Spitball Army

Now ex-Governor Sarah Palin gave her farewell speech to her beloved media yesterday before skipping out on her commitment to the state of Alaska.  Conan O’Brien’s special guest William Shatner finds a unique poetic merit to her words.

…and then there were these stubs, found in various piles about the house, from an odd assortment of musical events that I attended before the turn of the century.

This concert was held in New Haven, Connecticut, the night before the Harvard v. Yale game in 1983.  I only attended The Game in Cambridge while I was in college, never in New Haven.  This date was in the Fall after my college graduation.  Apparently, I signed on to do all of the collegiate things that one does during Game weekend, including going to the musical events that always occur.  This one – a battle of the bands glee clubs – was likely filled with lots of rah-rah, and many less than sober Harvardians and Yalies trying to outsing (read: outshout) the others.

So, here we are, the night after The Game, which the Crimson won, 16-7.  It was an especially bitter loss for the Bulldogs, as this was the landmark 100th anniversary of the ongoing football rivalry (who’s hollerin’ “Boola Boo” now, boys?).  The Whiffenpoofs were less than jubilant.

Yet another Gil Shaham recital.  I believe that I have seen Gil play more times than just about any other artist, aside from Brother Blue (who I used to see performing nearly weekly for years as I walked through Harvard Square in Cambridge).  This recital, in 1997, was the same year that Gil and his sister Orli released their Dvorák for Two CD, so I am guessing that this was a recital featuring her on piano.  I can think of four occasions that I’ve seen him fiddle at the Moody Music Building in Tuscaloosa: once with orchestra, three times in recital.  It’s always a treat.

The Ravinia Festival is the outdoor summer performing home for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  While visiting a family friend, Phoebe, in Chicago in the summer of 1999, I attended a CSO concert featuring Reneé Fleming.  She performed a generous program that included Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.  The Strauss was amazing, as I remember it, and the Barber was perfectly augmented by the sound of a nearby train and a chorus of cicadas.  Ms. Fleming came out to the side of the stage immediately after the end of the concert to talk to members of the audience, and was very kind and warm.

Here is her performance of “Beim Schlafagehen” from Four Last Songs from 2004:

Eight or nine months later, I was at another Reneé Fleming performance, this one a recital at Spivey Hall, just south of Atlanta.  The hall was packed, but it is a small room by most standards, the size being sacrificed to what most everyone experiences as sonic excellence.  I recall being wowed by her singing of Dvorák’s “Song to the Moon,” which has gone on to become one of Ms. Fleming’s signature numbers.

I’ve mentioned casually several times on this blog that there are piles of things throughout my house.  If you’ve been there, you know the condition; if you haven’t, there may be room for you to visit in the near future.  I have been going through all the “stuff” inch by inch.  There is so much of it!  Here, for instance, are some ticket stubs that I have been hanging onto for some reason…maybe just to provide material for a series of blog posts!

I think that Lewis Black is one of the funniest human beings alive today (Seth Rogen would be another).  And, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember a thing about this show.  Not a thing.  But I’m laughing just thinking about it (or what it must have been like).

This Tenacious D “concert” was a truly bizarre experience.  It was held outdoors under the shed at Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces.  The place was packed and, despite the Spring date, it was hot as an oven, with the crowd piled in on top of one another like so many sardines.  Jack Black and that other guy would play a few songs, then take a break while a Tenacious D video sequence played on the big video screen.  One of the videos portrayed a bad acid trip the duo has while in the desert, during which Kyle (that other guy) has a baby.

This ticket stub was a surprise discovery.  My friends in the musical group Hem just provided the score for this summer’s run of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in Central Park, and I was a little bummed to have missed it.  Little did I remember that I had attended an earlier version of Twelfth Night at that same theatre in 1986.  After some memory-jogging, I recalled that the cast included F. Murray Abraham and Peter MacNicol (who was a ham), and that it was very humid.  I had journeyed to New York City to spend a couple of days with my college roommates Andrés and Rich.  The three of us hiked around SoHo, explored the garment district, had Dim Sum in Chinatown, and perspired a lot.  Here they are, looking like Crockett and Tubbs, sweating indoors even though it was cooler, trying on clothes that someone else will eventually wear.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

[Frustratingly, I haven’t been able to put my mitts on that photo, even though I know I’ve seen it around the house recently.  When it is found, it will show up here.  It should be worth the wait.]

Birmingham Magazine‘s online music column recently proposed a playlist that would take listeners on a journey through the South.  In addition to posting their list, they opened up for reader submissions.  I posted one – a long one – but left out good ol’ Tennessee.  I also found, while compiling a list from my music library, that I hadn’t many songs to represent the Carolinas…what is up with that?  Surely there are a bunch of them out there!

