tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:/blogs/blog?p=9
Blog
2023-12-11T21:54:33-05:00
marylynmaiscott.com
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tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7317845
2023-12-11T21:54:33-05:00
2023-12-11T22:14:59-05:00
Rosanne Cash and Blue Lights
<p><span>I’ve been a fan of Rosanne Cash’s since hearing her 1981 smash single “Seven Year Ache” and buying the album of the same name. I’ve seen her live a few times: at WNYC’s the Greene Space, singing songs her father, Johnny Cash, recommended to her as classics, from her album </span><i><span>The List </span></i><span>(2009); at Carnegie Hall performing songs from </span><i><span>The River & the Thread, </span></i><span>an artful odyssey (listen to “A Feather’s Not a Bird” and “Modern Blue”), which won several Grammys, including best Americana album, in 2015; and at </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blogs/blog/posts/6021920/unity-and-change-with-rosanne-cash" data-link-type="url"><span>an event in 2018 that she hosted</span></a><span> at St. Luke in the Fields, in the West Village, where she spoke about the urgent need for gun control and sang relevant songs like “By Degrees,” with the song’s writer, Mark Erelli, and her own “Western Wall.” I spoke to her at the church reception that evening, and I’d previously met her at a book signing for her 1996 collection of short stories, </span><i><span>Bodies of Water.</span></i><span><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span><br><span> </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/rosanne-cashs-the-wheel-comes-full-circle/" data-link-type="url"><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/4f4930d778803e23342f5b751ee14b914182510f/original/village-voice-rosanne-cash-home-pg.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>For the re-release of </strong><i><strong>The Wheel,</strong></i><strong> Pamela Springsteen photographed Cash near the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, as she had 30 years before.</strong></p><p><br><span>Last month she re-released her luminous album </span><i><span>The Wheel</span></i><span> for it’s 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary, and recently I interviewed her about that—the album marked a pivotal moment in her life—and more (including </span><i><span>Bodies of Water</span></i><span>) for </span><i><span>The Village Voice. </span></i><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/rosanne-cashs-the-wheel-comes-full-circle/" data-link-type="url"><span>You can read it here. </span></a><span>She was quite lovely to talk to and I'm looking forward to watching her perform songs from the album at City Winery NYC in January.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Also: happy holidays! A few years ago, in honor of my Christmas song, “Blue Lights,” and my parents, who inspired the song, I wrapped blue lights around a plant stand (in lieu of a tree) and never took them off, though I remember to plug them in more often in December. Last year I put out a lyric video, designed by Christine Haire of Presto Fox, using photos of my mom and dad and their wartime letters. You may have seen it but in case not, or if you’d like to revisit, </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://youtu.be/Oc_A9_FY5yY?si=hfPlwIKpwNCnC_h7" data-link-type="url"><span>it's awaiting you on YouTube</span></a><span> (and comments are welcome)!<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7233233
2023-07-06T17:12:14-04:00
2023-12-11T20:04:13-05:00
Journey to Uvalde: A Photo Essay
<p>A while ago, I was invited to sing my song <a class="no-pjax" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/alithias-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank" data-link-type="url">“Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)”</a> at an event in Uvalde, Texas, for the one-year anniversary of the school shooting there, which took 21 lives, mostly children. I had written and released the song soon after that incident, which took place on May 24, 2022. And since that time I've been in touch with the parents of Alithia Ramirez, the 10-year-old victim whose drawing inspired my song (they kindly let me use it for the cover art).<br><br>My husband and favorite (only!) roadie, Robert Rosen, agreed to go with me, but a week or so before we were set to leave, the event was canceled, as was a second event I had signed on for. That was when I realized how much I wanted to go to Uvalde, so we went anyway.</p><p>This was a rich, emotional, sometimes difficult sojourn, and I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts and feelings about it on paper, but I’m finding this a challenging sojourn as well. So that will come later, but in the meantime here are photos—and one video (at the end)—from our several days in Uvalde.</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/95d62d5b79fae290756e34c627503cd77ce0c9a5/original/welcomesign-farther.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">We drove about an hour and a half from San Antonio, on Highway 90, to Uvalde on May 23.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/2343d4d27d6054502ca7ee12236e08d690f2b21a/original/downtown-bldgs.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The downtown is a small, quaint area surrounding the main square.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/3502d8f83b4444b91a7d1c75ebde283edbe1193f/original/img-3333.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">It includes such historic buildings as the Grand Opera House (1891). </p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/51c95918dfc95d9e9d396bc9e3c3193b93b76019/original/d04dcf5b-bab8-478e-8e34-9bd6813ee2bf-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The barber shop's slogan: “Being a barber is about taking care of the people.” <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/8c7d05440dc3972a8d1e1927fda0ecb49215afee/original/e2a90227-8869-4bb2-87d0-5b2abd7ca3a9-1-201-a.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Former tailor shops house two boutiques, the Blinged Buck and Cadillac Western Wear (not sure how I missed going in).<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/a61fba8f8eb56580b48b42640705db5c9c2747f6/original/4f6d9b65-49d6-4a58-83ad-5916fa885cd6-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The community has deep Mexican roots and some signs are in Spanish. The phrase “Uvalde Strong” and variations are ubiquitous. <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/fdf9b9397a22a45b99435932b220599e84f30137/original/img-2864.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">As are remembrances of the 21 victims, 19 fourth-graders and 2 teachers, here in a store window (reflecting the outside). <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/0d66ba55a5d1852570137226d8c235d9c1b86d16/original/murals-alithia.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">But perhaps the current defining feature of the city is the collection of murals of “the 21” painted on sides of buildings. Alithia's is on the Art Lab Studios building, on what is now called Alithia's Art Alley.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/2f5f6c86718b4065d8c4ef826a47ced940f4badd/original/f523973a-c5e0-41ea-a0f3-558bbd79ce50-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Art Lab Studios posted this graphic, which also appears on T-shirts and such. It shows King Kong on the landmark water tower. One vendor said it has to do with the 2008 drought in Uvalde.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/b0f399ef8bfb4bf6a02a6ee25554a91ce4be94be/original/img-3225.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The murals grace the downtown from nearly all vantage points. We could see the portrait of Makenna Elrod Seiler, on Amy's Attic boutique, while having lunch at Rexall, a former drugstore. <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/14df62266e36105d1e371130ac505853221127e7/original/512d6bd7-7690-4583-9b4d-e324860e38cd-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Around the corner we saw the Rexall's own mural, which welcomes visitors to the “Honey Capital of the World” and features hometown luminaries Dale Evans, Matthew McConaughey, Los Palominos, and onetime Texas governor Dolph Briscoe Jr.<br><br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/88064febe0d26411fd1f7f99caa26ab3423655e7/original/c0dd77e7-d5e8-4fac-a47d-d7b6349c45e3-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The city was prepared for the many media people in town for the anniversary. These signs were in various places.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/1707a62641e061f11a15a42b817c753e0bbcaa34/original/f222c9fe-8da3-449a-9055-cb9d494d1e36-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Memorials surround the fountain at the town square, or plaza. People began gathering here on May 24, the anniversary.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/421fe0ee87753f5b033b34bd1b5d2dd685011021/original/memorials-man-w-flowers.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">A man and two boys laid flowers on all the memorials. In the background are murals of Nevaeh Bravo and Rojelio Torres.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/e347d0c08152d547e690c903cf5cecfb5d8cf0f3/original/memorial-uziyah.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The memorials are decorated with things the children liked—in Uziyah Garcia's case, Spider-Man and video games.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/9d624eb56f912233ba9bff59fc29fc1012325787/original/273f33d0-78a5-4637-b082-228acdbde302-1-201-a.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Mariachis came to play—most had traveled from San Antonio the year before as well.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/941bc4a2371b3797a59ced2483e9046142d7c7d5/original/uvalde-corrido.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The lyrics for a corrido, a Mexican narrative song, by Cruz Ortiz, that tells the story of May 24, 2022: “The Angels of Uvalde.”<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/bb518e1822c607abe1439b7378cc2e94358e4871/original/4b0d2715-e285-4c22-8181-b716f6c0170b-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">A reporter interviewed relatives of one of the victims. Many family members wear T-shirts or jewelry with images of the loved ones they lost, and some have tattoos to commemorate them.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/2bf8d0639f372e742c826015e30994b12b6da79e/original/5574385a-c273-4efe-b310-1c378aee843d-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Despite the very sad circumstances, it was wonderful to finally meet Alithia's family. Jess and Ryan were wearing purple, Alithia's favorite color, and I happened to have on a light-purple top. Her beautiful little siblings wore pins with pictures of their sister. Bob got my guitar from our motel room, and I played the song for them there at the square.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/765771b2a500043ddd51c94efd20738093cb7256/original/79d54323-30df-4e7f-ad7d-faf9c47dcd62-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">That evening we went to the candlelight vigil for “the 21.” </p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/948058718e2b8881be541f3677fac0196670804b/original/b86dab8a-3009-4240-84b0-6af0e8bbb163-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Many who gathered there wore T-shirts honoring the victims (maroon is a town color)…</p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/f28902ab2091ae712e259633f5f8dcf40cd04bac/original/fb7a510e-c32a-415a-b37d-42ba20795255-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">…In this case Eliahna Torres. Butterfly or angel wings augment some of the images.</p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/a9a1538337af757f87185e483e9419a4fa528d34/original/7059d81a-832c-4c45-a6af-9a7be89db388-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">There was a butterfly release, but the butterflies didn't take off from their little boxes, perhaps because most don't fly at night. This one settled on my sandal (uncanny the way it matched my pants).<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/affe6f496faa6909226e2ec17cd7cef97890ce6e/original/d210df89-14dd-4219-826d-1bf42b8ae0e8-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The next day we moved from Motel 6 to this lovely guest house, the oldest structure (1881) in downtown Uvalde and just a few blocks from the plaza. <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/1e058a4ec06c80188ea93ca30ed2b430b936ac3d/original/fec14cb2-e149-4b5e-a392-034d575f7112-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">That afternoon we walked a mile or so, on Highway 83 and Geraldine Avenue, to Robb Elementary School, the site of the shooting.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/d1cfa0818d7674553ae06d93a419e9e231464319/original/58d30d62-c0e3-4f3f-aba0-a46077d288d5-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Various types of memorials appear across the grounds.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/39a7cbf537169aae876ccf79add0917c23936e62/original/72ba22f6-aa94-4934-9df4-a255f11f5da3-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">This one borrows FDR's Pearl Harbor declaration to express the immense loss suffered by this community.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/9368f0f95993740b87635b53264d38abc8d69bee/original/671da3ba-367e-4dac-99cb-f095fc1a15a4-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The two beloved teachers. The apples express such sentiments as “Thank you for believing in me.” Irma Garcia's husband, Joe Garcia, died of a heart attack two days after his wife was killed.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/3a6344e71db909bf2f8d4639bf481fdc9d9acc26/original/768ac82f-ea11-4428-ac96-61c07f7ac372.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The school is supposed to be demolished but retains this jarring sign.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/15e0141e424ac3042e46ee72216b1cc08805620e/original/ba1207b0-13ad-49a5-acd4-a4c5a26b5206-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">A neighborhood house with “Uvalde Strong” signs.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/979c12a3398f0cf4951e3c357b428e9d12c01e3b/original/0038357a-de46-42d7-a169-7988c5d3fe0b-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Another with a religious image, which are also prevalent in Uvalde.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/696bb47f0b0d9442e901465d4d437dabe356f80e/original/e7fe0e38-f1b9-44d9-946f-1a8900b0a62f-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">That night Bob and I went to the square to do a video of my song, figuring the traffic noise from the bordering highways would have died down. (See video at end of post.) <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/2432b9a5669fb40ab67775b128dc2d494ced3d9b/original/0457ad73-ff60-4eee-be6f-3641bcfab8b6-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">I also sang the song the next day with Adam Martinez on second guitar. (His dog Addie got into the picture too.) We made <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1119622342319200/posts/1293844501563649/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url">a video of our performance</a> for his local activist organization, K.A.R.M.A. Adam's son Zayon was at Robb the day of the shooting, in a second-grade classroom in a separate wing. He has continued to experience nightmares and fears about safety.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/eca524a151fb1ff1604372d24489c5f3050cbeae/original/19f44c39-86fd-47f2-ba1e-96210bceee43-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Later, when Bob and I were walking back from a Tex-Mex restaurant, we stopped in the town square.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/a6036cabf90d2143c11c0f1e23a794b82d500b74/original/85b9bb34-7e43-4681-8925-86404edf2113-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">We happened on a night (our last) of festivities.</p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/b1d9cdd1a5553319fb0cb84eaf307dd6eb17559d/original/a3bc778b-4aea-4e39-9b0e-4153eb751ae7-1-201-a.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">The juxtaposition of the memorials and the rock music, potato sack race, and vendors selling trinkets was strange, but it was good to see children—and adults—having fun. <br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/8292bd300f47495c0dbbf93ba70f05399ded3b1f/original/cc887d1d-02f4-418c-bfa3-fd076a7570c3-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"> I stopped at Alithia's memorial one last time.<br> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/8218241550a6edbed3e63265e0b15ce253905e38/original/25878bfd-d7d0-40ec-895b-6482a8f5c4d4-1-105-c.jpeg/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">On our way out of town, we visited the victims' gravesites, which, like the memorials, are adorned with toys and other favorite things. Alithia, whose middle name is Haven, loved chickens and holds one in the photo on the bench.</p><p style="text-align:center;">Here's the video Bob took in the plaza:<br> </p><div class="video-container size_xl justify_center" style=""><iframe data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="n519DQoBgnw" data-video-thumb-url="" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n519DQoBgnw?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div><p style="text-align:center;">All photos, text, and video © 2023 Mary Lyn Maiscott</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7189134
2023-04-14T13:12:25-04:00
2023-05-13T04:43:20-04:00
Sultry as Jessica Rabbit: Amy Irving Sings
<p><span style="color:black;">I’ve always found </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.instagram.com/amyirvingofficial/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:black;">Amy Irving</span></a><span style="color:black;"> compelling as an actor, something about the combination of beauty, delicacy, and intelligence. She was Richard Dreyfuss’s enticing rival in <i>The Competition,</i> Peter Riegert’s literary uptown girl in <i>Crossing Delancey,</i> and Barbra Streisand’s consummate (if unconsummated) beard in <i>Yentl,</i> among other roles.</span><br><br><span style="color:black;">At the age of 69, Irving has now teamed up with the big </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.goolispresents.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:black;">band </span></a><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.goolispresents.com/" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:black;">Goolis</span></a><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.goolispresents.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:black;"> </span></a><span style="color:black;">to do something new—an album, </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/014ho5GT3tMz8pYEGwiHaD?si=-JbYQ7VCRxioRP0UpRPBVw" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:black;"><i>Born in a Trunk</i></span></a><span style="color:black;"><i> </i>(her father was a director and her mother an actor)—that reflects aspects of her life over the years. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color:black;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/17bc58ea8c95d7f3e5a241d384ddde8d98ee6969/original/img-2145.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Amy Irving contemplates her life, musically.</strong></p><p><br><span style="color:black;">At the album-release concert on April 10 at City Winery in NYC, the band, led by Jules David Bartkowski, who also goes by the name Goolis, lent both a lightness and an excitement to such songs as Tom Waits’s “Old Boyfriends” (“of which I’ve had a few,” Irving said); Antônio Carlos Jobim’s sophisticated bossa nova “How Insensitive” (Irving was once married to Brazilian director Bruno Barreto and starred in his film <i>Bossa Nova</i>); and Death Cab for Cutie's “I Will Follow You into the Dark,” which she dedicated to Ken Bowser, her filmmaker husband (even though, she told us, he's promised to outlive her). </span><br><br><span style="color:black;">One of those old boyfriends, none other than Willie Nelson—with whom she worked, and maybe more (“we became <i>quite close</i>”), in <i>Honeysuckle Rose</i>—wrote a song, “I’m Waiting Forever,” for her. On the album he sings background vocals in that distinctive baritone, with, at times, his signature back phrasing (a little off the beat).</span></p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/39e52319d3b046f8a32c681b01ff862171c23b7e/original/img-2156.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Raising the roof with Goolis.</strong></p><p><br><span style="color:black;">Wearing a light-green eyelet dress—as though incarnating our imminent spring weather—and small round glasses, Irving greeted us with “I got an overture!” (Indeed she had, an unexpected treat for the audience.) Singing all the album’s tracks, which the overture had heralded, her voice sounded clear, vibrant, and impressively strong on the high notes, and she had the impeccable diction of the classically trained actor that she is (at especially emotive moments, she occasionally clutched the voluminous fabric of her flowy dress). At times she sounded as sultry as Jessica Rabbit when that curvaceous toon sang “Why Don’t You Do Right?” in <i>Who Framed Roger Rabbit?</i> No surprise there, since Irving, in a kind of fluke, recorded that song for the movie—“much to my old friend Kathleen Turner’s chagrin,” she told us. (Turner provided Jessica’s speaking voice.) Irving has now re-recorded it for the album, its first single and her closing concert song. Her rendition did the toon proud.</span></p><p><span style="color:black;">She did flub the lyrics at one point during the Tom Waits song (maybe a little too much to think about with “all my old boyfriends”?) and looked a bit befuddled. But after the audience cheered her on, she noted, “And lightning did not strike me dead!” Perhaps a lesson for us all, or at least the singers.</span><br><br><span style="color:black;">Conducting the band throughout—so great to have a horn section!—Goolis (the person, who is a friend) provided a casually suave complement to Irving, joining her to sing a couple of the songs, as he does on the album, in an understated way, like a lover who cannot quite reach his beloved. He was also fun to watch as he directed the fantastic musicians—he did all the arrangements—with an almost feline fluidity (if cats can have jazz hands). When I mentioned him to Irving after the show, she said, “He's my Cab Calloway,” invoking the 30s bandleader at the Cotton Club. </span><br><br>And then Irving was gone, off soon to celebrate another milestone, <i>Crossing Delancey'</i>s 35th anniversary, at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. And I followed Goolis (the person and the band) to Spaceman Sound, their recording studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for the after-party to catch the groovy, joyous vibe a little longer.</p><p> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/1fcb96bd7166f7ad175607e19593d13a8e668e1b/original/img-2171.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Doing an encore with, from left, Tom Tierney (guitar), Goolis, </strong><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);"><strong>Kelsey Warren, Emma Blackman, and Gabe Nathanson. The other band members were Ethan Meyer (drums), Barry Stephenson (bass), Aaron Lindenberg (keys), Sammy Mellman (trumpet), Max Mellman (trombone), and Gabriel Garcia (alto sax). Blackman also played tenor sax.</strong></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7187117
2023-04-10T13:22:53-04:00
2023-04-11T10:57:53-04:00
Guest Blogger Reveals New Song & Interview
<p>Here's a preview of an upcoming post (Wednesday) from the <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.robertrosennyc.com/blog" data-link-type="url">blog of Robert Rosen</a>, my husband the writer (because it's about my new song and more!):</p><p style="text-align:center;">On Billie Holiday's Birthday</p><p>April 7 was Billie Holiday's 108th birthday, and Mary Lyn Maiscott and I celebrated by tuning in to <i>St. James Infirmary</i>, Michael J. Mand's show on <a class="no-pjax" href="http://www.owwrny.org/" data-link-type="url">OWWR</a>. In his three-hour webcast, which begins 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Fridays, Michael plays an eclectic selection of rock, jazz, and blues—old classics as well as new material from unknown artists, superstars, and everyone in between. It's free-form radio at its best, and what I love about the show is that I always hear something interesting that I've never heard before.</p><p>On <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjamesinfirmary24/episodes/2023-04-07T16_45_08-07_00" data-link-type="url">his April 7 show</a>, Michael of course played Billie Holiday, along with some surprising covers of her music, like Southside Johnny's take on "These Foolish Things.” But the main reason we were listening is because Michael interviewed Mary Lyn, previewed her new single, "My Cousin Sings Harmony” (to be released April 13), and played two more of her songs, “Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)” and "Alexander/Isabella.”</p><p>The complete show is available on the player below; Mary Lyn's segment begins at 33:35, preceded by Bob Dylan's “Just Like a Woman” and followed by Fleetwood Mac's “Rhiannon” because Mary Lyn cited Stevie Nicks as one of her influences. I urge you to listen.</p><p><iframe src="https://podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/10512254" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" width="504" height="208" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7156129
2023-02-17T16:29:02-05:00
2023-04-10T13:19:58-04:00
“God,” “St. James,” and Me
<p>As I’m listening to Michael J. Mand’s <i>St. James Infirmary </i>show on <a class="no-pjax" href="http://owwrny.org/" data-link-type="url">OWWR,</a> I’m thinking of <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjamesinfirmary24/episodes/2023-02-10T20_30_06-08_00" data-link-type="url">last week </a>when he played <a class="no-pjax" href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2lN7bhUoUG9gdip5tgcjRx?si=0648955fe15b4fd1" data-link-type="url">my cover of “All I Have to Do Is Dream,”</a> right after Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning “Just Like That” and John Lennon’s “God”—love the segues! This set starts about 45 minutes in, with my song about 9 minutes later.</p><p>Michael chooses his songs very carefully, and a couple that I especially like on this podcast, besides the two I’ve mentioned, are “I Wish It Would Rain,” another cover, this one from Bruce Springsteen’s recent album of soul songs, and yet another cover, “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” by the Weeklings.</p><p> </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/396951/014700d0a58e60b5a3323a007282786a1c72b58a/original/music-st-james-infirmary-2-10-23.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>The set with my cover song from the </strong><i><strong>St. James Infirmary </strong></i><strong>playlist, Feb. 10, 2023.</strong></p><p> </p><p>So far on today’s broadcast, I’m taken with “This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr,” though it gave me pause to see that it’s by Johnny Depp, along with Jeff Beck (written by Depp and Tommy Henriksen). I can’t think of Depp in the way I used to (beautiful, charismatic, a little outsider-y) but also can’t deny that this is a good song (about someone beautiful, charismatic, a little outsider-y) .</p><p>And “All I Have to Do Is Dream” is a great song, written by Boudleaux Bryant and made famous by the Everly Brothers. My version, performed with Joan Chew (keys) and Graig Janssen (guitar), leans (swoons?) into the sadness of the lyrics. The live recording is from a show I did at the Bowery Electric—it’s on my EP <a class="no-pjax" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/dream-live-recordings-from-the-map-room" data-link-type="url"><i>Dream: Live Recordings from the Map Room</i></a>—and afterward a friend said the song "seemed ripped out of your heart.” It felt that way too, but there’s something delicious about releasing those feelings.</p><p>Thanks again to Michael J. Mand; as you may remember from <a class="no-pjax" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/7131209/song-of-the-year-alithia-s-flowers-children-of-uvalde" data-link-type="url">my last post,</a> he named my “Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)” song of the year for 2022. And be sure to check out the <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjamesinfirmary24/episodes/2023-02-10T20_30_06-08_00" data-link-type="url">podcast of his Feb. 10 show,</a> with my “All I Have to Do Is Dream” track, and keep his Friday afternoon show in mind—it’s improved my day already!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7131209
2023-01-01T15:10:08-05:00
2023-01-01T15:42:42-05:00
Song of the Year: “Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)”
<p>Here is a first for me: My song <a contents="“Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)” " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/alithias-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank">“Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)”</a>was named Song of the Year by OWWR (Old Westbury, Long Island) host Michael J Mand. Michael has played the song (as well as my rock song “Left It on the Stage”) a couple of times on his terrific show, <em>St. James Infirmary.</em> As that name suggests, he seems especially fond of the blues, but he always puts together an eclectic blend of recordings. For his last broadcast of the year, he does an awards show that focuses on albums, with such categories as Indie/Alternative, Americana, and Power Pop. Since I don’t have any new albums, I was completely surprised to discover that “Alithia’s Flowers,” which is like no other song I’ve done, had been singled out.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f676366d61b4eb035b7ac9dab15cee4c5330890b/original/alithias-flower-1400x72.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Here is the lineup of winners, minus the crucial Album of the Year: <em>It Ain't Easy, </em>by Shanda & the Howlers. The list includes old favorites of mine like Janis Ian, the Rolling Stones, and John Mellencamp, and fantastic newer acts like Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners and Janiva Magness.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/0691fcd26c84e78ccd83bf88dc0d3bc1cbb73c05/original/screen-shot-2023-01-01-at-1-38-35-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><a contents="As I’ve written in a previous blog, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/7007451/alithia-s-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank">As I’ve said in a previous blog, </a>I wrote the song after seeing a drawing by Alithia Ramirez, a 10-year-old victim of the Uvalde school shooting last May. (My cousin Toni, who lives in nearby San Antonio, had posted the artwork on Facebook via Beto O’Rourke’s page.) I then did the recording with producer Adam Tilzer, with Ward Williams providing the elegiac cello; and finally Nick Miller mastered the track. Alithia’s parents, Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez, kindly allowed me to use Alithia's vibrant drawing in the cover art.</p>
<p>In introducing “Alithia’s Flowers,” Michael said, “As a society we have an obligation to protect the potential that resides in the future generations, and if we fail to do that, we fail as a society. And my prayers for 2023 are simply that we do better than we’ve done before.” </p>
<p>His intro starts a little past 2:44 in the timeline for <a contents="the episode (click link)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjamesinfirmary24/episodes/2022-12-26T10_30_01-08_00" target="_blank">the episode (click here)</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to Michael and all who were involved with the song!</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7124804
2022-12-18T14:29:18-05:00
2022-12-18T16:13:12-05:00
New Lyric Video: "Blue Lights"
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="Oc_A9_FY5yY" data-video-thumb-url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Oc_A9_FY5yY/mqdefault.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oc_A9_FY5yY?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="180" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>
<p>For the 15th anniversary of my album, "Blue Lights," I've just released the new lyric video for its title song, "starring" my parents, Edgar and Floy Lyn Maiscott, and inspired by their wartime romance and marriage.</p>
<p>Christine Haire created the video for me, using old photos of my parents, a few of which my mother had taken, developing them in their darkroom. My sister, Cecilia Maiscott Pectol, gathered most of the photos as well as a few of their letters from that time.</p>
<p>When I was little, my mother told me that before they had kids, she and my dad would put only blue lights on the Christmas tree—I found this very romantic...now the stuff of song!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7119183
2022-12-06T21:45:34-05:00
2022-12-16T14:00:27-05:00
Benatar & Simon: My Village Voice Article & More
<p>In <a contents="my last post" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/7087189/the-sisters-simon" target="_blank">my last post</a> I wrote about Carly Simon and her sisters, who, very sadly, had both died (within a day of each other) in October. I’d been reading Simon’s memoir <em>Boys in the Trees</em>—as well as doing other research on her life and music—at that time. I’ve since written <a contents="a piece for The Village Voice about Simon and Pat Benatar, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/11/28/pat-benatar-and-carly-simon-hometown-rockers-make-good/?fbclid=IwAR2LMol41qfvqbvutEstWBUpA9HagPkXGq18nZEqWjXbq7JxwFQLUBOCwkA" target="_blank">a piece for <em>The Village Voice </em>about Simon and Pat Benatar, </a>the two 2022 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Performer category, who were born in New York City. (I also read Benatar’s memoir, <em>Between a Heart and a Rock PIace.</em>) I hope you’ll get a chance to read the <em>Voice</em> article, if you haven’t already.<br> </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/11/28/pat-benatar-and-carly-simon-hometown-rockers-make-good/?fbclid=IwAR2LMol41qfvqbvutEstWBUpA9HagPkXGq18nZEqWjXbq7JxwFQLUBOCwkA" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/178a5f244e86f943b1c3e740fc58ca85d846acfe/original/screen-shot-2022-12-06-at-9-05-32-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>From <em>The Village Voice, </em>November 28, 2022.</strong><br> </p>
<p>Because of space limits (which can occur even in cyberspace), I couldn’t fit everything I wanted into the article, so I thought I’d list a few of the more interesting outtakes or never-got-in-takes here.<br> </p>
<p><strong>Pat Benatar:</strong></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7f859c7b3f808a42d1dd9cbaed435b6ad45d338a/original/pat.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.heic" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The band shot from the back of my worn copy of <em>Crimes of Passion</em><em> </em>(1980).<br>Back row: Scott St. Clair Sheets, Benatar, Roger Capps</strong><br><strong>Front row: Neil Giraldo, Myron Grombacher<br>Original photograph: Leon Lecash</strong><br> </p>
<p>You may be aware that Benatar went into the Rock Hall of Fame with a partner—Neil Giraldo, her husband (of 40 years) and collaborator (of more years than that). Apparently, she had made it known that she would not accept a nomination without Giraldo being included, as she feels he’s been an intrinsic part of the sound that made her a star. (Giraldo is especially attuned to the way guitars and vocals work together.) </p>
<p>Giraldo calls her Patricia; she calls him Spyder—that name was on a yellow and black sign they spied from their hotel balcony while on tour in Virginia Beach in 1979. She felt he needed a nickname (since he tended to give them to other people), and those were his favorite colors. </p>
<p>Giraldo was going out with actor Linda Blair (<em>The Exorcist</em>) when Benatar met him. She writes that she tried to conceal her glee when he later told her Blair had fallen for someone else. (“How could she want somebody else? Was she crazy? <em>Give him to me, I love him.</em>”) </p>
<p>Although theirs sounds like a fairy-tale romance, they split up for a year—a difficult one, as they were still working together—before they married. She blames the pressures of the business and the execs who tried to keep them apart, with the idea that a romantic relationship could put the band at risk. </p>
<p>She says she likes her small breasts and was horrified to see a full-page <em>Billboard</em> ad in which she’d been “enhanced,” with her tank top airbrushed away and a sign, showing the release date of her 1980 album <em>Crimes of Passion,</em> imposed over part of her fake chest. She called her parents to tell them “I am not naked in <em>Billboard</em>!” </p>
