A Good Day

 

 

I had quite a musical day yesterday after being in a bit of a drought for awhile. Finally a live concert! First one this year! and earlier in the day I visited the FYE store in Orem that's going out of business and was able, in a fairly short time, to find 4 cds for purchase that were appealing to my finicky taste in music. More on that in an upcoming post or posts. The concert was a benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation held in the Mountain View High auditorium featuring Jessie Clark Funk, David Tolk, Peter Breinholt, Nancy Hanson and Cori Connors. They appeared in that order. Big Buddha, a local radio personality served as MC. The photos are roughly in reverse order of appearance. Jessie came on first followed by David with Peter, Nancy and Cori finishing with an "in the round" performance similar to what happens at the Bluebird Cafe. Very enjoyable evening. All did well in spite of the annoying echo of the auditorium. It affected Jessie's canned accompaniment more than the live instrumentation of the others. Don't know why something isn't done about that place. It's annoyed me for years. Wish I knew who to talk to! I hadn't heard Jessie in live performance before. She's a great solo artist. Very popular on the local and LDS scene. I had also never heard Cori in person before and was not disappointed by her performance. She came highly recommended and lived up to her rep. I got to meet her and purchase one of her cds afterward. Poor Nancy was sick and had to make a hasty exit during one of Cori's songs, but was able to return and finish out the set. Peter missed her harmony on Drive this Road, but that was the only major omission from the final trio's presentation. Peter is so well known, that he needs no promoting by me. Suffice to say he was his usual awesome self! David Tolk is a well known pianist who writes most of his own stuff. He has a day job as a lawyer, but could easily make it as a musician if he desired. He played his own set and accompanied the "in the round" group at the end. Glad I made it out on a blustery night. The attendance was a bit sparse. Wish more could have made it. They missed a fine evening!

Idol Ramblings

Dang, there are a couple of kids on American Idol worth watching this season. I'm finding myself drawn in again! If you you know my tastes, you'll understand why both Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips have some appeal for me. Elise is a low voiced girl (surprise, surprise!) who sings with a bluesy vibe reminiscent of recent Grammy winner Susan Tedeschi. Both these singers have unique, kind of gravely voices. Heaven knows AI needs unique! Phillip Phillips came out this week with his own spin on Phil Collin's In the Air Tonight that really excited the crowd and the judges. The kid can really wail and he plays the heck out of his guitar. Elise had the gall to sing Adele's One and Only and not only got away with it but really slayed it! Others tried Adele and ended up on the trash heap. Kudos to Elise for making it work. (Adele's already being overworked by AI contestants. I hope they move on. That's a tough cover.) It appears that the voters get these 2. Let's hope they last awhile. Both of these singers made it into the top ten and didn't require being saved by the judges as were 3 others who were added in to make the total 13 going into next week.

Thus far I've been really disappointed with the judges. On the guy's night this week they were merely cheer leaders with little to say of benefit to the singers. On the girl's night Randy at least acknowledged they'd gone too easy on the guys and attempted to make up for it on the girls. His efforts weren't anything to write home about. Where's Simon when we need him! The one saving grace, and I give the producers props, was the inclusion Thursday night of Jimmy Iovine's critiques. He's a record producer who's mentored Idols in the past and really knows his stuff. His hard hitting remarks put the judges to shame. His was a breath of fresh air!

American Idol, in its 11th season, is still holding up well. There were 33 million votes this week. Perhaps it's still relevant even with stiff competition from The Voice and X Factor. I haven't paid much attention to either, but was somewhat interested in local girl Dia Frampton's run on The Voice last year. An audition from this season's The Voice was recently shared by April Meservy on Facebook of a singer friend from Nevada named Whitney Myer. She can blow! I may tune in once in awhile to see how she goes.

Here are vids for my 2 AI favorites:

 
Phillip Phillip's audition may have been the best I've ever seen. He wowed the judges enough to get an encore with guitar. Interestingly enough both singers auditioned in Charlston, SC. I liked Elise' remarks about exposure. Pretty honest. She's been a pretty hot artist on her local scene in Charlston. AI may just give her the bigger stage she's looking for!

Erin Bode

I've been enjoying Erin Bode's music for several years now. I first learned about her through a post on a Yahoo Group for Eva Cassidy: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/evacassidy/
Erin is a sweet voiced singer from the St Louis area with a smooth jazzy vibe. I didn't have to think twice about it. Once I heard a sample track of her music I was hooked! I love the way she approaches a song with a light, sweet touch. You don't have to be a diva to please me! Erin's so easy on the ears! Much has been written about her impeccable phrasing. I totally agree. The only cd I own is the one shown above, Don't Take Your Time, but they're all great. I started cherry picking from her other albums when people started giving me I-Tunes gift cards, so I have a goodly number of her tracks on my Ipod. The only down side is that I can only enjoy the one album at work, where I do most of my listening. That means I'm going to have to break down and buy some more of her hard copies soon! I'll list some of the tracks I particularly like with a brief explanation:

The title track of Don't Take Your Time is a good place to start. It's a song she and band mate Adam Maness co-wrote and is pretty typical of their stuff. It just swings nicely along grabbing you as it goes. Her take on Bill Monroe's In the Pines is a change of pace. It comes on as a chiller - almost sinister. Interesting choice for a jazz singer. I love the jazzy vibe she attaches to Dylan's Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You. Great stuff! Her take on Cindy Lauper's Time After Time while maybe not as unique as Eva Cassidy's is definitely Erin's own interpretation. I love it! The last songs on Don't Take Your Time that really grab me are I've Never Been in Love Before and Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You. Both swing and are great takes on classic songs. Songs I really enjoy from some of her other albums are: Holiday, Graceland (you gotta check this one out!), New England Friends, Chasing After You, The Little Garden, Photograph and Telescope. These are just sample. Like I said before, her stuff is great and all albums are worth giving a listen to. Her latest album, Photograph departs from her jazzy vibe taking on a more adult contemporary approach, still beautiful. Erin also has a wonderful Christmas album called Cold December Night that she and her band recorded in a cabin in the woods of Erin's home state Minnesota. Chilly setting, but the music is warm and wonderful. Here's a Utube link to one of the songs from her Little Garden cd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7RG8bNt1A 

Don't know if I'll ever get to see Erin perform. She keeps pretty much to her home state of Missouri, but I'll sure continue to enjoy her music. The Internet is such a blessing!

Rating for Don't Take Your Time: 4 stars