Chet Atkins

If you happened by GPI Publications' offices on Stevens Creek Boulevard here one afternoon this week, you might have thought you had stumbled across a rehearsal of the new Bob Dylan-Grateful Dead tour. Even if you didn't get any closer than the sidewalk in front of the two-story wooden building, you could hear Jerry Garcia singing Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" thanks to a sound system that carried the music far beyond GPI's open-air garage-storage room.

The Times and Shaw deserve congratulations on Shaw's exhaustive series. Perhaps no other newspaper would have the courage to print such articles which were not only critical of part of its own coverage but were complimentary of the excellent coverage of two of its print competitors--the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Weekly. There is, however, a serious error in your May 27 article. That article stated that "the 'independent' Christopher Commission . . .

If you really want to get Leo Kottke's goat sometime, you can do it with a dog. Here's how: Find where Kottke's staying, check into an adjacent room with a feisty pooch for an accomplice, set him to yapping at a good time--4 a.m. might work--and start shouting 'Pepe, hush!' " Most working musicians probably wouldn't appreciate this gesture, but in Kottke's case it might just send him around the bend, or at least make him write a sequel. There are precedents here, see.

Don Everly's enthusiasm for creating new music in the bosom of his family has been rekindled, but it's as an Everly husband, not an Everly Brother. His Hall of Fame partnership with younger brother Phil continues--the two will play extremely rare small-club concerts Friday and Saturday in Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano.

The annual music geek holiday known as Record Store Day arrives Saturday, and with it precious rewards for the fans and collectors looking to hold in their hands music that could be easily heard for free on the Internet. That, of course, is missing the point.  One of the great mom-and-pop merchandising success stories of recent times, Record Store Day sees music retailers across the world celebrating the joy of shopping for limited edition music on vinyl. This year's bounty includes stuff by David Bowie, Elliott Smith, Rhye, Captain Beefheart, Sharon van Etten, Steven Malkmus and the Jicks (covering Can's classic  album “Ege Bamyasi”)

Country-singer Jethro Burns will host "Jethro and Friends," a variety show that will air Aug. 1 from 11 p.m. to 12 p.m. on Channel 28. The show also stars country singer Chet Atkins and the late folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman. Burns was one half of the singing duo, "Homer and Jethro," who wrote and performed parodies of popular songs. The duo was especially successful in cereal commercials during the 1960s.