BNL Fan Alert – Ed Robertson @ Okemo 1/4/2007

Fresh from a holiday performance with the Boston Pops, Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson plays a free solo show at Okemo Ski Resort next Thursday:

Ed Robertson, a lead singer and songwriter for the band Barenaked Ladies will perform live in the Sitting Bull during apres ski, from 3 to 6 p.m. on January 4. Apres ski is open to the public at no charge, on a first-come, first-served basis with priority given to Okemo season pass and lift ticket holders. Robertson has just completed a concert tour to promote the band’s newest CD, Barenaked Ladies Are Me. Time and location of show is subject to change.

Okemo is located in Ludlow, Vermont.

Local Rhythms – A Year of Highs and Lows

This year’s local music scene is best summed up by one of my favorite all-purpose sayings – “When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.” I believe I heard it first, appropriately enough, in “The Sound of Music.”

There were more opening windows than closing doors in most places this year, but not, sadly, in Bellows Falls. In what seemed like one fell swoop, the Windham closed and Oona’s burned down. Roots on the River won’t be the same next year, but it got a raucous (if damp) sendoff in 2006 with scintillating performances from Crooked Still. Ingrid’s Ruse and James McMurtry – not to mention Fred Eaglesmith, who will definitely be returning next year. As, I hope, will Bellows Falls.

Newport’s short-lived Eagle Tavern shut its doors, but a few months later Josh and Joe Tuohy came to the rescue. Salt Hill Two – Joe confirmed the name last night – will open late next month.

In Springfield, the Royal Flush filled a void left with the closing of Morningstar Café, presenting lots of local talent, and cornering the market on tribute bands.

The aforementioned Ingrid’s Ruse epitomized the ups and downs of 2006. They released their only album and promptly broke up. The displeased gods (or the CD factory, depending on who you believe) held up the disk’s release, forcing the band to do two farewell shows at the Heritage. This year spelled the end of one of my favorite fusion bands, Oshe, but also the emergence of another – Oneside.

Hexerei endured personnel changes, but ended the year on a high note, winning a slot on the Family Values tour and releasing a new album. Stonewall finally put out a record, as did the Conniption Fits. All three bands shone at Rock the Whale, the high point of the summer (and maybe the year).

In Claremont, the new year began with the promise of a new downtown restaurant. Sophie and Zeke’s opened in the space formerly occupied by Café Cubana, and fast became an area magnet. In early summer, they began offering music, first with Thursday jazz (more on that later), then with a varied slate of other live talent.

Performers there included everyone from Pete “Three Season” Merrigan, Josh Parker of Stonewall playing solo, bluegrass from the Spiral Farm Band and Spare Change, and the smooth vocals of Al Alessi (with the stunning piano of Bill Wightman). In one year, “Sophie & Zeke’s” became synonymous with “music,” and is predictably packed most Thursday and Friday nights.

Tomorrow, Sophie and Zeke’s celebrates its first birthday, welcoming Dr. Burma for a raucous dance party. Bandleaders Ted Mortimer and Linda Boudreault are regular Friday night favorites with their blend of jazz and pop standards. During the dinner hour, they’ll stick to that format. Later, however, they’ll clear away a few tables and welcome the rest of the group for some high energy rock and soul.

What a perfect way to celebrate one of the great additions to the local scene. What else awaits in the coming days?

Thursday: New Kind of Blue, Sophie & Zeke’s – The band that started the musical ball rolling. Tom Caselli and Nate Thompson provide steady rhythm; Larry Welker adds guitar spice to the mix. Floating above it all is vocalist Emily Lanier, with an easy style that suits this room perfectly. Of all the versions of “Route 66” played at Sophie & Zeke’s this year (I’ve counted four so far), theirs is the best.

Friday: Gully Boys, Seven Barrels – I took way too long to check this band out, and I won’t make that mistake twice. They borrow from the likes of Widespread Panic, the Grateful Dead, Umphrey’s McGee and Phish. Their sound, however, is distinctive – quite a feat considering the many configurations of the band over the years. They fit nicely into Seven Barrels (no mean feat).

Saturday: Stonewall, The Heritage – One of the best Windham shows of the year, this band continues to be one of my favorites, a veritable three man army. A tip of the hat, while I’m at it, to Martin Hansen, for booking some of the best bands around to this odd-shaped Charlestown room. Here’s to another successful year.

New Year’s Eve: I’m going to switch up a bit and provide multiple picks for Sunday night. You decide. Start with dinner at Bistro Nouveau, then catch Dr. Burma at Salt Hill, where last year’s groovalicious show is still being talked about. Or greet 2007 with the Conniption Fits at Shenanigans; their new, punchy and crunchy CD will win them more fans this year. Yer Mother’s Onion, another shining light on the local scene, light up Seven Barrels. Finally, Jeremy Lyons and the Deltabilly Boys raise the roof at Middle Earth. Happy New Year!

