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I never "got" the spurs with which Jimmie Lee Robinson provided a percussive accompaniment to his singing and guitar playing, but I became a fan of Jimmie Lee's when I saw him perform on two successive nights at Acoustic">http://www.acousticsounds.com">Acoustic Sounds' first blues festival in Salina, Kansas in September 1998. His subsequent live appearances at Consumer Electronics Shows and at HI-FI '99, Home Entertainment 2001, and HE2002 on behalf of Acoustic Sounds' associated APO">http://www.analogueproductions.com">APO label, were highlights of those events. (I took the accompanying photo at Jimmie Lee's May 31 HE2002http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE2002; gig in New York with harmonica player Wild Child Butler.)

Roger A. Modjeski's RAM Labs and Music Reference electronics now have a home on the Internet.

The music industry is reportedly preparing to open a new front in its war on piracy.

Sirius">http://www.sirius.com">Sirius Satellite Radio is now available nationally.

As almost any Stereophile reader could tell">http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?105">tell you, if the record labels want to stem the rushing tide of big-time music piracy, they should consider starting with lower CD prices at retail. In other words, lessen the incentives that drive the illicit music market, and eliminate a sizable percentage of the problem overnight.

We've learned to pretty much ignore consumer electronics company announcements for their latest CD and DVD players/burners. The usual "breakthrough" turns out to be yet another faster record/playback speed bump, or a longer list of compatible formats (Panasonic's latest recorder, announced last week, can handle—take a deep breath—DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and CD-ROM discs).

The copy cat will soon be out of the bag down under. Australia's musical copyright society has reluctantly agreed to the deployment of CD-copying kiosks throughout the nation in exchange for what an Australian news site calls "a modest royalty payment" of about 6% of the $5AUS copying fee—or 30¢ per disc.