Recently there were four deaths that, on the surface, seem unrelated: guitarist Wayne Perkins, singer Dennis Locorriere from Dr. Hook, producer Jack Douglas, and actress and singer Claudine Longet. Yet together they form a map of the 1970s - excess, celebrity culture, reinvention, and the feeling that another world is slowly disappearing from view.

There are artists who arrive loudly and then there are artists like Nanci Griffith, who seem to settle in over time.

Watching Elvis Presley in Concert in a movie theatre recently reminded me of something that often gets lost in the mythology surrounding Elvis Presley: the music itself.