“Brainwashed” Shana Morrison’s Family Tradition

Shana Morrison tried to chart her own path from youth to adulthood; her aspirations – business school and a career in finance – would seemingly delight most parents. But Shana’s wasn’t an ordinary household.

Her father responded to her plans with a terse question. “Why do you want to do business? Business people are a**holes.”

Later, Dad tried a more sanguine approach to coax Shana into the family trade. At graduation, he suggested she try a few months in his profession before looking for work in hers.

Thus, she joined Van Morrison for a brief tour in late 1993. 13 years later, Shana Morrison is still carrying on the family tradition.

Van Morrison’s ‘Blues and Soul Review’ tour, said Shana during a phone interview Saturday, “was a three hour show with a bunch of different musicians. I only did two songs, so it wasn’t like people had to hear his daughter squawk all night.”

After the tour, Shana joined Claddagh (leader Kevin Brennan had also worked with Van), and later formed her own band, Caledonia. “Then fans started asking for a CD,” she says, “so we thought we’ll release something as a snapshot in time. It wasn’t something that was planned. “

Shana, who performs tomorrow night at the Ascutney Mountain Resort, shares her father’s penchant for exploring many musical directions. 2002’s “Seven Wishes” was produced by studio heavyweight Steve Buckingham and has a country-pop feel. It was, says Morrison, “a really beautiful, pristine-sounding record.”

Her latest, however, churns with the raw power reminiscent of artists like Susan Tesdeschi and Bonnie Raitt. This begs the question: is the album’s title, “That’s Who I Am,” a declaration of sorts?

“Yeah, definitely,” says Morrison. “I’d never been able to record anything that was really bluesy or really R&B-oriented. That’s what the goal was for this record, to choose a group of songs that would work for that kind of approach.”

Morrison produced most of “That’s Who I Am” herself, with help from longtime guitarist Chris Collins. Listening to it, one is struck by how much fun the band seems to be having, quoting the Sugarhill Gang’s hip-hop classic “Rapper’s Delight” in “Drive,” and turning the traditional standard “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” into a high-speed rave-up. The album’s highlight is “Simple,” an epic blues number that showcases Collins and “Mighty” Mike Schermer trading off bristling guitar solos.

Unlike “Seven Wishes,” she released the new record independently. “It’s easier to record an 11 minute song without an label executive looking over your shoulder,” she says.

Morrison stuck with blues rock for the new disc. “Each time you do a record, you need to focus it a bit,” she says. Onstage, she’s less encumbered, more adventurous.

“My music can be really…” Shana pauses to explain, though anyone familiar with the many twists and turns in her father’s body of work certainly understands that the Morrison muse is nothing if not diverse. “If you come to see my show, people can get really confused. We’ll start the night with some Irish songs, then we’ll do some pop and some blues.” She’ll also put her own touch on “Van the Man” favorites like “Into the Mystic” and “St. Dominic’s Preview.”

Things will be even more interesting for this short East coast tour. Worcester chamber-pop trio The Curtain Society, augmented by Huck’s Scott Ricciuti on guitar, serve as her backup band for Friday’s performance.

Economic necessity dictates the move. “Gas prices,” she sighs. Travel costs in general make mounting a tour with a band difficult. She’s considered a solo or a duo act, “but when you’re in the bar and nightclub settings you want to do something a little more raucous,” she says.

She’s worked with the Curtain Society before. “I did some shows with them last year when I was on my way back from Europe,” she says. “They can play some really interesting things that we’ve never come up with before with my band. It may not be something an audience would notice, but it perks me up.”

Her life today is a far cry from the one she imagined in college. She once told financial writer Lee Silber that, as a child, she “envied other kids whose parents had normal jobs,” recalling how they would “live in a mansion and buy a new car and stereo system one year and have to sell it all” the next.

She is, says Morrison, “aware that most people go at this a long time and never make any money. “

“I guess I was brainwashed,” she laughs.

When she decided to become a full-time performer, “my parents were ecstatic and proud,” says Shana Morrison.

“Because what else is there better than being a musician?”

 

 

Local Rhythms – The Season of Giving Back to Music

This is time of year when “we give to our relations,” as Jackson Browne sings in “The Rebel Jesus” (one of my essential holiday songs). We also do what we can for the less fortunate among us. Locally, there are many deserving charities providing food, shelter and other comforts to those in need. Lately, however, my heart, mind and checkbook have been reaching beyond our borders to the national community of music.