<p>She was pregnant while recording <em>Tropico</em> and writes that because pregnancy makes the body’s long muscles relax (and vocal cords are muscles), she reached new vocal heights with that 1984 album. Appropriate that its huge hit “We Belong” includes an angelic children’s choir—check them out <a contents="n the video," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZInIyOBXk" target="_blank">in the video,</a> and btw, who could look better than Benatar standing under a waterfall wearing chartreuse gloves and a white jacket with madly padded shoulders (ah, the 80s)?</p>
<p>“Love Is a Battlefiend” (1983), by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, was originally written as a dreamy ballad, but Giraldo heard it much differently. <a contents="The song’s video, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/IGVZOLV9SPo" target="_blank">The song’s video, </a>which portrays a kind of stylized bordello, became iconic. Benatar writes that she’s not a dancer—but I imagine her “shoulder shake” would be all over TikTok today. </p>
<p>She and Giraldo long ago vowed to sing “Hell Is for Children” at every concert, “in a show of solidary” with those who suffer or have suffered from child abuse. Conversely, Benatar has lately refused to do “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” at performances, as she does not want to bring any distress to those whose loved ones have been shooting victims. (Both songs are on <em>Crimes of Passon.</em>) </p>
<p>On 9/11, Benatar was scheduled to do a gig at a Napa Valley vineyard. She was going to cancel (though at first the promoter refused to do so) until she found out people were clamoring for the show to go on. She went ahead with it but in a different way than usual, erasing the boundary she usually constructs between herself and the audience in order to keep her emotions under control. This time, with everyone bereft and uncertain, she and audience members discussed their feelings and concerns between carefully selected songs like “Invincible” and “We Belong.” “To have that conversation on that night was exhilarating and healing,” she writes. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Carly Simon:</strong></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4dc59bbb36b6bb22870d0b5b4da0d05a658c6745/original/carly.heic/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.heic" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>From the back of my copy of <em>Coming Around Again </em>(1986), an album dedicated to her friend Mike Nichols. </strong><strong>Original photograph: Lynn Goldsmith</strong></p>
<p><br>Simon first encountered future husband James Taylor, called “Jamie” then, when they were both kids vacationing with their families on Martha’s Vineyard. She’d gone to the local market, where, on the porch, Taylor and a friend were singing. Only 11 or so, she was precociously in thrall, hoping the boys would notice when she swung her hips as she went through the screen door. (They didn’t.) A little later, as she sat next to Taylor, he turned from his guitar and suddenly took a bite of her popsicle, and then another—while never looking at her. She didn’t get to know him until much later, when they were adults, musicians, living in NYC.</p>
<p>While attending Sarah Lawrence college in the 60s, she listened over and over to Odetta records and tried to copy her sound: “Hers was everything a woman’s voice could be, its power deep, sonorous, almost demanding,” Simon writes. Like the young Barbra Streisand singing in stairwells to hear her own resounding voice, Simon sought out rooms with good acoustics—the gym, the bathroom—to do the same. </p>
<p>She holds in her possession (at least as of the time of her memoir, 2015) a 1966 recording of a duet with Richie Havens of a reworked blues song. Although she'd been told she’d be pairing up in some way with Havens, under the name Carly and the Deacon, she wasn’t aware he’d recorded a part for this song—sometime after she did her track—until after the recording had been shelved. </p>
<p>In 1970, she told the manager Jerry Brandt that she didn’t want to be a performer, she wanted to be a songwriter for other performers. He ignored that and set up a demo session for her—she still imagined the demos would be sent to other singers—soon getting her signed by Elektra Records. Luckily, she went along with it. </p>
<p>Her smash hit “You’re So Vain,” released in 1972, began life as “Bless You, Ben” (which for a time morphed into “Ballad of a Vain Man”). This was several years before her son, Ben, was born, though James Taylor had already predicted he and Simon would have a boy named Ben (as well as a girl named Sarah). </p>
<p>Her second husband, James Hart, credits her with helping him come to terms with his sexuality, 12 or so years into their marriage. “She turned over one morning and said, ‘I think you might be gay,’” Hart told Fox News after the publication of his memoir, <em>Lucky Jim,</em> in 2017. He added, “One of the wonders of Carly is her insistence on truth.” Hart also revealed that he and Simon once set up their friend Jackie Onassis, at her request, with Alec Baldwin, as her date on her birthday. </p>
<p>Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. “It’s after the knives and the sutures and needles, I’m left with an arrow that points at my heart,” she sings in “Scar,” from her 2000 album, <em>The Bedroom Tapes.</em> There is that insistence on truth Hart spoke of, the details she doesn’t flinch from, even in her songs. The song is hopeful, though, ending with a Gaelic coda that itself ends with (translated): “Show me your scar/And I will make it better.” <a contents="She spoke about the song and read the lyrics " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/s7Shvgi6AY4" target="_blank">She spoke about the song </a>at an ASCAP event in 2012. </p>
<p>Taylor Swift has said that when she first heard “You’re So Vain,” she thought, “That is the best song that has ever been written.” During a show that Swift did in Massachusetts in 2013, she brought out Simon, wearing a short silver sequined skirt, for <a contents="a duet of the classic song" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/X0XPRBiAV_Y" target="_blank">a spirited duet of the classic song</a>. As Olivia Rodrigo did during the Rock Hall induction show, Simon and Swift pogoed during the very rhythmic parts.</p>
<p>As we all should! My respect and love for both these artists has been magnified by what I’ve learned about them. Hope you’ve enjoyed going with me on a deep dive into their lives and work.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7087189
2022-10-23T17:36:32-04:00
2022-12-06T21:35:59-05:00
The Sisters Simon
<p>Lately, pursuing a writing idea, I’ve been immersed in Carly Simon—her stimulating, almost fantastical childhood in NYC (the Village and then Riverdale) and Stamford, Connecticut; her transitions from stuttering child to folk singer, in a duo with her sister Lucy, to pop-rock sensation; her consuming love for James Taylor (they divorced in 1981); her life in an ever-expanding eccentric house on Martha’s Vineyard; and of course her music. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/d43d94bb0c40bcd6143fd09adc8f21fe8a3f09ab/original/9781250095909.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Carly’s two sisters play large parts in her entrancing memoir, <em>Boys in the Trees</em> (2015), especially Lucy, closer to her in age. It’s Lucy with whom she begins her musical career: the newly named Simon Sisters, on a lark and armed with their guitars, take off to Cape Cod one summer and quickly land a gig. This marks the start of an exciting partnership—until Lucy decides to marry and go to nursing school (she would later become a Broadway composer). Years later, it’s Lucy who comes to the rescue during a show of Carly’s in Pittsburgh, one that takes a devastating turn when Carly, her marriage to Taylor nearly over, has a panic attack onstage. </p>
<p>Joanna, or “Joey," is a slightly more distant figure, but one that the young Carly idealizes, as she would memorialize in her song “My Older Sister.” As a young woman, Carly lived in Manhattan, as did Joanna, by then a glamorous, self-possessed opera singer (her mezzo-soprano voice soars in background vocals for Carly’s song “Haunting”). When the two were walking home one evening, Carly spotted James Taylor’s photo on the cover of <em>Time</em> magazine. “I’m going to marry him,” she blurted out, though she barely knew him (both the Simons and the Taylors vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard, and she had met him when they were children). In an interview with Dan Rather several years ago, Carly told this story, then said that Joey “can vouch for this.” Sister as witness. </p>
<p>As a child, Carly felt that her father, Richard Simon, cofounder of the publishing giant Simon & Schuster, admired and loved her sisters more than her. As though to prove this, he once wrote her a poem that cited her “fat nose.” But rather than resenting her sisters, Carly saw them (for the most part) as her refuge. She wrote that Lucy was “my grounding influence, my heroine, my pilot.” </p>
<p>So it saddened me greatly to read that both of Carly’s sisters had died of cancer last week, within one day of each other—in Joanna’s case, a day before her own birthday. (Their brother, Peter, died several years ago.) Yesterday Carly issued a statement: “Their loss will be long and haunting…. We were three sisters who not only took turns blazing trails and marking courses for one another, we were each other’s secret shares. The co-keepers of each other’s memories…. Those of us they’ve left behind will be lucky and honored to carry their memories forward. With great and eternal love and respect.” </p>
<p>I will let you know if my writing idea works out. In the meantime, I’m glad to have spent precious time in the world of the very musical, very complex, very memorable sisters Simon.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7052633
2022-09-04T13:27:45-04:00
2022-10-21T04:26:14-04:00
Nellie McKay Graces the Blue Note
<p>I met the singer/songwriter/actor/activist <a contents="Nellie McKay" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nelliemckay.com/" target="_blank">Nellie McKay</a> in 2009, after I i<a contents="nterviewed&nbsp;her for Vanity Fair." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/10/qa-singer-nellie-mckay-channeling-doris-day?redirectURL=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/10/qa-singer-nellie-mckay-channeling-doris-day" target="_blank">nterviewed her for Vanity Fair.</a> Since then I've seen her versatility in action many times, as when she performed Doris Day songs at the swank Feinstein's (now closed), <a contents="60s songs" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/6021883/nellie-mckay-feels-free" target="_blank">60s songs</a> at the supper club 54 Below, and more recently a combination of standards and originals at the Blue Note, which happens to be in my neighborhood. The Blue Note show, on July 31, was the first of three Sunday engagements (two brunch shows each day), and there's still a chance to see her in this jazz-landmark venue, at the last <a contents="show on September 11" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.bluenotejazz.com/nyc/shows/?event_detail=nellie-mckay&timestamp=2022-09-11" target="_blank">shows on September 11</a>. Here are some photos by her friend Jason Spiro, whom I was happy to meet that day, to get you in the mood. By the way, she often takes requests, so you might want to have one ready. Mine was her melancholy, gorgeous "Bruise on the Sky." Other stand-outs that day were her paean to canines, "The Dog Song," complete with panting sounds; the Kinks' lilting tune "Sunny Afternoon"; and the yearning perennial "Body and Soul."</p>
<p><span class="font_small"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ba6525c15dac2a5f04e3da11d647c9cf6bc700c1/original/dsc-0130a.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nellie McKay at the Blue Note. She switched between ukulele and piano.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/172b84e9c828a2f43c354c39a9e2d46d0642989e/original/dsc00105a-1.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nellie, Alexi David, and Bill Goodwin onstage.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/14be7019343cd33432bf91141e6bf4659522a512/original/dsc01255a.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_regular"><strong>Music aficionado Chris ("Just Chris"), me, Nellie, and my husband, Robert Rosen, hanging out after the show.</strong></span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7048514
2022-08-29T13:03:22-04:00
2022-09-03T16:44:26-04:00
"Alithia's Flowers" on OWWR
<p>The other day I got a Facebook notification about a post by Michael J. Mand, aka Michael the Molar Maven, an NYC dentist who moonlights as a radio host for the Old Westbury, Long Island, station OWWR. He had included my song <a contents=""Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)" " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/alithias-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank">"Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)" </a>on the August 26 episode of his show <em>St. James Infirmary,</em> which airs on Friday afternoons. When my husband and I listened to the podcast (click on image for link), Bob said it reminded him of Don McGee's eclectic show, <em><a contents="Mixed Bag" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://wfuv.org/content/mixed-bag" target="_blank">Mixed Bag</a>, </em>on WFUV here in NYC—that's a big compliment, as Bob loves <em>Mixed Bag</em>!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjamesinfirmary24/episodes/2022-08-27T01_59_03-07_00" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a720717f6a5765aa05756575fd246b9c9384e619/original/screen-shot-2022-08-29-at-12-43-11-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Michael chose some great selections, including a live version of "I Misunderstood," by Richard Thompson (whose words sound as if he's trying to contain them lest they explode), the unbelievably energetic Bob Seger classic "Katmandu," and the Dollyrots' "I Know How to Party" (I believe you). My song is situated in very good company, about a third of the way through the playlist:</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/fc49276b7363edc639d65c215e401f7493516c0c/original/screen-shot-2022-08-29-at-1-31-58-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Aside from his taste in music, I appreciate Michael's sensitivity in regard to the subject of the Uvalde school shooting. In speaking about my song, he explained that I was inspired by one of the victims. Then he said, "I hope I don't have to ever say that again. I'm afraid I will, but I hope I don't." </p>
<p>A big thank-you to Michael and to OWWR, and I hope you all like the podcast as much as I do.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7038475
2022-08-16T17:03:16-04:00
2022-08-16T17:44:31-04:00
In the Paper and on the Radio
<p>My song <a contents=""Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)"" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/track/3113626/alithia-s-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank">"Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)"</a> has led me down a few paths. I contacted Alithia Ramirez's parents, Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez, shortly after recording it. I wanted them to know that I'd been inspired to write the song by a drawing made by their daughter, who died in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. Since then we've had several exchanges, and I've also frequented local social-media pages, such as for Uvalde Strong. As <a contents="the Times reported in a recent article" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/06/us/uvalde-funerals.html" target="_blank">the Times reported in a recent article</a>, Uvalde is a tight-knit community, and of course it's also a devastated one now, with grief-stricken people supporting other grief-stricken people.</p>
<p>Recently, I read a <a contents="related article in the Times" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/us/parkland-shooting-trial-victims-families.html" target="_blank">related article in the Times</a>, about the trial of the gunman in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. It made me wonder about the shooters in these cases, and I ended up <a contents="writing a letter in response" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/opinion/letters/trump-fbi-raid.html?fbclid=IwAR1WN0gNTJzq4RTNjgto2tCFel7W4K4_IZ6LIUcndaPsAdf8sApVTVozZqE#link-32bed744" target="_blank">writing a letter in response</a>, which the Times published a few days later:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c202ab89a0b2612ec9d2b1e6e97e3be3ef22f94e/original/screen-shot-2022-08-16-at-5-27-16-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br>Around that time I also discussed the song and its aftermath in a video interview with my good friend (though I've never met him IRL) Youngstown radio host <a contents="Louie B. Free" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.wfmj.com/louiefree/?fbclid=IwAR191tiRPOXCpacHtPS8c9a9vmUKp7YX0bOYrCq55ygaVrMWzGGiG31HbpE" target="_blank">Louie B. Free</a>. I go way back with Louie, and my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, goes even further back. Over the years he's interviewed Bob about his books and me about my songs many times; he even broadcast our wedding! Here's the video, with thanks to Louie, a wonderful, empathetic host.<br><br><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9PVwjaEHN1Y?start=22" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7032733
2022-08-07T16:24:49-04:00
2022-08-15T17:27:31-04:00
Writing Courtney
<p>Catching up here!<br><br>Shredder, ruminator, singer-songwriter—the amazing Courtney Barnett is my complex subject in a recent <em>Village Voice </em>piece (click here or on image), combining my impressions of <em>Anonymous Club,</em> the new documentary about her by Danny Cohen (a Q&A with him and Barnett followed the screening I attended), and a fantastic Radio City Music Hall concert she gave a couple of weeks ago. If you're not familiar with this Australian wonder, she is both Dylanesque and Townshendesque, quite a combination. <em>Mojo</em> magazine called her an "undercover superstar." That sounds about right!</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/07/29/courtney-barnett-shines-at-radio-city-music-hall-and-the-angelika-film-center/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/45ca4ea51782ca9a6c8906a2f97e8649e4660dc4/original/screen-shot-2022-07-29-at-7-25-41-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7016248
2022-07-16T14:30:21-04:00
2022-08-13T06:26:39-04:00
A Voice Choice
<p>A couple of decades ago, like many other New Yorkers, I used to love picking up the weekly <em>Village Voice</em> on Wednesday mornings. A few of the names I looked for in the pages at that time were writers Vivian Gornick and Cynthia Heimel, cartoonists Jules Feiffer and Lynda Barry, and photographers Amy Arbus and Sylvia Plachy. I also always read the section called “Getting and Spending,” in which writers touted stores and products, but often in a creatively askew way. One day I decided to write something myself and send it in to Mary Peacock, the section editor. It was about vintage aprons I’d seen (and purchased, in one case) at Alice Underground, that I thought could be freed from their traditional culinary role to just look cool over a skirt. To my surprise, she published it, and then I became part of her stable of writers, going on to write about such items as old-fashioned full slips from Lamston’s, abstract-looking bookends from Pearl Paint, and even beach towel dresses that you too could make yourself—I modeled my own for <a contents="the accompanying photo," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=551592620023677&set=a.202331211616488" style="">the accompanying photo,</a><a contents="the accompanying photo, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=551592620023677&set=a.202331211616488" target="_blank"> </a>a red belt cinching my Puerto Rico towel as I stood shaking maracas (not sure why) on a rotting Village pier. </p>
<p>Like the stores I mentioned above, the <em>Voice</em> eventually folded—first the print, then the website, but it was resurrected in 2021, including the print, which is so wonderful to see again in those <em>Voice</em> kiosks around town. I did an interview with Rickie Lee Jones for the April 2022 issue, and now my new recording, “Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)” is a <a contents="Voice Choice " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/07/13/remembering-a-young-uvalde-victim/" target="_blank">Voice Choice </a>on the website. The article talks about my communications with the parents of Alithia Ramirez, the 10-year-old Uvalde victim whose drawing inspired the song.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/dae22ac8cbf034ccd6c0ddf79b0206949d146005/original/screen-shot-2022-07-16-at-2-40-28-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Looking at that long-ago <em>Voice</em> photo of me, I’m reminded of a more carefree (stressing "more") time. The piers were rotting but not the whole state of Denmark. </p>
<p>Still, may we derive hope from Alithia’s flowers and her dreams and keep creating and believing in resurrections. And thank you, <em>Village Voice, </em>old friend.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/7007451
2022-07-04T17:13:00-04:00
2022-08-29T13:05:19-04:00
"Alithia's Flowers (Children of Uvalde)"
<p>School shootings are mystifying and tragic. I’m writing this on the Fourth of July (a day when another type of mass shooting has occurred, at a parade), wondering how this country can allow—through lax laws—this horrific kind of thing to occur, again and again. Little children being gunned down. It’s hard to fathom. </p>
<p>Two days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, I went to see an expansive and amazing Faith Ringgold show at the New Museum here in NYC. It included a large painting called <a contents="American People Series #20: Die. " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/199915" target="_blank"><em>American People Series #20: Die. </em></a>Reminiscent of Picasso’s <em>Guernica,</em> it showed a violent scene that included two small children (one Black and one white) hunkering down so as not to be killed. There was no way to look at that painting at that time and not be reminded of what had just happened at Robb Elementary School. But sadly, the artwork, from 1967, appears to be timeless, a testament to the power of art and the depravity of human beings.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e338ed11187b275a3eb18094f5cdbed9698164f9/original/alithias-flower-drawing.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Not long after, I saw another piece of art: a drawing by one of the Robb school victims, 10-year-old Alithia Ramirez, that my cousin Toni, who lives in San Antonio (about 85 miles from Uvalde), had posted on Facebook, via Beto O’Rourke’s page. I was taken by Alithia’s rendering of a sky—almost weeping, it now seems—balloons, and two red flowers with wavy stems. She’d written at the top, “Happniss come’s first!” </p>
<p>With that inspiration and with facts about the shooting that I’d read in news accounts, I wrote a song, “Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde).” Luckily, a music engineer I’d only recently met, Adam Tilzer, was available to record the song for me at his home studio. I took the Staten Island Ferry there on Memorial Day and we recorded keys (with Adam playing) and my vocal. A couple of days later the fantastic Ward Williams added a mournfully beautiful cello part that took the track to a new level. Then Nick Miller, a producer I’ve often worked with, mastered the song, enhancing its sound.</p>
<p>I put it on SoundCloud but wanted to notify Alithia’s parents, Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez, before actually releasing it. I’ve been in touch with them, and they told me they “love” the song and kindly allowed me to use Alithia’s wonderful drawing for the cover art, designed by C.G. Reeves. </p>
<p>I’ve also discovered that a couple of musicians, including <a contents="Carlos Maldonado, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/8TGLfaj2zBM" target="_blank">Carlos Maldonado, </a>have written corridos, ballads that have a narrative, about the Uvalde event. It's occurred to me that my song is somewhat akin to the corrido, though I was unfamiliar with this Mexican tradition. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/alithias-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f676366d61b4eb035b7ac9dab15cee4c5330890b/original/alithias-flower-1400x72.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><a contents="“Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/alithias-flowers-children-of-uvalde" target="_blank">“Alithia’s Flowers (Children of Uvalde)”</a> (click title or image above for link) is now out on all major platforms, for streaming or downloading. Amanda Petrusich, the music journalist and <em>New Yorker </em>writer, called it “devastating, beautiful, pure” on Twitter. </p>
<p>The Uvalde incident was itself, of course, devastating. I see it every time I look at a social-media page connected to that community. I hope that we can stop, or at least deter, gun violence and that children like Alithia can grow up to go to art school in Paris, as she wanted, or whatever they dream of.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6940035
2022-04-04T14:12:15-04:00
2022-05-10T02:48:08-04:00
Writing Rickie
<p>Someday I hope to talk to Rickie Lee Jones about her song “Living It Up,” which contains one of my favorite lines of hers: “[They] carried her over the bridges like fluttering pages.” The song is about a trio of familiar Jonesian street characters—colorful, yearning, down-at-the-heels—yet mysteries abound. </p>
<p>The first lines of the chorus, “Oh Wild and the Only ones / Tell him where you are,” invite speculation. Who’s “him”? Why the caps (as we say in publishing) on “Wild” and “Only ”? And who are the Only ones—though in the song’s bridge we do find out they’re “living it up,” whatever that means! </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4c57f6cb687526bbfb593503c2bfa65c2aa926a3/original/rickie-b-w-crop.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /><strong>Rickie Lee Jones at City Winery, NYC, March 17, 2022.</strong></p>
<p>When I heard the song live at City Winery in NYC last month, Rickie repeatedly left out “and the Only ones.” So, again, why? But that’s a cerebral question, overtaken that night by the deep emotion her music evoked in me. I wrote in my notebook, “Am I the only one who wanted to weep at the presence of this woman….” Later I realized that with that phrase “the only one,” I’d used (almost) the words she’d omitted—an unconscious wish to restore them? Or to be among those living it up? Though at the club, experiencing this phenomenal show, I definitely was.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b79c73641ff383ad656699b29df5bd445eff9d32/original/citywinery-ntbk-crop.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Writing my impressions of the concert. Photo by Terry Bisbee.</strong></p>
<p>There wasn’t time to delve into specific songs during an interview I did with Rickie, a couple of weeks before the concert, for <em>The Village Voice,</em> but she and I covered a lot of other ground, including her love of <em>West Side Story,</em> the pros and cons (mostly cons) of having money, and the super-friendliness of her current hometown, New Orleans.</p>
<p>Ten years before, I'd interviewed her for <a contents="Vanity Fair" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/07/qa-rickie-lee-jones-is-not-in-love" style="" target="_blank"><em>Vanity Fair</em></a> (and had also seen her in concert at City Winery). I feel lucky to have gotten to talk to this musical genius not once, but twice. I hope you'll join us for our latest convo—and a bit more on the show—by clicking on the screenshot below.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/04/03/rickie-lee-jones-and-all-that-jazz/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/80db4cc958a2a7e97ac38961ca7a739e958f8b6f/original/screen-shot-2022-04-03-at-3-25-38-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6879061
2022-01-25T11:35:37-05:00
2023-12-10T11:32:47-05:00
Middle Child Sings
<p>Yesterday was my birthday, which made me think of my song “Middle Child,” released two years ago. It's a live version, recorded at Pianos in NYC during my last pre-pandemic club gig. </p>
<p>When the lyrics first started to form in my mind for this song, I thought, I can’t sing these words. I felt they were too personal and too revealing. My parents are deceased, yet I still wondered if it was okay to publicly look at a different aspect of their experience, kind of a flip side of my song “Blue Lights.” </p>
<p>It was around this time that Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for his album <em>DAMN.</em>—the first time a non-jazz, non-classical recording had received the music prize. Listening to <em>DAMN.</em> gave me the freedom to explore my childhood in my lyrics. </p>
<p>I eventually brought the song to the two musicians who’ve worked live with me for the past several years (though, sadly, not the last two)—Joan Chew and Graig Janssen, who together came up with a stunning arrangement. When we performed it at Pianos, I felt I was taking a scary but exciting journey with them, and also with the audience. If you were at that show (or my birthday/record release party a couple of months later at the Killarney Rose tavern), thank you for “walking on the wire” with me. And if you weren’t, we can still take that journey together through the miracle of recording! </p>
<p>Click <a contents="here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/middle-child-live">here</a> to find the song on the music platform of your choice.</p>
<p>And here's me at six! Enjoy my birth week!</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/middle-child-live" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/941fef1e32c4e3f2c6641a66ae0cadd6fef39f45/original/music-cover-middle-child.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6818533
2021-11-22T20:37:48-05:00
2021-11-29T18:49:22-05:00
The Done Wrongs Do Right
<p>Sometimes we know people but not really. This was the case for me with the singer Laura Palmer, aka Laura Rebel Angel. We'd both recently been in an online music community and thus become Facebook friends but had never met; however, her post last week announcing her first gig with the Done Wrongs caught my eye.</p>
<p>Aside from dropping in at the Bitter End about a month ago to say hello to my bandmate Joan Chew, I hadn’t stepped into a club or bar since before the pandemic. But bolstered by my recent booster, I walked into the tiki joint <a contents="Otto’s Shrunken Head" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ottosshrunkenhead.com/" target="_blank">Otto’s Shrunken Head</a>, on East 14th Street, last Saturday afternoon and immediately felt at home. I’d completely forgotten I’d ever been there till my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, reminded me that we’d both been on an Internet show years ago that taped there—<em>ReW & WhO. </em>In the little room in the back, the charming singer-songwriter <a contents="Rew Starr" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/rew.asterik" style="" target="_blank">Rew Starr</a> had hosted her show on the stage where I now saw Laura, looking radiant in a pinkish-orange 50s-style dress, with her upright bass.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/198b59c8aab6a53722eb8c2bbdf1c244a797c1d0/original/img-5170.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><strong>The Done Wrongs: Laura Rebel Angel, Seaton "Chuck" Hancock, JJ Murphy, and Simon Chardiet.</strong></p>
<p>I’d first heard her sing several months ago, performing a bluesy number on a Zoom show, and if a Zoom can have a roof, she blew it off. She didn’t disappoint on Saturday, sharing the stage with Simon Chardiet, a wild guitarist and leader of the band, Seaton “Chuck” Hancock, adding warmth with his tenor sax, and solid drummer JJ Murphy. The group played jump blues, 50s rock ’n’ roll, and bebop, with Simon, Laura, and Chuck alternating lead vocals. </p>
<p>Simon occasionally jumped off the stage to play directly to the Rockaway Beach contingent at one table—funny, I had just been reading about Patti Smith’s Rockaway experiences in her book <em>M Train.</em> The person sitting next to me, Scott, told me he surfs with Simon there. Scott also introduced me to his friend Sophie, and I'd earlier met Laura’s friend Pam, who added a little zest by jumping up and dancing during a couple of the rowdier numbers.</p>
<p>After the show, I noticed Laura leaving with her bass in its case and figured she was eager to get it home. I stopped to compliment Chuck on his velvety voice and then walked out, heading toward Avenue A. But there, in front of a store called Sally Beauty, stood Laura, sans bass, talking to Scott and Sophie, so I joined them. After the two friends left, Laura and I chatted for a bit. Then, looking at the sign behind us, she said, “Oh, beauty supplies!” and I left her to that, though honestly I think she has that aspect of being a performer all wrapped up—not to mention the singing part!</p>
<p>Laura will be playing again with the Done Wrongs at the Parkside Lounge on January 28, and catch her in ferocious rockabilly mode with her main group, the <a contents="Screamin’ Rebel Angels" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://screaminrebelangels.com/" target="_blank">Screamin’ Rebel Angels</a>, as soon as you can.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6705583
2021-08-03T12:39:47-04:00
2022-01-30T14:40:02-05:00
Left It in the Studio
<p>I got the idea for my new song, “Left It on the Stage,” after my husband, the writer <a contents="Robert Rosen" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://robertrosennyc.com" target="_blank">Robert Rosen</a>, told me I’d done just that after a gig at the Bronxville Women’s Club—great acoustics!—in Westchester County, N.Y., with guitarist Hoop and bassist Peter Weiss. (Bob explained that he was drawing on the sports expression “left it on the field.”) When a chorus melody popped into my head, I sang it into my phone, where it hibernated for a long time. </p>
<p>But in 2018, seeing Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in <em>A Star Is Born</em> inspired me to return to the song, and soon I was working on it with the two fantastic musicians who play gigs with me, <a contents="Joan Chew" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://joanchew.com" target="_blank">Joan Chew</a> and Graig Janssen. Since we don’t have a drummer, Joan coaxed a snare sound from the mini cajon I’d recently bought in Barcelona, while Graig quickly conjured an instantly memorable opening riff on his Takamine guitar. </p>
<p>We began to perform the song at clubs like Bowery Electric and Pianos in NYC, and I sent a rehearsal recording to my longtime producer, Nick Miller, who subsequently played drums, bass, and electric guitar on the track. He also encouraged me to do something I’d never done before in the studio: lay down an acoustic guitar track (I play rhythm guitar when we do it live). So I did, at <a contents="Mercy Sound Studio" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.mercysound.com/" target="_blank">Mercy Sound Studio</a>s. And on February 25, 2020, I recorded the vocals—only a couple of weeks before lockdown started. That was lucky; Nick could then do the mixing and mastering from his quarantine place in rural New Jersey. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/2f95f7d90684e7be29e235b61ea1e62308e0e0c4/original/left-it-photo-studio-session.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Me and my Martin. Photo by Nick Miller.</strong></p>
<p>For various reasons, including having some live recordings I wanted to release first, I’ve just put out “Left It on the Stage” as a digital single. Nick did a great production, incorporating that fantastic guitar riff and adding his own sizzling licks. The bridge alone is worth a listen for its sexy (imho!) buildup. You’ll find the track on all major platforms—click the image for the links. <br><br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/left-it-on-the-stage" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a299eb9003abca639d24afeb20267333097b6984/original/left-it-on-the-stage-3-copy.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><br>Damn, I miss the studio. But in the meantime, I do have this studio recording, my first in nearly two years. Of course, I didn’t know what was coming, but something told me to go for broke with the vocals. Maybe just because it’s a straight-up rock ’n’ roll song, and that’s the most fun to sing.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6623019
2021-05-06T14:09:54-04:00
2022-05-28T16:48:58-04:00
Rickie and Me
