August 19, 2018 – Marlins 12, Nats 1 – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/gio-gonzalez-rocked-in-nats-loss-vs-marlins/c-291032340

 

Attendance: 31,435

Duration: 2:40

Weather: 86 degrees, Partly cloudy

Wind: NNW 7 MPH

Umpires: HP: Will Little. 1B: Kerwin Danley. 2B: Ben May. 3B: Ted Barrett.

 

Boswell: After latest horror show, season feels officially dead

 

Game notes – Gio again dug a deep hole, allowing 3 runs in the 3^rd (two resulting from walks) and 3 more in the 5^th before being lifted … Greg Holland relieved Gio and allowed his two inherited runners to score … Tommy Milone absorbed the final 4 innings, allowing 3 Miami round-trippers … Harper contributed to the debacle by failing to reach 2 catchable balls in the 3^rd, and dropping one for an error in the 7^th … Turner booted an easy grounder in the 8^th, at which point we decided to leave … Nats “offense” consisted of doubles by Wieters and Eaton in the bottom of the 3^rd … Miami villain Jose Urena pitched a two-hit complete game, retiring the final 16 Nats after walking Soto for the second time in the 4^th

 

Other – our early departure from Rockville paid off, as we got one of the final remaining parking spaces along Half Street SW

August 17, 2018 – Nats 8, Marlins 2 – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/bryce-harper-collects-500th-rbi-in-win/c-290787052

 

Attendance: 37,106

Duration: 3:03

Weather: 80 degrees, Overcast

Wind: SSW 7 MPH

Umpires: HP: Ben May. 1B: Ted Barrett. 2B: Will Little. 3B: Kerwin Danley.

 

Section 320, Row E, Seats 3-5 – next-to-last 300-level section down the right field line, next-to-last row from the top

 

Game notes – Scherzer got his 16^th win of the season, blanking Miami through 6 innings on 5 hits and 1 walk while fanning 7 … he also contributed at the plate, scoring from second on a Harper single in the 3^rd, doubling an inning later and scoring on Eaton’s double … Zim and Wieters hit solo homers in the 3^rd and 5^th respectively, and Bryce manufactured a run in the 4^th, hustling out a double, reaching third on a wild pitch, and scoring on Rendon’s sac fly … Trevor Gott gave up 2 runs in the top of the 7^th before Grace came in to end the inning … Nats got those 2 runs back plus 1 in the bottom of the frame, featuring 5 Nats singles and 2 Marlins errors

 

Other – a light rain fell through parts of the game, although the threatened thunderstorms never materialized

Aretha Franklin

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/aretha-franklin-musics-queen-of-soul-dies-at-76/2018/08/16/c35de4b8-9e9f-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?utm_term=.c35350cb1f4c

 

It seems somehow appropriate that the news of Aretha’s death broke during WXPN’s weekly-in-the-summer “Throwback Thursday”, which today has been devoted to music by women. Fittingly enough, it's now morphing into a longer tribute to The Queen Of Soul.

 

I saw her live twice, once at Wolf Trap many years ago, and in November of 2012 at DAR Constitution Hall (attended by, among others, Michelle Obama and Eric Holder). Both shows were great, although relatively short. Her recorded legacy, of course, is amazing.

 

Favorite songs:

Ain’t No Way

Angel

Freeway Of Love

Respect

Chain Of Fools

Day Dreaming

Rock Steady

Until You Come Back To Me

I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)

I Say A Little Prayer

Who’s Zoomin’ Who

Something He Can Feel

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves

 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Since You’ve Been Gone

 

Lyle Lovett & His Large Band – Wolf Trap, 8/10/2018

Row L, Seat 25 (leftmost “center section” seat)

 

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

 

This is certainly true of Lyle Lovett & His Large Band. You can count on impeccable musicianship in a wide variety of styles. (The Wolf Trap program blurb listed “country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel, and blues”.) Most of the players remain the same; some have been with him for over 20 years. The basic structure of the lengthy, intermission-free set (about 2 ½ hours) is pretty standard: an instrumental intro (typically “Blues Walk”) that allows all of the band members to stretch out before Lyle takes the stage, a mostly upbeat sequence featuring the full band, a more acoustic/introspective mini-set in the middle that includes headlining takes by fiddler Luke Bulla and guitarist Keith Sewell, and a rousing final sequence (ending this night, as is often the case, with “Church”), and an encore or two. Classics such as “If I Had A Boat”, “Here I Am”, and “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas)” find their way into almost every show.

