It's time for Mailbag May, a long-running (aka brand new) Strong Songs tradition where Kirk spends the month of May catching up on listener questions. NEW PATREON GOAL! A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up to back the show so far on Patreon! You are all beautiful. If Strong Songs can hit its first goal of 150 backers, Kirk will write new theme music for the show. Head over there to learn more: https://www.patreon.com/strongsongs MAILBAG MAY, PART 1 The Strong Songs mailbag overfloweth, and Kirk's got enough material recorded for two Q&A episodes. For this first part, we've got questions about chords, Tool, fire extinguishers, perfect pitch, Avengers and Game of Thrones music, the popularity of the flute, earworms, drum solos, and the inherent humor of the cowbell. REFERENCED ON THIS EPISODE: "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra "Lateralus" by Tool (apparently it's actually pronounced lah-ter-allis) An entertaining video compilation of "The Lick": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDxhnaKD7Q "Turkey in the Straw," American traditional Kirk's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kirkhamilton "The Avengers" by Alan Silvestri "Happy Birthday" by the Hill Sisters "Moondance" by Van Morrison "Juice" by Lizzo from her 2019 album Cuz I Love You The Saturday Night Live "More Cowbell" sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVsQLlk-T0s "The Night King" and "Game of Thrones" by Ramin Djawadi from Game of Thrones "Pacific Rim" by Ramin Djawadi from Pacific Rim "Sight of You" by Sigrid from her 2019 album Sucker Punch "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris, 1963 ———————————— NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST Sign up for Kirk's mailing list to start getting monthly-ish newsletters with music recommendations, links, news, and extra thoughts on new Strong Songs episodes: https://kirkhamilton.substack.com/subscribe STRONG MERCH! Visit the Strong Songs merch store for some very cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com