<p>The iconclastic singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones recently released a memoir,<a contents=" Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://groveatlantic.com/book/rickie-lee/" target="_blank"> Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour</a>—borrowing her own evocative song title. It’s been almost 10 years since <a contents="I interviewed Rickie for VanityFair.com." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/07/qa-rickie-lee-jones-is-not-in-love" target="_blank">I interviewed Rickie for VanityFair.com.</a> I haven’t read the memoir yet, but one reviewer called it lyrical and I’m not surprised; during our time together she spoke poetically, colorfully, candidly. We met at Café Henri (since closed) on Bedford Street in the West Village, near where I live. Rickie was wearing pastel sweatpants, a loose top, and no discernible makeup—as though anticipating our pandemic time. This was quite a contrast to her self-described early look of “a stripper and German cabaret dancer” (though it’s not as if we were doing a photo shoot!). </p>
<p><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ae6dec1182bc476f1ee507be2547d875eabb7c3a/original/img-4469.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="Rickie Lee Jones and Mary Lyn Maiscott backstage at City Winery in NYC, July 2011." /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Rickie Lee Jones and I backstage at City Winery in NYC. Photo by Robert Rosen.</strong></p>
<p><br>I wondered if she was feeling strange at all about her (fantastic) concert at City Winery a couple of nights before. She had started almost an hour late, and during her lingering song introduction for "Weasel and the White Boys Cool," a woman in the audience yelled out, “<em>This</em> is what we’ve been waiting for?” Rickie answered with an obscenity, left the stage, came back, and calmly said she was going to pay for the woman’s (pre-show) dinner and the security people would see her out. But at Café Henri, I didn’t detect any leftover anger, and when Rickie brought up the incident, she spoke of the woman compassionately, saying maybe she had had a very bad day. </p>
<p>In the middle of the interview, Rickie suddenly commented on my eyes—that they looked like her mother’s and maybe we were related. This was surprising and touching. (I edited it out of the written interview, but when I mentioned it to the editor he loved it and said to put it back in.) In the years afterward Rickie and I exchanged a few emails. In one she wrote: “It’s a big country for us, we work in language and there is no locality for that, so we are connected to people thousands of miles away as much or more than people round the block. We have to construct our neighborhood nowadays, I guess, make our roots out of events rather than locations.” Like her comfy outfit, this seems prescient now.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/41ff37c93070325fad4960c41a9f02a8e4cf4d12/original/last-chance-texaco-final-340x509.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>In a new memoir, the singer explores the wild ride of her youth.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>At the time I met with Rickie, her fame had dimmed somewhat, at least among the general populace. I can see her across from me at our little café table by the window, her blond hair falling around her shoulders, a kind of natural gravitas settling over her. She made a reference to a time, a hard time for her, when “everywhere I went people knew me,” and I could peripherally see the young woman at the next table trying to stare at Rickie without being obvious: Who was this middle-aged person who had once been famous? There weren’t many people in the café, but no one stopped at our table. I don’t think Rickie was recognized. But lately she’s been more in the public eye, especially on social media—at times walking her audience through her place in New Orleans, which in its décor reflects the mysterious magic of that city (come to think of it, is there a better place for her?); at other times performing a concert in her living room or at a local outdoor venue. Occasionally, I’ve tuned in to a Facebook Live hello from her and marveled at the way she spontaneously conjures vivid images and ideas, all with a relaxed smile. </p>
<p>About a year ago I discovered that quotes from our Vanity Fair interview had appeared in the somewhat scholarly book <em>Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself: Essays on Debut Albums,</em> edited by George Plasketes. I was thrilled, as this had never happened to me before—I scoured the pages for “(Maiscott 2011)”!—and I was in the company of such esteemed music critics as Timothy White and Stephen Holden. In writing of Rickie’s first, eponymous album, the author referred to my characterization of the singer as “Billie Holiday on a rock bender” as well as Rickie’s “stripper look” remarks and her explanation of what I called her slurry sounds (“It was more important to round it out than to make sure you knew what I was saying.”) </p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/d73aa2d798f98f622b4581934f22f29bff69e462/original/debut-album-book.png/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself: Essays on Debut Albums" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Quotes from my Vanity Fair Q&A with Rickie appear in this book about first albums. </strong></p>
<p><br>I have read the very beginning of her memoir, and in it Rickie speaks of being in “a perpetual state of fear and longing” as a child, and how this has formed the background of many of her songs. And that is why I think she is our perfectly imperfect troubadour, her works reflecting our own fear and longing back at us like so many gems—ones that shine as though they might be our last, best chance. </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6576815
2021-03-17T15:29:22-04:00
2023-05-04T18:11:17-04:00
My Cousin Sang Harmony
<p>Gail Harkins, my cousin on my mother’s side, died last weekend. Her passion was music: With her friend Beth Gosnell, she founded <a contents="Rock by the Sea" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.rockbythesea.org/home" target="_blank">Rock by the Sea</a>, which organizes music events to raise money—almost $800,000 so far—for various charities. And since its inception, she was an avid supporter of Sister Hazel’s <a contents="The Rock Boat" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.therockboat.com/" target="_blank">The Rock Boat</a>, an annual floating music festival; Gail had made all 20 cruises. In a quiet but unmistakable way (tributes speak of her “glow” when watching bands), Gail cheered on musicians and had the autographed guitars to show for it. She often traveled to see an act she loved—appropriately enough, the occasion for our last meeting, Thanksgiving weekend, 2012. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8d6bcf0c3cf5a8961f1e5c24bc9951c8198a8b41/original/img-0779-2.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>My cousin Gail, visiting my family in St. Louis.</strong></p>
<p>My husband had gone upstate to spend the holiday with his brother’s family, but I stayed in town to see Gail, who was coming to NYC to catch the final show of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers before they went on hiatus. She invited me along, as well as several local musicians that she knew. I joined them all at Central Bar on E. 9th Street for beers and tequila shots before heading over to Webster Hall. I actually didn’t have any shots—as I have a complicated history with tequila!—but I was abuzz anyway, so excited to be sharing this night with Gail, especially at an Art Deco–accented venue that I’ve always liked (going back to its Ritz days). And the next day we had brunch at an airy restaurant across the street from me, on MacDougal. Between that and a tête-à-tête at my apartment, the two of us on the couch, we managed to catch up to some extent.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/de25d52ef9fef6a0210ccfdf754e73f9570adf46/original/screen-shot-2021-03-15-at-6-57-15-pm.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Some of Gail's guitars, given in appreciation, and autographed by such bands as Wideawake, the Alternate Routes, and Five Star Iris.</strong></p>
<p>That was one of only two times I saw my cousin beyond our teenage years. The other was a spur-of-the-moment trip she made to St. Louis in 2006 to see my family, when my aunt Tink, who was living in California, and I both happened to be there visiting.</p>
<p>But as kids we spent many hours together, in Irving, Texas. Gail lived there with her parents and her older brother and younger sister, Jack Jr. (nicknamed Spud) and Toni. Every summer my mother, my own older brother and younger sister, Johnny and Cecilia (Peewee), and I would take the train—first from West Virginia, then, after we moved, from Missouri—to visit Gail’s family and my grandfather and aunt, who lived together. We stayed with Grandpa and Tink but gravitated to our cousins’ house. My uncle Jack was always ready with a joke—in later life he wrote country songs—and my angel-faced aunt Inez provided snacks, comfort, and anything else we needed. But what I remember best is sitting in the front room, listening to records with my siblings and cousins. Most of us sang the melody along with the lead singer, but Gail did something different: She sang her own harmonies. I wasn’t sure how she came up with them, but I thought it was cool. I still do, and recently I started writing a song about it. I need to finish it, and it has to have harmonies. I’ll just imagine Gail, off in her own musical sphere, glowing, singing them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/0faa0d194725298d76da4894af4abba56955c2e3/original/tx-1955.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><strong>A hot day in Texas long ago: me in front, Gail behind me, our brothers at the far left (hers) and right (mine). In between are our cousins Karen and Ronnie.</strong></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6567425
2021-03-07T14:44:51-05:00
2022-05-21T12:50:45-04:00
Introducing...
<p>…Joan Chew and Graig Janssen—the two musicians I’ve been working with for a few years now, though for many of you they don’t need an introduction. Let’s see, we’ve played: Caffe Vivaldi (sadly, now closed), Bowery Electric, Sidewalk Café (closed), Cornelia Street Café (closed), and Pianos, mostly with repeat visits. I met them both through my wonderful longtime producer, Nick Miller, who brought in Joan to play violin on my song “Alexander/Isabella” and Graig to play piano on “Tiny Stars.” Although I approached Graig when I was looking for a guitarist (since he’s a great guitarist), it didn’t hurt that he also plays piano—as does Joan! Really, I hit the jackpot. With some of my songs (e.g., “Our Lady of the Tears,” “Desire”), Graig plays keys while Joan’s playing violin; with others (“Middle Child,” “Unrequited Love”), Joan moves to the keyboard while Graig does guitar. Sometimes I play rhythm guitar, giving Graig freedom to do his creative, tasty riffs. And sometimes Joan plays percussion, such as the mini-cajón I bought in Barcelona (I found this instrument challenging, but Joan did not, instantly seeking out a snare sound with her usual aplomb).</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/030eeec33abe51b025d8e1a6c82e5c6221198ac8/original/pianos-112519-rfvideo-ol.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Graig, Joan, and I at our last gig, Pianos, November 25, 2019. </strong></p>
<p>Graig is also an engineer, and he’s helped me out on that front too. The three of us recorded “When Hell Freezes Over” in one session at Mercy Studios, where I’ve often worked with Nick. And Graig’s a fantastic singer—yes, he and Joan also sing background vocals for me! One evening at Mercy, after Joan had laid down an exquisite violin track for “Our Lady of the Tears,” Nick told us about a pizza commercial he’d once done the music for. He needed a singer so got Graig to do it. About a second later, Nick had pulled up the pizza jingle on the computer so we could hear Graig singing in lush tones, “…and toh-mah-toh cheeeese” (the commercial was written for a European audience, which may or may not explain this curious phrasing). Good thing we were finished with the recording because we couldn’t stop laughing. (By the way, I love the studio après-recording—and during recording too!) </p>
<p>Joan is probably best known for an instrument she doesn’t play with our group—bass guitar. She’s become “Joansy,” doing the John Paul Jones parts, in the popular and esteemed all-female band Lez Zeppelin. I’ve seen them at the Gramercy Theatre and, of all places, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in connection with its “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” exhibit—even there they blew the (stately) roof off—in a genteel touch, earplugs were offered. That’s a long way from the orchid plantation where Joan grew up, in Singapore (hence her lovely orchid tattoo). She’s also provided bass for Bird Streets and other groups, and during the pandemic her social media posts have been rich with collaborative and solo projects, such as her riveting bass-and-vocal rendition of “One Fine Day.” </p>
<p>Yeah, I know: I’m very lucky! I hope you’ll see us on a stage soon. In the meantime, hear us on my EP <em>Dream: Live Recordings from the Map Room</em>. (We're in the Map Room at Bowery Electric in the photo below.) It features our slow, emotional cover of “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” which listeners have called “stunning” and “heartbreakingly beautiful.” All you have to do is stream (or download)!<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e21187d5937cf60bd39455ac289c3e20b6173b2b/original/music-maproom7-19-ed.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6548253
2021-02-12T14:00:00-05:00
2021-06-06T16:12:55-04:00
Valentine’s Lane
<p>Inevitably on Valentine’s Day, either my husband, Robert Rosen, or I bring up our trip to Paris in 1997, when we landed at Charles de Gaulle airport on February 14. I’d chosen our hotel there based on its being called “most romantic for those on a budget” by a travel book. Our tiny room turned out to have strange angles, so that the bed more or less faced a corner, and shriekingly hot-pink walls—not to mention being on a street, rue du Dragon, with a lot of noisy construction. However, that night, when we turned on the TV, <em>Casablanca</em> came on. So, yes, romantic. </p>
<p>On an earlier European trip, I’d taken a picture of Bob on Crucifix Lane in London. We couldn’t get over the name of the street but loved the row house he stood in front of to peruse his <em>London A-Z</em> (always called “A to Zed”). Many years later, as I was rehearsing with the guitarist Hoop, he suddenly grabbed that picture from the top of the piano and said, “Here’s your cover for <em>Crucified</em>!” He was talking about an EP I was planning, named for my song “Crucified (La Petite Mort).” </p>
<p>He was right. After all, Bob was the inspiration for the song. And then, with a little help from an artist friend, a picture of my shadow morphed into an intriguing silhouette in the window of that house.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/5bd2f306aa271b68351d898ad6659c347d5aca8a/original/albumart-marylynmaiscott4-1400x1400.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>I love the title song’s arrangement, by Terence Dover, but between you and me, I’d like to re-record the vocals. At the time I felt they should grab you immediately and not let go. (I thought it would be a great song for a big-voiced singer like Carrie Underwood.) </p>
<p>Now I see it more tenderly. But that’s for another—non-pandemic—day, when I can go into the studio! Maybe next Valentine’s?</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6536624
2021-02-02T18:12:14-05:00
2021-02-02T18:15:07-05:00
Birthday Blues and Reds
<p>Birthdays can be strange. I've always liked mine, just the idea of having a special day, even as I got older and the years went faster. But at times it's brought a stronger sense of mortality and the gravity of being human. </p>
<p>Last week I came across a poem I wrote a year ago, just as January 23 was turning into the 24th, my birthday. The next day I was having a combination birthday and record-release party. I thought I might read the poem during the concert portion of the evening, but then in the hullabaloo of the event, I forgot all about it. </p>
<p>Here's the poem, dressed up like a birthday gift!<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f8081bafc25acc298647c63246788df8d3958b19/original/poem-bday2020-2.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><br>A few days before this year's birthday, the Empire State Building was again lit in red, but with a pulsing of the light to mimic a human heartbeat. This was part of the Covid-19 memorial marking 400,000 deaths in the U.S. from the disease. </p>
<p>It's easy to feel "existential dread" at this time, but I hope that your life, like mine, also abounds in art and love and anticipation. And have a happy birthday, whenever that may be, even in the midst of a pandemic!</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6533034
2021-01-28T15:34:31-05:00
2021-01-29T13:12:05-05:00
Super(moon) Lyric Video
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9644abf79872c3be4fbe81160723aef6bd3b1c88/original/text-moon2.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Yes, you’re a supermoon to me if you’re reading this! And thanks for the listening, streaming, downloading, sharing, or any other way you’ve been lighting up my music life. </p>
<p>April’s supermoon, along with the quarantine, inspired me to write “I Can’t Touch You (Supermoon),” a song that has already taken the form of a performance video and a <a contents="digital single" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/i-can-t-touch-you-supermoon" target="_blank">digital single</a>, which I wrote about <a contents="here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/a-quarantine-production" target="_blank">here</a>. And now it’s a lyric video—my first—released on my birthday (January 24)! </p>
<p>The video was designed by Christine Haire, with elements from the single’s cover art, created by <a contents="C.G. Reeves " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.cgreeves.com/" target="_blank">C.G. Reeves </a>and <a contents="Nancy C. Sampson" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://nancydraws.com/" target="_blank">Nancy C. Sampson</a> and featuring a photo of me (taken one Halloween night) by <a contents="Robert Rosen" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/" target="_blank">Robert Rosen</a>, my husband. </p>
<p>So gaze at the sparkling supermoon as you watch—and hear—the words go by… and then consider liking, subscribing, and/or sharing the link with everyone you miss!</p>
<p>Click on the woman-in-the-moon to transport you to the out-of-this-world video:<br><br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/nUGEl2pQmNE" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/509af577e7e1ccff33de955d2f80a6b714599f4a/original/music-lyric-icant-thumbnail.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6504912
2020-12-21T17:06:29-05:00
2021-01-05T13:44:16-05:00
Welcome to My Dream
<p>My EP <em>Dream: Live Recordings from the Map Room</em> is out Dec. 22! All six songs were performed in a small room at the very cool <a contents="Bowery Electric" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://theboweryelectric.com/">Bowery Electric</a> in NYC. For a few years now <a contents="Joan Chew " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://joanchew.com/">Joan Chew </a>and Graig Janssen have been accompanying me at shows. We figure out the arrangements during our rehearsals, and these fantastic musicians are quite adept at coming up with parts that not only fit but enhance the songs. Plus they sing background! I’m so lucky to have them working with me.</p>
<p>Here's the cover art, which I designed using a photo I took from an airplane while flying from California to New York (my phone tells me we were over Ravenna, Ohio). <strong>Click on the image </strong>to find the EP on your favorite music platform.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/?fbclid=IwAR39OvqM0k7uwRLX7PEfLdCuCp8eTko4Gs6jH7q32TD42QrCJayuJHM5UZ4" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4781520808512f612fcd20b70e8733f8cb37bc00/original/img-1645.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p>These are the tracks: </p>
<p>“All I Have to Do Is Dream.” A cover of the song made popular by the Everly Brothers, this is a slowed-down, intimate, no-harmonies version. It was the advance single, so I’ve already written about it <a contents="it in this blog" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/one-dreamy-song" style="" target="_blank">here</a>. Responses so far include "stunning," "killer vocals," "one of the best covers I've ever heard," "sounded like it was ripped from your heart."</p>
<p>“Woman with a Secret.” This is sort of a story song, similar in that way to my “Angel Tatooed Ballerina.” I thought of it as having an agitated feel, and after I heard a wildly kinetic contemporary classical piece played by a remarkable string orchestra, I asked Joan if we could convey that agitation with the violin as well as the vocal. She rose to the occasion, as did Graig Janssen with a stop/start guitar part. </p>
<p>“Our Lady of the Tears.” I wrote this when I was going through an emotionally rough time. But the initial inspiration came from a picture of my nephew’s daughter, Chloe, who was four at the time. She had put something over her head that looked like a long veil, and this reminded me of the many “holy cards” I had as a child that depicted Mary, the mother of Jesus—often called Our Lady. She was sometimes wearing a blue veil and sometimes a mesmerizing pearlescent one. (There is also a studio version of this song, with Joan and Graig.)</p>
<p>“Broken Bone.” I wrote this a few years ago, after I broke my wrist. The injury eventually required two surgeries, and I found that for a long time it almost completely preoccupied me. This reminded me of being obsessed with someone, especially when you’re not sure what’s going on. Also, I love getting a song out of a bad experience! </p>
<p>“Last Hurrah.” Like the next song, the impetus for this was the idiom itself. But it made me think of the end of an erotic relationship and of how you can love and appreciate the physical connection you have with someone but still want more. I was surprised to hear Bebe Rexha, one night on Stephen Colbert’s show, do a song with the same title and the same first line in the chorus. But that one's more about indulging in vices of all kinds.</p>
<p>“Unrequited Love.” I was walking downtown one morning and this term suddenly came to mind. It struck me as a beautiful one, Shakespearean, just the way it sounds. Luckily, kind of, I’ve had experience with this phenomenon! And as I said before, I like to get a song out of a bad—or really just difficult—experience. Also, it came out, in the verses, as a rap.</p>
<p>Welcome to my EP, welcome to my <em>Dream.</em></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6502691
2020-12-18T10:57:57-05:00
2021-01-31T08:01:13-05:00
One Dreamy Song
<p>All I have to do is dream.</p>
<p>What a beautiful line. It could be the thought of an artist, a child looking to the future, a person starting an exciting career, a political visionary.</p>
<p>Or someone in love. Did you hear the close harmonies of the Everly Brothers when you read those words? Their recording of “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” by the songwriting couple Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, came out in 1958 and has certainly endured, landing at No. 141 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.</p>
<p>I’ve been singing this song in my apartment for many years and once won $25 performing it in a bar in my neighborhood! More recently I worked on it with two fantastic musicians who normally play clubs with me—Joan Chew and Graig Janssen. They came up with an understated, evocative arrangement for a slowed-down version that allows for a mining of the lyrics, which to me are very emotional, full of sadness and longing. In our shows, we always do one cover song, and this was it for our gig in the Map Room at Bowery Electric, NYC, in July 2019. After the show an audience member told me the song sounded as though it had been “ripped from your heart.” </p>
<p>You can now hear that performance. I’ve released a digital single of it, mastered by my longtime producer, Nick Miller, in advance of my EP <em>Dream: Live Recordings from the Map Room,</em> which includes “All I Have to Do Is Dream” along with five original songs we did that night. The EP comes out December 22, but <a contents="the single" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/all-i-have-to-do-is-dream-live?fbclid=IwAR3aLJDA8oZZcP5l6sd5pm4IPz89dstxeobKB9LGZ_mUK_E64hcA2gyC7BQ" target="_blank">the single</a> is out now! Click the image below to find your favorite music platform.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the reactions I've gotten so far (and please feel free to leave yours in the comments section): "Lovely" (<a contents="Betty Buckley" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.bettybuckley.com/">Betty Buckley</a>); "Such an emotional, natural sound" (<a contents="Mia Berman" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.cityworldradio.com/mias-world/">Mia Berman</a>); "Your interpretation is one of the best covers I have ever heard!" (<a contents="Sharman Nittoli" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.sharmannittoli.com/">Sharman Nittoli</a>); "Stunning. Intimate. Reminded me of Patti Smith. Gorgeous voice" (Barry Jason Schneider); "Your vocals are killer and give the song a whole new feeling!" (Javier Foxon).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.hearnow.com/all-i-have-to-do-is-dream-live?fbclid=IwAR3aLJDA8oZZcP5l6sd5pm4IPz89dstxeobKB9LGZ_mUK_E64hcA2gyC7BQ" style="" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a1f3a515b744669a7ec925c997461c61e5446185/original/cover-new-alldream.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6479951
2020-11-18T15:51:58-05:00
2020-11-18T19:38:21-05:00
A Quarantine Production
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ef6909441354e0476e12ed0f4e3b227dcebf263d/original/marylyn-final-retouch.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>I wrote “I Can’t Touch You (Supermoon)” early on in the pandemic, inspired by missing people intensely and by April’s supermoon. I did a video of it for NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, and some time later, with going to a studio out of the question, I got the idea to extract the audio, consisting of vocals and my rhythm guitar, from the video to create a digital single. (Luckily, my iPhone 11 records in stereo.)</p>
<p>But I wanted to enhance it, so I asked <a contents="Graig Janssen," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=graig%20janssen%20recording">Graig Janssen,</a> the guitarist I normally do live shows with, to record an additional guitar track in his home studio. When I wanted a small adjustment on that, we had to figure it out over the phone, which was challenging but, thanks to Graig’s expertise, worked out fine. My longtime producer, Nick Miller, mixed and mastered the two tracks, but then I had another idea: I could add harmonies on a new video while listening to that mix. I put the phone on a bench facing the ceiling, turned on the video, listened to the song through headphones (not too loud so I could hear my harmonies too), and did several takes. Somehow the timing became skewed, the harmonies not syncing up with the lead vocal, but Nick got them in the right places and did another great mix.</p>
<p>Aside from Graig and Nick, I want to thank the two people who worked on the art shown above, <a contents="C.G. Reeves" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.cgreeves.com/">C.G. Reeves</a> and <a contents="Nancy Sampson" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://nancydraws.com/">Nancy Sampson</a>. And also my husband, <a contents="Robert Rosen" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/">Robert Rosen</a>, who greatly helped with the original video—come to think of it, he also took the picture that we used for the cover art, at a Halloween party a while back. (My sister, Cecilia Maiscott Pectol, had given me that fantastic batwing-sleeved blouse, a treasure from a vintage store.)</p>
<p>So this recording is a true quarantine production—and also about the quarantine! It's out Nov. 20 on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and many other music services. I hope you will download, stream, or do whatever you do to listen to music. And keep in mind:</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9644abf79872c3be4fbe81160723aef6bd3b1c88/original/text-moon2.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6458639
2020-10-21T16:58:46-04:00
2022-04-16T07:38:35-04:00
Bobby (and I) in St. Louis
<p>My husband, <a contents="Robert Rosen," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/">Robert Rosen,</a> and I were supposed to be in St. Louis this month. We'd gone in October last year so that Bob could do a reading from his memoir, <em>Bobby in Naziland: A Tale of Flatbush, </em>at <a contents="Subterranean Books," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://store.subbooks.com/">Subterranean Books,</a> an indie store on a popular strip called the Loop, near Washington University. Bob had a great turnout, including relatives and friends of ours—I grew up in the area, and my two siblings, Cecilia and John, and my nephew Sean live in the city. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/2784f8b90ef879cfbff134dccee4da6a7b4f6def/original/img-0878.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Robert Rosen checking out his book<em> Bobby in Naziland</em> at Subterranean Books, St. Louis, October 2019.</b></p>
<p>After the event, the bookstore manager told Bob they’d love for him to come back, and so a date was set—October 9, 2020, John Lennon’s 80th birthday; Bob was going to read from his 2000 cult classic, <em>Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon.</em> With that settled, a group of us walked across Delmar Boulevard to celebrate at a Thai restaurant and, later, the club Blueberry Hill (famous for the numerous performances in its Duck Room by favorite son Chuck Berry). </p>
<p>Of course, the October 2020 Lennon reading evaporated in the wake of the coronavirus. But the event that transpired last year remains a wonderful memory, and Bob and I are both grateful to Subterranean and all of those who came out that night—a spirited Q&A followed the reading— as well as those who attended another reading, at the spacious, art-filled home of Bob’s childhood friend Ernie Abramson, who had, coincidentally, moved to St. Louis long ago to study dentistry. </p>
<p>Soon after we got back to New York, we found out that <em>Bobby in Naziland</em> had made a bestseller list in the <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</em>! And now Subterranean has set a date for next spring for the <em>Nowhere Man</em> event. </p>
<p>In the meantime, Bob is working on a <a contents="book" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/newsletter370562.htm">book</a> about the 1970s, and I have a single coming out inspired by feelings of missing people, especially my family, during this time: “I Can’t Touch You (Supermoon).” It’s a true quarantine production, and I’ll be writing more about it before its release November 20!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6413725
2020-08-20T16:15:54-04:00
2022-03-26T03:14:05-04:00
Country Cat/City Cat
<p>I grew up in rural Missouri but am now a total city cat, in NYC. However, my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, and I were very happy to take our first vacation since the pandemic, house-sitting for Bob's brother's family in the Hudson Valley--a beautiful place complete with horses, chickens, deer, and Sphinx the cat, who joined me in this video. So a quick hello from the country, upstate New York style--and a taste of things to come...</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="FZvGj2sS40I" data-video-thumb-url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/FZvGj2sS40I/mqdefault.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FZvGj2sS40I?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="180" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6376759
2020-07-05T17:44:08-04:00
2022-10-21T04:26:14-04:00
"Fourth of July" (a Song)
<p>This past Thursday night I got the idea to write a song called <a contents='"Fourth of July" ' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/">"Fourth of July" </a>that would reflect the difficult time we find ourselves in and what this says about the United States. I wrote a couple of verses and had an idea for the melody but wasn't sure about it and decided to let it go for a while. The next day I cleaned the apartment and did a few other things before recording a couple of other melody ideas, which varied from slow/bluesy (I imagined it sung a cappella) to rock. I thought I'd hit on a good one with an urgency about it, but it seemed familiar. Shazam couldn't figure it out, but on the morning of the Fourth it came to me—it was very similar to the bridge in Taylor Swift's "Lover" (I do admire that bridge, though more for its clever lyrics)! So I went back to the first melody and wondered why I had abandoned it in the first place.</p>
<p>Writing the lyrics (see below), I read part of the Constitution; the lyrics to "America the Beautiful"; the poem it was based on, inspired by the view from Pikes Peak, by Katharine Lee Bates; the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; a chart showing how many Founding Fathers had slaves (a lot); and a few odds and ends (e.g., the website Quora as to whether it might be offensive to some to refer to our "sisters and brothers"—yes, it might).</p>
<p>When I finished during the afternoon of the Fourth, I recorded it on my phone, reading the fresh lyrics as I sang since I hadn't yet memorized them. I did this several times—needing to turn up the mic volume after one take, turn it up more after the second, etc. My husband gamely endured the heat every time I turned off the AC (too noisy). I love the near perfection of a studio recording, but this one will do and perhaps is appropriate for an at times gritty message.</p>
<p>Fourth of July<br><br>The Fourth of July<br>How does this one go by<br>Without a hard medition<br>On a ripped apart nation<br>On the Fourth of July </p>
<p>There’s a longing that sears<br>From across all the years<br>From all the murder and torture<br>Sins at the border<br>On the Fourth of July <br><br>Maybe on the fifth<br>The seventh or the eighth<br>We can turn toward love<br>Turn away from hate<br>Maybe if we learn<br>And act on what we know<br>This Fourth of July<br>Will be a stepping stone<br><br>The Fourth of July <br>And the people cry<br>For equality<br>And a true liberty<br>On the Fourth of July<br><br>Don’t you know from sea<br>To polluted sea<br>People are marching<br>Against bigotry<br>Don't you know the world<br>Is just in wait<br>For us to cross over<br>Find our true grace<br><br>The Fourth of July<br>And the people ask why <br>We can't write another story<br>Find elusive glory<br>On the Fourth of July<br><br>What does it mean to be great<br>It’s not a question of fate<br>A more perfect union<br>Means a state of communion<br>On the Fourth of July<br><br>The Fourth of July</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6359687
2020-06-19T19:58:08-04:00
2022-04-28T07:25:25-04:00
Streetwise in Soho, Part 2: Say Their Names
<p>“Fight for a future that doesn’t need memorial murals of Black people who have been killed by racist, sexist, and transphobic violence.” —Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, artist<br> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/cfaa172f79dea3248311359999a94650b3300491/original/img-7070.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4b7fcd1a7d0dd77c21189bf37ca062cd1932f2dc/original/img-9808.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ada1cf3b46a3761f32205d760b83a747ba94f5f6/original/img-2539.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/6945402f6e8231d5d9cdc5287d5da87b951ecabc/original/img-7343.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e825478869b9110c1aa75048a1c9068f1f4b2545/original/img-5719.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9978bd3f0eac5fcde468872094602006ad731605/original/img-4711.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/cbecb24bd11d38cd29f8e76fb8e3da7168acd7bc/original/img-4708.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/2c620371f7ee2ce69915b875a075c9fe66152ab1/original/img-4647.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/6448bd62af97e1d438a3002db750ac1af8404b86/original/img-4648.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9d67ca43f793e7f62016e3e0c6efda24a34bf38c/original/img-4651.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/73d8520c2132fddd792ce7abaa876aa309b22c7a/original/img-4653.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e6b8727fdd4fa34847ab6ece4d0a0874d199e2f0/original/img-4652.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/d184e97572aa557afe2fa45f591f64c2751b1a21/original/blogpost6-19.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/370e558866ab25dbea80f2d29f5dfe8a20102dc1/original/img-4669.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c4ec53bca6d60d6af84771158db1197041cab5d4/original/img-8511.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/3189f434aadbf96a6b98a0321c7b6ed379f5a1b2/original/img-4696.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/00b8a98866fd95003a0e583acfcfcdf85b41fa76/original/img-4690.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a4ce5798cdf736b387cbc94ff6dcee51adb8f2a6/original/img-4694.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/473463f28a5f87c4d632c7eaa4a0c854fda94ec0/original/img-4666.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/640a16f39ffde0afc1b883035406051d1fd24bbc/original/img-6458.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6349364
