The Songbook Highway

Campout 11:15 Johhny Hickman Chris LeRoy Dangers! Meet the Hoppers!

Chris LeRoy — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:03:12 +0000

Get thee to the Cracker/CVB Campout this Sept 10 in Pioneertown CA.

Especially get thee to the filming of Johnny Hickman’s solo set at 11:15 followed by Johnny and Chris teaming for Dangers hits and introducing THE MIGHTY GRASSHOPPERS!!!!

40 Forever:Rosh Hashanah

Chris LeRoy — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:49:35 +0000

Friday, September 3, 2010

Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish High Holy Days are right around the corner.* Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts at sundown on September 8th. Here are three great children’s books about the holiday:

Kimmel, Eric A, Isaac L. Peretz, and Jill Weber. Even Higher!: A Rosh Hashanah Story. New York: Holiday House, 2009.

Author Eric Kimmel uses an old Ukranian drinking song to help retell a famous Yiddish short story about a rabbi who skips town every year right before the holidays.

Gerstein, Mordicai. The White Ram: A Story of Abraham and Isaac. New York: Holiday House, 2006.

Caldecott award-winning author/illustrator Mordicai Gerstein retells one of the scariest and most puzzling stories of the Bible.

Wayland, April H, and Stéphane Jorisch. New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2009.

This wonderful picture book about celebrating Rosh Hashanah in Los Angeles won the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award. I had the pleasure of sitting next to the author at an ALA function a couple of years ago. She was very bubbly.

*Literally–we live about 3 blocks away from a major Chabad center.

40 Forever:Red Hook Road

Chris LeRoy — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:50:58 +0000

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Red Hook Road

Waldman, Ayelet. Red Hook Road: A Novel. New York: Doubleday, 2010.

Reading Red Hook Road is like watching a train wreck (or in this case, a car wreck). You know something really bad is going to happen, but it’s hard to look away. The novel begins with a horrible tragedy, and the remaining 333 pages describe in detail how the victims’ families deal (and don’t deal) with the acute pain of losing a loved one. Unless you are desperate for something to keep you occupied during an airplane trip or a long wait at the doctor’s office, it’s not worth buying. Red Hook Road is depressing, but it probably won’t make you cry like a good tearjerker should. What it offers is more like a dull, long-lasting headache.

Posted by
Rebecca Hickman

at
1:48 PM

Morst’s Archive Pick: Teen Angst

Chris LeRoy — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:00:21 +0000

Acffh Mors

August 3 at 12:03am

In all my picks, I’ve never gone ahead, and selected one of Cracker’s most iconic songs. Teen Angst is what I always call it, the official title is Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now).

First song off the first album, and it manages to find its way into ALMOST every cracker set. So I figured I didn’t need to pick it. Well. Fine. OK. No. It’s time to select a version which was just pure bonus. The band played a festival on the 4th of July in Crystal Lake Il, northwest of Chicago. At the festival it was announced that the guys in the first band, and members of Cracker would be playing at a restaurant in town after the fest closed down. Having been alerted to this a few days in advance by a keen-eyed newshound Crumb (Thanks Erin!!) I was prepared, and able to document the late set by the Cracker Duo.

Three songs. Starting with Teen Angst. A funny, hot crowded room. Frank and Sal hanging out enjoying the show, David & Johnny up on stage for a few minutes. Americal’s birthday. Fuck Yeah.

http://www.archive.org/details/Cracker2010-07-04.late

Cracker Live at Georgio’s Pizza on 2010-07-04 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

www.archive.org

Teen Angst, Mr. Wrong, Low

Paul Adams Listening Theme 38 – Summer

Chris LeRoy — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:49:36 +0000

Listening Theme 38 – Summer

Yesterday at 5:43am

I’m going on holiday tomorrow (yippee!!) and as I’ve no idea if I’ll get a chance to listen to any online music next week I thought I’d set this one and see what happens.

I simply want some suggestions for songs with ‘Summer’ or ‘Summertime’ in the title. There are some obvious ones but I particularly want some more obscure suggestions that I may not have heard before. So let’s have
some ideas and I’ll listen to what I can next week (and continue to get through the list when I get back).

