ThirdAge Site Opens Virtual HonkyTonk

Calling all country music fans to cyberspace. Clear your throats and step up to the microphone. Today Third Age Media, the Web Site for Grownups, swings open the doors of the Paradise Bar and Grill, the first online honky tonk (http://www.thirdage.com/living/paradise/). The Paradise Bar & Grill features a virtual jukebox with five full-length original country songs available in RealAudio. 

The Paradise Bar & Grill launches with a song-writing contest. Winners will have the opportunity to have their lyrics professionally recorded and played on the jukebox site. The area also features humorous editorial content such as "The Best and Worst Song Titles of All Time" and a short tutorial on how to write a popular country music song. 

"The Internet is becoming a new venue for music of all kinds. Over time, new technologies will introduce millions of listeners to music that otherwise would have gone unheard," said Third Age staffer Rick Bowers, an online journalist and songwriter who developed the feature. "With Paradise Bar & Grill we want visitors to enjoy the music and enter into the creative process as well."

The Paradise Bar & Grill also links to the newly created ThirdAge Cyber Saloon forum - a digital gathering place for country music lovers to discuss favorite songs and artists. Visitors to the forum have expanded the discussion to include blues, rock and other music genres and have started writing a community song, with individual visitors posting lyrics and a host putting together the song line by line.

Third Age Media is a privately held company located in San Francisco, California. Third Age was founded in 1996 by Mary Furlong with the vision of empowering individuals moving toward and beyond 50 to use the Web to make informed decisions as they navigate major life transitions. Third Age's state-of-the-art technology personalizes the delivery of timely, high-quality information and offers the most active web-based community for the 45-plus audience online. The flagship Web site of Third Age Media, ThirdAge.com, consists of seven primary channels: Romance; Health; Money; Technology; Family; Work and Living. Each channel artfully integrates expert advice, self-assessment tools and interactive chat and forums to provide the most trusted platform for decision-making in the Third Age.