simple and true

Blogger Andrew Sullivan of atlantic.com admits to being hooked on American Idol this season.  (Okay, I admit it; I am too.  You've got to have some guilty pleasures.)  He was completely taken by Jason Castro's choice of  Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on last week's show:

...here is another reason I love America:  It's a white dude in dreads playing a ukelele--a straight guy singing a song that could have been a national anthem for gay men for decades, in a version written by an Hawaiian in honor of a friend who died an early death because of obesity.  And it's also in a strange way completely sublime in its own right and on its own terms.

In our own way, 1st Stage is aiming to be "completely sublime" in our own right and on our own terms.  Artists like Jason and Iz set a high bar.  Here are both men's versions.