 

The changes, of course, are what makes the experience so rewarding over the years. When compared to the previous time I saw them two summers ago, “Penguins” found its way to the beginning of the show, right after Lyle came on, while Francine Reed’s “Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues” moved to near the end. A couple of non-Lyle songs that he had contributed to movies, “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” and “Straighten Up And Fly Right”, appeared. And Lyle and Francine broke out some dance steps on both “Gee Baby” and “Penguins”. I don’t recall hearing “Choke My Chicken” before either live or recorded, and I don’t think I’d heard him do “Cute As A Bug” or “San Antonio Girl” live before. Those two are both from the stellar My Baby Don’t Tolerate album; an extended version of the title cut was one of the evening’s highlights.

 

My new favorite coming out of the show is “This Old Porch”, which he co-wrote with fellow Texan (and Texas A&M student) Robert Earl Keen. There’s a great article about it in an old issue of Texas Monthly, and the video is outstanding.

Shuffle #108 (August 9, 2018)

Going Mobile – The Who

Big Train (From Memphis) – John Fogerty

For Her Love – Marshall Crenshaw

Need To Belong – Jerry Butler

Why Walk When You Can Fly – Mary Chapin Carpenter

Workin’ On A Groovy Thing – The 5^th Dimension

Marie Marie – The Blasters

Judy’s Turn To Cry – Lesley Gore

Take Me To The River – Talking Heads

Don’t Worry Baby – Los Lobos

August 5, 2018 – Nats 2, Reds 1 – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/tanner-roark-goes-7-nats-win-series-vs-red/c-289018082

 

Attendance: 33,486

Duration: 2:39

Weather: 90 degrees, Partly Cloudy

Wind: 5 MPH, L to R

Umpires: HP: Jeff Nelson. 1B: Chad Whitson. 2B: Manny Gonzalez. 3B: Andy Fletcher.

 

Game notes – the Nats scored their only runs early, on a second-inning HR by Matt Wieters and a two-out RBI double by Harper an inning later … Tanner Roark had another strong outing, lasting 7 innings after surviving a 4^th inning that started with 4 straight singles … Madson and Herrera finished things off by retiring all 6 batters they faced

 

Other – the actual crowd appeared to be significantly smaller than the announced attendance on an extremely hot, humid afternoon … our old go-to parking area was fenced off due to impending demolition/construction, so apparently we will need to find somewhere else

2018 XPoNential Music Festival, July 27-29, Wiggins Park (Camden NJ)

Friday wound up being unattractive due to parking and weather issues. The “neutral” (i.e. not from the always-optimistic WXPN folks) weather forecasts from Weather.com and KYW called for a strong probability of storms mid-evening. The frequently-changing info from the XPNFest web site indicated that only one lot south of the Ben Franklin Bridge would be available prior to 6pm. The RiverLine light rail, which I used before, was not particularly useful, since the last train left the XPNFest neighborhood around 9:30. So Plan A was to get to Camden around 2:30 and (hopefully) park. As it turned out, after circling around several times I was completely unable to find the promised “Lot 6”, and decided to just catch the Wiggins Park performances on the radio. As it turned out, the skies opened up between 7:00 and 7:30, forcing the cancellation of the planned Lone Bellow set. They also wound up closing the XPNFest section of the RiverLine due to flooding, and one couple I talked to while waiting in line Sunday said they wound up parking in a chop shop Friday. In other words, no regrets.

 

Saturday was hot and humid, but with only a slight chance of rain, so I got there before the gates opened, had no problem parking and stayed for the duration of the Wiggins Park sets. Sunday was better weather-wise, with mid-80s temperatures and nominally low humidity, but it was still really hot in the sun. The crowd seemed like one of the largest I’ve run into, making it difficult to catch the Marina Stage performances if you were set up by the main stage. I found myself running out of gas several hours in, and decided to leave around 5:15.

 

Two sets were particularly noteworthy, both on Saturday.

