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Tag: music (Page 1 of 3)

Alison Krauss and Union Station

August 4, 2011 /

Finally, after 11 years, Edith and I attended the Alison Krauss and Union Station performance last night at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.  We’d last saw her in May, 2000 at the Community Theatre in Morristown in support of her Forget About It album; we had planned to see AKUS in November of 2005 at the NJ Performing Arts Center, but had to forego our tickets due to an intense work schedule that precluded me from taking the time to attend the show.  Alison has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and since the last time we’d seen her AKUS was featured on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? (Record of the Year Grammy winner) as well as Alison’s album Raising Sand with Robert Plant (another Grammy for Record of the Year.)  Last night’s show was a long time overdue.

We bought our tickets back in April, when they first went on sale, and were seated in the third “official” row (3 rows of temporary VIP seats were added in place of the orchestra pit, so in essence we were 6 rows removed.)  The show was good – from Dan Tyminski on guitar and mandolin as well as vocals to the very tight performance of an incredibly gifted group of musicians; you could not ask for more from the world’s premier dobro player in Jerry Douglas, nor the outstanding playing of Barry Bales on upright bass or Ron Block on banjo and guitar. Of course, I love Alison’s fiddle playing, but it is her angelic voice that gets me every time.  Incredibly sweet yet strong at the same time, I am taken in from the very first note until the very last.

I did manage to take some photos with my Droid (but would never consider actually recording the audio or video) and some are better than others.  They don’t do justice to the performance nor capture exactly just how good our seats were.  I just hope it’s not another 11 years before we get to hear Alison perform live for us again.

Alison Krauss & Union Station Setlist State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, USA 2011, Paper Airplane

The Big Man

June 20, 2011 /

Sad news of the passing Saturday night of The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.  Jungleland will never be performed the same again.

April 6, 2011 /

Watched Tangled the other night with the family – I had bought the Blu-Ray DVD earlier in the week. It’s definitely cute. It also contains one of the prettiest songs I’ve heard in a long time, I See The Light, sung by Mandy Moore and Zach Levi. It really is quite beautiful.

Tangled – I See The Light

Nobody’s Girl

March 25, 2011 /

She don’t need anybody to tell her she’s pretty,
She’s heard it every single day of her life.
He’s got to wonder what she sees in him when there’s so many others
Standing in line.
She gives herself to him, but he’s still on the outside.
She’s alone in this world
She’s nobody’s girl
She’s nobody’s girl

She shows up at his doorstep in the middle of the night
Then she disappears for weeks at a time.
Just enough to keep him wanting more
But never is he satisfied.
And he’s left to pick up the pieces
Wondering what does he do this for.
She’s off in her own little world
She’s nobody’s girl
She’s nobody’s girl

He said, Before I met her, I didn’t love nothing.
I could take it or leave it,
That was okay, but, she brings out a want in me, of things I didn’t even
Know that I need.

She does anything she wants, anytime she wants to.
With anyone, you know, she wants it all.
Still she gets all upset over the least little thing.
When you hurt her, it makes you feel so small.
And she’s a walking contradiction, but I ache for her inside.
She’s fragile like a string of pearls,
She’s nobody’s girl.
She’s nobody’s girl.
She’s nobody’s girl.

To Purge or Not To Purge

March 3, 2011 /

“People used to make records, as in a record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room.”

Do I really still need to hold onto my old vinyl LPs from the 70’s and 80’s anymore?  Is there any real value in holding onto them? I never play them, although I do still have a turntable set up, with the intent that I will digitize some of the LPs onto my PC, but I’m finding even the effort to do that is better spent elsewhere, and I can just download the digital version from Amazon, or iTunes, or wherever.

There may be a couple of LPs worth saving – the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls with the original insert and the green top striped cover is somewhat rare; other albums have value in that they have not been released digitally, while others have certain sentimental value, but that hardly makes them worth keeping, especially when space is tight and getting tighter around the house.

