The Morning News' Kevin Guilfoile reports that Liz Phair isn't the first rock star to write nutjob letters to the editor after she got bad reviews. Guilfoile has "discovered" [and by "discovered", we mean made up, fabricated, Jayson Blaired] a folk singer named "Ken Oakley" who wrote such insane letters that magazines began reviewing nonexistent Oakley albums solely to generate a response. Like Phair, Oakley has an obsession with children's stories. A sample: "Dear Rolling Stone Magazine, Once upon a time there was a Little Blue Engine that hoped to deliver uplifting folk music to all the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain, but the evil Royal Switchman didn t want him to succeed. The Royal Switchman had predicted another train called Little Stevie Orbit would be the one to carry folk music over the mountain and if the Little Blue Engine made it there first, and the boys and girls liked the Little Blue Engine s songs better than Little Stevie s, the Royal Switchman s reputation as the train yard s hip tastemaker would be shattered forever..."
The indignant correspondence of folksy Ken Oakley [TMN]