2020-06-10T21:29:56-04:00
2020-06-11T11:21:58-04:00
Streetwise: photos from Soho, NYC
<p>New York is art, and after many windows were boarded up following looting during a few protest nights, those boards became canvases for inspiring messages, as did sidewalks, a pocket garden, and a beloved coffee house.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9d11e7fce748446ed6fe6e75169d332017dcf68b/original/img-4296.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/067e01e7411d2ade9c9e972632b7e0344d63a02c/original/img-4217.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/dd1b6b7e36e76e732eaa3fea4e25fa3ab0bcdb08/original/img-4372.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c288ad1463255196d232a9710e12c0ba0f5fe7c0/original/img-4361.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/74c022ac8bf2c48164d207679d0a2dfba357115b/original/img-4415.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/fa5c0205e0466da19dd104340d2e6bb97fe9a5d4/original/img-4417.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/5cf93deffcf947dfcccb32665d18b840b0ab69d2/original/img-4401.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/15c14f7a7b2123c1610ba8953d93a81837e03da3/original/img-4430.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/69a50ac4a34c725d391ff29d1834ea83ba3e167b/original/img-4425.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/1c1f081b4d3bcb250dda327ffff7afc183cff6d5/original/img-4419.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/80f65bea2956349f425fba7038c6d22e9331c238/original/img-4411.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/59d4a29a7fe8ff7fd623655d036b41579e588da8/original/img-4410.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7fc0c776a7bc6e67f48efc131147e7a890392042/original/img-4387.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c9075f735db1128b4de106e0ee7dfe8c25e2c2e3/original/img-4398.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/d359fde6144e30163ae51fc3cf7aade5da932426/original/img-4378.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/59432b7eb45b84a16501c9e0e3398bc07b015d17/original/img-4406.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/87ba89679694a0034a826886bbabcc69fa5e66a7/original/img-4416.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/386132d4e69ba61814fe81473d9d9b550bf6ab6c/original/img-4408.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ffa19d44a8cf5d65efe21e9e6dd63bacb8658cc7/original/img-4380.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/0dae1cce50d465d5532a67c247f36bfd370597c4/original/img-4428.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f39690bfc679eb4febbe61162ea8fced9a5380b8/original/img-4498.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c7a74bc074c18eadbe5c786a0f367bd4b3c0f44b/original/img-4484.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6309500
2020-05-09T12:24:21-04:00
2020-05-09T16:49:05-04:00
Pandemic Supermoon
<p>Nearly every morning I wake up with what feels like a literal heavy heart, even though I am very lucky in terms of my circumstances during this shocking pandemic. I live with a human (my husband, <a contents="Robert Rosen" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/">Robert Rosen</a>) and a cat (Oiseau), both of whom are comforting, funny, and just great to have around. However, I have family and friends who live far away as well as friends who are nearby but whom I can’t see anyway. Missing these loved ones, I began to write a song called “I Can’t Touch You.” Then, in early April, a supermoon occurred—a true bright spot that allowed my mind to soar off into the heavens (despite not being visible when I braved the cloudy outdoors to see it), and that image found its way into my song, now called “I Can’t Touch You (Supermoon).” </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/163ce80ca0e47b144c30b96070094a417c8439ad/original/img-3787.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /><strong>Take 5: Feeling it, but the ending didn't work out.</strong></p>
<p>When, around this same time, NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, which I’d entered the past four years, extended its deadline, I decided to do a home (of course!) video of the song to submit. Bob set up the tripod and iPhone facing the corner of our apartment that has the contest’s requisite desk, and we began to record—take after take, as it turned out. At first I kept making lyric or chord mistakes—new song!, not to mention that I’m used to working with two amazing musicians, <a contents="Joan Chew" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://joanchew.com/">Joan Chew</a> and Graig Janssen, rather than going it alone. Also, I started out wearing a shiny green pajama top—since PJs are the fashion of the day—and singing with no mic. This version included a dramatic soft-verse-to-rocking-chorus/sitting-on-desk-to-jumping-up action that was kind of cool. But when I did a take with the mic, the sound was much better, and at that point I'd changed into a velvety top whose colors went well with the artwork on the wall: <em>Flying over Kansas,</em> part of a puzzle series by Sonja Wagner, one of my near-yet-far NYC friends.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/25ca1c0682954d3db63fe129c786deef2777fd84/original/icanttouchyou.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Final take, final frame.</strong></p>
<p>So here is my video. I know you miss someone. I do too.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="RNT3_2XaNec" data-video-thumb-url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/RNT3_2XaNec/mqdefault.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RNT3_2XaNec?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="180" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6232555
2020-02-29T13:52:58-05:00
2021-10-22T06:58:34-04:00
Mustapha Khan's American Anthem
<p>A couple of years ago, the filmmaker and songwriter Mustapha Khan played me an early demo of his galvanizing “Song for Our People.” Not long after that, his wife, Allyson Smith, told me that Mus had booked a Brooklyn recording studio for a day to not only record the song but to film the entire process for a documentary, and that this would involve many singers and musicians—and a tap dancer! </p>
<p>How amazing to see the result last Thursday night, in a film of the same title as the song, at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea (not to mention spotting Mus’s name up on the marquee from half a block away). Presented by the Freshfields law firm, the event included a live performance of the song with some of the original participants, including singers Kenny Vaughan and Jessie Wagner and the charismatic tap dancer Omar Edwards, who gets the last word in the film (if you see it, and I hope you do, listen for that; it’s something that probably applies to all of us). Edwards also has the first word, in a manner of speaking, when we hear his percussive dancing and see, coordinated with it, a black-and-white photo montage that moves through the course of American black history in an astonishing and often horrifying way.</p>
<p><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/5f1596f33da23d430bed0d4a2b96ad3468d8e4aa/original/iuvtxy6jtfygcjnuszpikg.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The doc, which has already won awards in several film festivals, includes interviews with the participants. Fittingly, since the song was inspired by a preacher’s sermon about ancestors (see the lyrics, at the end, from my program), several of the artists speak of the parents, grandparents, and community members who have profoundly helped them. Despite those people’s often difficult lives, they enabled these performers to pursue their creative dreams. Mus himself states that the initial idea came to him after his father died; he wanted to do something in his honor. (During the Q&A after the film, Mus pointed out that he belongs to the first post–Jim Crow generation.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/2fbf23bd34ab56b2135f0d73dc5679a8976f03ad/original/fullsizeoutput-4ae3.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Mustapha Khan at the NYC premiere of <em>Song for Our People. </em>Photo by Susan Rasco.</strong></p>
<p><br>Aside from the potent social and political aspects of the film, the process of making a complex recording comes alive in both an entertaining and educational way. I can’t remember ever seeing a film that showed that undertaking from the point of view of virtually all the musicians, minus (for the most part) what they’re listening to in their headphones. So we hear unadorned the intense vocals of Tashan, invoking “freedom” again and again; as well as those of Vaughan and the three background singers—Wagner, Karen Lloyd, and Elsa Cornish—whose naked musical filigrees are revealed in all their luster; the rap of Norman Burns; and so on (sorry, I’m partial to singers!). They all culminate in the final track: a powerful anthem, as the event program correctly calls it, “to energize the ongoing fight for a more just American society.” Do we ever need that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8d3081aa0c1545358e39d22a3206a63374075e26/original/img-2968.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6218049
2020-02-17T13:54:21-05:00
2022-04-22T01:20:25-04:00
Forever Jungr
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f10f339eae9b222e40a2f7e720df1e660dab07c5/original/fullsizeoutput-4a0c.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Barb Jungr at Joe's Pub, February 15, 2020.</strong></p>
<p>Last Saturday night I took my husband, the writer Robert Rosen (<em>Nowhere Man, Bobby in Naziland</em>), to the glamorous but velvet-womb-like NYC venue Joe’s Pub for a slightly belated Valentine’s Day. I wanted him to hear live the fabulous British singer Barb Jungr, whom I’d seen a couple of times <a contents="before at other veunes" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/blog/the-freewheelin-barb-jungr" style="">before at other venues</a>. A great song interpreter, for this show she performed works by Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel, and herself. </p>
<p>I especially liked her rendition of Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain.” I’d forgotten about it but used to enjoy its old-timey jauntiness. Jungr slowed it down into a serious love song, plaintively addressed to “honey baby.” As often happens when I hear Jungr cover songs, even those I’m very familiar with, I discovered things about the lyrics that had previously eluded me. She also did “Simple Twist of Fate,” one of my favorites—though I’ve listened more to the Joan Baez version than Dylan’s—complete with Jungr on harmonica (which seemed like an extension of her mic), joining her accompanist Mark Hartman, quick and sensitive on the piano. </p>
<p>As for Brel, Jungr’s performance of “Jacky” was especially moving; she explained in her intro to the song—in which Brel feverishly grabs us by the throat with his intense desire to be young and celebrated again—that the Belgian <em>chanteur</em> wrote it after learning he had a terminal disease. Despite this very sad circumstance, Jungr also made us laugh with an explanation—once she gave us a “trigger warning”— about the translation (French to English), involving a couple of synonymous obscenities and the difference in how they affect an American versus English audience, not to mention the Fondation Jacques Brel, which has control of its namesake’s works. (Though she is technically allowed to sing only one of the words, she did them both, emphatically.) </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/215b2ca8312420956a67b79febc88befbaa0b108/original/b-wyjyzxnpemu6njawedq1mcjd.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jungr gets between my friend Dee Burton, who first told me about the singer, and me at 54 Below in 2015. </strong><br><strong>Photo by Bob Goldberg.</strong></p>
<p>Although Jungr laughed uproariously about performing her own songs alongside those of such music giants, the couple she sang were beautiful and idiosyncratic, fitting in well. The poignant “Sometimes” is from an intriguing-sounding opera about Mabel Stark, a renowned tiger trainer in the 1920s, that Jungr is writing with the composer Jonathan Cooper. (Maybe it will be called “The Lady and the Tiger,” unless that’s too on-the-nose. Anyway, I’ll be on the lookout for it.) </p>
<p>Whether doing her own work or others’, there is something brave about the way Jungr performs. She goes high, she goes low—and I don’t mean vocally, though she has an extensive range—and seems always unafraid and clear-eyed, able to see both the humor and the pathos in all of us humans. </p>
<p>For those who missed the show (or didn’t), Jungr has a new CD out: <em>Bob, Brel and Me. </em>All three singer-songwriters are in good company.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6245522
2019-12-24T15:00:00-05:00
2021-06-04T10:31:23-04:00
Jesse Malin & Lucinda Williams
<p><em>“When you’re young/And you run/And you’re burning like a star/And it’s fun/And it’s done/And it leaves you with a scar”</em> — “When You’re Young,” by Jesse Malin </p>
<p>We might call Jesse Malin, who grew up in Queens and lives in the East Village, the spirit animal of New York City, or at least an underbelly segment that involves bars, the street, punk rock, non-punk rock, clubs, middle-of-the-nights, addiction, chaos, and generally the kind of edgy existence he evokes in his new album, <em>Sunset Kids.</em> Starting out in bands like Heart Attack and D Generation, Malin eventually went solo, turning a sharp eye and reflective mind onto his own “little life,” as he calls it in the last track of this <em>cri de coeur. </em></p>
<p>For help on <em>Sunset Kids,</em> he reached out to someone far from NYC (but perhaps near at heart), an “American treasure,” as he called her at his recent concert at Bowery Ballroom—one who speaks like a southern belle but turns that idea on its pretty little head with her provocative, incisive lyrics. “You talk like an angel/You spit on the floor,” from the heated “Dead On,” might describe (well, partially metaphorically) the woman who co-wrote those lyrics: Lucinda Williams. During the show, which re-created the record and then some, Malin spoke of his trepidation at showing his lyrics to the vaunted songwriter, though the setting for this, the kitchen table belonging to Williams and her husband, Tom Overby—the two co-produced the album—sounded cozy. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9dc795245df47da27da5da9c9143241571c7caea/original/fullsizeoutput-47ff.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jesse Malin at Bowery Ballroom.</strong></p>
<p>While not exactly cozy, the Bowery Ballroom was (maybe literally) spruced up for the holidays—evergreen garlands hanging from the balcony rails—and a very welcoming place for Williams, a special guest. The crowd went crazy when she appeared for “Room 13” and then every time she popped back out to lend her piercing voice to such songs as “Shane” and “Dead On.” </p>
<p>Though she never backed away from that raw, searing, signature sound, Williams, wearing a “City of Angels” T-shirt and glittering silver necklace, brought a surprisingly sweet vibe to the stage. Perhaps because she and Malin are longtime friends—they also share an Aquarian birthday, a couple of days after mine—and run in similar circles. (Or maybe there was another cause: “Peace and love, y’all,” she said at the end, “we’ll celebrate the impeachment.”) </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b8e9854c6a067533d789960393a411dd278f2baa/original/fullsizeoutput-47fb.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Lucinda Williams (and her phone image) singing "Changed the Locks."</strong></p>
<p>“Shane,” referring to the Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, was inspired by an event in Ireland that Malin took part in, when MacGowan was in a wheelchair because of a serious injury. Malin told a charming story—he is quite the raconteur (“If the music thing doesn’t work out, you can be a comedian,” Williams told him)—about holding a weighty trophy that had been given to MacGowan and trying, unsuccessfully, to palm it off on Bono. </p>
<p>That song contains the lyric “Wanna die in Dublin,” and several of Malin’s friends and loved ones, including his father, died this past year. That is an altogether different kind of weightiness, one that Malin takes on in such songs as “Friends in Florida” and “Shining Down.” For her part, late in the show, Williams sang her song “Drunken Angel,” about a hard-living friend who was killed during an argument. </p>
<p>Mortality hangs over us all, but the now 50-ish Malin, curly black hair emerging from a sideways newsboy cap, appeared ageless when he rushed into the crowd during a song, trusting us to hold aloft his long, wandering microphone cord, as though with it he could wrap us all up in that moment, when, with him, we were young burning stars, however scarred.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021924
2019-11-30T19:00:00-05:00
2022-04-21T21:12:21-04:00
Buckley and Brown
<p>Betty Buckley—she of <em>Cats</em> (Broadway), <em>Eight Is Enough</em> (TV), and <em>Tender Mercies</em> (film), to name just a few early achievements—shines on her own, whether playing such roles as the title one in <em>Hello, Dolly!</em> (national tour) or singing an eclectic mix of songs in one of her many concerts around the country. But she is also a wonderful collaborator. In 2014 she released a record, called <em>Ghostlight</em> (a reference to the bare bulb left on at night in theaters), that was produced by her childhood friend T Bone Burnett—something they had wanted to do together for many years. I interviewed her for <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/music/2014/09/betty-buckley-album">VanityFair.com </a>at the time and subsequently took a master class with her (rigorous and inspiring) and attended a couple of her concerts at Joe’s Pub in NYC, which I’ve written about in this blog.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8aa18ca238d652135acb09a0b720c428c10e2820/original/betty-subculture.jpeg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDUzMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="533" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Betty Buckley at the SubCulture bar.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Last weekend I witnessed another great collaboration when Betty was the featured guest at an ongoing concert series started by Jason Robert Brown, a composer and lyricist who won Tony awards for his work on the Broadway shows <em>Parade</em> and <em>The Bridges of Madison County.</em>The event took place at <a href="http://subculturenewyork.com/">SubCulture </a>in NYC, a lovely venue with great sound and a cool bar (hang out after performances and you might catch one of the stars post-concert). With Brown at the piano and a covey of excellent string players, Betty performed—at times in duet with the composer, a strong singer in his own right—such Brown songs as “Cassandra” (from the upcoming show <em>The Connector</em>), “A Song About Your Gun” (a response to yet another gun-violence incident), and “All Things in Time” (from Brown’s album <em>How We React and How We Recover,</em> coincidentally on Ghostlight Records); as well as “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” and other Broadway classics.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">These two extraordinary talents have been, as the engaging Brown put it, circling each other for almost 20 years before coming together for this show. Shortly after 9/11, for example, Betty, appearing on a TV show, decided the song she had intended to sing was no longer quite right, and so landed on Brown’s wistful “Stars and the Moon.” In this and several other songs, Brown tells a story, and Betty, a consummate actress, is the perfect conveyor, easily turning into “a girl of 23,” just by putting a hand on her hip in a flirtatious way (“Another Life”), or a weary old tailor who yearns to go back in time to his wedding day (“The Schmuel Song”).</p>
<p>While introducing their encore number, Brown spoke of his and Betty’s longtime mutual love of the musical <em>West Side Story. </em>They then treated the enthusiastic audience to a charming duet of “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love,” with Betty as the scolding Anita and Brown as the love-drunk Maria.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/93025a74913062c4ffd51570f7531e2f0f0426af/original/22hh24rftlew08lg48pdkg.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>My husband, Robert Rosen, and I with Betty.</strong> </p>
<p>Betty had also already been familiar with Brown’s song “Hope” (from <em>How We React</em>); she recorded it (live) as the title track of her 2018 album. It explores the difficulty of feeling hopeful in our current climate, “when life is crazy and impossible to bear.” At the end of a couple of the evening’s songs—during which I marveled at Betty’s combination of such a sweet tone and those signature powerhouse notes we expect—she lifted her arm in front of her, looking up as though at a heavenly body, glowing in the beyond, that could help us find our way. I’m sure I was not the only one looking instead at Betty, as our shining star, and feeling, well, hope.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021923
2019-08-18T20:00:00-04:00
2019-11-24T07:57:53-05:00
Notes on a show
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b182c60c2db47db90b7d10ef512ff12f4798986f/original/img-6287.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQxNyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="417" width="600" /></strong></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>With Graig Janssen and Joan Chew at the Map Room at the Bowery Electric. Photo by Allyson Smith.</strong><br></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>When/where was it:</strong> Tuesday evening, July 23, in the Map Room at the Bowery Electric, a funky room at the end of the narrow bar, sometimes separated by a maroon velvet curtain (very theatrical). People who have played at Bowery Electric include David Johansen, Patti Smith, Norah Jones, and my personal dark star Lucinda Williams. Also Jesse Malin, who co-owns the BE and other East Village venues.</span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Who played:</strong> Well, me, and my wonderful cohorts Joan Chew and Graig Janssen. Joan played a mean violin on my new song “Woman with a Secret” and Graig did the same on guitar for the “Left It on the Stage,” which will soon be released as a digital single. On that one, Joan coaxed out a snare of sorts on a mini-cajon I bought in Barcelona last year. And for my also-soon-to-be-released ballad “Our Lady of the Tears,” Graig switched to keys (which Joan played on several other numbers), giving it just enough of a barfly feel for the hook line, “Everybody, cheers!” </span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7ab64645232ff4836b20a66519b0ea78321e2780/original/img-0137.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDI2NyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="267" width="200" /> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f4ace889bc49c6113ebb6d739b879d0fdbe4c2b7/original/img-6362.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" width="300" /><br></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>What did we play:</strong> Here’s the set list! An addendum: A couple of weeks later I almost stepped on an amazing giant moth on the steps leading out of an elevated subway station in Williamsburg, where I was meeting Joan. A woman stopped me and then the two of us used my folded-up set list, which was still in my bag, to carry the moth, which seemed like it might be injured, to a safer spot. (It's probably fine since when I turned around to check, it was gone.) I think set lists are, by nature, cool, but now this one seems more special.</span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Any gaffes:</strong> Of course! I was worried about remembering the lyrics to “Woman with a Secret” because it was new and I’d changed some lines. But instead the words refused to come out of my mouth on the second verse of our very first tune, my protest song “When Hell Freezes Over,” which we’ve done many, many times. Then as I was introducing our cover song of the night, the gorgeous “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” I backed into<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—</span>I've just discovered from the video replay!<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—</span>my beloved Martin guitar, which fell off its stand with a scary clatter. (It’s fine too.) </span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Who came:</strong> Old and new friends—many repeat guests and quite a few first-timers—most of them sitting on the worn cushiony furniture that's on one side, a few standing at the door, and a few sitting just beyond at the bar. Also, as usual, my husband and “roadie,” Robert Rosen; after the show, as a bunch of us were talking near the bar, he accidentally crashed into me, sending my beer down my dress. Everybody, cheers!</span></p>
<p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021922
2019-01-20T19:00:00-05:00
2020-11-18T09:23:54-05:00
A Revved-up Alejandro Escovedo
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/96a677e7aeb1f5c027d39860af80bf5369155305/original/escovedo.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Alejandro Escovedo with Don Antonio at City Winery, NYC, January 19, 2019.</strong> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The improbable pairing of Italian band Don Antonio and Mexican-American singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo made for some riveting rock ‘n’ roll at Escovedo’s concert at City Winery Saturday night (when these guys sing, “rev up the amps,” they know what to do next). Escovedo has apparently never paid much attention to the lines most people draw for themselves, mixing punk, roots, and rancheros, just for starters.</p>
<p>Needing a backing band for a European tour a couple of years ago, Escovedo discovered Don Antonio and felt an immediate kinship. The group traveled to southern Italy, where certain aspects of the region—spicy foods, desert-meets-ocean—reminded the singer (again improbably) of Mexico.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/900d63d47c53f3e52b768bf41babf032b3593ee5/original/escovedo-band-cactus.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDMxMSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="311" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The band with an image from the cover of <em>The Crossing.</em></strong></p>
<p>Now Escovedo and Don Antonio, led by guitarist and raconteur Antonio Gramentiere —“Our lives were saved by twist music,” he said of his small town’s youth—have made <em>The Crossing</em>, a concept album about two teenage immigrants, one Italian, one Mexican, who, in looking for the America whose music they have lovingly absorbed, discover bigotry as well: “America’s beautiful / America’s ill” (“Teenage Luggage”). Performing “Outlaw for You” the other night, Escovedo name-checked not only Jack Kerouac and James Dean, as on the record, but Texas progressive Beto O’Rourke.</p>
<p>As you might expect, Escovedo has something to say about our current immigration problem—“I would carry you on my shoulders / Across the muddy river,” he sang in “Texas Is My Mother.” But he closed with a Stooges cover: “Search and Destroy.” Come to think of it, that was right on message too.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7c59ac868ae49fcc853aa4f37435cd2350aef140/original/esc-version-2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDQ1MSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="451" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Antonio Gramentiere and Alejandro Escovedo co-wrote <em>The Crossing.</em></strong></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021921
2019-01-06T19:00:00-05:00
2019-01-07T09:05:59-05:00
Supersinger Darlene Love
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4251e52a67d21959058dd41a7c873d44a4d737db/original/darlenelove.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">How cool to see the great Darlene Love at the new venue Sony Hall in NYC last night! Ecstatic harmonies and waves of nostalgia flowed during songs like "He's a Rebel," one of the "Wall of Sound" recordings she did with Phil Spector in the 1960s while singing with the Blossoms. Spector audaciously and deceptively released it as a song by the Crystals, since they were better known at the time, but there's no mistaking that "thunderbolt" (<em>Rolling Stone</em>) lead-vocal sound.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/daab159aea455a79d2877e0d75cf803e0c2286f4/original/darlenelove2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDY2NyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="667" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Since Love grew up singing in her father's church, it's not surprising that she included a gospel song in her repertoire, nor that one of her backup singers is also a minister.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b9cab9b21c22a00f3dce42ed92bea6755bb0dafb/original/darlenelove4.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">A consummate backup vocalist herself, Love had not recorded a studio album in decades before the recent Steven Van Zandt-produced "Introducing Darlene Love." She did a tune ("Among the Believers") from that record as well, but of course most people need no introduction to this truly iconic singer, who also performed her early songs "Wait 'til My Bobby Gets Home" and "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry."</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/82dd2cf4e6f2babb5f5b927ecb839f0e4c1930ed/original/darlenelove5.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p>After performing stirring versions of such Motown classics as "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," she ended with “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which she famously performed for 29 years running on David Letterman’s show. She initially teased us, saying it was too late to do a Christmas song, but then she proved herself fabulously wrong.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021920
2018-09-20T20:00:00-04:00
2021-09-27T13:14:43-04:00
"Unity and Change" with Rosanne Cash
<p class="p1"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4a2b0cfd70218a1b66b79987ee7a1c7af877e472/original/rosanne.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDU4MyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="583" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Rosanne Cash at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields.</strong></p>
<p class="p1">“I think someone’s in there.” As I turned toward the person speaking those words, I thanked her for letting me know that the restroom, in a small hall just off the altar of the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, in Greenwich Village, was occupied. The woman, wearing a red top and white blazer, was seated nearby, her hair an interesting, complementary shade of red. She was singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash. </p>
<p class="p1">I’d come to last evening’s church event partly to hear Cash sing, but this was more than a concert: it was also, as billed, a night of “unity and change,” specifically, “a call to action for gun control.” So after the Young People’s Chorus of New York City sang a spirited, heart-melting rendition of “Bridge over Troubled Water” and a song called—appropriately enough—“Give Us Hope,” John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, and Kurt Andersen, host of NPR’s <em>Studio 360</em> and author of <em>Fantasyland, </em>spelled out the devastating gun-death statistics (Rosenthal) and the irrational ideas that can cause people to place the right to gun ownership, with no regulation, above all else (Andersen). Singer-songwriter Mark Erelli, who met Cash after tweeting her his song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx-YAJJKonw">“By Degrees,”</a> performed two original, moving songs dealing with social issues, "Abraham" and "Rose-Colored Rearview." Later, Cash, with John Leventhal, her husband, on guitar, sang her song “Western Wall” and, to chilling effect, Bob Dylan’s “License to Kill.” At the end of the event, Erelli joined them for a rendition of “By Degrees,” which has been recorded by a group that includes Erelli, Cash, and Sheryl Crow; it will be released October 19, with all proceeds going to Gabby Giffords’s eponymous gun-control <a href="https://giffords.org/">organization</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ca09318783552b5e701353e613d6f305b97ba770/original/youthchoir.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzUweDQ2NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="466" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="350" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Members of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City at St. Luke's.</strong></p>
<p class="p1">I used to live on Hudson Street right across from the lovely, 19th-century St. Luke's church and have wandered through its charming, serene little garden many times over the years—and bought a few things at its adjoining thrift shop. This Episcopal church has brought a lot to the community, including the series that the event was part of, “Conversations That Matter.” How very sad that it is necessary to have this particular conversation. The many gun-related facts Rosenthal informed us of—the one that stayed in my mind was that, on average, a child is shot every 30 minutes in America—were horrifying to hear, and the main message from all of the participants was that we are not doing enough to end these continuing atrocities. With the help of such organizations as <a href="http://www.stophandgunviolence.org/">Stop Handgun Violence,</a> perhaps we can each find a way to do more. And it will be easy enough to purchase “By Degrees” and keep these lyrics from happening in our own lives: “You can learn to live with anything/When it happens by degrees.”</p>
<p class="p2">At the reception that followed—in a separate, rather dark space; we all took a winding path through the church grounds to get there—I thanked Rosanne Cash again, lightly referring to our pre-show meeting in the church hall. But I am more profoundly thankful that she and others are working in my community and outside of it for this literally life-and-death cause.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021919
2018-08-15T20:00:00-04:00
2022-05-08T14:52:04-04:00
My Night with Aretha
<p>The great Aretha Franklin died today. I saw her only once, in 2008, and wrote about it for an arts blog:</p>
<p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BEdOpuVVRZg/SLRbiNg2ccI/AAAAAAAAAOA/dLdAEEQP9po/s1600-h/Arethapic.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BEdOpuVVRZg/SLRbiNg2ccI/AAAAAAAAAOA/dLdAEEQP9po/s400/Arethapic.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238912909839856066" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Aretha Franklin gets a little respect in East Hampton. Photo by Cesar Vera/Ross.</strong></p>
<p>I am staring into Christie Brinkley’s baby-blue eyes. This does not look like someone who has just gone through an ugly divorce, someone whose exploding private life has been splattered all over the tabloids. Her face beams; her gleaming blonde hair falls, on one side, behind a small ear; her nose, too, is very small—indeed, there’s something rather touching about it. She has a childlike quality, and I suddenly remember her singing “The Good Ship Lollipop,” Shirley Temple-style, during a Barbara Walters interview years ago. I’ve asked her what song she hopes Aretha Franklin will do—that’s why we’re all in this auditorium on the Upper Campus of the Ross School, in East Hampton, on a gorgeous summer night; we’re waiting for the Queen of Soul to get down and dirty in a building called the Center for Well-Being.</p>
<p>Of course Christie (I feel I can now call her Christie, as you would too if she had flashed that dazzling smile at you—just forget Julia Roberts altogether) mentions “Respect,” but she then says something totally disarming: “And what’s that one that Candice Bergen sang?” Huh? “You know,” she continues, “after Murphy Brown has the baby?”</p>
<p>“‘Natural Woman’?” I ask, though I didn’t know I knew that.</p>
<p>“Yes!” she says, this Uptown Girl, this inspiration for Billy Joel’s “A Matter of Trust.” She will not, as it turns out, be disappointed. (I will; I wanted “Until You Come Back to Me,” a sly song that instantly slows your heartbeat down to a sexy, insinuating rhythm).</p>
