Rambling Rhoads

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

#164 Heroes Are Hard To Find – Fleetwood Mac (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIARC-2ji6I

In the first half of the 1970s, after their origins as a British blues band and before their emergence as California rock stars following the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac released some largely-overlooked but worthy material, particularly this track (written by Christine McVie) and “Hypnotized” (by then-guitarist Bob Welch, whose departure prompted the addition of Buckingham and Nicks). While the albums released during this period have not been difficult to find on CD, the tracks for some reason weren’t available for purchase in iTunes or Amazon. I continued to check every several months, and lo and beyond they have finally appeared, so I guess I have a couple of purchases to make.

#163 Stranger On The Shore – Mr. Acker Bilk (1962)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jzx664u5DA

That clarinet! Those strings!!!

I still miss the serendipity of going into a record store, browsing leisurely through the bins, and coming up with something I never expected to find. Sometime during the spring of 1974, when I was in DC for American University’s Washington Semester program, I was downtown in one of the local stores (Serenade?), found the album to which this is the title track, and promptly plunked down my 10 bucks (or whatever). The rest of the album is just OK, but this one is still a standout.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bilk apparently re-recorded this song several times, and when I decided I wanted a digital version I bought the wrong version at least twice before finding the original.

#162 Hometown Headstone – Owen Danoff (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqm0IE4mcb0

I’ve mentioned Owen Danoff here on several occasions, so I won’t repeat myself in this entry. This is track 1 from his first (and so far only) full-length CD, and still my favorite Danoff song. Suffice to say that (IMHO) it’s better than almost anything you’ll hear on the radio these days, regardless of format.

#161 Tryin’ Times – Roberta Flack (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La8_flXOTrI

The great Roberta Flack, who got her musical start in DC (after enrolling in Howard University at the tender age of 15), is best known for such hit singles as “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song”, each of which won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year. This song, like the material from Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On LP, continues to resonate today, despite being nearly 50 years old. Written by frequent duet partner Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson, it’s the only track on her debut album First Take with neither a string or horn section, simply featuring a small all-star combo with Flack on piano, Ron Carter on bass, John Pizzarelli on guitar, and Ray Lucas on drums.

Monday, November 6, 2017

Jesse Colin Young – Rams Head On Stage, 11/4/2017

Table 102, Row A, Seats 3-4 – front and center, with my seat only about a foot away from the stage

This was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. Jesse, who remains an excellent acoustic guitarist after all these years, began with a seven-song solo set, which started with “Sugar Babe” and included my two all-time favorites of his, “Songbird” and “Sunlight”. After a break, he brought out his band, consisting of his son Tristan on bass and 6 other recent Berklee College of Music graduates. The musicianship was stellar, particularly on electric guitar and sax, and Jesse was obviously enjoying himself throughout. The band portion of the show featured some material that I wasn’t familiar with, although it also included “Ridgetop”, “Darkness Darkness”, a great medley of “What’s Going On” and “Mercy Mercy Me”, and the obligatory audience sing-along on “Get Together” to end the set (with “T-Bone Shuffle” as the encore).

Setlist

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jesse-colin-young/2017/rams-head-on-stage-annapolis-md-6be0be3a.html

Hey, Dems, a better tax plan isn’t going to write itself

The title of this Steven Pearlstein column is pretty self-explanatory.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/03/hey-dems-a-better-tax-plan-isnt-going-to-write-itself/?utm_term=.8b8ceaf2fafa

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Livingston Taylor – AMP, 11/3/2017

Great VIP seats again, center table in front row

It’s always tough for a solo performer to pull off a two-hour show while keeping the audience engaged throughout, but Livingston Taylor managed to pull it off last night at AMP, with his songs and stories accompanied only by his work on guitar, piano on several songs in his post-intermission set, and frequently-tapping feet. Although many of the songs he performed were older than I am (most notably “Pick Yourself Up”, “Heart And Soul”, and his standard closing medley of “Merry Old Land Of Oz”/”Over The Rainbow”), he also spotlighted more contemporary songwriters such as Stevie Wonder (the opening “Isn’t She Lovely”) and Laura Nyro (the classic “Sweet Blindness”), as well as such originals as “You Can Take Me Home”, “Life Is Good”, and “Writing A Book” (undoubtedly Taylor Swift’s next move). His love of nicely-tuned song lyrics was evident throughout, as he did a recitation of Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics to “I Cain’t Say No” (from Oklahoma!) and spent a few minutes praising the beginning of Lesley Gore’s big hit “It’s My Party”.