I spent several hours yesterday being involved with the final preparations of the Singing News Fan Awards that will be held tonight (Thursday). The folks with the INSP Network have worked with us to have a re-vamped show that will look good both in the actual venue, as well as on TV. I'd love to tell you a little more, but it's probably best to let you see what happens and we'll bring it up a little later.

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I've been thinking of how I could tactfully state this for a day or so and I think I can try it this way: Most evenings, I can be found walking the floor of the exhibit hall, visiting with artists, fans, whomever. I've been by the booth of Legacy Five a couple of times, visited with some of the guys and after observing a few things, I want to commend them on something.

Sometimes, it's too easy to capitalize on death. The music world sees that all too often. But over at L5's booth, there's a very simple memorial (a standard photo book) to Roger Bennett, with one tasteful-sized portrait of him at the rear of their space. That's it. His solo products are mostly mixed in with L5's recordings and if you didn't know the whole story of Roger's last few years, you'd almost be tempted to say it's just business as usual.

I think Roger would be pleased. Then again, I have to chuckle when I think of how he'd smile if he could tell me that he was going to fire the whole lot because they missed a chance to up their sales.

Several people have asked us at the Singing News booth if Debbie Bennett is here this week. She is. Although I've not had a chance to talk directly to her, she seems to be doing well here and is very appreciative of the support fans and artists have shown her.

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At the booth, our next door neighbors are the Hoppers - which allows Claude Hopper plenty of time to walk across the aisle and harrass me. That's not really a problem as I love old people, especially really old ones like Claude. At some point last night, he brought up the fact that I had mentioned his golf cart transport service in yesterday's blog. Naturally, he ribbed me about the "shameless promotion" line I used.

But then he really stuck the fork in: "Well, it worked...I even got some free mileage out of it from you."

I hate it when he's right.

But facts are facts: the Hoppers, especially when it comes to marketing, are one of the hardest working groups in our business and that's why they are never far from the top.