#69 Break It To Me Gently -- Brenda Lee (1962)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxC3F1hvdo

The precocious “Little Miss Dynamite” first hit the charts before she even became a teenager, but her biggest hits came in the first half of the 1960s, working with producer Owen Bradley. Like Roy Orbison, she had the occasional uptempo hit (her first Top 10 single was “Sweet Nothin’s” in 1960), but there was a certain aching quality to her voice that showed to best advantage on mournful ballads. The titles of some of her biggest hits tell the story – “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to be Wanted” (both of which went to #1), “All Alone Am I”, “Losing You”, and “Fool #1”. “Break It To Me Gently” (which was also a hit for Juice Newton 20 years later) is my personal favorite, particularly the superb bridge – hard to believe how expressively she could interpret this song at the tender age of 16. Fortunately, the “I’ll never love again” that ends the song didn’t turn out to be prophetic, as she’s been married 40 years and counting.

#70 Undercover Of The Night -- The Rolling Stones (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HXZpCTN3rg

It was tough to omit “Dead Flowers”, but although the Stones don’t get into social or political commentary very often, they nail it here. Plus this rocks harder than almost anything they’ve ever done.

Indigo Girls / Shirlette Ammons at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (Annapolis), 4/19/2014

Finding the Maryland Hall (the old Annapolis High School) was a lot easier with the sun still out (as opposed to my fall trip to see Richard Thompson a few years back). We arrived around 7:15, just in time to get one of the last parking spaces in the main lot right next to the building. There was at least one other lot, and a couple of folks directing traffic. Given that the show was a sellout, getting out after it was over was unexpectedly painless – everyone was polite, and it didn’t take too long to get out of the lot and then back onto MD 450. We weren’t all that close to the front (Row Q, seats 2 and 4, on the aisle in the right-hand section), but nevertheless had a good view. (Not surprisingly, the sound was not as good as at Strathmore, where we had seen them a couple years back.)

Amy and Emily were great and the crowd was enthusiastic, although when the girls played “Power of Two” by request, the response to Emily’s invitation to sing along was pretty tepid. They started with “Become You” and ended the main set with “Galileo”, stopping along the way on favorites such as “Fill It Up Again”, “Wood Song”, “Get Out the Map”, and “Shame on You” (which got much of the crowd onto its feet), along with the less-frequently-heard “Love’s Recovery”. Amy also did “Broken Record” from her recent solo album Goodnight Tender. “Closer to Fine”, of course, closed out the show.

Somewhat oddly, there were more people going in and out during the show than I’m accustomed to at any indoor concert, much less one by the Indigo Girls. Louise speculated that it might have been related to the small “bar” in the hallway that was selling wine.

The evening also featured a short opening set by “Durham poet, songwriter, bassist, rapper and singer” Shirlette Ammons, who stuck to rapping for this engagement, featuring a number of tracks from her album Twilight for Gladys Bentley. The background music was decent  but somewhat generic bass-heavy hip-hop. The lyrics may have been great, but these (aging) ears were only able to pick out the occasional word and phrase.

April 20, 2014 – Nationals 3, Cardinals 2 – Nationals Park

Way to beat a good baseball team!

Umpires: HP: Greg Gibson. 1B: Bill Miller. 2B: Vic Carapazza. 3B: Adam Hamari.

Weather: 58 degrees, partly cloudy.

Wind: 11 mph, In from RF.

T: 3:18.

Att: 27,653.

Light Easter traffic, smallish Easter crowd, but a great (if lengthy) game. Got the carnitas tacos from El Verano Taqueria for the first time this season (up to their usual standard), plus cinnamon pretzel bites for the entire crew, in an effort to make sure we use up our bonus eCash dollars before they expire at the end of the season. Realized that the bottled sodas were now up to $5.00 and decided it wouldn’t hurt to cut down on my consumption of sugar and empty calories. Still somewhat chilly, as the official temperature at least at gametime didn’t get into the 60s as predicted, and the shade and wind in our section makes for an even cooler experience. (Pays off on those hot summer afternoons, though.)

With the homestand extending around Easter, it seemed appropriate that the three visiting teams were the Cardinals, the Angels, and the Padres.

As I picked up the Nats’ free program upon entering the park, I chuckled out loud to see Bryce Harper featured on the cover with “Nothing But Hustle” as the headline – ironic given Saturday’s benching for not running out a ground ball. (Knew that “Nothing But …” marketing campaign would get them into trouble sooner or later.) More in Tom Boswell’s Washington Post column this morning.

