Remembering Eva

I love music.   Not all music but a lot of it.  Being 76 years old, having lived through years of fads and new genres, gives me a lot of music to choose from, which is good because finding new music (not necessarily new to the world but new to me) has always been a a source of joy.  For me, perhaps the best time for finding new music was in the heyday of Border’s book stores.  Above the rows and rows of CDs were listening stations with headphones that allowed you to listen to new releases.  One of the most amazing Borders finds ever was Songbird by Eva Cassidy.   When I put on the headphones and fast forwarded through the tracks, what I heard was: a crystalline voice that brought a unique style to well known songs; as simple but beautiful guitar accompaniment; and a songs from every musical genre.  I also heard a lovely and poignant version of my mother’s favorite song, Autumn Leaves.

(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 – 8/15/2020

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.

This morning as I began my walk, I dug deep into the hundreds of albums living quietly on the SD card in my Samsung Galaxy S9 and found an old, almost forgotten favorite album, Return to Forever by the band of the same name.   Fifty points if you’ve ever heard of them.   If you’ve been a reader of Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog for a while, you know that I am a music lover and that the genre I love most is jazz.  But I also know there are many who say, I hate jazz.  My favorite jazz story happened when I was in high school.  I borrowed a Modern Jazz Quartet record (you remember those, right?) from the library and  put it on the stereo in the living room.  My Mom peeked in from the kitchen and said, What is THAT?   It’s jazz, Mom, I answered.  The Modern Jazz Quartet.  Well, she said, it sounds like they are all playing whatever they want!   It’s called improvisation, Mom, I said.  She shook her head and went back to the kitchen.

Walking Music – 8/9/2020

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.

Today’s artist probably would not qualify as a favorite.   There is only one of her recordings living in the music folder on my phone and one of her songs is most likely to be played when I’m walking with the Shuffle All setting on PowerAmp, my favored music app.   But there are half a dozen of her songs that indeed make my favorites list.    In the mood to guess?   OK, first hint:  This artist was the subject a song performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash and written by Stephen Stills after his breakup with her (my favorite CS&N song, by the way).  No?  OK, she started out singing mostly classic folk songs written by other artists and had her first hit with  Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now.  Still no guess?  Over the years she became known for her eclectic choice of material from various genres … and had her biggest hit with a song by Stephen Sondheim, Send in the Clowns.  Yes, that’s right … it’s Judy Collins (and the CS&N song, is, of course, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes).

I could choose Both Sides Now or Send in the Clowns as my favorite from today’s walk but I’m going to choose a perhaps lesser known song from the album, Judith, and written by Collin’s to honor the passing of the iconic artist and composer Duke Ellington in 1974.   The song beautifully describes the day of his funeral in New York City, a cold and rainy morning (the streets were silver and the sky was gray) when 10,000 people, maybe more turned out to pay tribute to one of our greateest composers.  It always brings tears to my eyes, especially the lyrics,

But none of us will be the same
If we hear the things his music says
That loving is the gift of life
And making music was his way of love

Enjoy Song for Duke by Judy Collins.

 

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.

Walking Music – 08/18/2020

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.

It has been a tough morning.  Last night I didn’t sleep well, bitter about my wife’s upcoming cancer treatment and this morning, she’s been verklempt on and off.   I’m a better caregiver when I can get past the anger so after making sure she was OK with being alone for a while, I set off for my Walk with Music.   I chose a musical group I suspect most of you haven’t heard of, Pure Prairie League, because their upbeat country love songs are perfect to lift a tired heart.   PPL is an American country rock band that scored five consecutive Top 40 LPs in the 1970s and added a sixth in the 1980s. The band has had a long run, and as of 2019 continues to perform over 100 concerts a year in venues across the nation with concerts for 2020 already booked.   Their first album used a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover showing a trail-worn cowboy, named Luke (shown above), who would appear on the cover of every Pure Prairie League recording thereafter.   This song is my favorite:

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

What To Do

In case you don’t know, as we get older we become more attached to our routines. In case you are new here, I am 75 … and VERY attached to my routines. Since we moved to Utah in December many of our routines have been shattered, in particular those connected to particular places and particular people. Now this, this being the COVID-2 pandemic and whatever degree of shelter in place (in my opinion a really dumb terminology) you see as prudent. Ours is probably not as strict as the most rabid would advise but it keeps us in the house much more than we are used to, particularly since we decided to limit our visits to the grocery stores. I had been using the stores to get my steps in each day when it’s cold (and almost all Utah days feel cold to this former Californian), so now I’m bundling up and walking outside. It’s actually better to be in the fresh air. But I get stir crazy being in the house and stir crazy leads to boredom and, for me, boredom leads to mild depression and depression leads to loss of interest in things I enjoy. Ouch. So it’s important for me to be conscientious in finding things to do. Here are a few that help me stay sane.

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.

Music Hopping

Now that I am semi-retired, I have plenty of time for unproductive activities like word games on my tablet, texting with friends and sitting around doing nothing with my cat, Claude.   And Music Hopping.  Don’t look it up.  You won’t find it.

Music Hopping (v.): randomly searching through a music library or source and playing whatever strikes your fancy.

My latest Music Hop (n. – The act of Music Hopping) started two night’s ago when , on the recommendation of a friend, I watched The Terry Kath Experience, about the founder of Chicago (my favorite rock horn group) on YouTube.   As it is prone to do, YouTube was happy to recommend other musical documentaries, including performances from Woodstock by Santana (my favorite rock guitarist) and Crosby, Stills, and Nash.   That led me to the documentary, Legends – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (The best rock harmonies on the planet.  Ever).   Even after years of listening, Suite Judy Blue Eyes still astonishes me.

Almost Eric

My love of music goes back as far as I can remember (and that, my friends, is a stretch of time). But as much as I love listening to music, I have never been proficient at making music. Oh, yes I’ve dabbled with guitars since high school and got to the point where I could play well enough to accompany myself singing popular songs. Singing wasn’t my strong suit either. Twenty or so years ago we bought a piano and the whole family started taking lessons. I lasted the longest and could play a dozen or so of my favorite songs before, inexplicably, I gave it up. Now, the piano sits quietly (and out of tune) in our living room. The same can be said for the three guitars I accumulated in my guitar dabbling days. On the shelf in my office is a native American flute that hasn’t uttered a note since the last time my grandkids were here and just had to try it.