Unchain My Heart – Ray Charles
Heard 11/10/2014 around noon, at Zoe’s Kitchen
(Kentlands)
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Stevie Wonder “Songs in the Key of Life” Tour, Verizon Center, 11/9/2014
The
legendary Stevie Wonder doesn’t tour all that often, and I had never seen him
live, so it was a no-brainer to get tickets for the Washington stop of his
latest tour, which was dedicated to performing the entirety of his Songs in the Key of Life album. The
three seats we wound up getting (Section 211, Row L, 10-12) turned out to be
not bad at all. They were relatively far back (right side facing the stage,
probably at around what would be the far goal line for hockey), but at the end
of a row, with an unobstructed view of the stage and video screen, and in the
last row of the section, so we could stand up at will without having any guilt
feelings about blocking anyone else. Getting in and through security didn’t
take all that long, and even the Metro on the way home was surprisingly
uncrowded, especially since the concert appeared to be sold out.
Needless to
say, the show (which ran close to 3 hours) was fantastic. Wonder started by
joking about “losing his voice” and having to cancel the show, and gave special
thanks to band members Greg Phillinganes and Nathan Watt, both of whom were
also on the original recording. He and his large cast of musicians (including
horns, a string section, and backup singers) launched into “Love’s in Need of
Love Today”, which is the first track of Side 1 of the album. The crew then
moved through Sides 1 and 2 of the first record in the set, winding up with the
first two songs from the 4-track bonus EP, “Saturn” and “Ebony Eyes”. After
intermission, they resumed with the crowd favorite “Isn’t She Lovely”, where
Wonder featured his now grown-up daughter and backup singer Aisha Morris, who inspired
(and appears, as a baby, on the original). After finishing up Side 3 (the first
side of the second full-length record in the set), Wonder wisely chose to do
the two remaining songs from the EP (“All Day Sucker” and the instrumental “Easy
Goin’ Evening”) before moving on to the final side, concluding with the
favorites “As” (which I’m still puzzled was not titled “Always”) and the
driving “Another Star”, which fortunately was long enough to give Wonder time
to introduce all the numerous members of his backup ensemble. After the lengthy
standing ovation had died down, he teased the crowd by playing the first few
bars of “Do I Do” and “Master Blaster” before sending everyone home happy with
a full performance (and crowd singalong) of “Superstition”.
Stevie
alternated between keyboards, standup vocals, and harmonica throughout the
evening, and seemed to be in fine voice throughout, despite his joking around
at the beginning. Highlights included several appearances by special guest
India.Arie (in a variety of colorful outfits), and the one-two punch of his #1
hits “Sir Duke” and “I Wish” near the beginning.
Monday, November 10, 2014
#10 Brian Wilson -- Barenaked Ladies (1997)
Semi-biographical
ode to the troubled musical genius of the Beach Boys – great enough that Brian
Wilson himself started doing a cover version of the song in concert. I don’t
often listen to the Washington rock station (DC 101), but for some reason I had
it on one night in the late 1990s and they played the live version of this from
BNL’s Rock Spectacle album. This is
definitely one of those songs where the live version far exceeds the original
studio recording, so much so that it’s the version that the band included on
their best-of compilation.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Serendipity #24
Silver Lining – Rilo Kiley
Heard 11/5/2014 around 12:15, at Boston Market (White Oak)
Monday, November 3, 2014
The James Hunter Six w/ Emily Elbert, The Hamilton, 11/1/2014
If you’ve
never seen James Hunter and his band live, put it on your bucket list.
Immediately. The best description of his style I’ve found was in a New Yorker article from earlier this
year – “rooted in American soul music without being bound to it”. Their CDs are
great, but they’re even better live.
As usual,
Hunter and crew – Kyle Koehler on organ, Jason Wilson on double bass, Jonathan
Lee on drums, Damian Hand on tenor sax, Lee Badau on baritone sax – were at the
top of their game during their 100-minute set at the Hamilton in downtown DC
(14th & F NW). They hit most of the tracks from their 2013 Minute by Minute album, a number from
the earlier CDs People Gonna Talk and
The Hard Way, two or three I didn’t
recognize (new?), and the usual knockout cover version of The “5” Royales’ 1953
smash R&B hit “Baby Don’t Do It”. They did do my all-time favorite (“I’ll Walk Away”) near the end of the set, and finished with an audience
call-and-response on “Talking ‘Bout My Love”.
