Our Sound music columnist Bill Henry turns his eyes and ears on the area's vibrant, multi-genre music scene every week in The Sun Times. From blues to bluegrass, folk to funk, pop to punk and classical to celtic, Henry writes about the area's performers and music trends. The veteran Sun Times news reporter, photographer and local musician's Our Sound column mixes profiles, feature stories, advance concert coverage, occasional reviews and scene-setting observations to chronicle the rich and diverse Grey-Bruce music community. Read Bill Henry's Our Sound column every Thursday on The Sun Times entertainment section front...

When the Bop Gun Jams

I'm sitting in the Hut, a tiny converted garage perched behind a house in dire need of a few more slices of vinyl siding, with the illest ad hoc catwalk you'd ever want to cannonball off looming over a circular, aboveground pool. From the outside, it's a drab affair; but inside, the Hut is a makeshift, chaotically beautiful two-room recording studio, the pride of Plainfield, New Jersey—better known to residents as Queen City.

Stacks of music paraphernalia and debris both clutter and fortify this weakly lit mini-museum: 45s, analog compressors, turntables, keyboards, reel-to-reel machines, and . . . wait, is that a Commodore 64 on the floor? Then there are all the faces. A mishmashed tapestry of photos stapled to the walls creates a surreal timeline of rhythm and blues and hairdos, promo pics of black starlets, doo-wop groups, and psychedelic slingers sportin' smiles and 'dos from the pin curl to the jheri curl.

Concealed carry law should be very limited

Ms. Pettie's letter advocating a concealed carry gun law (``NIU shooting shows need for concealed carry law,'' YourViews Feb. 21) offered a few valid points, as do most letters on either side of this debate. I won't argue too hard against her opinions because I share some of them.At the risk of alienating 50 percent of my friends, I offer my own thoughts:A person who cares not if they live or die will not be deterred by an armed population. If they are so sick that they don't care about taking precious human life, then no law or lack thereof will stop them.Any person who plans such a heinous crime in advance will have the element of surprise on their side and will have great advantage against their victims.If you ``get the drop'' on someone you will win the fight. Ask any law enforcement official or military veteran.Besides, most of these sorry souls take their own lives soon after their carnage is complete.Unless a person has extensive training in the use of firearms via law enforcement or military experience, they have no idea how to react to such a situation and should not be carrying a weapon.Imagine this: If 10 of those students or professors in the room at Northern Illinois University were armed when the gunman attacked, is it too far fetched to think that in the confusion and panic that some of those 10 armed citizens would have begun to fire their weapons and that some of those who began to fire might mistake those who are firing as attackers?I have come to believe that the only private citizens who could possibly be qualified to carry guns are current or retired law enforcement and military personnel and they should all have to pass established mental health requirements on a yearly basis.Russ ManuelHudson .

Police Issue Warning - Close Your Garage Doors!

With spring around the corner, police are urging you to close your garage door. Police say usually in the spring and summer months, they get ten to twenty garage burglary cases a month. And, most of the time, the thieves are kids.

They go into neighborhoods all over Tulsa. An open garage door is like a gold mine to them. Police say they always see a big increase garage break in's around this time of year, right when the weather gets warmer. They say the thieves drive around neighborhoods, looking to see who left their garage door open. Then, they quickly go in, steal what they can get and take off.

We spoke to one victim who had her purse stolen right out of her car, which was parked in her garage. She says she never thought it would happen to her.

"It was a nightmare.

Sound Off! (Feb. 24)

This is to the city manager and the mayor: Why are you allowing high school children to ride with police officers? I thought their job was hard enough and dangerous. Plus, who's going to pay for one of these children if one of them happens to get hurt?

It looks like some procedures need to be reevaluated with the sheriff's department. In my department, we were always taught to secure our weapon and not leave it in our car.

So now if other countries decapitate our prisoners, that makes it OK for us to waterboard them? I don't understand your reasoning. Isn't the whole point that the United States is above that sort of thing? Aren't we supposed to be showing countries that we can't treat people that way? We all know that the Iraq war's being started over oil, and yet they threw in also that we were fighting against the atrocities that Saddam Hussein forced upon his people.