Hometown heroes

Punxsutawney Phil just predicted an early spring. That makes him a hero in my book.
ROUTE 1 readers chime in this week with some "hometown heroes" by answering the following FRIDAY QUESTION:
"Who is the best musician from your hometown?"
Laura C. -- Sad to say, although my hometown has spawned great acting talent (Meryl Streep, Roger Bart) and a host of notable politicians (Millicent Fenwick, JFK Jr.), the only musician from Bernardsville, N.J., to achieve fame was J. Giles. What -- you don't remember the J. Giles Band?? Freeze Frame? Centerfold? Actually, that's probably a good thing.
Roseanne H. -- It has to be The Captain & Tennille.
Rick T. -- Johnny Piper! Local musician, and the BEST entertainer in Dubuque, Iowa. No one is even a close second.
Lisa Y. -- Alli Rogers. She'll be back from Nashville to Cedar Falls for a concert on March 3.
Mike D. -- One of Dubuque's most naturally talented musicians is Mark Loeffelholz, currently playing and singing with the duet Julien's Bluff. Mark plays guitar, bass and piano and has written several original songs. He has played in area bands for more than 20 years and is the nephew of another legendary Iowa musician, the late Dick Buscher, who is a member of the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association's Hall of Fame.
Clint A. -- Both of my parents are from the great brew city of Milwaukee and I spent most of my youth there, so I am going to call it home. The Grandfathers of Folk-Punk. Rock's dadaist improvisers. Calcified fossils of teen angst. American roots minimalists. The sonic personification of anxiety. Blues cubists. Spokesmen for misfits. These phrases enter one's mind when thinking of Brian Ritchie, Victor DeLorenzo and Gordon Gano, otherwise known as the Violent Femmes. This was solidified for me while seeing the Femmes headline the Green Man Festival at Spirit Mountain in Duluth two summers ago. Hearing "Blister in the Sun," "Gone Daddy Gone" and "Country Death Song" echoing over Duluth and Lake Superior in the warm summer air was a wicked awesome moment in Duluth. It took me back to my high school days when me and my friends would sneak out to a show at Shank Hall or Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee. That night, I felt like I had to sneak into my house in order to not wake up the 'rents.
Annika H. -- Matt Kittle. He is awesome. I like when he sings "Wheels on the Bus."
Mike M. -- From Savanna, Ill., probably Wayne King, a.k.a. "The Waltz King," a big band leader from the 1920s to 1980s.
Erik H. -- I attended elementary and junior high school in Concord, Calif., the birthplace of Dave Brubeck.
In 1996, Brubeck remarked on the "serendipitous combination of a 'catchy' melody, an insistent rhythm and the general musical climate of the times" that helped make the "Time Out" album and the "Take Five" single a best-selling popular jazz classic for the ages:
"Creating a 'hit' out of the odd-meter experiments of 'Time Out' was the farthest from any of our minds in 1959, when Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright and I went into the studio to record."
That might be my favorite kind of "hit," the one you didn't mean to happen.