Music
January 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
A little over 30 years ago Rosanne Cash recorded The Wheel, a magnificent set of songs she wrote about the breakup of her marriage to Rodney Crowell. The album was produced by John Leventhal, whom she fell in love with in the process and married the following year. We saw the two of them at Minneapolis’s old Guthrie Theater when they toured in support of the album. I thought it
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January 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We went to see the The New Standards perform one of their annual pre-New Year’s shows at the Dakota on December 30 — the first of two shows they played that night following two shows the night before. We’ve gone for at least the past 10 years and have loved the band since we first saw them at one of their pre-New Year’s shows (they call them “preeners”). The band
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December 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Commenting on the “apology” tendered by the rapper formerly known as Kanye West for causing “unintended outbursts,” I quoted the text verbatim. I also drew on Christopher Kuo’s New York Times story reporting on the denial of anti-Semitism reflected in the title track of his forthcoming compact disc Vultures. On the album’s title track, the Times reports, “Ye raps that he cannot be antisemitic because he had sex with a
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December 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I first tuned in to the anti-Semitic ravings of Kanye West or Ye in his October 2022 interview with Tucker Carlson. In the part of the interview Tucker chose to air, Jared Kushner’s promotion of peace between Israel and Arabs in the Abraham Accords was disparaged as self-interested in an evocative fashion. “I just think it was to make money,” Ye said. “Is that too heavy-handed to put on this
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December 24, 2023 — Scott Johnson
This is my slightly revised and expanded edition of secular pop songs that seize on Christmas in one way or another for their own artistic purposes. Here they are in chronological order of release along with notes that might help place them. Noel Paul Stookey (Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary) adapted and arranged “A’Soalin” with Elena Mezzetti and Tracy Batteast including Christmas references – using “God Rest Ye Merry,
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December 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I am not sure how many Taylor Swift concerts my three daughters, combined, have gone to. At least six or seven, I think, and my wife has chaperoned them at most if not all, since these were when the girls were quite a bit younger. So I have been aware of Taylor Swift for a long time. Swift is now the number one figure in global popular culture. Long an
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December 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Karla Bonoff and Livingston Taylor came to town for two holiday themed shows at the Dakota this week. Karla has listed upcoming appearances here. This is a beautiful, beautiful show. Among other upcoming shows I want to note that they will hit the Birchmere in Alexandria on Tuesday. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you seize the opportunity to see the show. We made it last night and had
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November 19, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
Beverly Jean Santamaria, better known as Buffy Sainte-Marie, built a career on the false claim that she was a Cree Indian born in Canada. That marks a stark contrast to Robbie Robertson, born Jaime Royal Robertson on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario – same place as Jay Silverheels – on July 5, 1943. Robertson never traded on his heritage and built a career by putting American folklore to music.
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November 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Don McLean appeared in town to perform at the Dakota last night. His show constituted a late leg of his 50th anniversary celebration of American Pie — “I’ve been flogging it for two years,” he said. He celebrates both the song and the album. “It’s one album everything went right on,” he said. Backed by a hot five-piece band, he put on a phenomenal show. He was engaging, funny, and
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November 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tom Rush came to town for two shows at the Dakota this week. On Wednesday night he filled a hole in the Dakota schedule. Last night Tom made his originally scheduled appearance before an appreciative audience. We attended both shows and found little overlap between the setlists. You had to be there both nights. Thursday’s show gave me everything I wanted and more. With owner Lowell Pickett in the house
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November 10, 2023 — Scott Johnson
We walked in with the band when we went to see the Del McCoury Band perform the first of two shows at the Dakota last night. I reached out to shake hands with McCoury père and told him it was a privilege to see him perform. He smiled, as he did all night long. The band dresses in suits and ties indicative of the respect with which McCoury treats his
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November 7, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I bought tickets to each of the two shows John Oates played at the Dakota last night. He is moving on to play at the Lone Tree Arts Museum in Colorado and the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix later this week. I snapped the photo at the right from my table during the first show. With tickets to both shows I had high expectations, but in the event he exceeded
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November 6, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
As mentioned previously, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has exposed Buffy Sainte-Marie as Beverly Jean Santamaria, born in 1941 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, with no indigenous ancestry whatsoever. This revelation, though some 60 years too late, should not distract from genuine folk artists of the era. Bob Dylan, for example, told the world the times were a-changin’, so senators and congressmen please heed the call. Your sons and daughters were beyond your
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October 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I turn to the oracular Bob Dylan writing in William Blake’s prophetic mode for commentary on the deposition of Speaker Kevin McCarthy by Matt Gaetz and a few Republican colleagues joined by every House Democrat: All and all can only fall With a crashing but meaningless blow No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden Well, we hear the sound coming from the Gaetz of Eden. There’s no avoiding
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September 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
David Bromberg is a master of the blues and just about every other genre of popular American music. Tuesday he turns 78. To celebrate the occasion I want to revisit my comments after seeing him perform live over two nights in April 2022. When my friend Tom Edelstein invited me to see him perform at the Dakota back in 2019, I only vaguely remembered Bromberg as the blues virtuoso I
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September 15, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Marty Makary and Tracy Beth Høeg share the byline on the New York Post column “The real data behind the new COVID vaccines the White House is pushing.” Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Høeg is an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Both are physicians. Their column takes on the new Covid vaccine that the Biden administration is peddling like Steppenwolf’s “Pusher.”
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August 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I researched and wrote this for Van Morrison’s 75th birthday three years ago. I slightly downsized it to pay tribute to Van when he turned 77 last year. I’d like to turn it into an annual celebration as he turns 78 this week. Van is a brilliant, eccentric, enigmatic, essential singer/songwriter, performer, and multi-instrumental musician. He may not be for everyone. If you respond to his aesthetic, however, there is
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