(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

By the time Paul Simon's musical and accompanying soundtrack, SONGS FROM THE CAPEMAN came out in 1997, my grandfather had been dead for 3 decades. He had been a crucial figure in my life and my idea of running away from home was to take a bus to his house across town. I could never get enough of his stories about how he and his family escaped from Russia when he was a young boy after one pogrom or another. My gramps wound up with one brother in New York City. The rest of his family was turned away and eventually settled in Bahia, Brazil.

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I was working at Warner Brothers the first time I heard "Trailways Bus," a month or two before the release of the album. The poignancy of the song so put me in touch with my grandpa's soul that I decided that I had to go visit his family in Bahia. Today I want to ask you to listen to that song and think about it. If you're moved to write about it... well, I have 10 brand new, sealed CDs by Miles Davis with Charlie Parker called OUT OF NOWHERE. I'm going to read all the paragraphs about "Trailways Bus" and look for some insights and spirit and send the 10 writers who move me the most a CD each. (If you wanna play, include your e-mail address.)

(Thanks Howie for the giveaway)