More than a year after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has yet to completely recover. The bustling French Quarter, spared by most of the storm’s ravages, is open for business, but the soul of the district is still in many ways an American Diaspora, scattered across the country in search of a way home.

“Most musicians don’t have anywhere to live in the city of New Orleans,” says Bill Taylor. Taylor heads Tipitina’s Foundation, a charitable organization named for the famous uptown jazz club which for the past five years has provided relief the Big Easy musical community. In the wake of Katrina, Tipitina’s work to preserve what Taylor terms “a national shrine” grew exponentially.

The New Orleans homeless problem received national exposure recently on NBC’s “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip,” with a storyline featuring a fictitious group of displaced horn players. The network also included a Tipitina’s write-up on its website.

“All the young musicians are gone,” laments Gregory Davis, and many New Orleans clubs must look to places like Atlanta and Memphis for talent. Davis’s Dirty Dozen Brass Band released a Tipitina’s benefit CD recently; so did Fats Domino, the piano legend who was rescued after the hurricane.

In the words of one writer, jazz is “the purest expression of American democracy; a music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation.” What we do to revive New Orleans, the birthplace of this great musical export, says a lot about our national character.

That’s why this year I’m thinking locally, but acting globally. Tipitina’s (www.tipitinasfoundation.org) isn’t the only organization helping to rebuild New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity and the Jazz Foundation are also hard at work.

As you open your gifts this holiday, and prepare donations to soup kitchens, shelters and other deserving groups, think of New Orleans, a true symbol of our cultural heritage. There beats the heart of America’s music – it deserves to be preserved for future generations.

Now, on to the local scene:

Thursday: Social Club Orchestra, Middle Earth Music Hall – A group of area musicians get together to “celebrate community and the season in song,” led by Bradford’s own Don Sinclair. The brainchild of club regular Paul Gardner, it features Tom & Gabby Masterson, Ruthless Geezers Peter Mallory & Brian Emerson and many others. Sauron is not vanquished from Middle Earth; thus, proceeds from the show will benefit the club’s legal defense fund.

Friday: Sensible Shoes, Skunk Hollow Tavern – Great to see this band back in the listings. They have a knack for picking great cover songs, by the likes of Otis Redding and the Beatles, that haven’t been played to death. A five piece band will be a tight fit for this tiny Hartland Four Corners venue, but it will still be a jumpin’ good time. Sensible Shoes is currently working on a CD of original tunes, which is very good news indeed.

Saturday: Play Dead, Royal Flush Diner – Bring a toy for a needy child and admission is free to this event, which features Grateful Dead songs by this well regarded tribute band. Open mike impresarios and erstwhile Dead fans the Kind Buds also appear; they will likely sit in for a few songs.

Sunday: Christmas Music On Television – As frequent readers have no doubt deduced, I love holiday music. On television, the country channels have the best selection, with an Alan Jackson’s “Precious Memories” gospel special and “Christmas at the Tennessee” on GAC. The latter features Deana Carter and one of my favorite newcomers, Julie Roberts. But best of all is CMT’s “Christmastime is Here” with Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss and the Whites.

Tuesday: Greenleaf & Kaplan Duo, Canoe Club – Alan Greenleaf is a Northeast Kingdom farmer and a self-taught musician who has released a series of charming records about his life. He’s accompanied by Jonathan Kaplan on piano for an evening of classic folk and blues, interspersed with plenty of country wit.

Wednesday: Trans-Siberian Orchestra, DCU Center (Worcester) – From the ashes of a has-been heavy metal band rose the most spectacular holiday extravaganza ever mounted. It must be seen to be believed. With 24 different musicians surrounded by smoke, lasers and fire, TSO is part rock opera and part spiritual journey. If, two days after Christmas, you’re still in the mood, this is for you.

Toby Lightman Shines At Iron Horse

Most of the crowd at the Iron Horse Tuesday felt that if Toby Lightman had auditioned for “American Idol” back in 2002, Kelly Clarkson would still be hawking Red Bull and waiting tables in Texas.

But the singer-songwriter, who released her first record in 2004 (“Little Things”), has chosen a more methodical path to success. Her sophomore disc, “Bird On A Wire,” came out last July. Lightman says her focus now is “definitely different – I know a lot more than I did before. My approach this time was to do a lot more grassroots touring, I didn’t really do that the first time around.”

Wearing a black Doors T-shirt and accompanied by guitarist Court Clement, Lightman played stripped-down selections from “Little Things” and “Bird on a Wire” during a Tuesday night show which exhibited the many elements that inform her sound. She added improvisational jazz touches to the bridge of set opener “Alone” and laid down a funky groove for “Coming Back In.”