The Show Goes On

January 23, 2011 /

Last weekend I spent some time painting one of the hallways – it was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint – and I decided to plug in my iPod while I worked.  Rather than listen to a random selection of Genius picks, I chose two albums to listen to in their entirety:  Bonnie Raitt’s Nick Of Time, and Bruce Hornsby’s Scenes From The Southside.  I had not listened to these in a long, long time, and playing them again made me remember what really good albums they are.  Nick Of Time won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1990; Scenes From The Southside is Hornsby’s second release with The Range, and I’d always liked this album better than BHATR’s first album The Way It Is, and one song in particular, The Show Goes On is one of my favorites.

It was featured in the trailer for an early Leonardo DiCaprio movie, This Boy’s Life, based upon autobiographical tales by Tobias Wolff.  I saw the movie in the theatre back when it was released in the early 1990’s, and although I loved the film I was disappointed that the song does not actually appear in the movie.

Here is the trailer:

Sixty Years On

January 7, 2011 /

The song for the day is Elton John’s Sixty Years On:

Who’ll walk me down to church when I’m sixty years of age
When the ragged dog they gave me has been ten years in the grave
And senorita play guitar, play it just for you
My rosary has broken and my beads have all slipped through
You’ve hung up your great coat and you’ve laid down your gun
You know the war you fought in wasn’t too much fun
And the future you’re giving me holds nothing for a gun
I’ve no wish to be living sixty years on
Yes I’ll sit with you and talk let your eyes relive again
I know my vintage prayers would be very much the same
And Magdelena plays the organ, plays it just for you
Your choral lamp that burns so low when you are passing through
And the future you’re giving me holds nothing for a gun
I’ve no wish to be living sixty years on

Happy Birthday, WMW.

Because It’s There

January 7, 2011 /

I’m not really one to use this blog to just re-hash content that is already published on the web.  I think it is cheap and easy and unoriginal to use a blog as such – I would rather read what the blog is writing, view their photos, or their artwork, or whatever.

So I apologize for this post, as it is really nothing more than a link to a YouTube video of Michael Hedges playing Because It’s There.  For some reason, I was thinking of Michael tonight, and where I was when I learned that he had died.

It was December 3, 1997, and I was in Center City Philadelphia attending a training session at CoreStates for a couple of days.  Specifically, the training was way up on the upper floors of a building on Walnut Street between 5th and 6th, overlooking Independence Hall.  I was on a lunch break, and had walked down to 8th and Walnut to pick up the engagement ring I was planning to give to Edith in NYC on the 6th.  I then walked up 8th, and was crossing Market Street, listening to Because It’s There in my head.  I’ve liked this song since I first heard in on a Windham Hill Sampler CD sometime in the mid-80’s  I would swear there were two people playing, but Michael was just an incredible guitarist.

Because It’s There

Richie, Richie, Richie…

January 5, 2011 /

…and Dar Williams.  Received a phone call from the NJPAC this afternoon, that the concert scheduled for April 29 has been canceled.  Bummer!  I had scored some really good orchestra seats for Edith and I to have a night out alone, and was really looking forward to the show.  I was offered the opportunity to exchange the tickets for a different show, but nothing else jumped out at me so I’m just taking the refund.

This is the second time a concert has been canceled on me – the last time was back in the mid 90’s, when Edith and I were to see Nanci Griffith at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, when I received a call on the afternoon of the show that Nanci was ill.  I was bummed then too, but we had already seen Nanci on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.  I’ve seen Dar several times before, but never saw Richie.

I only sat behind him a 5ive hour flight from Newark to San Francisco.