<p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BEdOpuVVRZg/SLRbZl2jOII/AAAAAAAAAN4/YyqkECTwJbg/s1600-h/Christie-peace+sign.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BEdOpuVVRZg/SLRbZl2jOII/AAAAAAAAAN4/YyqkECTwJbg/s400/Christie-peace+sign.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238912761754499202" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Emotional girl: Christie Brinkley just wants some peace. Photo by Robert Rosen © 2008.</strong></p>
<p><strong>I</strong>ndeed, less than 15 minutes later, only two songs into her set, Aretha Franklin—super-singer to Christie’s supermodel—launches into “Natural Woman,” the pearls forming her pink gown’s halter strap bouncing away, the brass section swaying. At the end, Aretha holds back just a little before hitting the stratosphere with that final “wo-ma-an.” I can’t see Brinkley through the crowd but I’m guessing that she, in a low-cut but tasteful purple dress, is standing, jumping, and hollering with the rest of us.</p>
<p>Which includes actress Rosie Perez, <em>View</em> host Joy Behar, producer Darren Starr, and the writer Terry McMillan, whom Aretha introduces from the stage. McMillan, chic in a white sarong-type skirt, flounces and waves when Aretha praises her “magnificence and savoir faire”; the singer then adds, “The next book can be <em>How Aretha Got Her Groove Back</em>—she lost some weight!”</p>
<p>Of course, as she rips through such hits as “Higher,” “The House That Jack Built,” and “Think,” it’s clear that Aretha never lost her groove and never will. When she wraps her lungs around the glorious aria “Nessum Dorma”—which brought down the house at the 1998 Grammys, when Franklin took over at the last minute for Pavarotti—you feel she has joined spirituality with funkiness in a way to make even the angels moan.</p>
<p>Tonight, she is donating her formidable services as a benefit for the school—founded by Courtney Ross, the widow of Time Warner’s Steve Ross—which she’s also endowed with a scholarship for performing-arts study. Perhaps as a nod to the importance of education, this most instinctive of performers says while introducing her band (her son Teddy White is on guitar), “There is nothing a singer likes better than having her music played correctly.” All the better for bringing an audience to fever pitch with “Freeway of Love,” announcing that she too is “feelin’ pretty good right now,” and leaving us spent, fulfilled, and yet wanting more.</p>
<p>To wean us off the music, a Latin combo begins to play under a tent adjoining the building. I walk that way, red wine in hand, Franklin voice ringing in my ears, and spot Christie, still smiling and luminescing among the crowd. (Brinkley also funds a scholarship, centering on the environment, for the school, which her daughter Alexa attended and son, Jack, currently attends.)</p>
<p>Later, as I sit outside the center on a boulder (perfectly appointed, as everything seems to be at this tony school set in the woods) and wait for a cab, I watch the many band members carry their instruments to vans and limos. Finally, the Queen herself emerges, a tall gentleman at each elbow escorting her. She has changed into street clothes and looks smaller between the men, her pumps (too big because of her weight loss?) making me think of Minnie Mouse. Her entire lower face and neck are enwrapped in a white muffler—paparazzi-proofing perhaps, but more likely protection for that golden throat against the cool night air. My companion, on the boulder beside me, begins to clap when he sees her, and Aretha turns and gives us, yes, a regal nod.</p>
<p>Sock it to me.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021918
2018-07-21T20:00:00-04:00
2020-11-18T19:53:36-05:00
Eros and Thanatos: Shelby Lynne
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e0da1ae15ef89518ed60f8cf557880c1d77cc270/original/shelbypeeler.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mzc1eDUwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="500" width="375" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Ben Peeler and Shelby Lynne at City Winery, July 21, 2018.</strong></p>
<p>“When a line hits you, you’d best to put it down somewhere,” said the southern singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne, by way of introducing the Jimmy-Webb-esque “Lookin’ Up.” At City Winery in NYC on a rainy night, there were striking lines to come during Lynne’s concert, many of them heartbreaking. (That song’s hook line is “I'm lookin' up, for the next thing that brings me down.”) Later in the evening, Lynne told us that someone once asked her, “Why can’t you write a happy song?”: “I said, ‘Fuck you!’”</p>
<p>As someone who experienced unimaginable tragedy early in life, she’s earned the right to that reaction. In “Heaven’s Only Days Down the Road,” she sang from her father’s point of view about his intention to kill her mother (which he carried out, then killing himself): “Can’t blame the whiskey or my Mammy’s ways / Two little girls are better off this way.” Those girls, 17 and 14 at the time, were Lynne and her younger sister, Allison Moorer, the Americana singer-songwriter (and ex-wife of Steve Earle's). Lynne spoke movingly of “Sissy” during the set, sending out to her—Moorer lives part-time in New York but was in Nashville—the song “I’ll Hold Your Head,” whose last verse ends, “Come on, Sissy, let’s close the door / Don’t want to hear the noise no more.”</p>
<p>But Lynne also elicited a lot of laughter from the audience—especially after she forgot her own lyrics a couple of times—as well as that communal feeling that we always hope for with concerts. At one point we were all singing, with Lynne, a slow version of the old chestnut “Side by Side” (“Though we ain’t got a barrel of money…”), poignant because it was a tune the two sisters sang together as children (it makes an appearance in the recorded version of “I’ll Hold Your Head”).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9bf309783dc20f2e3bba1c7b47cafc6ce92c4d0b/original/shelbylynne.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mzc1eDUwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="500" width="375" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Lynne at the merch stand after the concert.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">After the show, I stood in line to get a signed copy of one of Lynne's albums. Although her new release, <em>Here I Am,</em> the soundtrack of an upcoming movie she stars in, was available, I chose <em>I Can’t Imagine</em> on vinyl. As Lynne signed, with a gold marker, the cover's lovely, natural-looking image of herself ("What's your name, darlin'?"), I told her I was moved by her song about her sister. I then impulsively showed her an old picture (a copy on my phone) of my mother, who’s long deceased, and my aunt, who only recently died; on their dusty Texas farm in the 1930s, my mother, about 12, smiles as she holds her baby sister up toward the camera.</p>
<p>I added, “I have a sister, too.” “I hear you,” she said simply.</p>
<p>I recall my husband, after watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auPv_C7Ii8Y">Lynne sing John Lennon’s “Mother” </a> in a televised concert shortly after 9/11, saying that, with her wrenching yet sexy performance, the singer seemed a perfect example of Eros and Thanatos. Her haunted, beautiful face will tell you as much.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021917
2018-05-01T20:00:00-04:00
2018-05-02T11:06:46-04:00
Broken Bone / "Broken Bone"
<p>It was all I could think of and it kept me from being strong: a broken radius, that is to say, wrist, the result of a fall in my sister’s urban-fairy-land front yard in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis last October. My 10-year-old great-niece, Harper, across the little sidewalk frequented by squirrels, had tossed me a beach ball that went over my head, its cartoon dog twirling toward me. As I reached for it, I went backward and apparently tripped on an exposed root and then tried to break my fall by smashing my hand against the trunk of that same majestic maple tree.</p>
<p>About three weeks later I had surgery that involved installing a titanium plate to hold the bone together and eventually—just last week—another surgery to remove the plate (which was “migrating” toward unsuspecting tendons). My hand is still bandaged as I type this, and I probably have more physical therapy ahead with the wonderful folks at Hand Therapy NYC; I’ve spent many peaceful moments at one of their little white tables with my hand under a heating pad (in preparation for exercises), pondering a plaque that says “Do what you love / Love what you do.” </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/801db87a6e928c6421aa4cb099552c1cc1ec4d1b/original/fullsizerender.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDM3MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="370" width="400" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>That would be singing and writing songs. And so, since my broken bone had stolen the attention of my mind, a melody attached itself to that idea and I wrote the song in the video below, which was performed with the two fabulous human beings and musicians I’ve been working with for a couple of years now, Joan Chew and Graig Janssen. We shot the video in my studio apartment so I could submit it to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, whose winner was recently announced. You may want to check out <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/04/24/604937775/announcing-the-2018-tiny-desk-contest-winner">his video</a>—right after mine!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Ww4Xmin6XI" width="560" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021916
2018-03-20T20:00:00-04:00
2022-02-14T05:32:17-05:00
Grist for the (Hayley) Mills
<p> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c0005ec79ed4b8a52fdac238164f0e7c6262fbe5/original/hayley.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6ODAweDUzNCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="534" width="800" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> <strong>Allison Jean White, Brenda Meaney, Hayley Mills, Gina Costigan, <strong>and Klea Blackhurst <br></strong>in <em>Party Face. </em>Photo by Jeremy Daniel.</strong></p>
<p>It would have been enough to witness Hayley Mills singing the first few lines of “Over the Rainbow,” which called to mind not only the young Judy Garland but also the young Hayley, she of the early 60s hits “Cobbler, Cobbler” and “Let’s Get Together” (her pitch wobbliness of that time making her all the more endearing). Or even just to hear that speaking voice, with its hint of a rasp and its still-youthful timbre.</p>
<p>When I was a child people often told me I looked like Mills, who as a Disney teenage star won a special “juvenile” Oscar for <em>Pollyanna</em> and was also known for <em>The Parent Trap</em> and other films. So I could not resist a chance to see my doppelgänger in an Off Broadway production of <em>Party Face,</em> by Isobel Mahon, directed by Amanda Bearse (<em>Married... with Children</em>).</p>
<p>But her singing was only one facet I and other audience members got to experience of the dynamo/diamond that is Mills, who grew up in a famous British theatrical family. Playing the mother of two adult daughters, she meddled comically, got angry, got drunk, and generally more than held her own in a night that involved Saran-wrapped pillows and male-genitalia topiary—and perhaps a few too many painful revelations among the women (only) who populate this play.</p>
<p>Set in a contemporary Dublin suburb, <em>Party Face</em> won the 2018 Irish Awards for best production and best actress (Mills). The playwright has said this about its form: “The large vessel that is comedy … can fit tragedy and it can fit pain and it can fit disaster.... Once it’s held in this sort of larger comedic vessel, you know somehow the world is okay. We can name the sorrows and still laugh.” Mahon is lucky to have such a glowing central figure to put this across. The writing often steps into very broad territory (catfight, anyone?), but trust Mills to show us the pathos behind it as her character, for example, listens to her daughter describe the beginning of her descent into mental illness.</p>
<p>If you'd like to see this for yourself, there’s still time to catch the show before its close, on April 8. With City Center’s intimate theater space (the stage is at ground level) and a comfy, pretty living-room/kitchen set by Jeff Ridenour—that gash in the marble counter will be explained—you may feel like joining the party yourself, though you’ll be safer at a distance, especially if you’re keeping any secrets! Come for Hayley, stay for the topiary (and Hayley).</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021915
2018-01-31T19:00:00-05:00
2018-02-01T10:01:03-05:00
His Last Grammys: Jay Lowy
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/12d174731b69e8d1c70db8958b37f7721ca318ef/original/grammys2018.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzE1eDE2MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="160" width="315" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p>The first time I visited L.A., years ago, I was lucky enough to have an entrée, through the publishing company I worked for, into the music world. I performed at a songwriters' night at the Hollywood Improv, sat in on a recording session with the sensuous singer Maria Muldaur, and visited a few music publishers, though the only one I remember is Jay Lowy. Jay was born in Chicago, and I recall his talking about the California weather, saying how he felt as though he were permanently on vacation. He was gracious enough to listen to a couple of my songs and offer advice. We stayed in touch for a while, having dinner at the newish Hard Rock Café when he was in New York and talking on the phone occasionally.</p>
<p>Watching the Grammys last Sunday, I thought of him when the Recording Academy president, Neil Portnow, made a speech. The person holding that office always makes an appearance on the show, and for a few years it was Jay. Not knowing he had attained that position, I was surprised to see him the first time he showed up in his tux on my TV screen. Unlike with Portnow, who stepped on a lot of toes by explaining the lack of 2018 awards for women on the need for them to “step up,” Jay’s appearances were effective but uneventful. Indeed, Jay was one of the many journeymen of music who work quietly behind the scenes—though as general manager at Jobete publishing, which represented Motown writers, he stood up publicly to MTV on their early policy of virtually shutting out black artists. (The station’s dubious rationale was that these musicians didn’t fit into their stated “rock” format.)</p>
<p>A while after Portnow’s speech at the Grammys came the regular “In Memoriam” tribute, and after the mention of Gary Arnold, a music retail executive, I saw—again, to my surprise—Jay’s name and image; I had not heard that he had died.</p>
<p>I know that some people were upset by exclusions from the segment, such as SHINee’s Jonghyun and Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart. Still, it’s very fitting that Jay was honored. He may not have made music, but his life was saturated with it.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021914
2017-12-10T19:00:00-05:00
2020-11-10T00:27:03-05:00
Patti, Me, and NYC
<p class="p1"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b021588d28e98c2f16e555682d4d185fa7fcea71/original/dqu36wxvwaemhwz.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDUweDU4NCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="584" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="450" /></p>
<p class="p1">This current New York magazine cover, of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>brought back memories of briefly knowing Patti many years ago. I met her at a nightclub (Banana-something?) on Bleecker Street, where I was singing backup with a band that included her then boyfriend, Ray, a drummer. I remember watching Patti from the stage just as we were finishing our set. She got up from her seat, turned around, and danced her way, long hair shaking, to the bar. I joined her there and we had what I remember as a fun conversation, though I have no idea what we talked about. Not long after that I went to see her with her own band at Kenny's Castaways, also on Bleecker Street. I liked her songs and still remember riffs from a couple of them<span>—</span>one about an aging waitress ("But you still look all right"), another about "Buffalo," a local musician who was in both her band and the one I sang with.</p>
<p class="p1">I also worked with a singer named Phyllis Whitehouse, who was friends with Patti's singing partner, Soozie Tyrell (now a frequent player with the E Street Band). The two of them, Phyllis told me, were buskers. She recounted a charming story about Patti and Soozie's once needing to take a cab but not having any money. They asked a cabbie if he would take him to their destination and let them pay by singing for him during the ride. He agreed. That generous taxi driver must've gotten a lot of mileage, so to speak, over the years with that story, assuming that he knows who his passengers were.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">I called Patti shortly after her Kenny's gig to tell her how much I liked it. I remarked that her songwriting seemed to be going in a good direction, and she replied, "Yeah, I'm digging it." But the conversation as a whole was a little awkward, as one can be between near strangers, especially if they're not having a drink together. I loved Patti's first album, "Rumble Doll," from the early 90s, a well-crafted heart-stealer that pretty overtly dealt with her romance with Bruce, who was married at the time, while they were on tour together, obviously a highly emotional experience for both of them. (Suddenly I recall talking to an Asbury Park denizen, a muscular guy with black stand-up hair, in a bar shortly after the news of the affair had erupted—"Patti always loved Bruce," he said.) I wanted to interview Patti about her record for a new NYC tabloid and got in touch with her publicist, but nothing came of it because the publication went under very quickly.</p>
<p class="p1">And now Patti and Bruce have been together more than 25 years. I don't know how all that time has elapsed, but I'm happy that Patti's and my paths converged briefly when we were both young and hungry in New York City (okay, one of us is still kind of hungry!).</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021913
2017-06-05T20:00:00-04:00
2017-06-06T08:41:06-04:00
"Pink Balloons of Manchester"
<p>After the horrific attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22, I read quite a bit about the victims and the bomber himself, as well as the courage of the people of that city in their response: they turned the image of pink balloons, which had been released at the end of the concert, into a symbol of joy. I then wrote and recorded--on my iPhone, playing my rudimentary piano--a song, "Pink Balloons of Manchester," in admiration for the people there and with the hope of a better common future for all of us. You can hear it on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mlmais/pink-balloons-of-manchester">Soundcloud</a> and see the video (again, simple, but including the lyrics) on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDY8xj4dCY">YouTube.</a> </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/27fac66bf8f01f40ae92d1c2c70f199b152e8068/original/img-8770.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDYzNiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="636" width="500" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021912
2017-02-11T19:00:00-05:00
2017-02-12T11:31:30-05:00
Tiny Desk Contest
<p class="p1"> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/561e9409f8b9c9bb40d7eda9508363e92615dbe9/original/video-ur-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="600" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><strong>In my apartment with Joan Chew and Graig Janssen, making a video of "Unrequited Love."</strong></p>
<p class="p1">To enter NPR’s annual Tiny Desk Contest, you just need a video of an original song that includes a desk—some people have taken “tiny” literally and used a dollhouse version! This is my second year entering the contest. Last year I performed “Tiny Stars” (that “tiny” was just a happy coincidence) and this year “Unrequited Love,” with fabulous musicians Joan Chew, on keys, and Graig Janssen, on guitar. See our video, recorded by the redoubtable Susan Rasco, on the home page and some photos from the session, also by Susan, above and below. You might also want to view some of the <a href="http://tinydeskcontest.npr.org/browse">other entries</a>, many very inventive and all showing a great DIY spirit. You can <a href="http://tinydeskcontest.npr.org/vote-now/">vote</a> each week for best video among several chosen around a theme (this week it's "Desks in the Wild"). </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f807b714d2d1edaf7ae70b91dd46c87cb1da0e89/original/video-ur-setup-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDQ5OSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="499" width="400" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Setting up beforehand.</strong> </p>
<p class="p1">We did the video in my (rather cluttered) studio apartment in Soho, with my friend the filmmaker and actor C.G. Reeves on hand to help with visuals, and my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, there as well for general assistance, such as turning off a noisy radiator! (He also gave me, as a Christmas gift, the sequined cami I have on.) My cat, Oiseau, did her own thing and so upstaged me during one take—licking her paws, looking around, etc., while in the frame—that I couldn't use that version! Here are a couple more shots from the one we did use:</p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/61f81b7d3fca052752e6409b0321fc70d31be268/original/video-ur-headdown-s2m.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><strong>"I think of you..."</strong></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/67519c31cd54bfc3dc9c25cca0a59d03e58bb417/original/video-ur-end-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /> </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: left;">Thanks to everyone who helped out! Looking forward to next year... </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: left;"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021911
2016-11-15T19:00:00-05:00
2016-11-18T09:08:08-05:00
At the Sidewalk Cafe
<p>How fabulous to play the <a href="http://www.sidewalkny.com/">Sidewalk Cafe</a> in NYC last night for the first time, especially when accompanied by Joan Chew and Graig Janssen<span>—</span>extraordinary musicians and human beings! We did some of my older tunes, such as "Madame Olenska" and "Time," as well as some brand-new ones, such as "Last Hurrah" and "Unrequited Love," along with "Angel Tattooed Ballerina," which I'm in the process of recording to release as a digital single, and the Prince song "Kiss" (a fun departure for me). Sidewalk's "alumnae" include <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37417233">Regina Spektor</a> (check out the link for her funny story about wrangling a gig at the venue years ago) and the iconoclastic wonder <a href="http://www.nelliemckay.com/">Nellie McKay</a>.</p>
<p>Many thanks to all who came out, with special gratitude to my husband Robert Rosen (and Joan for the use of her camera) and Susan Rasco for documenting the event. Thanks also to the Sidewalk, especially to Mark (sound person) and Somer (booking person)<span>—</span>and to Mary P. Fox for the dress!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7b8145eedb631d48bf9b1501b8dc7da67048f465/original/sidewalk11-15-16.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDY5OSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="699" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="600" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Joan, me, Graig, and our video selves! Photo by Susan Rasco.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/902d3f411a12a4de55fa1b1c7702da0dbf9ae3fc/original/sidewalkmlguitar.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDQyNiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="426" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Singing "Madame Olenska." Photo by Susan Rasco.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/dfe42d2742f19eed485cb0da4b20469b602ac7b7/original/sidewalkmlmsr.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>With Susan after the show. Photo by Laura Bell.</strong></p>
<p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021910
2016-11-01T20:00:00-04:00
2016-11-02T07:57:50-04:00
Skyped! Interview on "Louie B. Free"
<p>This morning the redoubtable radio host Louie B. Free interviewed my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, and me on Skype, on the occasion of our recent 15th wedding anniversary. Louie had broadcast our City Hall wedding on his show (via Bob's brother's cell phone), on October 19, 2001, and wanted to speak to us about that, our experience on 9/11, and our various projects. </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jdrbhqEyRbk" width="320"></iframe></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021909
2016-10-26T20:00:00-04:00
2016-10-28T03:34:50-04:00
Sunday in the Pub with Laura
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e29810402b63930746d8018b4a5c0400eb1ca40f/original/lauracantrell-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Laura Cantrell with her band at Joe's Pub, NYC.</strong></p>
<p>The lovely <a href="http://www.lauracantrell.com/">Laura Cantrell </a>played a concert at Joe's Pub Sunday evening celebrating the 15th anniversary of her debut album, <em>Not the Tremblin' Kind.</em> (She explained that it's actually been 16 years, as it took her a while to pull the anniversary tour together, which I completely relate to.) That <a href="http://georgeusher.com/blog/not-the-tremblin-kind">title song</a> was a highlight of the show; its writer, George Usher, appeared as if by magic to sing it as a duet with Laura. He reminded me of Neil Young<span>—</span>a deeper voice but with that compelling Youngian (maybe also Jungian?) energy, an interesting complement to Laura's serene quality, with <em>her</em> voice bringing to mind birds and bells. Other favorites of mine in the set were Laura's own songs "Queen of the Coast," inspired by country backup singer Bonnie Owens, and "Starry Skies," from her latest, excellent record <em>No Way There from Here </em>(though I missed hearing that album's "All the Girls Are Complicated"). Her songs are country but by way of NYC, where she's lived for a long time<span>—</span>she described prowling the downtown music scene in the 90s. Laura and I had been in touch by e-mail through a publishing colleague of mine. It was great to finally meet her and to hear her in person. My friend the fantastic photographer Terry Bisbee, who loved the show, took this shot of us (and a few other pub- or theater-goers!) in the lobby of the Public Theater, which houses Joe's Pub. Laura's tour heads next to her hometown of Nashville. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a1f6bea32705ba94d1422bbecf75f2384ee1d056/original/lauracantrellmlm-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021908
2016-09-23T20:00:00-04:00
2016-09-24T08:09:39-04:00
That Voice: Betty Buckley
<p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/6f578179be5b95bf415cc8104f36cf6f66e08c6a/original/grey-hat-1.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDYyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="625" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Betty Buckley, currently playing—at gale force—Joe’s Pub. <strong>Photo by Scogin Mayo.</strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;">We might add to Betty Buckley’s other titles—singer, actress, teacher (all <em style="text-align: left;">extraordinaire</em>)—that of explorer, for she is a tireless explorer of life’s meaning. Her new show at Joe’s Pub, continuing through Sunday, is called “Story Songs,” but, with one notable, very amusing exception—Joe Iconis’s “Old Flame,” from a musical in development—these are not so much stories about individuals as the story of all of our lives.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">That story will most likely include fear for a loved one (Radiohead’s “High and Dry,” suggested by actress Martha Plimpton); prejudice, whether our own or others’ (“You Have to Be Carefully Taught,” “Cassandra”); romantic love (“The Way You Look Tonight”); and old age (“September Song”). As she is an intrepid explorer, Betty doesn’t flinch from such topics but rather plumbs the depths of them, taking us along for a remarkable ride, and at the end encouraging us with Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up.” Her versatile band—Tony Marino on bass, Oz Noy on guitar (especially affecting on Emmylou Harris’s song “Prayer in Open D”), and Ben Perowsky on drums—is led by pianist Christian Jacob, who also played his moody and elegant theme for the film <em>Sully.</em></p>
<p>My husband and I saw the show last night, along with the critic John Simon—whom Betty credited with being an early champion of her work—and Rachel York, the actress who has played Little Edie to Betty’s Big Edie in acclaimed productions of <em>Grey Gardens </em>in Sag Harbor, N.Y., and, recently, Los Angeles. On a personal note, it’s always great to see Betty when she’s in New York (she lives in Texas on a ranch with horses and many rescue dogs and cats). I was lucky enough to take a master class with her a couple of years ago and so learned something of the study—both practical and spiritual—and work that goes into her performances.</p>
<p>And I love Joe’s Pub, such a glamorous yet warm venue, a very appropriate spot for Betty, who spoke of working on <em>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</em> at the Public Theater (home of the club) in the 80s. Doubtless then, as now, audiences were blown away by That Voice, an instrument so powerful that Betty occasionally moves the mike far away from her face. She did this when singing at gale force “Don’t leave me high/Don’t leave me dry.”</p>
<p>I think that this artist/explorer will never leave us high and dry; we will always have the wonderful songs she has selectively taken and made her own—and ours.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021907
2016-09-17T20:00:00-04:00
2016-09-18T11:18:51-04:00
An Encounter with Edward Albee
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/20bbe7cda93932c7f5ff20d294f3c15b2dfc0c22/original/albeebymemran-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3OCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="378" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Edward Albee, photographed by Michelle Memran in Montauk, N.Y.</strong></p>
<p>Several years ago I was in line to sign in at a radiology center (I’d injured my foot) behind a frail-looking old man wearing a navy-blue Adidas sweatshirt and leaning on a cane. I couldn’t see his face very well, but when he finished at the sign-in sheet and it was my turn, I saw his printed name: E. Albee. He then settled into a chair in the waiting area next to the young man who was with him. Having admired Edward Albee for many years—for a time I studied playwriting, which I found very difficult—I took a seat nearby. Glancing at him in a way that I hoped wasn’t obvious, I noticed that his eye seemed bruised—had he fallen? Suddenly, the woman at the desk called out to him, “Mr. Albee?” He rose and walked to the desk. “Do you still have the AARP supplement for Medicare?” “I assume so,” he answered slowly. She asked if he had his card, and a little later he inquired as to whether he was going to have to take out his hearing aid (“Oh, no,” she answered).</p>
<p>Even this creator of the sublime had to deal with the mundane. I wrote in my notebook, “Something about being in the presence of a great man makes other things seem strange,” mentioning a woman outside the window flicking away a cigarette, and the song “(I've Had) The Time of My Life” wafting through our area. After about an hour, Albee, myself, and another woman were moved into a small room for another wait. I finally spoke to him—after a little hesitancy because I’d met him once before, at an event, and he’d seemed kind of cranky—saying I didn’t want to bother him but had so loved his work… “Thank you,” he said, giving me a very nice smile (while our fellow patient looked back and forth at us, possibly trying to figure out who he was) and adding, “Aren’t you kind.” Then we fell silent, though a half-hour or so passed before he left the room for his test, after which I didn’t see him again.</p>
<p>Feeling unsettled by the experience, I wrote to my brother, another longtime Albee admirer (of course, we are legion), who wrote back, “That must have been a strange moment: to get to be in the same room with Edward Albee... yet while he was visibly sick…. I was struck that all of us do ultimately get sick and that death awaits everybody equally.” A hard truth that, as with many other hard truths, Albee did not shrink from—though I read it many years ago, I still recall the powerful bleakness of his one-act play <em>The Death of Bessie Smith</em>—yet his caustic, challenging, sometimes perplexing works have been served up with such artistry that they are also inspiring and even uplifting.</p>
<p>I was relieved in the next weeks and months to see no news of Albee’s health; maybe he too had just had a minor injury. And now, thinking about the jolt of seeing his signature and realizing who the elderly man with the matted grey hair and the cane was, I remember another association, one enveloped in an airier beauty than that of his plays. Back in the 90s, when my husband and I were driving to Montauk somewhat regularly, we would pass, on the gently undulating and curving Old Montauk Highway, a lovely oceanfront house that had a little mailbox clearly marked with a red (if memory serves) printed name: Albee. We watched for it every time.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021906
2016-09-16T20:00:00-04:00
2022-02-05T09:59:31-05:00
Supreme Karaoke
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/827a4ed317dd27757a806eee1db0584c250079ab/original/mlm-sidgoldsroom.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Joe McGinty, the traditional tip jar, and me at Sid Gold's Request Room.</strong></p>
<p>Thanks to keyboardist extraordinaire Joe McGinty (Psychedelic Furs, Losers Lounge) for his on-the-spot transposing of "Baby Love" the other night at his and Paul Devitt's club, Sid Gold's Request Room, in NYC. Great place for live piano karaoke! A big "mwah" also to the gang at Girlie Action for their beer & karaoke event (good combo) and Robert Rosen for the support and the photo.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021905
2016-09-10T20:00:00-04:00
2020-11-18T19:56:02-05:00
Poem: "One World Trade"
<p>As a freelance copy editor, I often work at the World Trade Center. Sometimes it feels like just an office, but a quick look out the window, if you happen to be facing the memorial park, can bring back not only the terrible loss but also the fears associated with 9/11. But in addion, the glass buildings surrounding 1WTC literally reflect such sights as the beautiful marina and the new Oculus transportation hub. I recently wrote this poem, inspired by both working in this unique building and my experience of 9/11. (Photos of the WTC and the Oculus appear below the poem.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> One World Trade</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He speaks. He’s wearing a tie.</p>
<p>Waves rush a small boat across a glass skyscraper.</p>
<p>Someone answers him. Small talk.</p>
<p>The boat hits the edge and vanishes, part by part.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There’s a room full of orange sneakers,</p>
<p>Or was that a dream?</p>
<p>In the desk an emergency kit—</p>
<p>Whistle, mask, flashlight.</p>
<p>At sunset the Empire State Building will burst into flame.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I see a helicopter but can’t hear it.</p>
<p>Clouds are picking up.</p>
<p>There are cupcakes in the kitchen,</p>
<p>And down below dinosaur bones,</p>
<p>Bird wings, a white flapping skeleton</p>
<p>Sprouting from the ground.</p>
<p>Across the way it blooms anew:</p>
<p>Ghost of itself,</p>
<p>Glass spine.</p>
<p> —Mary Lyn Maiscott</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/93248943df69db802ec613e6c5067656414048d8/original/wtc-240.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjMweDMwNyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="307" width="230" /> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9db547535ae0db50907133a77c7fa33c422710ef/original/oculus-240.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjQweDMyMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="320" width="240" /> </em></p>
<p><strong>One World Trade Center from the 9/11 memorial park; inside the Oculus.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021904
2016-07-08T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-21T21:09:13-04:00
Angelic Choir of One!
