Musings @musicandmeaning.com

Never, ever change. Keep that breathless charm. Won't you please arrange it?
"He had a theory that musicians are incredibly complex, and know far less than other artists what they want and what they are; that they puzzle themselves as well as their friends; that their psychology is a modern development, and has not yet been understood." – E. M. Forster

Sunday, 2 September 2001

Disbelief (the good kind) over Weekend Becomes Eclectic

     Firstly, I’ll repeat the relevant concert
dates around Los Angeles that I mentioned last time:

Tuesday,
4 Sept.
Pete
Yorn
performs at the Viper
Room
.
Wednesday,
5 Sept.
Pete
Yorn
performs at El
Rey Theatre
(sold out already, but KCRW
might give away tickets — if you’re a member, listen to Morning
Becomes Eclectic
this week). Also — PY plays on the David
Letterman show 24 Sept., and he has some more So. Cal. dates later
on, one at the Pond (28 Sept.) and one at the Greek Theatre (27
Oct.).
Friday,
7 Sept.
Gillian
Welch & David Rawlings
perform at El
Rey Theatre
. Unbelievably, there are still tickets available,
as of 2 Sept. If you’re not in the area, check out their tour
schedule
from Pollstar. They’re even playing a few shows in
the UK, and so far, one in Dublin.
Saturday,
8 Sept.
Richard
Buckner
performs at Largo
Pub
in Hollywood (across from Canter’s). He’s on a solo tour
with Anders Parker
of Varnaline
. If I remember correctly, he’s working on writing
some songs with Anders Parker; I think he played one of them when
he performed in the area in April. Again, if you’re not in the area,
take a look at Buckner’s other U.S. tour
dates
. He’s also headed for Italy in November.

     If any of you go to these dates, I’d be interested
in hearing about your experience(s) — just
out of curiosity. If you’re a member of the Doubters
list, and plan on sending a message there, then I guess I’ll read
about it anyway. 🙂

     This weekend I got a chance to listen to most
of both Weekend Becomes Eclectic shows on KCRW. I pretty
much caught the last couple of hours yesterday and today. "Yeah,
so what?" you might be wondering…

     If you’ve read the KCRW section on my "Radio
programs" page
, then you know how highly I think of Anne
Litt
‘s music selections. Well, just when I think that she can’t
get any cooler, she closed out yesterday’s show by playing some of Beethoven’s
"Emperor" piano concerto (a.k.a. no. 5), which is one of my
all-time favorite classical pieces.
She was giving away tickets to a performance of Beethoven’s second PC,
I think, but played the fifth. Anyway, it was definitely one of the
many "No way!" moments for me. I actually said those two words
when she played the excerpt. I said them again near the end of WBE this
afternoon. I was on a high because she’d played track from the new album
by Gillian Welch (whose concert at El Rey, BTW, is
partly sponsored by KCRW).

     That wasn’t the end, though. The second-to-last
song of the show came on, and I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard
the opening chords of Richard Buckner‘s "Elizabeth
Childers" from The Hill. "No way" indeed
— but there it was, and yup, I was definitely still listening KCRW.
Wow. It was the first time she’s played a Buckner tune while I was listening,
and as dopey as it might sound, it got me in a very good mood (in spite
of the theme of the song of course). I don’t know if there is a DJ-friendly
version of The Hill — I would hope so. Does anyone know?
If you’re not familiar with the album, all 18 songs run together on
one track. That’s right, one track makes up the entire album. So I’m
thinking, if there isn’t a DJ-friendly version with 18 separate tracks,
then it’s even cooler that Anne Litt took the time to cue up "Elizabeth
Childers" (the eighth song) and not play the first tune ("Mrs.
Merritt") or something from his other three albums. She rocks +
KCRW rocks. 🙂 What other station would play those songs?

     Music of the moment: Still speaking
of Buckner, his albums still occupy two spots in my CD
player
but I’ve changed the other three discs. The theme this time
around seems to be old favorites.

     That’s pretty much it. I’ve updated a bunch
of the pages, mostly in the TV section to reflect the upcoming new season.
Take it easy.
 

Posted at 11:59 pm | Filed under Anne Litt/Weekend Becomes Eclectic/The A-Track, Music, Musings & everything else

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