and my roommates).

Greatest female singer: Other than my wife Louise, I vacillate between Susan Ashton, who recorded several wonderful CD's of Christian music, and Alison Krauss, a bluegrass singer.

Favorite restaurant: Carrabbas! My wife and I used to frequent our local restaurant so often that the chain wrote a radio commercial that featured a Sinatra-like song that talked about "Matt and Louise and the kids" and what we liked to eat. This was before Carrabbas started using the actual founders in their advertisements. The radio commercial ran for several months and we used to get calls from puzzled friends wondering if our band was playing at their local Carrabbas or something (the commercial ended with a voice over: "Matt and Louise Ellrod are celebrities at Carrabbas!")