Sometimes my musical path of concerts take interesting turns. What are the odds that I'd be conducting American Indian music one week and Cowboy music the next? But that's exactly what's happened. Last week I recorded two very fine pieces by American Indian composer JEROD TATE with the San Francisco Symphony. This week, I'm celebrating the Fourth of July with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and honoring two cowboys that turn 100 this year, John Wayne and Gene Autry. Now cowboys and Indians weren't really my thing growing up - since they were more or less replaced by movies set in outer space like Star Wars - but digging through this music has been really fun. Country and Western is a really interesting blend of blues, mountain music, and German polkas and waltzes. Throw in some Irish fiddling, and some guitar stylings from south of the border, and an accordion from Italy, and you begin to realize that it's a much more culturally rich music that it seems to be on the surface.