Sweetie gave me a CD for Christmas. Carrie Underwood’s “Carry On.” It’s the only music I have listened to since. It’s wonderful. All the songs are great.
Cowboy Casanova is what is getting the airplay and is very good but I love “Quitter” the best. I play it over and over. I haven’t been this excited about a song since Metallica’s “Cyanide” from their Death Magnetic CD. The song has a mandolin riff going that I just love. You can listen to it here.
Carrie is at the top of her form in this CD. I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.
Saturday night Sweetie and I along with our friends Jim and Leanna headed downtown to legendary Cain’s Ballroom to see the western swing trio “Hot Club of Cowtown” play some music.
I have to admit that in 18 years of living in Tulsa I have never stepped inside Cain’s despite blogging about it twice, here and here.
We didn’t know what to expect. I think something like Cain’s I think about people getting drunk and passing out, crowded, expensive. But we went anyway.
Was I surprised. The place is nice, parking is plentiful, the admission at $20 seemed a bargain. The drinks were cheap ($2.50 for a beer), the management very nice and accommodating, and the crowd was very laid back. There were a few children in attendance and everybody seemed pretty chilled and sober. And of course there is no smoking!!!! I was totally relaxed.
The opening act was a charming little outfit with a strange name “Three Penny Upright.” They are two female singers (who have really strong clear voices) a guitar player, drummer, and a bass player. One of the singers had a washboard. I have never seen a washboard actually used as a musical instrument before, I mean if you don’t count “Hee Haw.” They played for a while and were very good. I could hear them again.
Then a pause and Hot Club of Cowtown came on. They were great. They are just three, a guitar player, bass, and a violinist and how they made such a big sound I will never know. I bet Bob Will’s ghost traveled up from Memorial Cemetery at 61st and Memorial (I can get you the GPS coordinates if you are interested in paying your respects) just to hear it. The music is large, and happy, and played and sang very very well.
(Photo downloaded from their web site)
I give them four stars out of four.
I give Cain’s four stars out of four. A double header folks!
Here is Hot Club’s performance of Ida Red from YouTube
A performance of the same song by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the movie “Blazing the Western Trails”
Smiles all around in our party Saturday night.
Sweetie and I will be heading back to Cain’s soon. We are definitely seeing Hot Club in Cowtown next time they are in the city.
After going to an Alan Jackson concert I got intrigued by more traditional country music singers. It seems that they don’t get any more traditional than George Strait. I had never bought a George Strait CD, and I still haven’t because I checked his latest release “Twang” out from the Library.
I really liked it. The title track and “Hot Grease and Zydeco” are beer drinking songs. The last track “El Rey” is sung in Spainish, complete with horns. Completely unexpected. The rest of the songs are about relationships, mainly between men and women but one about a father and his son, and doing the unexpected like missing a business trip to watch his son’s ball game. There are one or two sad songs but the CD is very uplifing after listening to it 4 or 5 times.
Mr. Strait has a very fine clear singing voice and a way of pacing himself. This cd has songs that can be listened to over and over again.
Other things that George Strait has include a hat, big ole belt buckle, and boots. I don’t know if he a horse or not. Like Alan Jackson I doubt that Strait spends much time with a choreographer. He does have an extensive web site though. Check it out.
I highly recommend it. I give it three stars out of four. I might even buy a copy for myself after I turn the library’s in. (Nope, I’m not going to rip the tracks into itunes from the library copy.) All my music is 100% legal. Stealing is stealing.
Next, maybe I’ll see if I can check out a George Jones cd. Anybody out there have any recomendations for twangy music?
Sweetie and I saw U2 in concert in Norman, Oklahoma last month. They played several songs from their latest album. We didn’t have it so we had to get it. Sweetie got it first and I couldn’t steal it from her until recently.
Their latest album is “Thin Line on the Horizon.” It was released in February of this year I think and is their first CD since “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” in 2004.
The songs on the this CD are are more smooth than rock but still have a little edge to them. I have been playing it over and over and am still not tired of it. Bono has really developed a smooth voice over the years. My favorite tracks are the title track “Thin Line on the Horizon” and “White as Snow.” The cd is not really single oriented though. The songs fit in with each other very well and seems meant to be listened from front to back. Its the kind of music that one can just put on the stereo and lay on the couch and really listen to. (Who has time for that anymore/)
I give the CD a rating of four stars out of four. It is almost perfect.
Last Saturday night Sweetie and I dropped off SuperPizzaBoy at Nana’s and headed downtown to the BOK center to see Alan Jackson play some country music.
At least Sweetie wore jeans, I wore slacks. Neither one of us owns hats or boots nor a big fancy belt buckles. We were not worried though. We had been to some Country shows, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Nobody wore hats or boots to those shows except for the girls in short skirts. The shorter the skirt the taller the boot seemed the rule. Nobody on stage performing wore a hat. Not only that, both those girls could rock Metallica clear out of the house.
Anyway we got to the Arena and there were hats and boots and belt buckles everywhere, even on the stage not to mention the audience. Wassup? Man we were out of place.
And, the stage was pretty simple. Microphones, a drum set, steel guitar, and lots of guys playing guitars and violins. A few lights and some video gear. No runways, nor multilevel stages. The sound booth looked like the one we have at church with just a couple guys reading the paper and fiddling with the controls.