Strasburg pitched well, giving up single runs in the 2^nd and 5^th before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth. Unfortunately for the Nats, by that point it was “Nothing But Runners Left on Base” (11 thru the sixth inning, with 0 runs). St. Louis starter Shelby Miller issued 5 walks, and the Nats got several hits, but none when it counted. They finally broke through after the seventh-inning stretch, when consecutive singles by LaRoche, Rendon, Desmond, and Espinosa – all but one off 96+ MPH heat from reliever Carlos Martinez – produced two runs to tie the game.

In the bottom of the ninth, after a Desmond strikeout, Espinosa got things started by singling through the legs of third baseman Matt Carpenter, who looked surprisingly shaky on defense throughout the series. Jose Lobaton then singled Espinosa to third, and pinch-hitter Nate McLouth drew a walk to load the bases. With Denard Span up, Cards manager Mike Metheny opted for a five-man infield as his best chance to keep the winning run from scoring. (This strategy gets pulled out occasionally in sudden-death situations, but this is the first time I’d seen it in person.) Span, however, capped a tough 7-pitch at-bat by hitting a fly to medium left field, plenty deep enough to score Espinosa and send most of the crowd home happy.

April games are normally not particularly critical, but given the Nats struggles against the Dodgers, Cards, and Braves last year, and their 1-5 start against Atlanta in 2014, dropping 3 of 4 to St. Louis at home would have just intensified the sentiment that Washington can beat up on baseball’s weaklings but falls apart against quality opposition. Holding their own against the defending NL champs has to (hopefully) boost the team’s confidence for the rest of the season.

Incidentally, I’m not sure I quite understand why, with Span’s return to the leadoff spot, Williams insists on placing his 3 lefthanded hitters in the first 4 spots of the batting order. This basically acts as an open invitation for opposing managers to squelch late-inning rallies by bringing in a LOOGY and allowing him to have the platoon advantage against both Span and Harper (and LaRoche, if he can work around Jayson Werth batting third). Matheny brought in Randy Choate to defuse a potential Nats rally in the sixth, and used Kevin Siegrist in the bottom of the eighth to face the top of the Nats order. (Both Harper and LaRoche reached base against Siegrist, but Pat Neshek retired Rendon to end the threat.)

Jesse Winchester

One of my favorites, the greatly-underappreciated Jesse Winchester, died this past Friday. While his “Nothing But A Breeze” appears on my Top Songs list, he wrote and recorded numerous other classics as well, both while in self-imposed exile in Canada and after his return to the States. The Washington Post ran a nice obituary this morning.

I was lucky enough to get a front-row seat this past October when Winchester did a show at the Barns at Wolf Trap. All acoustic, and one of the most intimate shows I have ever seen.

#71 What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted -- Jimmy Ruffin (1966)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQywZYoGB1g

Despite neither being written by any of the usual Motown regulars nor being performed by one of the label’s biggest stars (Jimmy was always overshadowed by brother David of Temptations fame), “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” is undoubtedly one of the greatest songs to come out of the Motown hit factory. Although Ruffin’s version is still the best, the song also inspired some notable cover versions over the years. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0GcXV2njY -- Joan Osborne, featured in the wonderful documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGxZsnm7srU -- Colin Blunstone (from the Zombies) & Dave Stewart (not from the Eurythmics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_k-SoZnwE -- Paul Young

#72 Mama Said -- The Shirelles (1961)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L842mz-tNBQ

There were quite a few “girl groups” in the late Fifties and early Sixties, but the Shirelles were among the most successful and the best (as far as I’m concerned anyway), and they didn’t even need any help from Phil Spector. Among their many strengths was selecting great material – not only were some of their big hits (notably “Dedicated to the One I Love” and “Baby It’s You”) later successfully covered by other artists (the Mamas and Papas, and Smith, respectively), but the same is true of some tunes that few people are aware they did originally, such as “Boys” (the Beatles) and “Sha La La” (Manfred Mann).

I’ve always had a weakness for songs that say something about life, and “Mama Said” (there’d be days like this) certainly qualifies. Of course, so does “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”.   ;-)

Additional note – the B-side of the single is the classic “Blue Holiday”, which will undoubtedly make it onto my as-yet-uncompiled list of Favorite Christmas Songs.

Updated 5/15/2014 -- According to CSN's story on the Orioles' 9-3 loss to Kansas City on April 27th, Adam Jones found a little solace after dropping a fly ball for a three-base error on the first batter of the game:
“The elements are the elements. Missed it,” Jones said. The song [says], ‘Mama says there’ll be days like this.’ Sometimes you get them, you know what I mean?”

#73 Beyond the Sea -- Bobby Darin (1960)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8OlDPqYBLw

Great swingin’ summer song, which also provided the title for Kevin Spacey’s 2004 Darin biopic. The movie wasn’t a bad effort, but had the misfortune of opening just a few months after Ray (better movie, more influential musical figure), which probably contributed to its grossing only around $8M worldwide (according to IMDb).