 

I wasn’t especially familiar with Mondo Cozmo, but they took the River Stage midway through the afternoon and absolutely crushed it, winning ovations not only from the up-front standees (a crowd which ultimately extended almost halfway back the main walkway) but also from those of us sitting on the lawn. Frontman (and Bucks County native) Joshua Ostrander got things off on the right foot by sporting a blue Joel Embiid jersey, with the band’s opening “Come With Me” bringing to mind U2 in their prime. Other highlights included “Shine”, “Automatic”, “Tonight Tonight”, and a special, family-friendly edited version of the title track from their latest EP.

 

A few hours later, Margo Price ended the Wiggins Park portion of Saturday’s festivities on a high note. While I suppose she can properly be classified as “country” – her lyrics definitely fit the mold, and a couple of her songs did feature pedal steel – her top-notch band nevertheless rocked as hard as anyone else who took the stage during the festival. (This includes Price herself, who in addition to her work on rhythm guitar took her place behind the drum kit on two numbers.) Their set featured mostly original material, most notably “A Little Pain”, but they also changed things up by throwing in three well-chosen covers: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, “Casey Jones”, and the closing “Proud Mary”.

 

Quick notes on some of the other performances are below. More detailed recaps are available from WXPN’s “The Key”; some include setlists and/or links to the audio of the performances.

 

The National Reserve (Friday) – on my target list, reminded me of the Bodeans, bought the last available copy of their CD from the merch booth on Saturday

 

Katie Frank (Saturday) – reminded me of Paramore, but definitely old Paramore, not the “Ain’t It Fun” lighter sound

 

Hurry (Saturday) – excellent sense of humor, brought to mind Fountains of Wayne

 

&More (Saturday) – promising local hip-hop duo, who get bonus points for building their final song “War” on a sample from “The World Is A Ghetto”

 

Natalie Prass (Saturday) – had a real neo-soul vibe, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting

 

Lo Moon (Sunday) – Broken Bells, anyone?

 

Hiss Golden Messenger (Sunday) – possibly the chattiest set of the weekend, but in a good way

Shuffle #107 (July 29, 2018)

It Takes Two – Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock

Down On The Corner – Creedence Clearwater Revival

We’re Rolling On (Part 1) – The Impressions

Good Timin’ – The Beach Boys

Dead And Gone – Gypsy

Get A Job – The Silhouettes

Feel Good Inc – Gorillaz

The Reflex – Duran Duran

Don’t Give Up – Peter Gabriel

Shuffle #106 (July 28, 2018)

Iuka – The Secret Sisters

10 Rocks – Shelby Lynne

Drown In My Own Tears – Eva Cassidy & Chuck Brown

I Was In The House When The House Burned Down – Warren Zevon

Not For Me – Marshall Crenshaw

Valerie – Richard Thompson

Dead Flowers – The Rolling Stones

Nights On Broadway – The Bee Gees

Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls

July 22, 2018 – Nats 6, Padres 2 – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/kelvin-herrera-bryce-harper-lead-nats-to-win/c-286907108

 

Attendance: 39,063

Duration: 3:26

Weather: 76 degrees, Partly Cloudy

Wind: 4 MPH Varies

Umpires: HP: CB Bucknor. 1B: Chris Conroy. 2B: Brian O'Nora. 3B: Fieldin Culbreth.

 

Game notes – Nats took a quick lead in the bottom of the first on an Eaton leadoff single, Harper walk, 2-run triple by Rendon and an RBI groundout by Juan Soto … Scherzer allowed 8 hits and ran up a high pitch count through the first 4 innings, but was able to go 6 and depart with a 3-2 lead … the home team added insurance runs in the sixth (consecutive 2-out singles by Eaton, Turner, and Harper), seventh (RBI single by Matt Adams following a Soto double), and eighth (Harper round-tripper) … meanwhile, 4 Nats relievers allowed 6 more Atlanta hits but no runs over the final 3 frames, with Kelvin Herrera recording the 5-out save … Nats defense was stellar, robbing two Atlanta hitters of extra bases and rubbing out two runners at second base

 

Other – after all-day rain forced the postponement of Saturday night’s game, this one had a 1:55 delay (featuring a major storm in the middle) before finally getting underway at 3:30, as well as a 1:38 delay at the end of the 6^th inning (we left partway through the latter)