So let’s have some ideas. Of course, tomorrow I’m going to have to start with Cliff’s “Summer Holiday”.

Cheers, Paul

SongBook Video Of The Week: i could be wrong i could be right

Chris LeRoy — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:45:14 +0000

Jerry Johnson via Kevin Olson:
good morning all…..gift of song

From….
iamacracker2

|

September 04, 2009

cracker performs i could be wrong i could be right at bluebird theatre in denver colorado on september 2 2009

40 Forever: B is for Beach

Chris LeRoy — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:29:14 +0000

Thursday, July 29, 2010

B is for Beach

Here are some great children’s books about the seashore:

Holm, Matthew, and Jennifer L. Holm. Babymouse: Beach Babe!Babymouse, 3. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2006.

Babymouse is the cutest surfer girl on the shelf.

Wiesner, David. Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books, 2006.

David Wiesner’s wordless picture book received the highest honor in children’s book illustration, The Caldecott Medal.

Graham, Margaret B, and Gene Zion. Harry by the Sea. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1965.

It’s another case of mistaken identity for Harry, the dirty dog.

Huneck, Stephen. Sally Goes to the Beach. New York: Abrams, 2000.

Roxxy and Jake love this book. (They are partial to black labs.)

Lee, Suzy. Wave. San Francisco, Calif: Chronicle Books, 2008.

A little girl overcomes her fear of waves. Like Flotsam, this book doesn’t need words to tell its story.

SongBook Video Of The Week: The Bottle Rockets

Chris LeRoy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:18:49 +0000

SONGBOOK FRIENDS Thomas Raymond Hall and Acffh Morst shared a link.

Smokin’ 100’s Alone – The Bottle Rockets 2010-06-11 Madison WI – Kiki’s House Of Righteous Music

40 Forever: Anne Tyler vs. Anita Shreve

Chris LeRoy — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:33:57 +0000

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Anne Tyler vs. Anita Shreve

RIVETING

Tyler, Anne. Noah’s Compass: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Print.

BORING

Shreve, Anita. A Change in Altitude: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2009. Print.

Last week I read Anita Shreve’s latest novel, A Change in Altitude. It’s a story about a woman who marries a man she barely knows and agrees to move to Kenya with him right after the wedding. Even though the book is filled with tragedy, political unrest, and betrayal, it bored me to tears. The characters are so one-dimensional, that I didn’t really care what happened to them. I kept thinking, “You dumb ass, what did you expect?” For the same reasons, I didn’t care for Shreve’s bestseller, The Pilot’s Wife, either.

Pulitzer Prize winner, Anne Tyler
(Photograph by Diana Walker)

This week I read Anne Tyler’s latest novel, Noah’s Compass. It’s a story about a 60 year old curmudgeon who loses his job and moves to a smaller apartment to save money. I found it to be absolutely riveting.

Since the book is rather short, I don’t want to give away much of the story. If you liked Accidental Tourist, you will love Noah’s Compass. If your library’s copy is checked out, it’s worth a trip to the bookstore. Just be aware that the list price is ($25.95–yikes!) and not all of the reviews were favorable. If you treat the book carefully while you read it, you can wrap it up and give it away as a Christmas gift.

ps. Anne Tyler’s books are so multi-layered that many people write doctoral dissertations about her work. As John Updike said, “Anne Tyler is not merely good, she is wickedly good.”

pps. Like John Waters, Anne Tyler sets most of her stories in her hometown, Baltimore.

Morst’s Pick: Intense Dead

Chris LeRoy — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:31:33 +0000

Acffh Morst
Twenty years ago this week, the Grateful Dead were on FIRE. Unfortunately, we came to find out that part of the fuel was ol’Brentski burning and not fading away. But the music! AHH!

This was the show when I spoke to Brent briefly during Drumz. What a second set. Short on song numbers, but IN-TENSE.

Grateful Dead Live at Deer Creek Music Center on

1990-07-18 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet A