This Dreadful Life-Kay Hanley

...in the early 90's a shiny new band debuted with a cleverly named cd, "Aurora Gory Alice"...Letter To Cleo struck a chord with my friends...and Delena and I made sure we learned every word and applied every song to a different person or part of our lives..."Mellie Was Coming Over" and we just wanted to "Get On With It"...I digress...to us Kay and Letters were "Big Star"s...

..."From Under The Dust" became and has stayed a staple in my musical landscape...a handful of albums later and Letter To Cleo were all but gone from the radar...Kay and Co. contributed a few songs to soundtracks like "10 Things I Hate About You"...Kay was the voice of Josie in the Josie and The Pussycats movie...that project danced close to the edge for me...but Josie was at least in a rock band...

...Kay Hanley released a few solo albums which I personally love...if you are a fan of Letters To Cleo I recommend her solo work...

...tonight i found myself in a youtube loop...stumbled upon some Letters' songs and some live footage of Kay...as I read comments I kept reading blips about Miley Cyrus...since I think she is pretty much the devil I ignored those entries...at first...

...To my horror I have discovered that Kay is touring as a back-up singer for Miley Cyrus...oh how the mightily-talented have fallen...I understand needing to pay the bills...I do not think singing back-up is a bad move or something to be ashamed of...but Miley?

...I am wondering how Kay can feel good about herself...a tried and true songwriter and singer lending her talents to an artist whose bland and hopefully eventually forgettable pop songs have reigned supreme on the charts...squashing the hopes and dreams of legit artists...no one is going to buy Joshua James or Matt Hires cd's when Miley makes banality seem so fun...

...do not get me wrong...I am in no way anti-pop...I love a good hook, a beat you can dance to...but there are swarms of better artists out there, Kay...Pink for instance...at least that woman has something to say...something deeper than "Party In The U.S.A."...oy...

...at the risk of sounding superior or above having a party in the USA I am just a little disappointed...I am choosing to believe that Kay is in financial dire straits and no one...again, no body would give her a job...that little kernel of doubt in the back of my mind be damned...