So he's milking the tour. But considering that the guy's out of money and the magnificent songs he's written, I'll give him a pass. And I'll buy his new CD, too: I always do...
As always, click to enlarge. For more Boondocks, Tony Auth, Mother Goose and Grimm, Tom the Dancing Bug, Tom Toles, Zippy the Pinhead, and Ben Sargent, click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here...
Enough is enough. Yesterday, it took a shovel, boiling water poured on ice, and kitty litter to get the car away from the curb. On my way to the airport to pick up my son -- who had been stranded in Salt Lake City en route from Boston -- snow froze on the windshield wipers, rendering visibility somewhere between challenging and nonexistent. Outside of taking the wrong exit and driving halfway to Tacoma before realizing my error, the trip home (with cleaned wipers) was relatively uneventful until I exited the freeway. The car hydroplaned immediately, but regained traction that it lost going downhill right as I came to a red light that I slid through. Luckily, the intersection was empty. The car slid again when I turned onto our street, this time coming to rest in the snow. The combined efforts of me, my son, a neighbor and his son, and a passing Good Samaritan got the car back on the road and safely to my house where it's going to stay for a while. This just isn't pretty any more...
In case you're tired of Christmas music or just an old Scrooge, you might consider these alternatives:
Gracias, Omara Portuondo. Supposedly, she's 78, but you can't tell that from her voice: Omara has the pipes of 25-year old but sings with the wisdom of age. Gracias consists mostly ballads and lullabies supported by spare arrangements featuring fingerpicked 7-string guitar and various Cuban percussion instruments. The occasional guest enhances the proceedings, but they are hardly necessary. The accompanying booklet is a gem: There's a photograph for song of Omara at different stages of her life, starting with childhood. The pictures range from candid family photos to glam shots from her days at the Havana Tropicana. The name of the CD may be Gracias, but it's we who should be thanking her for recording it.
Liejacker, Thea Gilmore. Impressively mature songwriting from a 30-year old Brit. She's says she's "looking for an old soul," but she needn't search any further than her own lyrics. She knows it, too:
Well the cars are leaving town
The winter's moving in
A tree has been torn down
By an ill wind, an ill wind
Oh, Rosie, can you tell my age from where I sit?
I'm younger than I look but old enough to know the half of it
What's more, there's an outstanding duet with Joan Baez. Download tip: Don't miss Gilmore's acoustic cover of "Bad Moon Rising."
No One Left To Crown, Richie Havens. Say it isn't so, the old pro laments, "That people must bend/To this war without end/I can't believe it." So, he vaults into the breech again, vowing in his brilliant cover of "Won't Get Fooled Again" that they won't get us this time. Sadly, there's a worry and resignation in his voice that makes him less certain than he once was. Overall, No One Left To Crown is a fine effort from a working folkie who continues to travel the country spreading the word to people who still need to hear it.
T. and I hope that everyone had a great day yesterday and that you all ate far too much. That way, we'll feel less guilty ourselves! We had a house full of college students; besides eating and drinking, we played games, watched the Seahawks get trounced, watched the Longhorns trounce the Aggies (ha ha!), and debated the merits of...
Quantum Of Solace. Chase scenes by foot, motorcycle, car, boat, and plane. Incredible amounts of mayhem. Two maybe three jokes. Stereotypical charming-sociopath villain. Thirty-seven minutes shorter and still too long. But...Daniel Craig makes a fine Bond, a killing machine instead of a charming rogue. Very nice turn by Italian star Giancarlo Giannini as a retired operative. Great global location work. Compelling climax that manages to outdo the previous action scenes and that features a nicely ironic bit of vengeance on Bond's part. And...
...I am not a Bond aficionado (an ethically and critically neutral position), and two who are pointed out a few things to me. First of all, better no jokes than the tired wit that had seeped into the franchise. That Craig's Bond relies on wit, athleticism, and skills -- no gadgets that had become progressively laughable. (In fact, other than a super turbo turbo turbo turbo charged Aston Martin, no gadgets at all.) That the Bond women, while as attractive as always, serve a plot function other than him getting laid. In fact, amazingly enough, he doesn't get the girl in the end. He's left alone, having helped some people and hurt others while, of course, saving the world. And the movie offers a pointed reminder that the most precious resource in the world is not oil. It's...well, you'll have to watch Quantum Of Solace to find out...
I was contacted by CPS after her visit with me and told them although her behavior was erratic, and I don't trust her, there is nothing "reportable". They told me she'd already had 2 children taken from her and had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was refusing her medication. She had also been violent in the past, including to a police officer. My goal was to get her to trust me and then I could keep an eye on her and the baby.
The situation is laden with troubling implications and hard questions...
In Concert, Part 2. Not only did my mother own this one, the consensus of user reviews on iTunes and Amazon is that this is the early Baez album to have. Beautifully remastered by Vanguard, In Concert, Part 2 one includes her mighty version of "We Shall Overcome."