Fun With iTunes, Revisited

January 3, 2011 /

A 5ive year follow up to my December 2005 post… let’s see what’s changed:

How Many Songs:

10,221

Sort By Song Title

First Song: À la Mode – Art Blakey, The Impulse! Collection: the Best of Impulse!, Vol. 1

Last Song:  99.9 F – Suzanne Vega, 99.9° F

Last Alphabetical Song: Zorro: Zorro – The Mellomen, The Music Of Disney: A Legacy In Song

Sort By Time

Shortest Song: Back — Janet Jackson

Longest Song: The Sinking of the Titanic — Gavin Bryars

Top 5ive Most Played

  1. Seasons Reprise – Elton John, Rare Masters
  2. Bring A Torch Jeanette, Isabella/When Blossoms Flowered ‘Mid The Snows – Liz Story, The Gift
  3. Here Comes The Sun – Richie Havens, Alarm Clock
  4. Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming – Anne & Pete Sibley, Winter On the Great Divide: a Christmas Album
  5. Lullay, Lully – Barbara Higbie, A Winter’s Solstice, Vol. 3

First Song That Comes Up On Shuffle

Just a Memory – Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Get Happy!! [Ryko Bonus Tracks]

“sex” songs – 18

“death” songs – 3

“love” songs – 617

“you” songs – 1123

Over 3,600 songs have been added in 5ive years: 3 more sexy songs, a bunch of new love and you songs, but I guess my musical sense of morbidity has been stable.  Also looks like iTunes is now smart enough to know that ‘Round should alphabetize under R.

The Twelve Songs of Christmas – 2010

November 28, 2010 /

A follow up to last year’s list of songs that would appear on my list of twelve Christmas songs, i.e. the dozen top Christmas songs that, for one reason or another, are my favorites.  Again, this year, a few popped into my head immediately, and generally the list came together pretty quickly this year.  Here they are, in no particular order:

  1. Coventry Carol/Lo, How A Rose ‘Ere Bloometh, Edgar Meyer, from Sounds Of The Season.  An absolutely haunting rendition of a haunting carol, c. the 16th century.  I first heard this late one night when listening to WHYY 90.9.
  2. Christmas Bells, John Gorka, from A Winter’s Solstice, Volume 3.  OK, I admit I’m a fan of the early Windham Hill records, and the holiday collections A Winter’s Solstice.  Volumes 1 and 2 are so inviting, for me the Christmas season is incomplete without listening to them half a dozen times or more.  Volume 3 starts to expand the sound of the collections, and includes vocals for the first time.  I’d bought this CD long before I really knew about John Gorka and grew to love his music and voice, but I’ve always loved this song.
  3. Prelude/Carol Of The Bells, George Winston, from December.  Again, this early Windham Hill classic never fails to transport me to some very happy memories of the Christmas season.
  4. Preiset Dem König! (Praise the King)/Emmanuel/Little Town/Christmas Hymn, Amy Grant, from A Christmas Album.  OK, so not really one song, but these 4 string together so nicely on Amy Grant’s first Christmas album.  I was not much a fan of Amy Grant when Edith introduced me to this album one day at work.  I have to admit; I loved it immediately, and usually play it each year when the tree is being decorated.  This album reminds me of how Edith is such a little kid at Christmas, and how she gets so excited, that I can’t help but loving her more when it is playing!
  5. Il Est Né/Ca Berger, Kate & Anna McGarrigle and The Chieftains, from The Bells of Dublin.  A nice mix of a French carol sung to Irish instrumentation.
  6. On Grafton Street, Nanci Griffith, from The Flyer.  Not really a Christmas song, per se, but Christmas themed.  A sweet remembrance of Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland:

    It’s funny how my world goes ’round without you,
    Oh, you’re the one thing I never thought I could live without
    I just found this smile to think about you,
    You’re a Saturday night, far from the madding crowd.

