Shuffle #19 (July 19, 2014)

Fat Boy – Billy Stewart

Don’t Know Why – Norah Jones

Throwing Stones – Grateful Dead

Be My Downfall – Del Amitri

You’ve Got It – Simply Red

Never Be Anyone Else But You – Ricky Nelson

Morningtown Ride – The Seekers

Holiday – Madonna

Only The Strong Survive – Jerry Butler

Goodbye Train – Grayson Hugh

Shuffle #18 (July 17, 2014)

Monterey – The Animals

Strange I Know – The Marvelettes

I Want To Make The World Turn Around – Steve Miller Band

Who Let The Love Out – Swing Out Sister

Fall On Me – R.E.M.

Baby Workout – Jackie Wilson

Light Shine – Jesse Colin Young

Can’t Help Falling In Love – Elvis Presley

Angel From Montgomery – Bonnie Raitt w/ John Prine

Fade Like A Shadow – KT Tunstall

Don’t Sleep In The Subway – Petula Clark

Chasing Pavements – Adele

#42 Harvest For The World -- The Isley Brothers (1976)

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

The Isley Brothers covered a wide variety of stylistic territory during their lengthy career – it’s hard to find a lot of similarities between “Shout”, “This Old Heart Of Mine”, and “That Lady”, for instance – but this mid-tempo plea for a better world is my personal favorite (although it was by no means an easy decision).

Sara Bareilles w/ special guests Lucius and Emily King, Wolf Trap Filene Center, 7/14/2014

Coming off two Grammy nominations (Album of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance), Sara Bareilles is definitely in the big leagues now. Her performance Monday night featured elaborate yet tasteful lighting and a video projection system that was used advantageously on a number of songs. She began her 90-minute set with “Little Black Dress”, and ended on a high note with “Love Song”, a well-chosen En Vogue cover in “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, “King of Anything” (where she directed a two-part audience singalong), and “Brave”. She just had time for one encore prior to the Wolf Trap curfew. In between, she featured a number of other cuts from her latest album, including “Hercules”, “I Choose You”, and “I Wanna Be Like Me”. I was impressed overall – great voice, which she’s smart enough not to get too fancy with, and a good rapport with the sold-out audience, many of whom seemed to be enthusiastic hard-core fans. My one complaint was that the bass was mixed up so high that it was physically painful – I could feel my chest vibrating on all but the most subdued numbers.

Emily King started things off with a 25-minute neo-soul set that was pleasant if not particularly memorable. (She does have the Janelle Monae hairstyle down though.) Lucius then followed with an enthusiastically-received 38-minute set – the other 3 members of my group all got copies of the CD. I had earlier bought “Turn It Around” in iTunes after hearing it a few times on WXPN. (They’re also playing at the station’s upcoming Exponential Music Festival.) My feelings about their set were a little more mixed; except for “Turn It Around” and one or two other songs, I felt a disconnect between their material, much of which featured lovely vocal harmonies by group co-founders Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and the arrangements, where the “driving indie-pop percussion” (according to the blurb in the program) featured as many as 4 members of the band simultaneously banging on various drums, in an apparent effort to beat the defenseless melodies and harmonies into submission. At its peak, it reminded me of nothing so much as Adam Ant’s body of work from the 1980s.

Much of the area had rain in the afternoon, but fortunately the weather had calmed down for the show. It took us an hour both to get from Rockville to the Panera on Leesburg Pike (really slow traffic on the Beltway), and to get back to Rockville after the show (mainly the 38 minutes before we finally got out of the far parking lot). It was good that I had read Wolf Trap’s “friendly event reminber” email last week, since it revealed that the show would start at 7:30 rather than the originally-scheduled 8:00.

Serendipity #17

Have A Little Faith In Me – John Hiatt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aYxMuLb3h8

Heard 7/14/2014 around 6:00pm, at Panera (Leesburg Pike)

Shuffle #17 (July 12, 2014)

Long May You Run – The Stills-Young Band

All Day And All Of The Night – The Kinks

Romeo’s Tune – Steve Forbert

Smoke From A Distant Fire – Sanford-Townsend Band

Count Me In – Gary Lewis & The Playboys

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Bob Dylan

California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – B.J. Thomas

Have I Told You Lately – Van Morrison

Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

July 9, 2014 – Big Train 5, Thunder Bolts 2 – Shirley Povich Field

Pleasant evening, another Big Train win

Although I had purchased a season pass several months ago for the Bethesda Big Train’s 2014 summer season of collegiate baseball, this actually wound up being the first game I attended. The week saw a lot of rain both Tuesday evening, forcing the postponement of the Nats-Orioles game at Nationals Park, and Thursday evening, Wednesday produced no rain and comfortable temperatures. Pregame and between-innings entertainment featured the Mariachi Los Mensajeros del Sur band and Ethiopian shoulder dancing, in addition to the usual (mascot race, musical chairs, etc.). I grabbed a cheeseburger (OK, not exactly one of my healthier choices) and an Honest Ade Orange Mango prior to the game. I wound up sitting in the front row just beyond the T-Bolts dugout on the first-base side, joining most of the other Metropolitan Washington Ear volunteers (we were one of the “nonprofits of the night”), so had to pay close attention. Fortunately no line drives came into our section, although there was a shot directly into the dugout.

The Big Train struck first, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second on a bases-loaded single by Cody Manzella. The T-Bolts cut the lead in half in the top of the sixth, but the Big Train came back to score 3 in the bottom of the inning, keyed by Stephen Alemais’s two-run double. Alemais, Manzella, and Kevin Tatum each had a single and a double to lead the Big Train attack.

The Big Train pitchers – starter and winner Sean Labsan, Ray Lambert, and Tim Yandel – effectively stifled the Silver Spring-Takoma offense throughout, giving up only 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 10.

We learned during the game from the mother of one of the T-Bolts players that their starting pitcher, Brandon Holsworth, is deaf. The Gazette just ran a feature article on his baseball experiences.

#43 Smoke from a Distant Fire -- Sanford-Townsend Band (1977)

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

Somewhere there must be a dictionary that has a picture of these guys next to the term “one-hit wonder”. If you’re only going to have one hit, though, might as well make it a song as great as this one.

#44 Stay Together Young Lovers -- Brenda & The Tabulations (1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwsKC8ifSNI

Philadelphia’s Brenda & The Tabulations specialized in slow, aching R&B ballads that sounded as though they should have come out five or ten years earlier than they did. This one didn’t make much of an impression on the charts (a couple of their other singles did dent the top 25), but it would have been a perfect slow dance for a high school prom back in the day.

Shuffle #16 (July 10, 2014)

King Street Rain – The Kane Gang

Lawdy Miss Clawdy – The Buckinghams

Urge For Going – Joni Mitchell

Mighty Love – The Spinners

Thought It Would Be Easier – Shelby Lynne

The Promised Land – Bruce Springsteen

Going Back To Harlan – Emmylou Harris

I Hate Myself For Loving You – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Let’s Stay Together – Al Green