Emily Elbert
did about a 35-minute solo opening set – has some background (and awards) in
both folk and jazz, along with a great voice. She particularly wowed the crowd
with cover versions of “Whipping Post” (with a couple bars of “Manic Depression”
in the middle), “Crazy”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”. Her originals weren’t bad
at all, although on most of them I felt that a somewhat more sedate guitar
style might have allowed her vocals and lyrics to come through better. She also
provided more evidence for the maxim that it’s generally a bad idea for anyone
to cover a song that Aretha Franklin has made famous (“Until You Come Back To
Me” in this case).
This was my
second trip to the relatively new Hamilton, both times for the JH6. We arrived
about 20 minutes before the downstairs doors were scheduled to open (actually
opened about 5 minutes after we arrived), with the line about halfway up the
steps to the performance room. (The stairs are black and lighted in a domino
pattern, which is much more attractive to look at than to navigate.) We sat in
the row of tables closest to the stage, with the dance area in between.
Although this did somewhat hamper our view of the stage from time to time, a
couple of us had as much fun observing the dancers as watching the show. The
downstairs menu is relatively limited (there’s a separate restaurant upstairs),
but the burgers and pizza were at least serviceable.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
#11 The Summer Wind -- Frank Sinatra (1966)
Sinatra
has to be my favorite male singer of all time. (My favorite female singer would
be Eva Cassidy.) This is such a great summer song, I really regretted leaving it out
of the top 10, and almost wound up doing a last-minute switch. Having said
that, it was a close call selecting this as my favorite Sinatra song over some
other worthy contenders.
I was
surprised and delighted that this song came in at #133 on WXPN’s recent
countdown of the “885 All Time Greatest Songs” – the highest entry of 3 Sinatra
songs to make the list.
#12 Red Streamliner -- Little Feat (1977)
Little
Feat almost certainly has to be the best rock-era act that not only never hit
the top 40, but never even had a song in the Hot 100. To be fair, back in the
day you actually had to release a song on a 45 RPM record (or, later, as a
12-inch, cassette, or CD single) to get onto the Billboard chart, and as far as
I can tell Little Feat never did anything of the sort, certainly not during
their 1970s heyday. Nevertheless, they got quite a bit of airplay on FM rock
and alternative stations with such classics as “Fat Man In The Bathtub” and “Dixie
Chicken”.
“Red
Streamliner” is not as well-known or catchy as those two, with much more
complexity in both the melody and chord progressions, but it has a haunting
beauty, and is one of the two best songs of all time about trains. (The other
one will appear at #7 on this list.) Michael McDonald’s backing vocals also
help tremendously.
Shuffle #35 (November 1, 2014)
Nowhere
Man – The Beatles
F.M. –
Steely Dan
Fill It Up
Again – Indigo Girls
No Smoke
Without Fire – James Hunter
El
Salvador – Garland Jeffreys
Welcome
Back – John Sebastian
You Know I’m
No Good – Amy Winehouse
Always The
Last To Know – Del Amitri
Hello It’s
Me – Todd Rundgren
Monday, October 27, 2014
#13 Try A Little Tenderness -- Otis Redding (1966)
There aren’t
any “really old” recordings (defined here as “a lot older than I am”) in this
list, but there are a few really old songs. Most of them, such as "Georgia On My Mind" and "Beyond The Sea", are generally recognized as classics. That’s not so
much the case for “Try A Little Tenderness”, although it has been recorded by
Bing Crosby and numerous other folks starting in 1932. No one, however, did
such a radical reworking as Otis – not particularly tender, but definitely
soulful.
#14 Am I The Same Girl -- Swing Out Sister (1992)
This one
has an interesting history. It was first recorded in 1968 by R&B singer
Barbara Acklin, but became a big hit as the instrumental “Soulful Strut”
(credited to Young-Holt Unlimited) when a revised version was released later that
year with Acklin’s vocals removed. Both Acklin and Dusty Springfield released
the vocal version of the song in 1969, neither with much chart success.
Swing Out
Sister finally rescued the song in its full glory from obscurity in 1992. The
Acklin and Springfield versions aren’t bad, but Corinne Drewery and crew really
make it their own.
Incidentally,
one of the best CD bargains I ever picked up was in the mid-1990s in Clearwater
FL (down mainly for spring training, naturally), where I found a Swing Out
Sister “In-Store Play Sampler” for a mere $1.99. I don’t think I gained a lot
of cred from the clerk with my purchase, but the 7 tracks proved that SOS did
some great stuff beyond their few hit singles.
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