Move over Barry White!
Chris Stapleton‘s Loving You On My Mind… I can hear this song playing with scented candles flickering in the background.
Señora Attends Allegro 2024 Summer Camp
Just in case you are not a long time reader (tehehe) of my silly little blog, Allegro is a choral group for persons 50 and over. Señora repeatedly tells me that she just loves being around so many talented folks.
Señora is on the first row, second from the left in the opening shot. She is also to be seen at various points during the video. Enjoy the music.
Allegro “We Will Rock You” 2024 Spring Concert
Allegro, a choir for those who are 50+, is one of the two choirs that Señora is currently singing in. Señora is the very pretty lady just to the left of the choir director, generally the second person from the left, sitting. They filled this large church – no association other than they can use it to practice and as a performance venue – to the capacity, with more than 600 souls.
Raye live at SWR3 New Pop Festival 2023
If you got an hour to spend, this is an incredible concert Raye did in Baden-Baden, Germany. She plays most of the songs off her debut album, 21st Century Blues, and a few more. She also talks in between offerings about the roots of each song which I found very interesting. She has hip hop/rap roots, so at times, the language is a little rough, but that is the state of music now days. Don’t let that put you off such an incredible talent.
I was reading an article that claimed she was creating her own genre of music. She certainly does blend many styles into wonderfully different musical experience. I love it when she goes off on those jazz riffs.
Yup, bit stuck on her music right now.
And so it goes.
Raye… Oscar Winning Tears (Live at the Royal Albert Hall)
For many years Saturday Night Live had entered a trough that made it less than must watch TV. Aside from that, over much of its history the music acts were far from my favorite part of the show.
This season seems to be a different story with the artists they are bringing on. I saw this young lady (same age as my oldest granddaughter) , Raye, on SNL and enjoyed it sufficiently enough to buy her CD 21st Century Blues, even though it is a little different than what I usually listen to. But then Señora and I both describe our musical taste as eclectic. Raye mixes many genre and makes them all work together wonderfully.
This is one heck of a production, but my favorite part was her reaction at the end when she realized she and this huge orchestra and chorus had absolutely nailed the performance.
As mentioned in my post, My Musical Roots?, a while back I put Señora’s and mine combined CD collection (600) on a home server, and I am using media server software, Emby, to feed the collection to our various wi-fi devices around the house. The software tagged our collection with 72 different genre. Eclectic, indeed.
Brooks & Dunn – Neon Moon
Warning: This song is a bit of an earwig. I just want to share the delightful pain of that imaginary burrowing insect, although I suppose earwigs could apply to other things than songs.
I made reference to this song in my posting: My Musical Roots?, since then I have played this YouTube video about 20 times. As mentioned, back in the 90s, my pick-em-up radio had decided to only feed me AM stations, leaving me with nothing but country stations for music. I had experienced a double whammy I really do not need to get into here. At the time it seemed like they were playing this song at least once an hour. Talk about a crying in your beer song… does that still hold true if it is a dark ale instead of a Busch Light? Bud Light? Coors Light? Cowboys and rednecks like their light beers. I reckon, though, that sometimes a girl just needs to wallow in her nostalgia.
All that aside it is a great song, if you like country music. This video has had 46 million views in the last two years. Not bad for a song released in 1992.
Remember I warned you.
My Musical Roots?
A love of music is something that Señora and I share. An important inflection point in our courtship story, Señora and the Curmudgeon, was our second date, an indoor Bluegrass music festival taking place in St. Louis that first winter of our romance.
Shared Musical Loves
Bluegrass seems to be a style of music that you either love or you look at the other person thinking, “WTF.” Obviously, we both are fans. Our other commonality in the realm of music is that we both have very eclectic taste, liking a wide array of musical styles. Although, our favorite genres are folk music and a style of roots fusion music that is referred to as Americana.
Musical Talent
One key musical difference between the two of us is Continue reading “My Musical Roots? “
One Sexy Video | Paradise By The Dashboard Lights
I fell down the Meat Loaf YouTube rabbit hole.
Oh… I remember why. I made a comment to someone (DFR), “as Meat Loaf once famously said, ‘two out of three ain’t bad.'” This lead me to look up the song on YouTube: Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad I can’t hardly listen to this song without a tear or two coming to my eyes. But then again I have way too many ghosts of past relationships rattling around my psychic, soul, or however you want to express it.
More Than I Thought
Which made me wonder if Meat Loaf was still with us. No. He died in 2022 at 74, probably of complications of COVID. To show my ignorance, I always thought of Meat Loaf as a one album wonder, Bat Out of Hell and a one film wonder, Rocky Horror Picture Show. Nothing could be further from the truth. He had a long career, both as a musician and as an actor of both film and theater. He sold millions and millions of albums world wide. His Bat Out of Hell alone sold 43 million, was certified platinum 14x, and spent almost a record of 522 weeks on the charts.
Paradise By The Dashboard Lights
I have listened to this song an unknowable number of times. It was and is a staple of rock radio. However, I have never seen the video of him singing this classic with Ellen Foley, who is from St. Louis. The video is more than a little sexy without being vulgar. The song by itself is just about a perfect encapsulation of the drama that is the relationship between men and women. What is the conventional wisdom? Women give sex to get love, men give love to get sex. As one my siblings commonly says, “true dat!”
The Video
And so it goes.
Allegro’s “Season of the Heart” 2023 Holiday Concert
Señora – aka Robin – is down to singing in only two choirs, the Allegro Choir which is for persons 50 years and older and her hospice choir. She sang for 22 years with the choir at the Center for Spiritual Living until its director became too old to lead them and they discontinued it. The Allegro choir has grown to over a 100 souls.
This is Allegro’s holiday concert. It includes a mixture of songs from various traditions… and many familiar tunes. Señora is sitting down to the left of the piano in a green blouse. Ain’t she prutteee.
Enjoy.
Greg Jacobs – Music Videos
From his Bio on his website:
“As part of a group of “red dirt” musicians who migrated to Stillwater in the late 1970’s – a rag-tag outfit that includes Jimmy LaFave, Tom Skinner, Bob Childers and the Red Dirt Rangers – singer/songwriter Greg Jacobs helped set the standard for great Okie songwriting. His latest CD, “Encore” serves as proof this standard is still alive and well.”
Greg, Randy Pease, and Grammy nominated John Fullbright were gracious enough to do a house concert at our abode here in Chesterfield 10 or so years ago. After they completed their regular set, John started playing Robin’s 100 year old Mason & Hamlin piano and wowed everybody again.
So many of the images he uses in his music videos remind me of being in Checotah, Oklahoma at my grandmother’s house in the 50s and 60s. Greg is a long time resident of Checotah where he taught history in the high school. One of his students was Carrie Underwood. It always amazes me how many really talented musicians never make the big show.
A link to Greg’s website is here: Greg Jacobs’ website