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n5xukECgAyE" width="560" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>Worked on a new single, "Angel Tattooed Ballerina," at Mercy Studios yesterday with producer Nick Miller. Love those old-fashioned tape reels! My good friend Marty Linz, an opera singer, came along to add beautiful backgrounds with stratospheric notes to wonderful effect. Many thanks to Marty, and stay tuned for this ethereal sound...</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/db4b1ddbc109abce79e3ca5655ddf3bfd42e8cde/original/marty-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDQ4NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="485" width="400" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021903
2016-04-28T20:00:00-04:00
2016-04-29T10:25:59-04:00
We Can Do That
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kYglsgRYjiE" width="560" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>I've been singing the Beatles' "You Can't Do That" for some time, ever since my husband, Robert Rosen, and I heard an Italian band called the Plastic Lennon Band perform it in a club in the hip Roman district called Trastevere. I've sung it with HooP at the sadly now-defunct Ella Lounge in the East Village, accompanying myself at a rooftop party in Mallorca, and, most notably, with White Collar Crime at the publication party for Bob's John Lennon bio <em>Nowhere Man. </em>I also included a rehearsal version, with my friend Royce Flippin on guitar and backing vocals, as a track on my CD, <em>Blue Lights.</em></p>
<p>And now comes a new version, with the fantastic musicians I've been working with lately: pianist/violinist Joan Chew and pianist/guitarist Graig Janssen. During a recent rehearsal, when we were about to try it out, Joan mentioned that she's been noticing violinists playing their instrument in unusual ways; this inspired her to do the strumming you see in the video (taken by Bob on my iPhone), with Graig providing some of those original guitar riffs. Since it was new to us, I apparently didn't feel comfortable trying that pink shaker in my hand, and we hadn't figured out backing vocals yet. We'll get that together before long, as I'm...</p>
<p>Looking forward to doing this live once again!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021902
2016-04-25T20:00:00-04:00
2021-12-29T08:38:27-05:00
Prince: An Erotic Angel
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"><span class="hasCaption">Somehow, despite my actual raspberry beret and my love for "When Doves Cry" and "Kiss," I almost forgot that I had not only seen a Prince concert (with Lenny Kravitz making an appearance) but had also written a short piece about it for the hip-hop magazine <em>Word Up!</em> This was back in 1994, and it now seems odd that I pointed out that the crowd was "racially mixed"—another era. (Note that the phrase in the parenthetical should be "I don't think so.")</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"><span class="hasCaption"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ba4ca5cc19f2ed9c0274e0ec69a8a6c11681a4d2/original/prince-word-up-crop-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6ODAweDgyMSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="821" width="800" /></span></span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021901
2016-04-17T20:00:00-04:00
2022-03-31T08:17:22-04:00
Wit and More: Alicia Witt
<p>“Our daughter is the antichrist”: This is what I remember Cybill, a middle-aged actress played by Cybill Shepherd in the eponymously titled 90s sit-com, telling her ex-husband about the rebellious teenager Zoey, portrayed with insouciance by Alicia Witt (she of the red hair and porcelain skin).</p>
<p>But “antichrist” did not spring to mind last night at Rockwood Hall, where my friend Terry and I watched Witt perform her original songs, accompanying herself on piano with a three-piece band as backup—drums, bass, guitar. Witt, looking sweetly hippie-ish in a long flower-print skirt and white shrug, quickly invited the audience into “the circle of trust,” where she confided that she was hoarse and her voice might falter at times. Not to worry: she sounded great as she made her way through 70s-reminiscent songs of heartbreak and hope—some from her new Ben Folds–produced album, <em>Revisionist History</em>. She and Folds appear to share a love of piano-driven tunes, and her background as a classical pianist was very evident during the show; at one point her hands nearly blurred (from my vantage point) as they swept over the keys for “The Other Girl”—fitting for a song with the line “I wanna take you down like a tidal wave.”</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/35a0c9068ca40085668bbd04b798554c90a8a616/original/aliciawitt-sm2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDUzMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="533" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></p>
<p>Whether or not you’ve seen “Cybill,” you may be familiar with Witt as an actress in such shows as <em>Nashville</em> (didn’t know! Must catch up), <em>The Walking Dead,</em> and <em>Justified. </em>The latter’s theme-song writer, T.O.N.E.-z, showed up to rap on “Down,” which he co-wrote with Witt; she sounded passionate on the song’s chorus, her voice particularly rich.</p>
<p>Recently, Witt told an interviewer that she liked her tough <em>Walking Dead</em> character’s plain appearance, adding that she avoids mirrors when working because “I don’t like being in my head about all that [looking-beautiful] crap.” (That’s good, since the next question involved her character’s having her face eaten off!)</p>
<p>But at Rockwood, she was lovely indeed, in a very natural way—she said she felt at home, having recorded a Kickstarter-funded live album at the club a couple of years ago. Her endearing patter included a story about fainting after being kissed on a second date; after relating it, she did a gorgeous ballad called “Down She Goes” (fainting as metaphor).</p>
<p>I’m not much into zombies, but I’m very into female singers, and I look forward to checking out Witt’s country-star character, Autumn Chase, on <em>Nashville</em> and to listening to my new copy of <em>Revisionist History </em>(with its intriguing title), graciously signed by the artist after the show.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e54d5554372259ea873788141b170e519505b036/original/mlmwithaliciawitt-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Photo by Terry Bisbee.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021900
2016-02-21T19:00:00-05:00
2016-02-22T08:20:38-05:00
Cash-Rich
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c2d6397e0c9ddcad96356252e30d072216dab6e0/original/blog-rosannec-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="300" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Waiting for Rosanne Cash. Photo by Barbara Guarino Lester.</strong></p>
<p>In the middle of telling the audience about the “race music” of Memphis’s storied radio station WDIA, Rosanne Cash interrupted herself to say (I’m going from memory), “I can’t believe I’m talking about WDIA in Carnegie Hall!” Talk about storied—there she was on one of the most revered stages on the planet (Carnegie is celebrating its 125<sup>th</sup> anniversary), re-creating live her latest album, <em>The River & the Thread.</em> That <a href="http://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/grammy_nominations/">Grammy-winning record </a>too is saturated in history—the musical history of the South, wrapped around its social and political past, its swamps and delta and “sunken lands.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/48775ab98eea4a3ed063f0581e225d5b00e84e7e/original/blog-rosannewdai-sm.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Backdrop photo for the song "50,000 Watts."</strong></p>
<p>With cotton fields, maps, trains, and other relevant images variously projected on the back wall, Cash—along with her musical director (and husband), John Leventhal, who co-wrote <em>The River’</em>s songs with her, and a fantastic band—worked her way through a vivid, ambitious, sometimes dark album, starting with the hopeful “A Feather’s Not a Bird” and ending with the poignant “Money Road,” with (as she explained) its ghosts of Emmett Till and bluesmen like B. B. King.</p>
<p>The poised and reflective Cash (aside from her many songs, she’s written fiction and a memoir) introduced each song, sometimes while the band riffed behind her. Besides being informative, she was very funny: for “Tell Heaven,” she explained that she had wanted to write a Gospel song “for agnostics,” which, judging by the knowing laughter, struck a chord with the NYC crowd.</p>
<p>Wearing a long gold-and-black fitted jacket over black pants, Cash looked both elegant and glamorous. (I didn’t remember her having red hair, but judging by <em>The River’</em>s cover and a T-shirt in the Carnegie gift shop, it now appears to be a signature trait.) Though she’s got some moves, with and without her guitar, the singer was self-possessed to the point of—occasionally—lacking a certain excitement; however, she was so affected when singing about her Civil War ancestors, in “When the Master Calls the Roll,” that she appeared on the verge of tears.</p>
<p>After intermission, Cash was able to let go of the exquisite weight of her southern heritage, and things got a little looser, with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy joining in on a couple of tunes, including her inevitable ending number, “Seven Year Ache,” which, she noted, he once covered. It’s a great song, as is the other original she did, “Blue Moon with Heartache” (cool title). I would have liked to have heard more of her own compositions—"I'll Change for You" as a duet with Tweedy?—but the choice of covers was interesting and of a piece with her musical lineage (a couple were from <em>The List,</em> her recording of a group of songs her dad considered superlative). The standout was Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” with its beautiful, eerie melody and mysterious narrative—which, as <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-bobbie-gentry-haunts-radio-with-mysterious-suicide-ballad-20150727"><em>Rolling Stone</em> </a>recently pointed out, Gentry has never explained. Cash’s rich voice (which easily accommodates a sob or growl), coming through resonantly with the famous Carnegie acoustics, and expressive interpretation suited it perfectly.</p>
<p>To paraphrase a line from “A Feather’s Not a Bird,” a river runs through her, and Cash took us along on her evocative, poetic, deeply personal journey.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/08d4b0fd3eddf67c5d40fb4ca98b9f7cf6147890/original/blog-rosannec2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>A light-bathed Rosanne Cash fields a standing ovation.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021899
2016-02-06T19:00:00-05:00
2016-02-07T08:40:44-05:00
Tiny Desk and "Tiny Stars"
<p>NPR is having its second annual Tiny Desk Contest, a spin-off from its Tiny Desk Concerts. Video entries had to be in by February 2, and I decided last weekend (three days before) to participate. Luckily, Joan Chew, the violinist on my song "Tiny Stars," was available. Sadly, Graig Janssen, the pianist on the track, wasn't, but Joan also plays keys, so we went with that (here's a situation where someone needs a clone--I did miss the violin!). My husband, Robert Rosen, was also available--as videographer and for general moral support. You can watch the video on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM6NdMvaJpg">YouTube.</a> NPR is also posting <a href="http://tinydeskcontest.npr.org/browse/">entrants</a> (mine's not up yet) and having theme-oriented <a href="http://tinydeskcontest.npr.org/vote-now/">voting events</a>. </p>
<p>And here is Joan relaxing with my cat Oiseau (aka Wazzie) after we finished:</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/d7cffedba0a6a537a57a3f0facae7b29b490ac21/original/joanwaz13116.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="600" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021898
2016-01-09T19:00:00-05:00
2023-12-10T11:32:19-05:00
Listening (and Talking) to Louie
<p>My recent <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mlmais/interview-on-the-louie-b-free-radio-show-122315">interview</a> with the ever interesting and interested Louie B. Free, whose Ohio radio talk show airs on <a href="http://www.vindy.com/louie-free/">vindy.com</a>, is now on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mlmais/interview-on-the-louie-b-free-radio-show-122315">soundcloud</a>! Listen as we explore my broadcast-by-cellphone wedding, performance vs. studio, the mysteries of tiny stars, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/04946398c7bce25d1fd257bf505dd23067fdfb69/original/player.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzUweDc1Il0%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="75" width="350" /></p>
<p>By the way, Louie, animal lover, has bunnies on too! Here's an image from his Facebook page:</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8a1b2f81280d3f97762b78ccf4cbaeafd377a0db/original/louie-bunny.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDU0NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="545" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021897
2015-12-27T19:00:00-05:00
2016-01-04T07:02:07-05:00
Unsilent Night
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/a4cd7d073b52a14277fda037e22ab9a10fb8be4d/original/caffevivaldimlmgsmall.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzYweDM2NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="366" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="360" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/c37f4e4cff682c737a7298d41e6497ca0dea4196/original/caffevivaldimlmjsmall.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzYweDI4OCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="288" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="360" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Singing with Graig Janssen, on guitar, top, and Joan Chew, on violin, above, at Caffe Vivaldi, NYC. Photos by Laura Bell.</strong></p>
<p>What a great night at the storied Village coffeehouse Caffe Vivaldi, just a couple of nights before Christmas Eve. I did a set there with violinist/pianist Joan Chew and guitarist/pianist Graig Janssen, who both played on my new EP, “Tiny Stars.” We did the three songs from that recording, as well as selections from my EP “Crucified” and CD “Blue Lights” (the two Christmas songs). We also performed a couple of newish songs, including “Angel Tattooed Ballerina,” which I’m in the process of recording.</p>
<p>The cozy room was packed and the vibe was lovely. Many thanks to all those who came—during a busy week (not one but two people came on their birthday)—and made the evening so special!</p>
<p>Unfortunately we had a problem with our equipment and didn’t get a video of the whole show, but my friend Allyson Smith took a quick one, so here is the end of “Tiny Stars.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sNyUguB_n3Q" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="560" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021896
2015-12-15T19:00:00-05:00
2015-12-17T03:18:24-05:00
Back to the (Village) Voice
<p>My Dec. 22 show at Caffe Vivaldi (see my previous post) made the Village Voice <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/event/mary-lyn-maiscott-7999569">listings</a>, as well as mentions on their other pages online, most notably this one, where I'm right next to Mariah "All I Want for Christmas" Carey! I wrote short items for the Village Voice some years ago, so it's fun to be back in its pages.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/41233e4a00a581255c25d187f9be2c1f8701095d/original/mlm-in-vv-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTAyMHg2MjciXQ%3D%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="627" width="1020" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021895
2015-12-11T19:00:00-05:00
2015-12-12T06:31:20-05:00
Holiday Show in the Village
<p>I'll be playing the cozy Village institution Caffe Vivaldi the Tuesday of Christmas week! Below are the deets, with my spectacular new EP cover, courtesy of the very talented C.G. Reeves, who is not only a graphic artist but also an actor, filmmaker, and wonderful friend.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/25812a0d46e598a81720f95d52d95d626d0990c2/original/ts-flyer-3-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDc3NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="776" width="600" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021894
2015-10-12T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-14T06:32:01-04:00
A Hard Birthday's Night
<p>On Friday, October 9, my husband, the writer Robert Rosen, released the first e-book version of his cult-classic bio, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015RXUD6U?keywords=nowhere%20man&qid=1444783672&ref_=sr_1_3&s=digital-text&sr=1-3"><em>Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon</em></a>—an enhanced 15<sup>th</sup> anniversary edition with new revelations and several bonus chapters. It was Lennon’s 75<sup>th</sup> birthday.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/45e4db4c48733be4238f13534d595c3c25bfafb5/original/final-nowhere-man-2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDMwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="200" /></p>
<p>That night we went to hear the 60s British-invasion band the Zombies at, of all places, the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Along with a couple of newer members, the original band members Rod Argent, very fleet on keys, and singer Colin Blunstone—at 70, in remarkably rich voice—played early songs that included their hits “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and “Time of the Season,” as well as tracks from their latest album, <em>Still Got That Hunger.</em> Yeah, we could tell, and the roar that regularly went up from the crowd in the small theater showed it.</p>
<p>I found Blunstone, despite his tallness, rather elfin (à la Will Ferrell)—surprisingly low-key and almost self-effacing for a 60s rocker who was more or less on a par with Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and Roger Daltrey. Nearly every song was introduced by Blunstone or Argent with a charming story, such as getting permission at the last minute from Paul McCartney himself to use the line “I believe in yesterday” or Blunstone deciding to write songs after Argent, the band’s main writer, passed by in his Rolls Royce while Blunstone was traveling by bicycle (even if apocryphal, cute).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f1f5e035890a83da508b8af47ff033da5cae1a6f/original/blog-zombies.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjQweDMyMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="320" width="240" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The original members of the Zombies reunited at New York Society for Ethical Culture: Hugh Grundy (left, on drums), Rod Argent (keys), Chris White (bass), and Colin Blunstone (next to White).</strong></p>
<p>For their second set, the other original members, bassist Chris White and drummer Hugh Grundy, came out to help recreate the band’s 1968 tour de force record, <em>Odessey and Oracle </em>(purposely misspelled?), lending a special excitement and emotion to the ambitious work.</p>
<p>And, oh yeah, somewhere in the first set the group played “Hold Your Head Up,” the huge hit of the offshoot band Argent—extending it and letting us all sing along. My sister loves that song, and I always think of her when I hear it. But I learned something: Everybody should stop singing, “Hold your head up, whoa.” It should be “Hold your head up, wo-man.” (That’s straight from the horse’s mouth.)</p>
<p>In sum: Zombies walk among us, and we’re better off for it.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/ccdfd9eaef573da37b8652fc0be2a2b1f00dd852/original/fullsizerender-3-2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzU2eDM1OSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="359" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="356" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Candles frame a portrait of John Lennon at Strawberry Fields the night of October 9.</strong></p>
<p>But the evening did not end there. After we left, Bob suggested we go to Strawberry Fields, so we walked the several blocks up to 72<sup>nd</sup> Street and into Central Park. As we followed the sound of singing, we passed a couple of police cars that were obviously there to protect the little group that had gathered. We got up close enough to see a bit of the glittering “Imagine” mosaic on the ground and the candles and flowers people had left. A few musicians were playing guitar, and we joined in singing “Eight Days a Week.” A couple of young women near us were getting into dancing and sometimes used their voices to add instrumental touches in the recording. After that—preceded by someone announcing the Mets-Dodgers score—came “Girl” and the intoxicating “Across the Universe.” At that point we walked out of the park, and I stared up for a moment at the Dakota.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021893
2015-09-10T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-21T21:15:17-04:00
Harper by Moonlight
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/33f950111072e3db481d4f7554bfd51f6a2cdc30/original/harper-11-26-07-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="225" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Harper Maiscott, November 2007.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>My nephew Sean's daughter, Harper, was born on Sept. 11, 2007, giving that date a new meaning for me, a New Yorker who lives about a mile from the World Trade Center. (I've previously <a href="http://marylynmaiscott.com/blog/911_distinguishing_characteristics/">posted</a> about my experiences around the time of 9/11.) One night when Harper was a baby, her mom, Jenny, and I were out on their porch with her, looking at the moon. That inspired a song that I have just put up on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mlmais/harper-by-moonlight">soundcloud</a>. I hope you can listen, and if this day is a hard one for you, I hope it brings a moment of glistening moonlight.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/262254c3baa3bb436c1cc5a7cbf875a8bfc7d15c/original/harper-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDI4NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="285" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Harper, June 2015.</strong></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021892
2015-08-22T20:00:00-04:00
2021-08-26T00:54:43-04:00
See Jane Rap!
