'conductor'

There are two new CDs coming out shortly and I’m in the mood to push both for similar reasons: girls gone rock. Based on what I’ve heard from both the new Lucinda Williams and Jolie Holland CDs they’re both shaking off some doom-and-gloom, at least musically, and turning up the tempo and volume. Lucinda, who’s suddenly blasting through releases, sounds much happier in the rock n’ roll place than the grinding corner she’s stood on for any number of years. It sounds like the CD might actually fly by while I’m cooking instead of requiring a deeper and darker venue to listen. Jolie Holland must have been hanging around Lu when she worked on her new song – off the noir and up on the volume. Holland, who we saw a few years ago, was one of the original Be Good Tanyas but moved onto a solo career after at least a portion of the first Tanyas album was complete. I think it’s her voice on the CD versions of “Littlest Birds” and "Lakes of Ponchatrain”. She also gets due reward for being a part of my collection of redheaded singing angels which includes Patty Griffin and Neko Case. That’s the music for you. Leave me be.

The Eleven hit the Kennedy Center for the opera last night. The Pearl Fishers by Bizet was on the agenda and our reviews married up well with something like a B or B+ as the final result. Of course, I’ve got such a limited range of opera viewing and technical understanding that I might as well be trying to identify whether a fossil came from the late Triassic, late Cretaceous, or late Maastrichtian period. “Oh, right. I think that B flat sung by the tenor in the fifth stanza was a bit off. It also seemed like the harpist was a bit too adagietto in support.” That’s the kind of like the junk I say when I’m trying to impress people with my knowledge of engines or other machinery. Here, you can read the WaPo review. I just like to watch any performance as long as it doesn’t put me to sleep.

I’ll be watching the debate online tonight with a generally hopeful demeanor and a bottle of Maker’s Mark.

It’s Friday.

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