Bob, time and again, you've related that Bob Shane vetoed most efforts to intoduce new material to the act, and was mostly reluctant to revive obscure, non-hit early KT tunes. Do you recall, during your tenure with the group, any specific newer songs you thought had the "Trio sound" but got the "Don't mess with the formula" treatment? And not just your own compositions. "MTA Revisited" was, of course, something the act SHOULD have used, while "Lovin' You Again," "Jugtown" and "The Dutchman" from the New KT era are songs, in my opinion, that would have been welcome on stage alongside "Chilly Winds" and "Early Morning Rain." Furthermore, what elements should a newer song have that you might adopt it for your own performance? I can understand any artist's desire to use his/her own material, but there are many songs destined to lapse into undeserved oblivion because nobody is performing them any longer. I had not given the song much thought for a long, long time, but was reminded of "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up your Nose" just recently. It occurred to me that your energy and stage presence make you one of the people who might successfully pull off something originally performed by Little Jimmy Dickens. Just thinking out loud....
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