Strangely enough Alan Jackson hasn’t invested a whole lot in a choreographer. He basically stood in front of the microphone, played his guitar, and sang. His band pretty much stayed put also and played their instruments and sometimes harmonized with him. He didn’t run, strut, preen, juke, jive or anything like that. What kind of show is he putting on? Does he think that people came to listen to him sing songs?
He did a fine job. I’m not a country country kind of guy and I wasn’t sure that I liked this concert right afterwards but I’ve changed my mind. Jackson is a fine singer and he did that well. His band, the Strayhorns, have been with him a long time and it showed. They played well but Alan Jackson’s voice was the star of the show.
I give this show three stars out of four which is good.
The Yogi’s have been traveling lately. Last week we took a fall break trip to Saint Louis and had a great time. Today though I’m talking about what we did after we got home from that trip. Sunday afternoon Sweetie and I left SuperPizzaBoy and his Nintendo DS in care of Nana and headed to Norman, Oklahoma to see the Black Eye Peas and U2 in concert at the University of Oklahoma.
Traffic was heavy all the way. It seemed everybody in Oklahoma except SPB and Nana were headed to the concert. We got there in good shape. Parking over a mile from the stadium was $15. You folks in New York City may put up with that but its a mite expensive here in the heartland. I hold Barack Obama personally responsible. I never had to pay that much for parking until he became president.
We got there early. The wind was blowing. Old Glory, along with the OU and Oklahoma State Flags were flying proudly.
U2 built this gigantic stage special for stadium shows. It is 165 feet tall and has a huge circular video screen and an oval track about 30 yards by 60 yards I woud guestimate. It certainly was impressive. Supposedly it took a week to build.
The tower contains lights and smoke machines. The legs each contained four light operators who were hoisted into place. That made for 16 guys who were locked into place with no visible means of relieving themselves. They must have all been young. You can just barely see them below.
The Black Eye Peas came on first. They were great. I like them now more than ever. They seemed very personable despite their techno clothes and music. They have been together since the mid 1990’s. They were very polished and gracious performers. Sorry about the pictures. We were not very close. Fortunately the stage had a huge video screen.
I was going to try and embed a YouTube video of the Black Eye Peas but that’s not happening. Here is a link to their official You Tube Site. They have some very nice videos of many of their songs.
When they ended their set to a standing ovation the lights came on and the roadies redid the stage. It always amazes me how many people come up to remove stuff off the stage and put more stuff on.
Finally, the lights went down, the Band walked on the stage. Bono sang and Edge played, for hours. It was wonderful. Bono has such a clear strong distinct voice. Edge’s guitar playing was amazing. He looks like a guy that just walked out of the woods, but his skill at the guitar is amazing.
Bono is such an accomplished performer. He certainly connected with his audience in central Oklahoma Sunday night. I have to say that it may have been the most emotional concert I’ve ever been to next to the Garth Brooks shows in Tulsa in the 1990’s. In both shows the audience sang large segments of many of the songs back to the performers. It was an amazing give and take.
The stage, or “Spacecraft” as Bono put it certainly helped bring the show more visible to us up in the cheap seats. The huge video screens and loud clear sound that it made possible made the show feel much more intimate than you would expect from a stadium concert.
U2 Trailer for their concert series showing the stage.
Either one of these shows would have rated a four stars out of four. Both bands on the same night indescribable. I have to say that as much as I love the Black Eye Peas, U2 was very special. It was a bucket list performance for us.
Pearl Jam, that old grunge band from Seattle released Backspacer September 20. I went ahead and bought the thing without knowing any of the tracks and have been playing it over and over.
It has a couple songs that I really like “Unthought Known” and “Force of Nature.” There are not any songs that I dislike. The cd just doesn’t have anything that makes you want to play a song over and over again. You can go to the bands web site and listen to 30 second samples of the songs.
A “Making of Backspacer” video on Youtube. Pretty interesting.
My negative comment about the cd is the quality of the recording. The music is mushy and not very clear. I use the same car cd player that I use for everything else. The same mush quality comes through on the web site when I play the samples. What’s the deal?
All in all this is a sound but not spectacular rock CD. I give it two stars out of four. Which is still good. Better sound quality would have made it a 2.5 star cd.
Sweetie and I went to see Taylor Swift in concert a couple weeks ago. I didn’t recognize many of the tunes because I didn’t have the latest CD “Fearless.” So I bought the CD and the songs are great but I swear I hadn’t heard many before except the melodies are similar.
You see her show is a Rock Concert!! and the CD is Pop. So even if you have the CD you have to go see the show.
Her voice was a lot more full and dynamic live. On the CD she sounds quite frankly like a whiny 18 year old girl singing clever but whiny songs.
I give the CD 3 stars out of 4. Which is still great, and she is only going to get better as she gets older, if she keeps her head on straight.
I bought this CD used. It came out in 1996 but it is still great. She has such a soft silky voice and is very expressive. In the years since her voice seems to gotten a tad fuller and a little lower. She has matured very well.
I give this four stars out of four. Get it on itunes!
Check out her web site. She is still out there performing.
