The Kempters – The Orange Blossom Special
An evening pause: What makes this fun is that the whole front row of fiddlers is actually 14-year-old Chris Kempter, competing against himself for top spot on the band.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Tag: music
Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
Rossini – Overture to The Thieving Magpie
An evening pause: Boian Videnoff conducts the Mannheim Philharmonic Orchestra.
And no, this was not written for Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Eric Clapton – Tears In Heaven
An evening pause: Hat tip Danae, who suggested a different performance that I posted back in 2015. I also posted a third version in 2011. No matter. There is something very heartfelt about the song and every Clapton performance that makes it worth watching again and again. The song was written following the death of Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor, after falling from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment on March 20, 1991.
Anna Nalick – Breathe (2am)
Dan Hill – Sometimes When We Touch
Hoagy Carmichael & Lauren Bacall – Am I Blue?
An evening pause: From the 1944 Humphrey Bogart film To Have and Have Not, which was also Lauren Bacall’s unbelievably spectacular screen debut. “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Avi Avital – Vivaldi’s Mandolin Concerto in C Major
An evening pause: He starts out by very carefully placing a score before him on his stand, but then never opens or looks at it during the entire performance. Instead, he plays the whole thing from memory, wielding his mandolin as if it is part of him. And he and the entire group is clearly having a great deal of fun doing it.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Johnny Cash – Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Man of Constant Sorrow
Dire Straits – Your Latest Trick
Tzvi Erez – Chopin Nocturne Opus 55 #1 in F minor
Billy Preston – Nothing from Nothing
Dale Watson – Texas Armadillo
An evening pause: As we sit in the depths of the summer, this song about of all things roadkill somehow seems fitting to me.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Verdi’s Il Trovatore – Anvil Chorus
An evening pause: I know very little about opera, having never been much of a fan, but I must admit that the old woman’s song here is most intriguing, and seems to lay the foundation for a good tale.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
David Gilmour & Richard Wright – Comfortably Numb
Tom Rush – Making the best of a bad situation
An evening pause: I think we all would benefit, especially America’s Democrats, if we took this song as some solid advice.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola & John McLaughlin – Mediterranean Sun Dance
Kimya Dawson – Tire Swing
Tom Jones & Toni Braxton – Knock On Wood
Johnny Rivers – Secret Agent Man
An evening pause: This song seems fitting considering the fake Russian indictments by Mueller and the kerfuffle over the Trump-Putin press conference during their summit, all of which have been as silly as this song.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
The Sweeplings – Carry Me Home
Suncoast Worship – Holes in the Sky
Mrs Good – La terre tremblante
An evening pause: A translation of the song, by the songwriter, can be found here.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Bush – Glycerine
James Morrison – I won’t let you go
Eric Whitacre – The Seal Lullaby
An evening pause: Originally written for a film that was never made, this song speaks to the emotion of every parent, watching their child asleep.
Oh, hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between
Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow
Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas
Asleep in the arms
Of the slow swinging seas
Whitacre is the conductor in this performance by Junges Vokalensemble Hannover.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Mike Oldfield – Sentinel
Glen Campbell & Jimmy Webb – MacArthur Park
An evening pause: Recorded in 1988 as part of an album and DVD entitled In Session that was released in 2012, about the time that Alzheimer’s Disease was ending Campbell’s career.
Hat tip Danae.