Howdy Kats and Kittens,     Hope everyone had a fun New Year's Eve. I'm in Dallas right now getting ready for our Jan/Feb/March tour of Texas, the South and the Eastern seaboard. It's going to be a cold one. That's fine because it's been such a warm winter so far, it's jamming my frequencies.     I just got an e-mail from Los Straitjacket's fan club informing me that their CD "The Velvet Touch of Los Straitjackets" is #13 on Amazon.com ahead of Beck, Metallica, Counting Crows, Fionna Apple and The Backstreet Boys. Wow. I hope this means that something big is happening out there.     Of course, I've been betting for decades now that surf/rock-a-billy/swing/"real" country/lounge/roots of punk will be a big thing. It's needed because, let's face it, metal/hip-hop/alternative/female vocalist-folk/boy-band/girl-band/industrial/dance-mix/computer music/screaming diva shit has been forced down our necks for too long. Amen.     This brings up a point that I'd like to make. When I classify surf with "real" country, it's because there used to be a small group of people who had the great taste to support all of the artists who played that roots type stuff that takes real musicianship to play. And, now it seems that some of the "swing" people, who were not around when we had to hang together to keep these styles of music alive, are, because of their rise to commercial success, are too "pure" to hang out with the "rock-a-billy" types. It used to be that we all had to be there or else there wasn't a crowd enough to warrant The Royal Crown Revue to come to Texas or the East Coast.     Some of these new "purists swing" people forget (or didn't know in the first place) that Reverend Horton Heat was there to help keep swing dancing alive in Southern California and other places across our beautiful Earth. They forget (or like I said -- didn't know) that, had it not been for Brian Setzer and The Stray Cats and the rock-a-billy movement, there wouldn't be a swing-dance fashion show that they now get all dressed up for. I read a review in a "swing" fanzine that rags on The Brian Setzer Orchestra. I think that Brian's big band is one of the best bands in the world ever. In the same magazine, they applaud bands who, though they are now "real" swing, used to be, three short years ago, guys who were trying to sound like Reverend Horton Heat.     This brings up my old point about being a wannabe music critic. Music critics suck and don't really know what they're talking about. Wannabe music critics are even lower than that. It's hard to go lower than the shit in a porta-John but you wannabes are somehow pulling it off.     I remember when you would see the same people at a Dave Alvin show as a you would at a Stray Cats show at a Cramps show at a Royal Crown Revue show at a Flat Duo Jets show at a Big Sandy show at a Southern Culture On The Skids show at a Reverend Horton Heat show at a Dave and Deke Combo show at a Dick Dale show and so on. We all hung together. Dale Watson at the Palomino would have the same swing dancers as Jump With Joey at the King King. Then, you'd see the same people at Social Distortion (roots punk) and The Red Devils (blues). We all hung out together. We created a scene that was the basis for this swing movement. That's why, when I hear some of the bullshit that the so-called "swing purists" come out with, it makes me wonder if commercial success is worth it in the end. I hope that my fans know that it took all of us to make this happen. I think they do. But, I'm sure that certain camps of the swing movement are too stuck-up to realize how much non-swing bands like the Cramps and Social Distortion have contributed to their little daddy-O cryin' "purist" lifestyle. Don't get too big for your new zoot-suit britches.      This swing fad is just about over now anyway. I hope that swing dancing and swing music live forever and thrive without the "fad-follower/self-proclaimed new swing purists". It's all still better than corporate boy-bands and that same old hip-hop beat that somehow won't go away.  OK. I love cars from the twenties through the sixties. I hate SUVs. I'm sick of seeing Dallas assholes showing off how fast they're SUVs are. They are not meant to be driven like that. I know a guy with a '65 Chevy pickup who would make those damn people choke on dust and axle grease. We live in a world of fad followers. And, since you are reading this, I'm assuming that you are a Reverend Horton Heat fan. That's great, because, Reverend Horton Heat is not a fad. Thanks again Jim "Reverend Horton Heat" Heath