 

#74 Satellite – Guster (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekt6PELAcEg

The first time I heard Guster live was several years ago at WXPN’s XpoNential Music Festival, held every July right across the Delaware River from downtown Philly. They were the final act Sunday night, but there was a thunderstorm earlier in the evening, so I adjourned to my hotel and listened to the remainder of the show on the radio. Suitably impressed, I picked up one of their CDs, and several more later.

I did actually see them on October 23, 2010, a date which for other reasons will live in infamy. (The Phils lost the deciding game of the National League Championship Series to San Francisco.) The band came on stage at DAR Constitution Hall to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” (which I thought was cute, given the venue), and everyone naturally stood up. I was a little surprised that nearly everyone remained standing after that, for pretty much the entire show. Same thing (without the fanfare) when I later saw them at Wolf Trap.

They’ve done a lot of great stuff over the years – it was tough to choose between “Satellite”, “Careful”, “Amsterdam”, and “One Man Wrecking Machine” (which was apparently used in the movie Disturbia).

April 10, 2014 – Nationals 7, Marlins 1 – Nationals Park

Nats continue to bully the meek

Umpires: HP: Toby Basner. 1B: D.J. Reyburn. 2B: Jeff Kellogg. 3B: Dan Bellino.

Weather: 67 degrees, sunny.

Wind: 6 mph, Out to LF.

T: 2:53.

Att: 20,869.

Odd 4:05 starting time, small crowd, great weather. The afternoon did not start auspiciously when I was unable to find parking in the “west” parking lot at the Shady Grove Metro station. (Buzzed the parking attendant so I could at least exit without having to pay.) After some agonizing, I finally decided to park in the large Rockville Town Square garage (“Garage A”) off 355 and walk to the Rockville Metro station. This turned out pretty well – I still got to the park around 3:30, and did remember to get off at Rockville on my way home. Was originally planning to grab a couple of the wonderful tacos from the Taqueria sometime mid-game, but wound up just getting a slice of pizza in order to miss as little of the game as possible. (After having a Curly W pretzel earlier, I decided that if the Nats had a special container that fans could use all season to recycle excess pretzel salt, the District might have enough to keep their roads passable all next winter.)

The game did not start out all that well, either. Christian Yelich led off for the Marlins by lining a single to center off Strasburg, and promptly stole second. Sandy Leon’s throw went into center field, and after McLouth overran it Yelich took an extra base – runner on third, no outs. Fortunately, the #2 batter hit a comebacker right to Strasburg. Not clear whether Yelich thought it was going through or believed that the Nats would just concede the run, but he broke for the plate and had no chance in the ensuing rundown, which basically ended the threat.

The Nats didn’t break through until the third inning. Marlins starter Tom Koehler temporarily lost the plate with two out, walking Rendon and falling behind 3-0 to Jayson Werth. Werth got the 3-0 green light and didn’t miss the cripple, giving Washington a 2-0 lead.

Both Strasburg and Koehler put up goose eggs for the middle three innings. The Nats threatened in the fourth – Harper led off with a single, and went all the way from first to third on a hit-and-run ground out to second by Desmond, but Leon and Strasburg took called third strikes to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Strasburg was masterful, fanning a total of 12 Marlins. He finally ran into some trouble in the seventh – Marcell Osuna hit a solo homer with one out, and a two-out walk to normally inoffensive Marlins catcher Jeff Mathis ended his afternoon.

The Nats bullpen, which has struggled at times during the year, came up big today in the tense 2-1 game. Jerry Blevins retired pinch-hitter Reed Johnson to end the seventh, then fanned Yelich and Derek Dietrich to start the eighth. Rookie Aaron Barrett was then called on to face the righthanded-hitting and always dangerous Giancarlo Stanton. With the Marlins one big swing away from tying the game, Barrett struck out Stanton to end the inning.

The tension was mounting as Soriano started to warm in the bullpen, which did not seem to fill several fans in Section 416 with a high degree of confidence. Fortunately, Miami turned to the recently-recalled (and wonderfully named) Arquimedes Caminaro to pitch the bottom of the eighth. With Rendon (leadoff double) on third and Werth (single and stolen base) on second with one out, Caminaro proceeded to walk pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen and Bryce Harper on 4 pitches each, forcing in a run. After a mound visit by the Marlins’ pitching coach, Caminaro did blow a fastball by Desmond, followed by a second one that he took for a ball. The third pitch proved to be the charm, as Desmond knocked it out to center for the Nats’ second slam in as many games.

Soriano’s 2 Ks in the ninth brought the whiff total to 17 for the game, which tied a Nats record for a nine-inning contest.