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b7336f5cce0a76c704b9f76e5478850e2f71c021/original/blog-lynchsmall.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDY2NyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="667" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jane Lynch at Joe's Pub.</strong></p>
<p>In “See Jane Sing!,” Jane Lynch’s show at the fabulous <a href="http://joespub.publictheater.org/programs--events/joes-pub/?SiteTheme=JoesPub">Joe’s Pub</a> last week, Lynch played a character, but it was not the deliciously loathsome phys-ed teacher Sue Sylvester (<em>Glee</em>), her most famous role, or any of the other characters she’s portrayed in TV, film, and theatre. It was instead a clueless and somewhat pompous version of herself that was—partly because she never broke the fourth wall to show us the real Jane Lynch—consistently hilarious. With help from Kate Flannery (<em>The Office</em>) and Tim Davis (musical arranger for <em>Glee</em>), she sent up romantic ballads such as “It Must Be Him” (“I grew up with this bullshit”), tearjerker songs (“Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast”), folk songs (“Blood on the Coal,” from <em>A Mighty Wind</em>), psychedelic rock (“Go Ask Alice,” here referring to housekeeper Alice of <em>The Brady Bunch—</em>"Make your bed! Make your bed!")<em>, </em>and, fully in touch with her inner and outer Minaj, hip-hop (a tour-de-force “Anaconda”).</p>
<p>This might not have worked so well if the three singers hadn’t all been in fine form, especially Lynch. Backed up by the Tony Guerrero Quintet, which had its own quirky sense of humor (the band opened for her as well), she sounded great, from delicate to brassy to, um, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mU_fGjiL4k">fierce</a>. See Jane come back to Joe's Pub? Hope so.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/61a6d01d6c6a43b0f6cd8c95331d69d4b89941b8/original/blog-lynch2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>With Tim Davis and Kate Flannery.</strong></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021891
2015-07-28T20:00:00-04:00
2022-02-11T22:26:50-05:00
Howard Fishman Collects Himself
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8f1520520f716ee44faa0385937c263341a5aaa9/original/hf-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDMyeDU3NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="576" width="432" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Howard Fishman at Joe's Pub.</strong></p>
<p>When Howard Fishman walked onstage at Joe’s Pub last week, I had two nearly simultaneous, somewhat opposing thoughts (indicating <a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/90.html">“first-rate intelligence”</a>? Doublethink?). They were: 1) It doesn’t make sense for Howard—in a suit—to be wearing a cowboy hat. 2) That hat looks cool.</p>
<p>This says a lot about Howard, who is often described as “genre-bashing,” or something along those lines. The singer-songwriter—and superb guitarist—draws from country, folk, rock, and certainly New Orleans jazz, but the thread that runs through his work is a sublime musicality combined with a witty and literate sensibility.</p>
<p>Re the first: He knows how to put a hot band together. My friend the actress Laralu Smith, who went with me to the concert, commented on both the musicians’ technical skill and their abandon, saying that at times the music seemed to “stand alone in the air above them, as if they were just the facilitators.” Re the second: Even—especially?—a non-sports person such as myself could delight in the unexpected lyrics of “Baseball,” which ruminates in a rather existential way on the thought “I wonder why I hate the Red Sox/They really never did anything to me.” Other endearing and/or evocative lines included “Maybe one day I’ll seduce/A like-minded recluse,” from “When It Rains.”</p>
<p>Howard, whom I met a few years ago through the equally fascinating and unpredictable singer-songwriter <a href="http://www.marylynmaiscott.com/blog/nellie_mckay_feels_free/">Nellie McKay</a>, was performing songs from his new CD, <em>Uncollected Stories</em>—13 tracks that had not made it onto his previous albums for want of space. Howard explained to the audience that he always stops at 13, as he has a thing for that number—going once again against the grain. Perhaps it was not a coincidence that the first song he did (and the first track on the CD) is called “Luck.” That one goes: “Your luck’s about to change/Everything’s about to go wrong.”</p>
<p>Could be. But at least we’ve got the guy in the white hat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/5d3f5755c8f8fc56a441100c51853c0745da4098/original/hfband-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTc2eDQzMiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="432" width="576" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>With Russell Farhang on violin, Nathan Peck on upright bass, Jordan Perlson (behind Howard) on drums, Etienne Charles on trumpet, and Scott Barkan on guitar. </strong></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021890
2015-07-24T20:00:00-04:00
2015-07-25T06:40:40-04:00
Stars-in-Progress
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4809a4031df03e7ffa9f6163395a5d25e06204a0/original/blogmercysmall.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTAweDM3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /></p>
<p>I took this shot Thursday evening at <a href="http://www.mercysound.com/">Mercy studios</a> as violinist <em>extraordinaire </em>Joan Chew, producer/engineer Nick Miller, and I were listening to the beautiful violin parts Joan had just laid down for my new song, "Tiny Stars." What a thrill to work with such talented people! They include Graig Janssen, who had earlier put down a piano track. I've already done the vocals, so it looks like we're almost finished!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021889
2015-06-27T20:00:00-04:00
2022-01-26T09:48:50-05:00
Waiting for Her Essence: Lucinda Williams
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/3cdaabadbff86307a17588ddc4dc480796cc42b6/original/photo.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjQweDQ4MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="480" width="640" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>That small figure with the blonde hair is Lucinda Williams, honest.</strong></p>
<p>Well into Lucinda Williams’s set at Prospect Park in Brooklyn last Thursday, something happened that made me feel (helped along by a thermos of wine) as though I were having a hallucinatory experience. As Lucinda, our patron sinner—“Freedom means I can drink when I want, I can take drugs when I want” (or words to that effect), she had called out in preacherly tones—sang a line about fear while surrounded by purple lights, a few little girls in shorts started turning cartwheels. They were about midway between my group, sitting on blankets under a tree, and the far-off bandshell, with a fence between. There in the dark, as I listened to the sometime swamp rocker at her swampiest (in a different way), those cartwheels gave me a surge of, well, joy, an almost teary hope that these girls—girls everywhere; hell, boys too—could counter the fear, loneliness, heartbreak, and bitterness that Lucinda expresses only too well. (Even her song “Joy” is about losing that feeling.) During the concert, certain lines had seemed to hang in the night (“You managed to crawl inside my brain/You found a hole and in you came”), as though written by very knowing sparklers, reminding me that she’s the daughter of a poet. And her raw, unaffected but affecting voice made me think of the Frida Kahlo painting “The Two Fridas,” in which one exposed heart is linked to the other. The start was worrisome (sound problem? she had a cold?), but ultimately Lucinda put her heart out there, and, judging from the response, the crowd did the same. I know I did.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/23d26ce26e29ada41bbfbe6cad44312d86532c76/original/lucindawms.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="200" width="300" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021888
2015-06-23T20:00:00-04:00
2015-06-26T03:07:05-04:00
Making All the Music She Can Make
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/83aca1e49fbc7e14a28664b4f3c9a70831a17243/original/unknown.jpeg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDgweDY0MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="640" width="480" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Kind of blue: Gabrielle Stravelli with Pat O'Leary. Photos by Terry Bisbee.</strong></p>
<p>“Sing it high, sing it low,” urged the jazz/pop singer <a href="http://www.gabriellestravelli.com/">Gabrielle Stravelli</a> in the first tune, “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” of her show at Café Noctambulo in NYC last weekend. She set a good example, with some rangy and surprising renditions of standards, show tunes, and a couple of re-purposed rock songs. I have a weakness for rock, and those were my favorites. Gabrielle did a few medleys (which I don’t have a weakness for!), including “Happy Talk,” from <em>South Pacific,</em> mixed with a heartfelt “Young Folks.” When slowed down, that song by the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John took on a different, yearning quality, and Gabrielle’s rich, supple voice seemed to be inviting us into an intimate space (though we were already in a lovely one!).</p>
<p>Another high point was a bass-and-voice version of the Indigo Girls’ “Power of Two.” Pat O’Leary was great on the upright bass. The pianist, Art Hirahara, was also amazing, performing such a fleet solo on “It Might As Well Be Spring” that I could almost hear my music-loving dad, who died in 1997, sighing “Oh, man!” Gabrielle’s vocals were also impeccable on that one, which had what must have been a challenging arrangement.</p>
<p>In addition, among other songs, the quartet, rounded out by Eric Halvorson on drums, performed an unrecognizable and seductive “Oh Boy,” by Buddy Holly (mixed with a bit of Miles Davis's "So What"); the little-known “Where Is the Song?” by Bob Dorough, who also wrote the well-known “Conjunction Junction”; and the tear-jerker, originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt, “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” (Gabrielle, perhaps caught up in the emotion, forgot the lyrics to the last song at one point, endearingly calling out for help.)</p>
<p>My friend Terry Bisbee, who took the photos above and below, and I spoke briefly to Gabrielle afterward, and she was as warm as she appears in her show, even complimenting me on my Guatemalan earrings. She herself was wearing a beautiful muted-lilac short dress and silver heels that had prompted someone in the crowd to yell out, “I love your shoes!” Check out her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YulVc6ABRzI">videos</a> (Terry mentioned that "there's something about her liveliness and fluid expressions that really works"), catch her at the Cornelia Street Café July 13, and/or watch for her new album in the fall to see what fascinating choices she’s made this time around.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/64c79011f4a76995bfce737c6e69084684aa93a0/original/gs2-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mjg4eDM4NCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="384" width="288" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021887
2015-06-01T20:00:00-04:00
2015-06-02T10:22:24-04:00
Betty Buckley's Exquisite Blues
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/e4ec2661a8ed3429b3bf478c1d62a16cc8098254/original/betty-jp-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDMyeDU3NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="576" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="432" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Joe's Pub, at NYC's Public Theater, recently featured Betty Buckley.</strong></p>
<p>During Betty Buckley’s rendition of Joni Mitchell's “Both Sides Now” last Saturday at Joe’s Pub, I had a succinct thought about the legendary singer: She makes you feel your heart is full.</p>
<p>Among other glowing adjectives, her shows have been called “magical,” but what she does is not magic. It is instead so rooted in her being that she need only allow the branches to spin out and encircle her listeners. As she told me last fall when I interviewed her for <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/music/2014/09/betty-buckley-album">VanityFair.com</a>, Betty is a longtime practitioner of meditation, crediting it with giving her the means not only to navigate the extremes of Hollywood (one of her closest friends was John Belushi) but also to find both the focus and the abandon—informed abandon—that caused her career to take off.</p>
<p>Her choice of songs in this show, called “Dark Blue-Eyed Blues,” reflected both a playful personality (“Them There Eyes,” sung at warp speed by, as she said, a slow-talking Texan; “I Get a Kick out of You,” directed at a lucky audience member having a birthday) and a deep soul (“This Nearly Was Mine,” an elegant cri de coeur from <em>South Pacific</em>; “All the Pretty Horses,” in which she unearthed the sadness—what baby will ever have “all the pretty little horses”?—beneath the lullaby).</p>
<p>Other standout songs included the achingly beautiful “Too Many Memories” by her old friend the guitarist Stephen Bruton, who died in 2009. Introducing it, she revealed that she will be receiving the award named for Bruton at this year’s Lone Star Film Festival; it’s given to a musician who has also contributed to film (as Bruton did, helping to score <em>Crazy Heart</em>). I first became aware of Betty through a film—<em>Tender Mercies, </em>in which her tormented-country-star character tore the guts out of the song “Over You.”</p>
<p>During her set, Betty also brought out the pathos in Sting’s <em>Last Ship</em> song “Practical Arrangement,” the longing in the Leonard Cohen classic “Bird on the Wire” (holding on to that last word, “free”), and, invoking her “guardian angel” Elaine Stritch, the triumph of Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here,” belting out those final resounding “here”s in a grinning, gritty, Stritchian way.</p>
<p>Last week the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Long Island, announced that Betty will be playing Big Edie to Rachel York’s Little Edie in <a href="http://www.baystreet.org/calendar/grey-gardens/"><em>Grey Gardens</em></a> there in August. With the transcendent force that is Betty Buckley, any grey gardens in that musical are likely to suddenly burst into bloom.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f93ef445b4039ef738b8cd2fcb9c5cb746408959/original/betty-small2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDMyeDQzMiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="432" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="432" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Betty and I at Joe's Pub, underneath the "Restrooms" sign!</strong></p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021886
2015-05-16T20:00:00-04:00
2015-05-17T15:56:49-04:00
We Have All Been Here Before
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/317d1ef33e40ca10c9c242cbfde72e4cdc793763/original/csnmarquee-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p>Last night at the Crosby, Stills & Nash concert in Brooklyn, I suddenly remembered seeing the group—or was it only Crosby and Nash?—years ago at an outdoor concert in New York. A freakish thing had happened that night: I was sitting on a bench (I’d gone alone) toward the back, and a rowdy guy dropped a bottle of beer. It must have hit something hard because it shattered, and a piece of glass flew up and cut the bridge of my nose. No one seemed to notice that my face was bleeding, so I got up, made my way to the street, and hailed a cab. In the backseat of the taxi, I told the cabbie, a young guy, what had happened and started crying. He asked if he should take me to a hospital, but I said no. He proceeded, as he drove me home, to talk about how awful the city was. He meant well, but this wasn’t helpful, and anyway, I didn’t agree with him. I guess this incident took precedence in my mind because I barely remember the concert—maybe I wasn’t there long.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/fc98a2a320f47eea0f8294d782be27b0917e8382/original/csn2-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p>Luckily, I finally got a second chance to hear CSN, and no such incident occurred at the wonderfully rococo Kings Theatre in Ditmas Park—which is my husband Bob’s childhood neighborhood, though he says it was all just “Flatbush” then. The beer was safely encased in plastic, rowdiness seemed confined to yelling “I love you” to the band, and everyone had gone through airport-like security in the lobby. I’m sure some of the songs the band did were ones performed those many years before: “Carry On,” “Our House,” “Déjà Vu.” The three rockers were all in great voice (having read about David Crosby’s health issues arising from his notorious addictions, Bob was amazed by this). Stephen Stills hit a sustained high note in “Love the One You’re With,” a song I was hoping they’d do, that brought the crowd to their feet and Graham Nash, who, speaking of feet, was barefoot, over to him for a congratulatory gesture of some sort (honestly, I can’t remember exactly what—I had the large size of those plastic glasses of beer—though there was a lot of pointing at each other throughout among the three, as though to say, Wow, look what he just did).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/acd060bbe521ad67103303921000d9e31483816f/original/csn3-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p>After an intermission, Nash came out to play a couple of his new songs. He said that last fall he was going through “a million” personal changes and wrote 20 songs with the backing guitarist, Shane Fontayne, which the two then recorded in only eight days. In introducing his song “Myself at Last,” he spoke of how important it is for him, as a singer-songwriter, to continue to write, even though “it’s cool” to do the old songs as well. David Crosby later reinforced that idea, saying “it’s the stuff of life” to get a great reaction from the audience to a new song. In his case, that reaction was to “Somebody Home,” a gorgeous and moving ballad inspired by his wife of 28 years (“as of today,” he said), whose name, Jan, he added in the middle of the song. (Their son Django helps manage his dad’s tours, and Crosby’s son James Raymond is one of the keyboard players.)</p>
<p>But of course for the encore the group brought out two of their gems (and here I was thinking they’d already sung them all): “Teach Your Children” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” “Do-do-do-do-do” never sounded so good. I think they caught the sparrow.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021885
2015-05-14T20:00:00-04:00
2015-05-15T10:00:07-04:00
Music in Montauk
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/475cb477c3237e483ba27e8b078d240286c78a24/original/montaukmusic-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Montauk prepares the Green for its annual music festival.</strong></p>
<p>I’m sad to be missing the Montauk Music Festival, which was about to start just as I was leaving Montauk yesterday. The festival is in its sixth year but I’d never heard of it, even though I’ve been going out to Montauk periodically for a couple of decades. </p>
<p>As you may know—especially if you live in New York or have watched the Showtime series <em>The Affair</em>—Montauk is a fishing village on the eastern tip of Long Island. Up until fairly recently (when the Surf Lodge club opened, drawing younger people and Hamptons spill-off), it was laid-back and low-key, despite the presence of some celebrity residents. Paul Simon has long had a house there (I picture it on the bluffs above the ocean, perhaps near Dick Cavett’s estate Tick Hall, but I don’t really know), and the Rolling Stones used to stay at Andy Warhol’s compound—there’s a funky motel right in town that inspired the Stones song “Memory Motel.”</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/33fb4299fbc342b0291d8c6dc8d75ebf5afc43b8/original/memorymotel-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="600" /></p>
<p>The town was quiet this week when I was there—it’s still off-season—but now that about 100 acts have descended upon it (playing in venues ranging from a bakery shop to the aforementioned Surf Lodge), the tenor may have changed! As my husband, Bob, and I were checking out of our hotel, a man checking in spotted my travel guitar and said to his friend, “They’re probably here for the festival.” Hmm, maybe next year!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021884
2015-05-08T20:00:00-04:00
2015-05-09T12:35:40-04:00
Starry, Starry Night
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/7e3254ecbe54619f5fa120780804c59b4b536aca/original/mercy-small2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDUzMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="533" width="400" /></p>
<p>My friend Neil Wexler took this photo of me last evening in front of Mercy studios on E. 14 St., where I’d just laid down lead vocal tracks for my new song, a ballad. Neil and my husband, Robert Rosen, who are both writers, had surprised me by stopping by the studio. They'd run into each other at a bookstore and decided we should all get a drink together—which we did, after chatting with my engineer/producer Nick Miller about Blondie’s recent sojourn at Mercy (Nick said that Debbie Harry, whom I <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/09/-q-a--debbie-harry-on-blondie--her-mother--and-her-new-album--pa">interviewed for Vanity Fair</a>, always had her little dogs with her). We also discussed Mickey Leigh's book—Leigh lives in the neighborhood—about his brother Joey Ramone; Bob found it surprising that Joey had OCD. On the way to Rue B for drinks, I stopped at the Brazilian designer Geova's atelier after noticing a black skirt with a sort of tulle trim on the sale rack outside. I told Geova, a charmingly loquacious man, that I wasn't sure it would fit; he took the skirt by the ends of the waistband and circled my neck with it. "It'll fit," he declared, and it did!</p>
<p>I thought the T-shirt I was wearing—from the Groovy Blueberry in New Paltz, N.Y.—went with not only the newly purple exterior of Mercy’s building but also my new song, “Tiny Stars,” which deals with a swirl of thoughts to match a swirling winter’s-night sky. So far we just have, besides vocals, a lovely piano part played by Graig Janssen, but now we’re thinking violin, cello…</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021883
2015-04-18T20:00:00-04:00
2015-04-21T03:12:50-04:00
Nellie McKay Feels Free
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/731973202f44f4b3cb75f07218703e338eafc02d/original/nellie-small2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDQ0NCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="444" width="400" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nellie McKay at 54 Below.</strong></p>
<p>Deep into her set at <a href="http://54below.com/">54 Below </a>last night, <a href="http://www.nelliemckay.com/">Nellie McKay</a> gave a clue, in the only original song she performed, as to why she’d chosen to do an album, the new <em>My Weekly Reader, </em>of 60s tunes. Seated at the piano, the outspoken animal activist sang about not wanting to sing about carriage horses and vivisection—she just wanted inner peace. Of course, inner (and outer) peace was the name of the game in the latter part of the 60s, with a little love and understanding on the side. (A subtle liquid light show pulsed behind Nellie, and incense wafted around the tables.)</p>
<p>Although Nellie heightened the effect with a flower-child kimono, and pronounced echo on her vocals, it was clear, ensconced in the glittery show-biz elegance of the club, that we were not at Woodstock (no rolling in mud would commence). And Nellie was hardly out of her element in this theater-oriented place; she appeared in <em>Old Hats</em> in 2013 and won a Theatre World Award for her performance in <em>Threepenny Opera</em> in 2006.</p>
<p>Some people have a career arc. Nellie’s is more of a career roller coaster, and wouldn’t it be fun to ride the wheels of her brain for a while and find out just why she makes the choices she does. After taking the music world by storm at 21 with her double album—the doubleness instigated a tussle with her label, Columbia, for Nellie does not shy away from tussles—<em>Get Away from Me </em>(note the subversive humor already asserting itself), she went on to, aside from performing in the Broadway shows mentioned above, play both conservationist Rachel Carson and Billy Tipton, a female musician who passed for male, in bio-concerts she conceived herself (the latter also at 54 Below).</p>
<p>And along with the periodic albums of her own expert and genre-defying songs (e.g., “I Wanna Get Married,” “The Dog Song,” “Zombie,” the gorgeous “Bruise on the Sky”), she performed on the quirky public-radio show <em>A Prairie Home Companion</em> and recorded a tribute album of the songs of Doris Day—whom she invariably called “Miss Day” when I interviewed her for <em>Vanity Fair’</em>s <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/10/qa-singer-nellie-mckay-channeling-doris-day">website</a> a few years ago. (Her pit bulls, Bessie and Hank, appeared with her on the cover of the album. I once got to play indoor fetch with Bessie with an extremely slobbered-upon green ball.)</p>
<p>So now: the 60s. Right-up-her-alley protest songs included Country Joe McDonald’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” with updated lyrics (“Don’t ask me, I don’t give a frack/Next stop will be Iraq”) and introduced with the famous Woodstock cheer (“Gimme an F, gimme a U…”). These were counterbalanced by such tender works as Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” and John Lennon’s “If I Fell.” She was backed by the fabulous Cosmic X-Rays: guitarist Cary Park, drummer Kenneth Salters, and bassist Alexi David. They supplied some nice harmonies, but you need to listen to <em>My Weekly Reader</em> to hear Nellie’s shimmering harmonies with herself, as on “Quicksilver Girl.”</p>
<p>During the set, she switched from piano to ukulele and back again, with the occasional harmonica riff. She added a Hammond organ to atmospheric effect on Eugene McDaniels’ “Compared to What,” which, unfortunately, is not on the new album. Neither is Cream’s “I Feel Free,” in which her ethereal voice took on some grit as she stood at the mic. Even her tambourine seemed to vibrate with purpose.</p>
<p>As I was Googling “I Feel Free,” Nicki Minaj’s song of that title came up, so I checked out the lyrics to both songs. Minaj’s have swagger: “We just bought the bar/…She know I’m a star.” Cream’s have transcendence: “Dance floor is like the sea/…You shine on me.” It’s not taking anything away from the resplendently fierce Nicki to say that this contrast would make me understand, if I did not already, Nellie’s pull toward the 60s. But whatever decade or style her crazy ride might take her to, I feel sure that she will continue to shine on us.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/47969844478e0b727e1b41f33d19964f77225451/original/nellie-ml-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDUzMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="533" width="400" /></p>
<p>On a personal note, it was lovely to see Nellie again. Her kimono reminded me of the colorful caftan and Dolly Parton–esque wig she'd worn at the release party for her beautiful and biting album <em>Home Sweet Mobile Home.</em> Not surprisingly, besides being wickedly talented, she's wickedly funny.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021882
2015-04-05T20:00:00-04:00
2020-09-28T01:17:35-04:00
This Idiot's Delight
<p>Especially if you live in the New York area, you've probably heard that the great free-form radio DJ <a href="http://bit.ly/1DFtgCN">Vin Scelsa</a>, currently of the equally great radio station WFUV, has announced his retirement, beginning May 2. When I was working for the website New Media Music in 2000, I decided to write a piece about Vin. I’d been listening to him for years and especially liked his interviews of artists. I can recall, among other moments, Rosanne Cash telling him she still loved her ex Rodney Crowell (though she didn’t seem to be implying she was pining for him) and the poignant Vin pause that followed; Sheryl Crow abashedly quoting Bob Dylan on the "licks" guitar god Eric Clapton, her then boyfriend, must be teaching her; Vin reading a criticism of himself as having a weakness for such attractive female singers and then laughing and saying something to the effect of, “I guess he’s got my number.”</p>
<p>In the course of working on the article, I watched Vin work—or maybe play is the word—both during his show <em>Idiot’s Delight,</em> which was on WNEW at that time, and an online show he was doing from his home. Here is my article about that experience. (You may need to enlarge the scan; New Media Music folded in 2001 and my columns are no longer online.) By the way, the "message board" Vin used to keep up with his online listeners' preferences seems positively quaint in the age of Twitter and Facebook!</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/beee04cdceb82ee98e0922f973582e482ca30ed3/original/nmm-vinscelsa1-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDgzOCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="838" width="600" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/af96b3957159980e8741d2cdaa2113e1c6d1a01c/original/nmm-vinscelsa2-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDc4MiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="782" width="600" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/b1a5e85fd474e34bcee8ae0cecca12919c4d1004/original/nmm-vin-scelsa3-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDc5MiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="792" width="600" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021881
2015-03-29T20:00:00-04:00
2015-03-30T10:44:46-04:00
Rickie en Français
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/916e027a5d34a4bf95517e25f0b26a4a54089f78/original/rickieleejones.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDYweDQwMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="403" width="460" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Photo by Ian McCrudden.</strong></p>
<p>I just came across this <a href="http://www.devildoll666.com/q-a-rickie-lee-jones-ne-est-pas-amoureux/">French translation </a>of my 2011 <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/07/qa-rickie-lee-jones-is-not-in-love">VanityFair.com interview </a>with Rickie Lee Jones on a site called devildog666! In the interview Rickie talks about living in Paris years ago--an excerpt, <em>en anglais:</em> "There was a ballerina who worked at the record company who helped me find a place on the Invalides. It was a tiny pad like you’d have in a movie and I bought a coffeepot and I had my little calico cat, and she’d run out over the rooftops." I am French on my father's side and love the language. Though I'm hardly fluent, perhaps I won't find this too difficult to read, for obvious reasons! Magnifique!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021880
2015-03-14T20:00:00-04:00
2015-03-15T15:23:08-04:00
Savage Beauty
<p>In honor of the opening this weekend of "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I've put my song "Alexander/Isabella" on <a href="http://bit.ly/1GTuBGk">YouTube</a>. I read that some of McQueen's pieces that were too fragile to travel to the original "Savage Beauty" at the Metropolitan Museum will now be on display. It would be great to hop a plane to London! However, I also saw what were billed as rarely seen McQueen designs (from a private collection) at a rather strange but fascinating exhibit in St. Louis about a year ago: "A Queen Within," at the World Chess Hall of Fame. The works included a black cocktail dress imprinted with an image of Isabella Blow's face.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021879
2015-02-24T19:00:00-05:00
2015-02-25T11:44:14-05:00
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN: one of a kind
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/911604cc387a1e335aafacef3c162128f52bdce3/original/alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjUweDMzNyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="250" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The cover of the Metropolitan Museum publication <em>Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p>This morning I remembered that the extraordinary fashion designer Alexander McQueen died five years ago this month. When I looked it up, I saw that his funeral was exactly five years ago today, February 25, 2010 (he died on February 11), at St. Paul’s Church in London.</p>
<p>I do editorial work for <em>Vanity Fair</em> (including the occasional music piece for its website), which over the course of several years ran major articles on the lives—ending in suicide in both cases—of McQueen and his close friend and fellow Brit Isabella Blow, a fashion icon in her own right. Reading these, I became fascinated by this scintillating but troubled pair. (I was helped along by my cubicle mate’s print of the <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/09/alexander-mcqueen-isabella-blow">David LaChapelle photo</a>, called “Burning Down the House,” that accompanied one of the <em>Vanity Fair</em> articles.) Isabella, who was married to Detmar Blow, one of those British aristocrats who seem to be wealthy and poor at the same time, had a rather amorphous role in the fashion world. Though she had a couple of “regular” jobs at magazines, she was known more for her flamboyant style and for discovering Philip Treacy, he of the wildly imaginative, sometimes towering hats, and McQueen himself—she bought out his entire first collection. Sadly, when McQueen’s success did not translate into the same for Blow, she became bitter and their relationship suffered.</p>
<p>In 2011, I attended (along with hordes of others) the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibit “Savage Beauty,” a stunning display of McQueen’s genius. What he did went well beyond clothing, upending ideas about what fashion shows should be and exploring disturbing themes. I took a lot of notes (a horned coat! Kate Moss as hologram!) and eventually wrote my song <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/alexander-isabella-single/id903181697">“Alexander/Isabella,”</a> which <em>Vanity Fair</em> linked to in a <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2014/08/mcqueen-blow-friendship">slide show</a> about the two friends. The maverick designer and the iconoclastic muse continue to inspire.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9ca81082080f97295b9a3d7d5074e78e8d4cd30d/original/alexart-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDMwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021878
2015-01-31T19:00:00-05:00
2022-03-17T12:04:06-04:00
Déjà Vu
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I’ve been working on a new song and played it the other night right after my husband, Bob, returned from his daily five-mile walk. He had gone straight to his computer but I was hoping he was listening. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“What do you think?” I said, turning toward him from the piano bench.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">He said in a meditative, almost dazed way, “I like it. It has that classic...I feel like I’ve heard it before. The melody? The chord changes?” Uh-oh, someone else’s song? One of my own songs? “What’s that bridges?” he continued, nonsensically (it seemed).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I thought he must be talking about the song’s bridge and that maybe that was what sounded familiar to him, but before I could ask about this, he said, “That Bridges in the movie about the saloon singer?”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I immediately thought of <span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><em>The Fabulous Baker Boys, </em>with Beau and Jeff Bridges.</span> “Oh, the Bridges brothers, where one plays the piano<span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">—</span>” <br></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">He said, “No, the guy that plays the dive bars."<br></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“<em>Crazy Heart, </em>you mean. Jeff Bridges."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“Jeff Bridges! He’s playing a song for someone, and she says, it sounds like I've heard it before. And he says, that's when you know you have a great song, when people think it's always been around.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Bob then decided to look for the movie dialogue (less confusing than our own!), between Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, on imdb:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/3ef79015bf1d403fbed4e40bb6f32a18e0fe56ae/original/crazyheart-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="600" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'Molengo',sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Molengo',sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Bad Blake: [...<em>strumming guitar lightly</em>] You know that song? Hmm?</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Jean Craddock: I can't remember who did it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Bad Blake: That's the way it is with the good ones, you're sure you've heard them before.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Jean Craddock: You wrote that?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Bad Blake: Yes ma'am, just now.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I did not remember this at all, but what a great thing to say (by Bob, I mean, but Bad Blake too)!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021877