Lightman transformed the syncopated album version of “Slipping” into a spare, sultry rhythm that would have done Norah Jones proud. “I do a lot of angry songs,” she joked by way of introducing the sweet and hopeful “Better,” a song she wrote for her sister upon the birth of her son.

But the growling “River” showed Toby Lightman at her righteously indignant best. “The lights are dim, are you gonna come crying to me?” she sang, deftly trading licks with Clement (a seasoned sideman who has worked with Griffin House and Jessica Lofbomm).

The guitarist’s inclusion definitely helped to spice up the show. Lightman covered Jim Croce’s “Operator” a few years back; she and Clement worked up a version of it in the dressing room prior to the show that was among the most well-received numbers of the night. The song oozed soul, as Lightman came back around at the end for another go at the chorus that took the 70’s soft-rock classic to new heights. If Donnie Hathaway had ever gotten his hands on it, it would have sounded like this.

Between her first and second records, Lightman said backstage before the show, “I’d drifted from pop to more classic soul. I was really enraptured by the organic nature and space of people like Bill Withers and Sly and the Family Stone. There doesn’t need to be so much going on, there’s just a vibe and it’s a great song. You don’t need the tracks.”

The shift to a leaner sound began during the “Little Things” tour, says Lightman. “There’s a lot of programming on the record that was really hard to replicate live.”

Last year, she headed back to the studio with Bill Bottrell and Patrick Leonard (Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Elton John) for “Bird on a Wire.” “This one was very different that the first one,” Lightman says. “Everything was done with live takes. I had never really done that before, but I’m a lot more confident in my voice and playing my guitar.”

That confidence comes across clearly onstage, despite Lightman’s occasional self-deprecating remark. “We suck!” she exclaimed at one point as she fiddled with a guitar tuning. But tunes like “Overflowing,” Holding Me Down” and the forthcoming single “My Sweet Song” gave the lie to such musings. Lightman closed her set with the Ella Fitzgerald-inspired “Sleigh Ride” – another number worked up pre-show – and sent the crowd happily into the night to spread the word about her steadily rising star.

Today’s Free Download – Imaad Wasif

“River,” Joni Mitchell’s dark holiday lament, gets some testerone competition with Imaad Wasif’s “The New Year,” a track from Kill Rock Stars’ Winter Holiday Album, a joyous little affair indeed.

Wasif was a member of Lou Barlow’s side project New Folk Implosion at the end of their run. The group appeared in the film “Laurel Canyon” in 2002.

The song begins with gathering cymbal thunder, spare acoustic guitar and a harrowing opening line:

It was Christmas time/and I was the reaper of woes

It doesn’t get much more hopeful, but when Wasif asks that everyone “come together this December and for the new year,” you want to believe it can happen.

It’s much like the way we root for lost hikers and suspected kidnap victims to be found.

Despairing, near suicidal, this song won’t be on the next “Now That’s What I Call Christmas,” but as a leadoff track for Kill Rock Stars Records holiday package, it’s perfect.

Download “The New Year” (mp3)
from “Kill Rock Stars Winter Holiday Album”
by Various Artists
Kill Rock Stars

• Buy This Album

SpiralFrog – Big (But Not That Big) Developments

SpiralFrog, the free music service viewed (by some) as the last best hope for the struggling music business, yesterday announced a distribution deal with BMI. The song publisher will make their entire catalog available for ad-supported free download in WMA protected format. The catalog comprises nearly half of all recorded music, including the entire Beatles discography, a fact that induces much irrational exhuberence at Wired Magazine:

The irony of The Beatles refusing all online music stores but accepting (or being forced to accept) this free, ad-based service is a little much. I have a call and email in to SpiralFrog to confirm that The Beatles are included in this deal. I have to assume they are, but I just can’t believe it, so I need to make sure. More on this soon.

Not so fast. No word yet on whether Neil Aspinall got back to Wired, but rest assured that the Fab Four’s Luddite stance won’t be changed by this deal. There’s rumors afoot that the recent “Love” songscape could be made available to Apple (the computer company) iTunes, and reports of Steve Jobs using his reservoirs of charm on all interested parties to bring that to bear.

I don’t think Beatles product is going to be digitized until Apple (the music company) is damn good and ready. It will happen when the audio quality is there and not a day sooner – at least that’s what Aspinall said in court earlier this year.

Local Rhythms – Middle Earth’s Dark Days Ending

Five months filled with lawsuits and countersuits, delayed court dates and mounting attorney bills haven’t made Chris Jones an optimist. But the Middle Earth Music Hall owner was buoyant enough last Monday to declare that “jackhammer season is over” for the Bradford club.

