LIFE IS PEACHES AND CREAM.

I'm in shock. And devastated. Yet another musician that I greatly admire is no longer with us. No, not an old rock'n'roll legend, but someone who's younger than me.

Just minutes ago I decided to poke around myspace.com and check out a few of my favorite musicians, and found that one of them died recently from a long battle with brain cancer.

I've been a big fan of Logan Whitehurst's since I first heard some of his music on the Dr. Demento Show a few years ago; apparently he had already been a favorite on the show at the time, but I hadn't heard Dr. Demento in a while. His tunes were catchy and whacky, so naturally I had to buy his latest CD, Goodbye, My 4-Track.

The CD arrived one spring weekend in 2004 when my wife was out of town for a couple of days, and I was feeling kind of down and lonely. Well, Goodbye, My 4-Track really cheered me up. Logan's incredible comic timing and just pure talent made me sit up and take listen. On one CD I heard influences from The Beatles, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Brian Wilson (about a year after I first heard the CD, Dr. Demento played the track "Your Brain Fell Out" and commented that it had "some of the nicest harmonies this side of Pet Sounds"), Paul Revere & The Raiders, the L.A. powerpop scene, and of course "Weird Al" Yankovic...and the guy has amazing musical talent even if you disregard the comedy. Simply wonderful. You have the whackiness of the intro, the "Farkle" commercial, and "Monkeys Are Bad People." There's the brilliant production of "Your Brain Fell Out" and the polyphonic vocals of "The Volcano Song." You can't help but smile when listening to "How You Doin' Emily," a supercharged tribute to his sister that he wrote for her as a birthday present. And you gotta love "Prosthetic Brain," with its background vocals singing the words "locomotive, coal car, dining car, sleeping car..." Just brilliant!

Long ago I heard that he had gone through surgery to remove the tumor from his brain and that his prognosis was a 99% chance of a full recovery. Sometimes that one percent wins, unfortunately. At least we have the music. And I urge you to give it a listen. Check out Logan on his myspace page -- www.myspace.com/loganwhitehurst. You can get Goodbye, My 4-Track from both www.pandacide.com and www.amazon.com. Samples of his great music are available on all the aforementioned sites. Hell, fork over the ten bucks for the CD -- you won't regret it.