2015-01-09T19:00:00-05:00
2015-05-09T10:56:01-04:00
Madame Olenska Redux
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/udymaPGiH0g" width="425"></iframe></p>
<p>My producer Nick Miller working with the high harmonies I'd just recorded yesterday for "Madame Olenska." Mercy Studios, NYC. We're very close to finishing!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021876
2015-01-03T19:00:00-05:00
2015-01-04T07:09:07-05:00
The Freewheelin' Barb Jungr
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/3307b44577fd6b9c4ec099eb017c68a034238d6e/original/barbj-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDQ1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="450" width="600" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Dee Burton, Barb Jungr, and myself at 54 Below.</span></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Last night I went with my friend Dee Burton and her friend Bob Goldberg to see the cabaret singer <a href="http://www.barbjungr.co.uk/">Barb Jungr</a> (winner of numerous <em>Time Out</em> and other awards), accompanied by Tracy Stark on piano and Mike Lunoe on percussion, at 54 Below, a downstairs club in the old Studio 54 building. (Appropriately enough, the Broadway show <em>Cabaret</em> is playing upstairs.) Widely praised for her sensitive and unusual interpretation of material by such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, the British Jungr drew a crowd that included fellow chanteuse Karen Akers and actress Laila Robins (who appeared recently in <em>Homeland</em>).</p>
<p>Jungr’s new CD, <em>Hard Rain—</em>which, hooray!, I just received for Christmas—focuses on material by Dylan and Cohen, but this show, though it had a theme of “no regrets,” was more freewheeling (although I almost forgot that Dylan is himself freewheelin’!) and included Hank Williams’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” (an emotional, almost harrowing version), and Paul McCartney's “The Night Before.” Her comic side came out in the between-song patter and occasionally within the songs themselves, especially “Lay Lady Lay,” somehow conveyed from the woman’s point of view. But I was most struck by Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw the Light” and Barry Gibb’s “Woman in Love” (performed by Barbra Streisand on her CD with Gibb, <em>Guilty.</em>) In both cases, a second before I realized what she was singing, Jungr’s caressing tone and meticulous mining of the words had me wondering: what beautiful song is this?</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with Jungr, I hope you’ll check out her music, and if you get a chance to see her live (she’s got one more NYC show tonight), by all means grab it!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021875
2014-12-23T19:00:00-05:00
2014-12-24T05:40:03-05:00
Behind "Blue Lights"
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8c254808694666e014612fe82fe877c71d8779cf/original/bluelights-bkcover2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6ODIweDY5NCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="694" width="820" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Allerta Stencil',serif;">The back cover of my CD, "Blue Lights," with pictures of Edgar and Floy Lyn Maiscott. Design by <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheNancydrawsShop">Nancy C. Sampson.</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>My song <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blue-lights/id269131605">“Blue Lights,”</a> which Ohio radio host <a href="http://www.vindy.com/louie-free/">Louie B. Free</a> has kindly called “a new Christmas classic,” is about my parents, who met during wartime. When I was little, my mother, Floy Lyn, told me that before they had children, she and my dad, Edgar, put only blue lights on their Christmas tree. I found this very romantic (though I did appreciate the multicolored lights they thought my brother, sister, and I would prefer). My parents are gone now, but I have many sweet memories of our family Christmases, with the white star that topped the tree (my dad standing on a ladder to affix it to a branch), the ancient—it seemed to us kids—knitted parachute tree decoration from my dad’s childhood, and the equally ancient toy elephant, Jumbo, on rickety metal wheels, who had a special place under the tree. Another holiday talisman also spoke to a time early on in my parents’ marriage: a plaster Santa that my father won in a bar game when out with his buddies. He came home, put the two-foot-high Santa on the porch, rang the bell, and hid behind the car to watch my mom laugh when she opened the door. Isn’t it strange that a life can contain the horrors of war mixed with tender, at times mundane, moments? My dad didn’t talk much about the war, but thoughts of my mother must have helped him through—blue lights calling him home.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021874
2014-12-13T19:00:00-05:00
2021-05-03T16:21:29-04:00
Live from Buenos Aires
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/33691092c1cde14543b842d0cb2af2b8429817e1/original/cavalli-and-rosen-cafe-reggio-210-exp.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjEweDE5MSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="191" width="210" /></p>
<p>Octavio Cavalli and Robert Rosen at Cafe Reggio, NYC, 2014.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Do you know Mary Lyn Maiscott?” Octavio Cavalli asked my husband, Robert Rosen, tonight during an interview on his Buenos Aires podcast,<a href="http://www.benditolennon.com.ar/p/podcasts.html"><em><em>Lennoncas</em>t.</em></a> It was a joke, of course, and then Octavio surprised me by playing my version of “You Can’t Do That,” from my <em>Blue Lights</em> CD. He’d been talking to Bob via Skype for nearly an hour about Bob’s book <em>Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, </em>conducting the interview in English but with immediate Spanish translations for his Latin American audience. Octavio, who has also written a bio of John, <em>Bendito Lennon</em>, punctuated their conversation with a few Lennon songs—as Octavio explained something in Spanish, I suddenly heard the definitely English words “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey.” </p>
<p>It was an honor to have my Beatles cover end their segment, especially appropriate since I sang the song at the publication party for Bob’s book in 2000. Latin America loves John Lennon and also Bob and his book—we’ve been there a few times and have always gotten a gracious and enthusiastic reception. Luckily for me, as people there embraced Bob, they did the same to me, with Guillermo Henry in Mexico City playing <em>Blue Light</em>s in its entirety for his <em>Radio Etiopía</em> show in 2007. So gracias to Octavio and everyone who listened or will listen to the interview and the song (Episode 3, which will be up within a few days)!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021873
2014-12-05T19:00:00-05:00
2014-12-06T08:50:16-05:00
Grammy Nominations
<p>I just read the long list of Grammy nominees (damn, there are a lot of categories) and was pleased to see that among the obvious—the bedazzling Beyoncé, the can’t-shake-her-off Taylor, the soulful Sam—were a couple of longtime favorites of mine, Rosanne Cash and Eliza Gilkyson.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/aaaeecc2aaf1eb8a9d1a7df98af771a5f682557b/original/rosanen-cash-the-river-the-thread-140x140.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTQweDE0MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="140" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="140" /></p>
<p>Cash is nominated twice for the fantastic song “A Feather’s Not a Bird” (best American roots performance and song) and once for the recording it’s on, <em>The River & the Thread </em>(best Americana album). I also especially liked the unusual track “Modern Blue.” Cash drew on her country beginnings for this album (a lot of the lyrics involve traveling in the South), and she wrote all the songs with her husband, John Leventhal, who also produced. Her voice sounds as rich as it did on <em>Seven Year Ache, </em>from 1981.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9e3ccb8f7f5506d34e52bac47ad2c59be2f44545/original/gilkyson.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjM5eDIxMSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="211" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="239" /></p>
<p>I haven’t kept up as well with Gilkyson. I first heard her music a long time ago when I was on a trip to L.A., also a first, happily driving those infamous highways and listening to a station billing itself as “The Wave.” Soon after, back in New York, I went to see her at the Bottom Line; she played an acoustic set with just her guitar, a tall, blond, captivating woman. More recently, her album <em>Beautiful World</em> fell into my hands, on loan. I resisted copying it but never downloaded it—OK, I’m going to do that—but remember in particular “Emerald Street” and “The Party’s Over.” She has both a sweetness and a knowingness, and I bet they come across on her new recording, <em>The Nocturne Diaries </em>(best folk album). Hey, how about a “best title” category?</p>
<p>I’m also happy about Beck, Ryan Adams, Sia, and Meghan Trainor—because she took her bass and ran with it. </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021872
2014-11-21T19:00:00-05:00
2014-11-22T05:19:35-05:00
Girlie Karaoke
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/4b311a7306f0a528a15ad7640ff45d24c055292e/original/img-2135.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6OTYweDcyMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="720" width="960" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thursday night Joan Chew, who played violin on my single "Alexander/Isabella," went with me to the 20th-anniversary party of the music PR company Girlie Action. The exuberant Girlies had arranged for the fantastic keyboardist Joe McGinty, of Psychedelic Furs and Losers Lounge fame, to host the karaoke portion of the event, so here I am (photo courtesy of Joan) singing "You Send Me" with Joe. I'd never done karaoke--accustomed as I am to preparing material and having it in my key!--but who could resist in this situation?</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021871
2014-11-12T19:00:00-05:00
2014-11-13T10:14:10-05:00
Spotify, Taylor Swift, and Me (Representing the Little Guy)
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/40377acd29246d3bf4f681d82ce695da321365c4/original/spotify-us.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjU2eDI1NiJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="256" width="256" /> VERSUS <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/170a94777980fd87f3e2bfe9fcacfbd14c437b7d/original/taylor-swift-1989-small.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjUweDI1MiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="252" width="250" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>As you probably know, Taylor Swift has pulled her music from the streaming service Spotify, causing all kinds of headlines and apoplexy. ASCAP, of which I am a member, has already advised me to follow her lead and to stop, for god’s sake, giving my music away—putting it on YouTube, my website, etc. (And don’t even get them started on Pandora.) From others I’ve gotten the advice, Just get your songs out there and forget about the money (not, however, from my tax accountant). When I distribute my music through CDBaby, I can choose what sites and services I want to put it on. So far, I’ve done most of them, going ahead with free streaming but stopping short of free downloads.</p>
<p>Yesterday in the New York Times business section, Spotify’s chief executive talked of all the royalties the company—which sees itself as an alternative to piracy—pays, saying that a “top artist” like Swift might make more than $6 million a year; however, the company admits to going as low as “0.6 cents per stream.” I was pretty sure I had some that had gone even lower, so I checked my earnings page for Spotify. Here are the first few numbers under “Payable”: $0.01757333, $0.00040180, $0.02647063. Why they vary, I don’t know, but you get the idea—it takes a lot of streams to make the 90 cents I’d get from a download of a single.</p>
<p>I don’t know that we can climb out of a rabbit hole where music is so readily available—for free! However, I’m glad Swift has at least brought attention to the problem, telling Yahoo, “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music.”</p>
<p>Postscript: I downloaded Spotify not long ago so I could check on my music there. I was horrified to see that not only were they offering songs I’d put on CDBaby but also a snippet from a rehearsal originally recorded on Garageband! This recording, which I’d called “Canals/Toxic” as shorthand for the two songs, had to have been grabbed from my iTunes library. I’ve checked my settings to make sure I’m not going public with such not-ready-for-prime-time material, but should you come across that “song,” consider it toxic.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021870
2014-11-10T19:00:00-05:00
2022-03-10T01:26:28-05:00
Madame Olenska
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/389ad8eeb7bccb5da6e9f82c17c04ebc7c405ad3/original/337140.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mjc1eDQ3NSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="475" width="275" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/01dedf997d12629c8f4b5770b19d19db155cfbaf/original/220px-theageofinnocence.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjIweDMzNyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="337" width="220" /></p>
<p>Book covers of <em>The Age of Innocence,</em> by Edith Wharton.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nick Miller, a producer at Mercy Studios, and I will be putting the finishing touches—or perhaps the penultimate touches, to be realistic about it!—on “Madame Olenska” today. (It will be part of a forthcoming EP, <em>Stories.</em>) Of course all my songs are close to my heart, but this one has a special meaning to me. I just re-read the passage in <em>The Age of Innocence</em> in which Newland Archer goes for the first time to Ellen Olenska’s house, scandalously “far down West Twenty-third Street," in New York City, where she lives near “small dress-makers, bird-stuffers, and ‘people who wrote.’” (Today she’d be living near trendy art galleries and her house, if still standing, would be worth millions, the envy of many a writer!) In case you haven’t read the book—or seen the movie, in which Madame Olenska is portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Newland Archer by Daniel Day-Lewis—Archer is drawn to the countess, who’s come back to New York after living in Europe (and leaving her abusive husband), because of her independence. She tells him, “I’ve never been in a city where there seems to be such a feeling against living in <em>des quartiers excentriques.</em> What does it matter where one lives?” He tells her that her street is not fashionable, and she replies, “Fashionable! Do you all think so much of that? Why not make one’s own fashions?” Good question (and still relevant)! Yet she soon says, “I want to do what you all do—I want to be cared for and safe.” Like Newland Archer, I love her complexity and find her both very scintillating and very touching. At the moment I can’t think of a literary creation I feel more of an affinity for. Thank you, Edith Wharton, for the inspiration.</p>
<p> </p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021869
2014-10-27T20:00:00-04:00
2023-12-10T13:35:21-05:00
In the Studio
<p>Yesterday I worked on a recording of my song "Madame Olenska" with Nick Miller, of Mercy Studios. Here he is working on the mix; the purple and blue waveforms at the bottom are lead vocals, two takes, and that's the lyric sheet on the board for reference. I kind of wish I could live in the studio; it seems like an enchanted place. A book, of course, can be like that too--"Madame Olenska" was inspired by Edith Wharton's <em>The Age of Innocence. </em>I loved that book so much I wanted to be in it--specifically, in Madame Olenska's fire-lit parlor in Chelsea, talking to a kindred soul. So that's what I did in my song.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8e5afb7ec22d084a088675a99aaf1d8b70838aa5/original/nick-small.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NzAweDUyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="525" width="700" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021868
2014-10-11T20:00:00-04:00
2022-05-19T06:02:05-04:00
Meeting Betty Buckley
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/f87e25e79ce5676b3efb3c951f8b9e52b5f9b1f3/original/mlmbb-small2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDgwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="800" width="600" /></p>
<p>Photo by Robert Rosen.</p>
<p>When I spoke to Betty Buckley for the <a href="http://vnty.fr/1suNiKD">VanityFair.com interview</a> (see my 9/25 post), we discussed our middle names, as hers is the same as mine except for an extra “n.” (Her mom is Betty Bob and her dad is Ernest Lynn; my aunt is Mary Emma and my mom is Floy Lyn. These are all Texans!) Betty was delightful to talk to—candid and down-to-earth, with a <em>joie de vivre </em>always kind of bubbling beneath. After the interview, she kindly invited me to come to one of her October Joe’s Pub shows in New York.</p>
<p>My husband, <a href="http://www.robertrosennyc.com/">Robert Rosen</a>, and I went to the show last Wednesday. We were lucky to be sitting at one of the tables close to the stage; I could see the emotional play on Betty’s face as she sang—she is both a consummate actress and singer. She did mostly songs from her new CD, <em>Ghostlight, </em>and I was especially moved by her live renditions of “Throw It Away,” by Abbey Lincoln, and “If You Go Away,” by Jacques Brel with English lyrics by Rod McKuen. Bob loved her interpretation of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Come On, Come On,” which Betty said was her favorite of all songs (quite a tribute to Ms. Carpenter!). Betty, who is teaching a master class at the T. Schreiber Studio this week, credits meditation for helping her in life and in her work, and it’s not only her powerful voice that’s so affecting when you hear her sing but also her tremendous depth. When her hand clutched her abdomen, her “gut,” you almost felt she was digging for more, turning herself inside-out for the audience.</p>
<p>And then I got to meet her! Bob and I joined her and her friends at the Library, the restaurant at the Public Theater, which houses Joe’s Pub. We also met her assistant, Cathy Brighenti, and her “Cats” castmates from more than 30 years ago, Donna King and Bob Hoshour, the Bombalurina and Tumblebrutus to her Grizabella (of “Memory” fame). At one point Donna mentioned that the Sam Smith song coming over the restaurant speakers was written and produced by her son, adding that her daughter is both a math “brainiac” and a standup comedian. Interesting crowd! Betty and Cathy spoke of the 17 rescue animals living on Betty’s Texas ranch, including a one-eyed dog they seemed especially fond of. (Betty loves horses and has won cutting-horse competitions.) Betty asked Bob (Rosen, that is) about his latest book, <em>Beaver Street: A History of Modern Pornography—</em>she seemed intrigued! She also expressed dismay at the cake icing that had gotten on her shirt when she walked through the crowd to take the stage (“And I was so proud of my pink shirt!”).</p>
<p>What an elegant, lovely person. And a true singer’s singer. (I’ve said that about Linda Ronstadt too, whom I interviewed around this time last year; both she and Betty have given much thought and devotion to the craft and the art of singing.)</p>
<p>A PS for singers: Even Betty Buckley makes mistakes, starting in the wrong key for “Bewitched” during her show. Charmingly, referring to the previous song, Marty Balin’s “Comin’ Back to Me,” she explained, “I was so into the rock ‘n‘ roll!” Nevertheless, she smoothly performed the subtle modulation between the intro and the first verse in her bewitching version of “Bewitched.”</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021867
2014-10-11T20:00:00-04:00
2014-10-12T04:35:58-04:00
Back to the 80s...
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/8ce53b7ab4caea7d51f5ef33088fe1fbcd200dd4/original/cbgb.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDg5eDcwOCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="708" width="489" /></p>
<p><em>The New York Times</em> says the mullet's back! I rather liked that style on me! And here's (part of) my one stint at the fabled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDQMJnMpFmI">CBGB's.</a> (Sorry about that dead 26 seconds at the beginning but it passes quickly--in, um, 26 seconds!)</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021866
2014-09-24T20:00:00-04:00
2022-02-01T13:29:07-05:00
Betty Buckley
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/09/betty-buckley-album"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/57583b7904981b8f5bcc833567e351bade1ce729/original/i-2-02-betty-buckley.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzIweDQ4OSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="489" width="320" /></a></p>
<p>Photo by Victory Tischler-Blue.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/09/betty-buckley-album">interview</a> with the great singer Betty Buckley, star of <em>Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Tender Mercies,</em> and <em>Eight Is Enough</em> (!), went up on <em>Vanity Fair’</em>s website today! Find out how her TV-show producers didn’t believe she could sing, how a horse brought her back to Texas, and how Grizabella lives on—and not just in our memory. And, oh yeah, she talks too about her new album, <em>Ghostlight,</em> produced by her childhood pal T Bone Burnett. What a thrill!</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021865
2014-09-15T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-21T21:10:58-04:00
Rickie Lee Jones
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/da6ef4211852225beebc77a1a578ad7e81b1b34d/original/img-4469.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTYwMHgxMjAwIl0%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1200" width="1600" /></p>
<p>Rickie Lee Jones posted this on Facebook today: "Cat Stevens, recent RocknRoll hall of fame inductee, (as if there is any hall but the one in your own heart,) is going on tour again. could be good. I was at the rock n roll hall of fame once. the waiter took my speech from my place at my table. i needed that speech. then the paper complained about me meandering. I sang poorly with Sting, but I danced soarly with Ray Davies. Pete Townsend and Phil Spector were the only people who talked to me." I love her candor and philosophical bent (the hall in your heart). I<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/07/qa-rickie-lee-jones-is-not-in-love"> interviewed Rickie</a> a few years ago, for Vanity Fair's website, at Cafe Henri in the Village. When she spoke about becoming suddenly famous with the release of her first album, I noticed the young woman at the table next to us looking over to see who this was; I'm not sure she knew. I'd lost sight of Rickie myself for a long time and was glad to find out she was still making music, still sounding great, still rocking the boat. (At her concert a few nights before, I'd seen her fiery response to a heckler.) She's now in the process of making a new record, using <a href="http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/rickieleejones">PledgeMusic</a> to fund it. I got in touch with her when I was going to L.A. a few months ago--we'd communicated briefly after the interview, during which she'd suddenly and sweetly said, "Your eyes remind me of my mother’s eyes"--and she wrote back that she's now living in New Orleans, ending with "let me know if you come back this way love to say hello." Hey, that's reason enough to go to New Orleans, isn't it?</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021864
2014-09-10T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-24T12:41:24-04:00
9/11: Distinguishing Characteristics
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/979b56547d1e67b0dbef2f8a1a1b480089be20b5/original/img-4653.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTIwMHgxNjAwIl0%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1600" width="1200" /></p>
<p>Below, Part I, is an unfinished piece I wrote shortly after 9/11. <br><br>Part I <br><br><em>Dental implants. Old burn scar covering entire right knee. Gold tooth.</em><br><br>My idea at first was to write a poem about the distinguishing marks, which were at once lyrical and heartbreaking and overwhelming. To this end I carried a spiral notebook up to the armory. People gathered there to register their missing, and the walls outside were plastered with hundreds of flyers showing pictures, giving descriptions of their relatives and their clothing, telling where they were last seen. This is when we were calling them missing.<br><br>I also carried a cheap automatic camera that my credit-card company had given me as a gift (I found out why when I developed the pictures, which were hardly worth keeping). I took only a few pictures. The first was of a bride (at first I wrote “a bridge”; this seems significant) and groom in Madison Square Park. I’d always been leery of the whole institution of marriage, but something about the delicacy of the short tulle veil—lifting as the bride ran a little, smiling, her new husband right behind her, both of them of a dark-skinned extraction that would not help them in the coming days—tugged at something inside me, made me want to cry as so many things did.<br><br>I also took a couple of pictures of the flyers, which were ubiquitous, well before I got to the armory; they were on lampposts, on windows, on fences. I stopped so many times to read about this person, that person, to take notes, to stare at their faces, that by the time I got to the armory the light was getting very dim. One of the posters that stopped me cold—it was scotch-taped to a store wall—showed a photo of a thirtyish man with his family. That family now begged him, “Please come home!” This made me—inexplicably, guiltily—furious. Of course he would come home if he could! As though it were up to him whether he was dead or alive. And of course he was dead—didn’t they know?<br><br><em>Birthmark on hand in the shape of Puerto Rico.</em><br><br>In the shape of Puerto Rico? What shape was that? I had to look at an atlas. It’s not like Texas or Florida, not a really distinctive shape. Kind of an oblong island with a curl or a twist here or there. But this island danced every day on the man’s hand, or anyway his loved ones wanted to think so, even while he negotiated the mind-boggling island of Manhattan.<br> <br>That morning I’d gotten an e-mail, among the flurry of e-mails sent in those days, that asked the receiver to add an item to a list of things about Manhattan to love. The woman who’d sent it to me—an old friend who’d moved to Colorado—had written something about bagels. I thought about writing in the Chrysler Building or the sunset from Hudson River Park but never did. It was odd in a way to remind ourselves; could we possibly have forgotten? It came to me, though, that everyone in New York who loves New York (and of course there are those who don’t) thinks secretly that no one loves the city the way they do. If I’m thinking that—even with the occasional fantasy of escaping to a less target-rich, as the military might say, place, some remote corner of Vermont maybe—then so are millions of other people. Which is fine, because otherwise how would we survive here?<br><br><em>Tattoo on left shoulder of whale/dolphins surrounded by starfish. Butterfly tattoo on lower back.</em><br><br>There were many, many tattoos. Imagine someone sitting in a tattoo parlor enduring the pain of that big needle for their own whale, their own dolphin, their own unique butterfly or rose or heart (one of these in the webbed area between the thumb and index finger). They are not thinking, here’s a good way to identify my body when I am crushed or burned to death. There were scars too, which are rather like tattoos that nobody asked for—an appendectomy scar, facial chicken-pox marks, a “bite mark on the chest.”<br> <br>On the way home I passed by the Gramercy Park Hotel. My husband (domestic partner then) was staying in New Jersey, visiting relatives. It occurred to me to check into the hotel, even though my apartment was only a twenty-minute walk away. I wanted to forget everything, even who I was. To be somewhere clean and stark. I thought of the woman in the novel <em>The Hours</em> who checks into a hotel just so she can read. I didn’t have to be anywhere the next day because my office, like my home, was in the “frozen zone” below 14th Street. That meant no cars, no people who weren’t residents, and very little business going on. I had to show my ID twice to get home, at 14th Street and at Houston Street.<br><br>At 14th, I passed through Union Square Park. Amid the flowers, candles, and taped-up signs—“Osama bin Laden, look out,” but also “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” …<br><br>Part II<br><br>I thought then that my idea for a poem—or, rather, a compilation in poem form—had not worked out, but when I recently looked back at what I had, I decided to finish it.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/9be8a4256524ad5f5a97543e25d1b44c42f828f1/original/img-4659.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTYwMHgxMjAwIl0%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1200" width="1600" /></p>
<p>A birthmark in the shape of Puerto Rico</p>
<p>on his hand.</p>
<p>Scar between eyebrows.</p>
<p>A heart tattoo on her right hand,</p>
<p>between the thumb and the index finger.</p>
<p>Gold necklace with jade pig.</p>
<p>Mole at jawbone near right ear.</p>
<p>(Young man:) tattoo of tiger on right shoulder;</p>
<p>(his sister:) gold chain with key charm.</p>
<p>A circular beauty mark</p>
<p>on his right wrist.</p>
<p>Tattoos: dolphin on foot,</p>
<p>turkey on hip.</p>
<p>Right-hand ring finger severely bent;</p>
<p>gold neck chain with cross.</p>
<p>Yellow rose tattoo on right ankle;</p>
<p>orange-and-white sneakers;</p>
<p>two earrings in each ear.</p>
<p>Bite mark on his chest</p>
<p>just below left shoulder.</p>
<p>Appendectomy scar,</p>
<p>birthmark on one of his shoulders,</p>
<p>and a small dark mole in the center</p>
<p>of his back.</p>
<p>Black mole on each cheek,</p>
<p>black spots on his neck.</p>
<p>Has a Florida tan.</p>
<p>Chews tobacco, so first fingers</p>
<p>on his right hand may be stained.</p>
<p>Wearing a gold rope chain on his neck,</p>
<p>with a rectangular charm that says</p>
<p>“Jesus Is Lord.”</p>
<p>Faint birthmark on back of neck</p>
<p>under his hair</p>
<p>(may need to look real hard for it</p>
<p>since very faint).</p>
<p>Has thick hair on his chest,</p>
<p>a very hairy man.</p>
<p>A scar which extends from the</p>
<p>upper right side of forehead to the eyebrow,</p>
<p>which appears to be an upside-down V;</p>
<p>scar on left arm has a black tattoo</p>
<p>one-inch in width</p>
<p>that bands around left bicep.</p>
<p>Two gold bangles and one gold bracelet.</p>
<p>Wearing a wood cross.</p>
<p>Tattoos lower back tribal (dark green),</p>
<p>upper right heart and rose with initials LER.</p>
<p>Has on a silver fossil watch.</p>
<p>Has a French manicure on both her hands</p>
<p>and her feet.</p>
<p>No scars or tattoos.</p>
<p>Brown spot, right shin;</p>
<p>scar from hip surgery;</p>
<p>hammer toes.</p>
<p>Chicken pox scars on cheek.</p>
<p>Gold tooth.</p>
<p>Tattoo on left shoulder of whale/dolphins</p>
<p>surrounded by starfish.</p>
<p>Butterfly tattoo on lower back.</p>
<p>Skin tag on neck;</p>
<p>small scar on chin;</p>
<p>cast on right hand.</p>
<p>Tattoo of Puerto Rican flag</p>
<p>on right arm.</p>
<p>Dental implants.</p>
<p>Old burn scar covering entire right knee.</p>
<p>White gold ring with the letter C</p>
<p>in diamonds.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021863
2014-09-08T20:00:00-04:00
2014-09-09T15:10:37-04:00
Alexander McQueen: Evolution
<p>I love it that the people behind the book <em>Alexander McQueen: Evolution </em>have discovered my song "Alexander/Isabella" and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexander-McQueen-Evolution/263037987139768">posted</a> about it on August 29.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021862
2014-08-22T20:00:00-04:00
2022-04-21T21:13:12-04:00
Sia VMA Nomination
<p>Sia’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM">“Chandelier” </a>has been nominated for a VMA. The little girl who dances with abandon in this video is captivating (reminding me of my sister, Cecilia, at that age). Her Sia wig struck me as perhaps a bit creepy but also funny—and is, of course, a nod to Sia’s famous camera-shyness. I did an <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2008/05/yesterday-at-tr">interview</a> with the singer several years ago for VanityFair.com, after her performance at the Tribeca Film Festival’s music lounge (note the real Sia bob in the photo I took that day). I loved talking to her—she was funny and down-to-earth.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/85645d707085b1092f6f8e9af3e5cceae6a88e14/original/sia-2.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDMxOSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="319" width="200" /></p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021861
2014-08-14T20:00:00-04:00
2022-05-31T02:20:50-04:00
The Mac Wire
<p style="margin-top: .1pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in;"><a href="http://www.themacwire.com/mary-lyn-maiscott-releases-the-ballad-alexanderisabella/">The Mac Wire </a>announces the release of "Alexander/Isabella"! The brains behind the Mac Wire is (belong to?) <a href="http://www.macassata.com/">M.A. Cassata</a>—a veteran entertainment editor and writer who has interviewed Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and many other major artists, and has written books about such luminaries as Cher, Elton John, and Ariana Grande. And I can personally attest that she is a kind and down-to-earth person who simply loves music and getting the word out.</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021860
2014-08-14T20:00:00-04:00
2023-12-10T11:33:11-05:00
CD Baby article
<p>I've found CD Baby to be great for music distribution--fantastic customer service and now site hosting. It enables people to do a lot with their own music, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/arts/music/cd-baby-a-company-for-the-niche-musician.html">The New York Times</a> has noticed, with an article the other day calling it an "anti-label" that's "a potent but quiet and thus frequently overlooked force."</p>
marylynmaiscott.com
tag:marylynmaiscott.com,2005:Post/6021859
2014-08-03T20:00:00-04:00
2014-08-15T05:17:48-04:00
My New Single
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/396951/269796db01e54232758ea57bab7eff95111905e8/original/alexanderisabella-art.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTQwMHgxNDAwIl0%3D.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1400" width="1400" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Click <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/alexander-isabella-single/id903181697">here</a> to download my new single!</span></p>
marylynmaiscott.com