  7. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Darlene Love, from A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector.  What is Christmas without the wall of sound?
  8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Cadillacs, from For Collectors Only.  I just love the doo-wop vocal stylings of this recording, and I can’t help singing it this way myself.
  9. Christmas Night in Harlem, Louis Armstrong, from What A Wonderful Christmas.  A toss up here, as I could have gone with Christmastime in New Orleans, but I like the big band horns of this just a hair better.
  10. Christmas Is Coming, Vince Guaraldi, from A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Tough choice here, as I could have gone with Skating as well.  Fond memories of watching A Charlie Brown Christmas in the late 60’s on my family’s living room floor in North Philadelphia.
  11. Green Christmas, Stan Freberg, from Green Christmas.  Not really a song, but a satirical look at the commercialism and merchandising of Christmas, recorded over 50 years ago in 1958.  Even more relevant today, it is a gentle reminder of “who’s birthday we’re celebrating.”
  12. Medley: Happy Xmas (War Is over)/Give Peace a Chance (Reprise), John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band, from Shaved Fish.  Sure, it’s been over-recorded and over-played for decades now, but this is just a beautiful Christmas song.  I must have heard this song a million times on the night of December 8, 1980 alone, and cried every time.  December 1980 now seems like so long ago…

There are many more songs that could appear on this list, and by no means do I attest that these are the best Christmas songs of all time, but if I had to listen to only these 12 Christmas songs, I’d be more than happy for a very long time.

Promise Delivered

November 18, 2010 /

Received the Limited Edition Deluxe Collection of Bruce Springsteen’s 2 CD set The Promise and digitally remaster CD of Darkness On The Edge Of Town yesterday, which also includes 3 Blu-ray DVDs of The Making of Darkness…, a live concert of Darkness at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, and a full concert recorded in Houston on the 1978 Darkness tour.  Oh, and it also came with a replica t-shirt from the Darkness tour.  And a poster from the Darkness tour.

The packaging is also pretty cool – it is all contained in a replica notebook of Bruce’s handwritten notes from the songs that made it onto Darkness as well as those that were unreleased until The Promise.

Watching all of the DVDs in this set will take over 6 hours, so I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to watch them all, but I did watch a little of the Houston concert, to compare the version of Prove It All Night against the version from the Capitol Theatre on September 19, 1978.  I must say, although I’ve listed to the Capitol version so many times over the years I can hear it in my sleep, the Houston version is pretty darn good too.  I’ll watch Because The Night and Point Blank next, to see how they stack up, but all in all I am pleased with my purchase – which at $125, is a very good thing.

I did watch the band’s 2009 performance of Darkness in Asbury Park – obviously Bruce and the band have aged, and Danny is gone, but the performance is actually very, very good (except I hate when Bruce rushes his lyrics, as he is prone to do nowadays) and they sound as good as the 1978 tour on Prove It All Night and Racing In The Street.   Probably my favorite song from the Darkness studio recordings is Something In The Night, which I think I’ve only ever seen Bruce perform once live, but again, Bruce, Max and the band deliver.  On the same DVD are some archival videos of Bruce c. 1976 – 1978, including the Phoenix show which aired on The Old Whistle Stop, and they perform with all of the energy that later appears in Houston and Passaic.

It wasn’t until the end of the Phoenix show and watching the Asbury Park performance that I realized that not only did the band perform so well together, so consistently, but also that there was something missing, which made watching and listening to the band perform so enjoyable: Patti was not included in any of the performances.  Again, a very good thing.

11-17-70

November 17, 2010 /

Geez, 40 years since this album was recorded from a live radio concert on WNEW in NYC.  I was just a kid back then, barely 8 years old and I’d never really heard of Elton John or knew any of his songs… it would be at least another two years before I began to listen to him regularly, and another year or so before I heard this album.  It’s not a classic by any means, although it does offer up some fine live versions of Can I Put You On?, Burn Down the Mission and Amoreena, but it is a milestone for me at a certain point in my life when I discovered the joy and insight of popular music.

Hooters

October 3, 2010 /

Received a text from Roger this afternoon: looks like the boys will be back in Philly for a Thanksgiving show on Friday, November 26th at the Electric Factory. Roger and I are in – just need to convince Tommy too!

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