Music & More

This week's video was suggested by blog friend Angela. "Redneck Woman" was the number one country single (#22 on the pop charts) that drove Gretchen Wilson's debut album Here for the Party (2004) to multi-platinum sales. About the video, we can only say, "Hell Yeah!" Bonus Video: Elizabeth Cook - "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman". This song comes from her fourth album, Balls (2007). Some country stations refused to play it for obvious reasons.

In the late 1990's Phil Vassar made his name as a country music songwriter. He was so good at it, that in 1999 ASCAP named him county songwriter of the year. In 2000 he released his first album as an artist. The album, simply titled Phil Vassar, spawned no less than four top ten country singles; his first, Carlene, achieved #5. , Vassar's songwriting style is somewhat recognizable, to the point that you can often tell a Phil Vassar song just by hearing it. Like this one, which became Jo Dee Messina's first number one country hit.

I've been waiting for this album ever since the night in May, 2008 when I happened into Rockwood Music Hall just as Shayna Zaid was preparing to go on. I had never heard of Shayna but it was apparent within the first couple of songs that I had wandered into something very special. The combination of Shayna's unique voice, her beautiful songwriting, and her powerful performance style had the entire room captivated. For the last three years, Shayna and her band have worked tirelessly to improve their game. New songs have been written and added to the set, and old songs have been constantly polished and rearranged. They often use video from their shows to improve their performance and there have been personnel changes in the band with each new musician making the band better than ever before. Along the way, they recorded and self-produced two excellent EPs containing many of the songs from their live set. All this work came to fruition late last year when Shayna and her band went...

We like a good country tune, but Saturday Video Fun is not only about country music. During the 80's and 90's before MTV gave up playing music videos, there was a golden age of sorts during which the music video flourished as an art form. At their best these videos were extremely creative and took the music to a whole new level. Saturday Video Fun will occasionally showcase some of the best ones in a series we'll call Classics of Music Video. The Norwegian band A-ha released their single Take On Me in 1985 with a groundbreaking video directed by Steve Barron. The video uses the rotoscope technique to bring pencil drawings to life and it artfully played with the line between comic book world and the real world. With heavy airplay on MTV, Take On Me became a number one single here in the U. S.

Mary Chapin Carpenter's third album, Shooting Straight in the Dark (1990), produced four chart singles. Down at the Twist and Shout was the third single and it reached #2 on the country charts. Beausoleil is mentioned in the lyrics and they also are Mary's backing band on this track.

Because today is the opening day of the Major League Baseball playoffs, we have our favorite baseball song, A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request by Steve Goodman. When looking for a video of this, we were thrilled to find a priceless video of Goodman singing the song, standing on one of the rooftop bleachers across the street from Wrigley Field. The field provides the backdrop for this video, apparently recorded late in his career. Steve Goodman was a songwriter, singer, and humorist who died way too young; he died from leukemia in 1984 at age 36. In addition to the many humorous songs he did, he could also write serious songs. Goodman is best known for writing The City of New Orleans, which was not only Arlo Guthrie's biggest hit but it is also one of the best songs ever written. Listen to Arlo Guthrie - The City of New Orleans Click this link for an excellent article about Steve Goodman that was reproduced earlier in this blog. The song A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request would be ...