Ring Them Bells. 1995 live album now available in a 2CD set, Bells shimmers with gorgeous harmonies between Joan and guests the McGarrigle Sisters, Mimi Farina, Janis Ian, Mary Black, Dar Williams, Tish Hinojosa, the Indigo Girls, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Day After Tomorrow. Her newest, produced by Steve Earle. She ably handles 10 songs by contemporary songwriters (including three by Earle) and benefits greatly from Earle's rootsy production. Reviewed here.
Friday's Choice: A 1963 duet by Baez and Bob Dylan of "With God On Our Side," Dylan's great polemic exposing American Exceptionalism. Baez has said that this is the first Dylan song she learned.
It's not often that we are among the youngest people at a concert, but we definitely were at last night's performance by Joan Baez. Backed by a three-piece string band, she greeted us with a hearty "Yes, we did" (no dissenters) and immediately launched into "The Lily of the West," a song she originally recorded in 1961 for her second album. The current tour simultaneously celebrates her 50th year as a performer and the release of her strong new album, Day After Tomorrow.
While age (Joan is 67) may have claimed the ethereal soprano of her youth, Baez still has plenty of vocal chops and a more immediate, earthbound contralto. And then there's her taste in songs: As the hour-and-three-quarters show advanced, I found myself marveling at the depth of her catalog. There were trad folk and Dylan favorites ("Farewell Angelina" and "Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word") of course, but she also covered Eliza Gilkyson's lovely "Rose Of Sharon" and three Steve Earle songs. The Earle numbers included a surpassingly wonderful rendition of his great song "Christmas In Washington," followed immediately by a full-band version of "Joe Hill."
I'd say that that was my favorite part of the show, but I don't want to diminish the rest of it. At one point, the band departed so that Joan could perform some solo numbers, eventually putting down her guitar for the a cappella rendtion of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." (Her final encore was leading us all in an a cappella "Amazing Grace.") And of course she graced us with the likes of "Long Black Veil," "Sweet Sir Galahad," "Diamonds And Rust," and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." She even threw in a lovely version of Donovan's "Catch The Wind" for the simple reason than that she likes singing it.
Along the way, she told humorous anecdotes of her past, such as the time she innocently sang a bawdy R&B number at a school assembly as her parents looked in horror. The tale of her and the band taking a cab on election night from a Virginia hotel to the White House, the cab driver honking in glee, made me think of what a great moment Obama's election must have been for Joan Baez. After fifty years of fighting the good fight and never giving up on people and never apologizing for her belief in human rights and simple peace and justice, she found herself dancing in front of the White House with thousands of her fellow citizens, celebrating a breakthrough even she must have thought was a long shot.
And this is what made the performance much more than an exercise in nostalgia. Joan Baez' journey as an artist and activist may have begun fifty years ago, but it continues now, with no sign of stopping...
More great photographs from Mike Urban of the Seattle P-I here...
Gail Collins, only half-jokingly, suggests that Bush resign now and let Obama take charge. With one caveat: "Vice President Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We're desperate, but not crazy.)"...
People seemed to like the video of The Original Schnickelfritz Band performing "Turkey In The Straw," so I managed to find a web site with more great performances here. The boys in the band were lead by one Freddie Fisher, the self-described "Colonel of Corn." They appeared in the "Gold Diggers" movies of the '30's and apparently had a following. Anyway, enjoy!...
Here, in a performance from the European leg of the current tour, Joan Baez sings "Joe Hill," one of my favorite songs:
Just because a musician gets old and gray doesn't mean that she's a nostalgia act or that his creative days are behind him. Here are three new CDs that prove the point:
About Time, Paul Bley (Age 75). The brilliant avant-garde pianist improvises for 33 minutes about the nature of time and memory. Tempi shift suddenly, dynamics change, and time goes on. Largely contemplative, Bley explores the elusive nature of his subjects with insight and nuance. While his introspective style recalls Bill Evans, to these ears Bley plays with greater complexity and muscularity. Like time, "About Time" passes all too quickly while seeming to stand still, so for fun he includes an interpretation of Sonny Rollin's "Pent-Up House." Beautiful, wise, and compelling.
Can You Deal With It?, Andre Williams and the New Orleans Hellhounds (Age 71). Go figure: A journeyman R & B shouter teams up with a New Orleans bar band and channels the heart and soul of The Clash. They may not be The Only Band That Matters, but I guarantee you that somewhere Joe Strummer is listening and smiling. Not to mention tapping his feet.
Day After Tomorrow, Joan Baez (Age 67). The pristine soprano is now more of a weathered contralto. But the voice of experience buttressed by a deeply held faith and Steve Earle's sympathetic production easily betters the easy certainties of her youth. Singing ten songs by the likes of Earle, Patty Griffin, Elyza Gilkyson, Elvis Costello, and Tom Waits (!), Baez makes them all indelibly hers. She looks back with few regrets, looks ahead with hope, and still believes...
Paul Bley performs "Lucky" and reflects on the role of art in anticipating the future and defining the past:
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