My linux trip is fraught with tricks and turns. I started up my machine a few days ago and noticed that sound was missing. After some consternation I googled up a solution. It seems that a recent system software update fouled somehting up - sort of like windows might do. It turns out that the I had to add myself to the sound users group. Here are the steps
see if you are a member of the sound group - getent group | grep audio
if you dont see your login id do this :
sudo adduser XXX audio
test sudo cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp - this sends static to the speakers - stop it with a control C
that seemed to fix things - but for some strange reason the pulseaudio gizmo does not like my machine so I have to go into System-> Preferences-> sound and set the sound device as an OSS type to get things working. Oh yeah - I had to tell Amorak and Audacious they should playback through an OSS rather than a pulseaudio -
So now music plays again in the Black House.