Traditional Music

First of all, Fan Fair was a blast. Although I go to hear the music and refuse to stand in the long line of people looking for autographs, while wandering through the exhibits, I got to meet and get autographs from Victoria Shaw, Riders In The Sky, and Wylie & The Wild West. Thank you to these wonderful artists for being so nice.

Second, this month I want to look at a few more artist sites. None of these artists are big megastars, but, depending on your musical tastes, each artist represents a uniquely different slant on the broad genre of Country Music. I'm sure you'll enjoy their web sites and it won't hurt to broaden your musical horizons. We'll look at sites about Mandy Barnett and Wylie & The Wild West.

Mandy Barnett may not be a household name and you may be hard pressed to find her music on the radio, but this woman has a whole lot of talent. She is probably best known for playing the lead role in the musical "Always... Patsy Cline". Stylistically, her music continues to be reminiscent of the Patsy Cline days in the 1960's, which brings a refreshing change from the loud pop styles prevalent today. In April, Mandy released her second album, I've Got A Right To Cry. Her web site celebrates the release of this latest album.

The site, which uses frame technology, is striking with its dark red borders and black background. The navigation, which inhabits the borders on all four sides, is unique. It resizes nicely to fit the size of your browser window, whether it's 640x480, 800x600, or anything larger. The information is laid out in columns that scroll to the right. If you're used to scrolling from top to bottom, this is a little disconcerting at first. There are a couple of links to topic subpages that occupy the whole browser window (the navigation disappears) and don't have links back to the topic's main page forcing you to use the back button on the browser.