Back in the late 1980s, me and Susan, my girlfriend at the time, got very lucky. A friend of hers, really more of a business acquaintance, called her out of the blue one day.

A few reactions to Letterman's retirement announcement bring up the idea that he may be stepping down because he never "got" the viral video phenomenon that Fallon and Kimmel have so clearly mastered. I say, nuts to that. Letterman invented viral videos -- we just called them "watercooler moments," and they were spread with your lips, not your fingertips.

Congress, for the first time since 1976, is reviewing and rewriting copyright law and doing so within the context of the Internet and the digital distribution of creative works. The stakes couldn't be higher for the creative community.

While the woman with the golden pipes who plays acoustic and electric guitars is versatile enough to handle ballads and blasters in folk, country and rock, she's a throwback to musicians who also knew how to turn a phrase.