The sharpened battle lines since Newtown have made it easier for LaPierre to pitch his uncompromising message that gun owners must band together to fight liberal elites out to take their firearms.

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Donald Lee Hackett, a singer and guitar player with the Roving Trio, heard the pitch and went on the trail with Gore, sometimes bringing his band.

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Fully appreciating this music requires the high pitch of concentration usually found in a concert hall (eating stuffed cabbage while the band plays would be like juggling and riding a bicycle at the same time), and yet it also demands the kind of intimate connection between musician and audience that's only possible in a nightclub like Birdland.

WSJ: The Jazz Scene: Intercontinental Artistic Missions

"I knew before that it would be so difficult for me as a composer because traditional musical instruments are never played in big performances, Cambodian musicians never read (musical) notes, they don't work with a conductor and especially related to the tune -- the pitch of traditional instruments -- it's not enough tune to perform with the rock band, " Him Sophy said.

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