Playing Favorites 10/14/2022

Years ago my wife Muri and I used to take a mini-vacation every Valentine’s Day.  I’d pick a place that wasn’t too far from home then search the web for things to do there: museums, concerts, tours … and, of course, restaurants.  This all stopped when our first grandson, Reed, was born on Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day became Reed’s Birthday.   The year before Reed was born, we spent a long weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In searching for entertainment for Saturday night, I found a group named Leahy performing at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.  I’d never heard of the group, so I navigated to their website to find that Leahy is a Canadian folk group made up entirely of family members from Lakefield, Ontario.   The eight member band features fiddle-based music that ranges from traditional jigs and reels to their own folk-rock compositions.  All the members play multiple instruments and all step dance as part of their act.   We discovered before the show that Leahy had a large following of people who had seen them before and traveled a long way to see them again in Santa Fe.  It was simply one of the most enjoyable concerts we’d ever attended, made better by the fact that it was a complete surprise.   And so, Leahy qualifies as today’s favorite.

Playing Favorites 7/1/2022

So, music lovers, the question of the day is: How far down the list of songs I like (or even songs I love) can a song fall and still be regarded as a favorite?  And, in fact, Can a song that I’ve completely forgotten about but used to love qualify for Playing Favorites?  This week, as I was looking through YouTube’s list of live performances, I came across Greg Lake (formerly of Emerson, Lake and Palmer) performing From the Beginning.  So the question becomes, Can a song I’ve forgotten about but used to love … by one member of the band that originally recorded said song, a member who, by the way, died in 2016 … qualify for Playing Favorites?  Of course, while the questions sound hard, the answer is easy.   Here on Oldereyes – Bud’s Blog, my Alter Ego and I make the rules and we usually agree.  Like today.

(Borderline) Boomer

I have been watching a LOT of YouTube videos lately, mostly music, music commentaries and art documentaries.   One of the channels I watch a lot is Rick Beato, especially his What Makes This Song Great? series.  According to EverybodyWiki, Rick Beato is an American YouTuber, record producer, songwriter, musician, and educator whose career in the music industry and in education has spanned several decades and brought him numerous awards and much recognition professionally.   You can read more about him here if you are interested.  To be honest, his commentaries are beyond me musically but I still enjoy hearing an expert dissect the songs I’ve listened to for year.

Walking Music – Linda Ronstadt

As I said in my post, Walking with Music, in the interests of dispelling the grey-ghost of depression, I am going to occasional post a Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me.  Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to.   Or not.   But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment.  The grey-ghost hates those too.

I set out for my daily walk three days ago to the sounds of Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits.   Usually, as I listen to a particular artist, I enjoy visiting old favorites but have no trouble picking a Favorite of Favorites.   And usually a single walk of 45 minutes to an hour is enough time with the artist.  Not so with Linda Ronstadt.  For three consecutive days I’ve taken Linda along for a walk and I still haven’t exhausted her repertoire.   Listening to three hours of Linda reminded my of the range of her voice and the breadth of the music she recorded … and I didn’t even get to he recordings of American Standards with Nelson Riddle, her recordings or traditional Mexican music or her Broadway performances.  Her voice is simply remarkable, with natural vocal range of several octaves from contralto to soprano, whether she is performing rock, country, light opera, or Latin.   She can take a relatively unknown song and make it her own (think You’re No Good) or cover a well known song by another artist and simply own it with her voice and style.  There’s Crazy, her version of Patsy Cline’s classic.   There’s Heat Wave, her version of the Martha and the Vandella’s hit or That’ll be the Day, her take on Buddy Holly tune.   On Mick Jagger’s suggestion she did a great version of the Stone’s Tumblin’ Dice and she recorded Blue Bayou, a country rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song.  It is almost impossible to pick a Favorite of Favorites from her hundreds of recordings, but for you, dear readers, I’ll try.

Playing Favorites

What is your favorite song?  To a music lover, it is a nearly impossible question to answer.   Instrumental or vocal?  What genre?  Pop? Rock? Jazz? Should I include symphonies and concertos?   I have many favorites, some because they are part of the soundtrack of my life, reminding me of life’s best moments.    My wife Muri and I have considered Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers our song since we met over 50 years ago.   Some were written before I was born and were likely etched in my musical memory by listening to my Mom play her music collection on the stereo in the living room.  Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade always put me in a romantic mood, especially as performed by Carly Simon.   Sometimes it’s beautiful lyrics and sometimes its a perfect melody.  Acoustic Alchemy’s Lazeez is a favorite because of the virtuosity of the guitar playing.  Sometimes, I find a live performance on YouTube that brings a new arrival to my list of favorites.  A live performance by Lady Antebellum recently catapulted I Need You Now onto my must play list.

