I really love iTunes.

It's truly amazing how much music you can find there, of how many different types. I've been exploring international music lately, and I've found some songs I hadn't heard in more than 50 years.

[caption id="attachment_927" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Sir Harry Lauder"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/album-199850.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-927" title="album-199850" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/album-199850.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I've written about all the amazing French music I have downloaded, and I think I mentioned that the Charles Aznavour album "Duos" had helped me discover the wonderful Italian singer Laura Pausini and the German crooner Herbert Groenemeyer.

But an album of classic French songs had some songs that sounded like old music hall songs, which got me thinking about English music hall songs and that got me thinking about <a title="Sir Harry Lauder" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lauder" target="_self">Sir Harry Lauder</a>, who died three months after I was born.

He was known as the First Knight of the Music Hall, and Winston Churchill called him "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador."

But for some reason, when I listen to him singing his classic "Roamin' in the Gloamin'," I find myself thinking again of my dad and another aspect of him that I truly didn't appreciate enough as a child.

He had perhaps the most eclectic musical tastes of anyone I've ever known, and there are so many artists I enjoy now -- from Lauder to Pete Seeger -- that I first heard through him.

One thing interesting about the Lauder album I downloaded from iTunes. It's classified as a comedy album.

It doesn't matter. I think most of the songs on it were recorded 70 or 80 years ago, and they are extremely evocative of an era.

Of course, to me they evoke my childhood and once again, leave me missing my dad.

He really was a pretty amazing guy.