Amyway, here is my complete playlist.  I’ve gone back in and corrected my Tennesseean omisseean.  A few of the more difficult-to-find tracks are included for your listening pleasure.  Feel free to share your lists, long or short, and to question my choices…I am prepared to discuss and defend every one of them!

“Put Me on the Trail to Carolina” (1960) – The Louvin Brothers
[audio:Louvin_Brothers___Put_Me_on_the_Trail_to_Carolina.mp3]
“Blue Ridge Mountains” (2008) – Fleet Foxes
“At a Dixie Roadside Diner” (1940) – Duke Ellington
[audio:Duke_Ellington___At_a_Dixie_Roadside_Diner.mp3]
“When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” (1959) – Billie Holiday
[audio:Billie_Holiday___When_Its_Sleepy_Time_Down_South.mp3]
“Georgia on My Mind” (1930) – Hoagy Carmichael
“Back to Georgia” (1972) – Loggins & Messina
“Love Shack” (1989) – The B-52’s
“The Southern Thing” (2002) – Drive-By Truckers
“Oh Atlanta” (1974) – Little Feat
“Alabama Rain” (1973) – Jim Croce
“Hey Mr. Cotton Picker” (1953) – Tennessee Ernie Ford
[audio:Tennessee_Ernie_Ford___Hey_Mr_Cotton_Picker.mp3]
“I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop” (1928) – Jim Jackson
[audio:Jim_Jackson___I_Heard_the_Voice_of_a_Porkchop.mp3]
“Fried Okra” (1968) – The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
[audio:Watts_103rd_Street_Rhythm_Band___Fried_Okra.mp3]
“Gulf Coast Highway” (1988) – Nanci Griffith
“Shrimp Boats” (1951) – Jo Stafford
[audio:Jo_Stafford___Shrimp_Boats.mp3]
“Angel from Montgomery” (1974) – Bonnie Raitt
“Birmingham Sunday” (1964) – Joan Baez
“Birmingham” (2003) – Patty Larkin
[audio:Patty_Larkin___Birmingham.mp3]
“Sparrows Over Birmingham” (2003) – Josh Rouse
“Alabama High-Test” (2008) – Old Crow Medicine Show
“Tennessee” (1992) – Arrested Development
“Tennessee Border No. 2” (1963) – Homer & Jethro
[audio:Homer_and_Jethro___Tennessee_Border_No_2.mp3]
“Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy” (1949) – Red Foley
[audio:Red_Foley___Chattanoogie_Shoe_Shine_Boy.mp3]
“Coat of Many Colors” (1971) – Dolly Parton
“Lebanon, Tennessee” (1995) – Ron Sexsmith
“5000 Country Music Songs” (2008) – Ry Cooder
“Nashville” (2004) – David Mead
“That’s How I Got to Memphis” (1993) – Ben Vaughn
[audio:Ben_Vaughn___Thats_How_I_Got_to_Memphis.mp3]
“Memphis, Tennessee” (1963) – The Beatles
“Memphis, Tennessee” (2008) – Mason Jennings
“Elvis Presley Blues” (2001) – Gillian Welch
“MLK” (1984) – U2
“Hot Barbecue” (1966) – Jack McDuff
“Down in Mississippi” (2007) – Mavis Staples
“Back to Tupelo” (2004) – Mark Knopfler
“Tupelo County Jail” (1958) – Webb Pierce
[audio:Webb_Pierce___Tupelo_County_Jail.mp3]
“Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi” (2001) – Jim White
“Oxford” (1993) – Alejandro Escovedo
“Cotton Fields” (1963) – Odetta
[audio:Odetta___Cotton_Fields.mp3]
“Talkin’ Casey Jones” (1966) – Mississippi John Hurt
[audio:Mississippi_John_Hurt___Talkin_Casey_Jones.mp3]
“Jackson” (2002) – Hem
“Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On” (1931) – The Boswell Sisters
[audio:Boswell_Sisters___Roll_On_Mississippi_Roll_On.mp3]
“Dixie Lily” (1974) – Elton John
“Walkin’ to New Orleans” (1960) – Fats Domino
“Down to New Orleans” (1985) – Mason Ruffner
[audio:Mason_Ruffner___Down_to_New_Orleans.mp3]
“I Put a Spell on You” (1956) – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
“Take Me to the Mardi Gras” (1973) – Paul Simon
“When the Saints Go Marching In” (1987) – Tuts Washington
[audio:Tuts_Washington___When_the_Saints_Go_Marching_In.mp3]
“City of New Orleans” (1972) – Arlo Guthrie
“Bus to Baton Rouge” (2001) – Lucinda Williams
“Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” (1978) – Emmylou Harris
“The Last Mile of the Way” (1964) – The Soul Stirrers