(Favorite) Friday Favorite

I know I am getting old when my nostalgic Thursday morning consists of reading the nostalgic posts I wrote between 2010 and 2014 on this blog under the title Friday Favorites. Yes, I am nostalgic over my nostalgia. (That would be nostalgia^2) (engineering humor) (not funny). There are over 200 Friday Favorites posts, most of them looking back over seven decades of life to find favorite songs, favorite vacations, favorite events … favorite you name it. I also (re)discovered that I was getting old back then. When I accidentally searched for Friday Favorties (one of my Favorite typos, apparently) there were half a dozen posts so titled. Really. Yes, I are a writer.

Monday Smiles – 1/4/2016

It is eleven fifteen in the evening and here I am, trying to post Monday Smiles before the clock strikes twelve.  OK, OK … our clocks are all digital and if they were going to do anything, they’d buzz or chirp or play my favorite song.  My alarm clock will also play an assortment of soothing nature sounds, like surf and crickets.  But really, doesn’t strikes twelve sound better than buzzing twelve or chirping twelve?  Yes, I’m stalling, postponing the moment where I say I don’t feel like smiling on this particular Monday.  Now, let me be very clear … that doesn’t mean I have nothing to smile about.  After all, I’m sitting here in the bedroom of our beautiful house with my wife Muri tucked under the covers a few feet away.   She’s watching the evening new before she turns out the lights … and I have on my Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones with the jazz group Fourplay turned up loud enough that I can’t hear the evening news.  I can’t stand most of the local (so-called) reporters and the inconsequential crap they report on.  Did I tell you my Inner Curmudgeon is out and in good form?   He is.  And he really doesn’t care whether I come up with a smile in the next thirty minutes.

Friday Favorites 4/25/2014

I have a pretty good ear for music.  When a song by an artist I know comes on the radio, I usually know the artist within a few bars although it may take me a few minutes to come up with the name.  Those of you with Younger Eyes are probably saying, That’s nonsense, Bud.  If you don’t know the name, you don’t know the artist.  Those of you with Older Eyes like mine know just what I mean … I can see the artist in my mind’s eye, maybe come up with an initial and the name is dancing tantalizingly on the tip of my tongue.  There are several options at this point: if I’m in the car and the song is on Sirius XM radio, push the Display button until the Artist shows up;  I can Google the title of the song (not while I’m driving, Younger Eyes); or wait while my memory rummages through my brain cells, which these days seems to work like a very large file alphabetical file cabinet.  Modern science suggests that seniors should look up answers instead of racking their brains because the latter practices not remembering … but I still like to prove to myself that the old filing system still works sometimes.

Only One, Really

Today, I found an article in GQ Magazine Online about Valeria Lukanyova, a woman who has become a human Barbie doll through plastic surgery and extreme dieting (Follow the link with extreme caution … she is very creepy).  It seemed a natural for a curmudgeonly post but I’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half trying to nurse Two Thoughts on Tuesday out of it without success.  The problem is, of course, that I have Only One, Really:  My UConn Huskies won the Men’s Basketball National Championship, beating Kentucky 60-54.   The odds for UConn finishing as the champion were 100-1 … if only I’d bet a few bucks.  The game has been over for hours and I’m still thinking about how close it got toward the end and how the announcers kept talking about Kentucky’s last minute come-from-behind victories.  Why is it that announcers always seem to be rooting for the other team?  Why do I get too excited to watch sitting down?

Friday Favorites 3/4/2013

I have rarely done repeat Friday Favorites here on Bud’s Blog but I’m making an exception this week.  There’s a good reason, though … I am finally getting to see my favorite jazz vocalist, Diana Krall, who I featured as a Friday Favorite back in August of 2013.  While Muri and I were in AZ last week … and while she was strolling through Chico’s, one of her favorite clothing stores … I took a walk around the Dana Park outdoor mall.  On one of the windows was a poster for Diana’s appearance in the Phoenix area April 8.  Hmmm, said I, That probably means she’ll be in the LA area, too.  Being a busy sixty-nine year old guy, I forgot to look for an LA appearance online until we got back to Anaheim Hills Monday, but sure enough, she was appearing at Segerstrom Hall in nearby Costa Mesa (our in-car GPS, by the way, calls it Costa Messa).  Very few seats left, however, so I got two for Saturday night in the balcony (which is still in Costa Messa, but just).  None-the-lessa, I’m excited, which is why Diana gets a repeat performance here on Bud’s Blog.