Music Redux

We have a neighbor who is a really nice guy, unassuming, doesn't talk about himself, loves our dog, etc. He has two pet birds named Chris and Warren. Anyway, he had surgery recently, and Mrs. shnooky helped him with his postoperative care, changing his dressings, etc. While she was in his apartment, she noticed a platinum record on the wall. It was for Aja by Steely Dan and it was inscribed to our neighbor. When the Mrs. got home, we did a Google search for our neighbor's name and Steely Dan, and we found an interview with Donald Fagen. Turns out our neighbor was the tour manager for Steely Dan (when they still toured), and Fagen kept in touch with him. When Fagen was working on lyrics for the Aja album, he needed a sports team metaphor for a song. Fagen knew nothing about sports, so he called our neighbor, whom he knew was a sports fan, and asked him to name some colleges and their sports nicknames -- Notre Dame Fightin' Irish, Michigan Wolverines, Washington Huskies, Florida Hurricanes, North Carolina Tarheels. When he got to Alabama Crimson Tide, Fagen said "that's it."

So our neighbor and friend is responsible for the lyric "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide -- Call me Deacon Blues."

I Hate Music

Okay, I don't really hate music. But I have no objectivity or prespective any more when it comes to music, especially contemporary popular music. My neighbor asked me to listen to his friend and protege's latest effort. The act is a duo called Master McCarthy, and my neighbor, who is a veteran engineer/producer, produced and engineered the sessions. I know the McCarthy half of the duo, and he's a good guy and seems really smart and thoughtful, but I'd never heard him sing and play. Anyway, I listened to the four songs on their MySpace site, and I just don't know what to say. I think it sounds great. It's obviously very well performed, recorded, and produced. They had some top-notch session players record the songs (who are all old enough to be Master and McCarthy's fathers), and the singers' voices blend really well. I've always been dubious about pairs of singers who claim to have that special, unique blend with each other, but these guys do sing well together. But I don't know what to say about the songs themselves. As a musician and former studio guy, I hear things I don't like, but I don't know if any of that makes any difference. And I know I can't just plug into what a listener half my age would plug into and just hear and appreciate the music as a music lover and/or potential fan. I'm way too jaded and cynical. Are these guys great? I don't know. I don't hate it. I don't think it sucks.

Mrs. shnooky and I have launched a new dogwalking/petsitting business (but that's another blog post). Anyway, I walk a dog for a lady who lives in a retirement apartment building about a block away, and in the lobby of this building is a beautiful grand piano. The lady whose dog I walk gave me the name and number of the activities director of the place, so I called her and told her I'd like to come play for her. Apparently, they have a regular schedule of people who come in and play for the old folks there. So she set up an informal audition where I'd play from 4:30 to 5:00 just as the folks were filing in to go to dinner. Well, I arrived at 4:30, and the damn lobby was jammed standing-room-only with about 30 or 40 old folks there to hear me play. I threw some Gershwin at 'em, some "Danny Boy," and some show tunes. I even sang a few songs, because I think some of the other acts who play there do sing-along stuff. Well, they seemed to like it, though the activities director lady told me later to just stick to playing the piano and not to sing any more (fine with me), and they're going to add me to their regular rotation of piano players. She already asked me to come in and substitute for one of their regulars who called in sick, but I don't have an hour's worth of material prepared yet. I'm going to learn some more standards, some Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, etc. My first official gig there is on October 1. There are quite a few retirement homes in the 'hood. This could be a whole new career for the shnookster.

In the park where I walk this lady's dog, there is a guy who comes every day and sets up his music stand and his music and plays his cheap guitar and sings simple, dumb songs there in the park. Some day I'm going to show up with my accordion and ask the guy if I can sit in with him. He usually has another guy who sings with him, and I think it might be fun to join in for a few numbers. Any chance to play the old accordion, I say.

So check out Master-McCarthy or Master/McCarthy or mastermccarthy or however the hell you write it, and let me know what you think. I sure don't know what to think.