The reason for his cautious jubilation was an Orange County District Court decision handing Shiloh’s Restaurant back to landlord Vincent Pacilio for non-payment of rent. For the time being, Jones can concentrate on what he does best – bringing great music to the basement establishment he’s run for the past five years.

“We’re not done,” say Jones. “I expect a suit for failure of the business,” a prospect that mostly upsets him because “it will hurt the landlord.” But, he says, “the threat of an injunction to shut us down is off the table.”

This battle may be won, but because Shiloh’s owners have ten days to file an appeal, Jones is reluctant to declare an end to the war. So the legal defense fundraisers and the milk cans by the bar filled with dollar bills will be around a while longer.

“I don’t believe it’s over, and the best defense is a good offense,” Jones says.

The good news for music fans is that the court victory has cleared the way for Middle Earth to firm up several tentative dates. The coming months will welcome performances from Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem, Cheryl Wheeler, banjo master Tony Trischka, Garnet Rogers and Chris Smither. With the legal cloud hanging over them, Jones couldn’t afford to commit to shows as far out as May (Arbo).

He remains wary of Victory in Jesus Ministries, and their leader, whom Jones cites as the primary force behind the suit. “Knowing (David) Lund, he’ll appeal,” he says, adding “if you give him a crack, no matter how small, he’ll stick his foot in it.”

Overall, his outlook’s good. “In the long run, we’ll come out on top,” says Jones. “But it’s time-consuming, and expensive. I just got the bill today.”

He’s most heartened by the support he’s received from the music community. Bands like Amity Front, Boston’s Session Americana and Nobby Reed all performed to raise much-needed cash.

“But the publicity has been priceless,” Jones says. “I’ve seen a lot of new faces in here over the past few months.”

What priceless toe-tapping experiences await music fans this weekend?

Thursday: Harvey Reid, Four Corners Grille – Missing from the area music scene this fall, the Flying Goose Music series is, according to the restaurant’s website, a one-night affair this year. Lucy Kaplansky, however, is advertising a show there next month. Reid is an acoustic guitar master, and along with wife Joyce Andersen, he made a great Christmas record last year. He and Andersen perform selections from it tonight.

Friday: Junk in the Trunk, Salt Hill Pub – Richie Cortese has been an Upper Valley fixture for a long time now, and his latest combo was quite well received when they played outdoors at Sunapee in the summer. This is the first Salt Hill appearance for Junk in the Trunk, which plays classic rock and boogie driven by Cortese’s singing, which can bend the treetops.

Saturday: Yer Mother’s Onion, Seven Barrels – I caught these guys at a pretty crazy party recently, just across the Unity line. Everyone was in costume, and let’s just say I’m impressed with the depth and breadth of the subculture in these parts. I’m also impressed by this band, who play a few originals, but can also knock out powerful covers by everyone from Carlos Santana to Cake – check out their take of “Building A Religion.”

Monday: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NBC – This is a well-written drama, not a musical performance show. If you’re all about music and nothing else, you can wait until the last 10 minutes of the episode to watch a superlative performance by a band of New Orleans horn players led by 20-year old Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. Their version of “O Holy Night” has replaced “Little Saint Nick” as my favorite Christmas song.

Tuesday: Toby Lightman, Iron Horse – One of the reasons I think the Grammies are a joke is that Mariah Carey is still getting nominations, and truly soulful singers like Lightman are overlooked. She’s made two excellent records, the most recent of which, “Bird on a Wire,” runs the gamut from charged up gospel to passionate torch songs. Her time will come, and when it does, Grammy will probably pick the wrong album to honor.

Wednesday: Carlos Ocasio, Canoe Club – Frontman for Gusano and other area bands, Carlos stretches out at Canoe, playing restrained, intelligent blues and showing off his elegant guitar style. As always, get a seat near to the stage if you want to listen closely.

Grammy Bloat

What would happen if all the entertainment award shows took their cues from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences? One shudders to think. Instead of a single Best Picture award, an Oscar each would go to a drama, comedy, musical, sex farce, dramatized biography and a roman à clef.

If you don’t believe it, then consider the 2006 Grammy nominees. The ballot alone is 56 pages long. There are 51 different fields, comprising 108 separate awards.

Looking over the voluminous document, some questions immediately spring to mind. Why is Hawaii the only state with its own category? There’s an award for Tejano, but that’s Tex-Mex, which is not the same as Texas. Besides, there’s also a Best Mexican Music award, which doesn’t seem fair.

Perhaps it’s payback for all that 700-mile fence talk.

Another burning mystery – just what is a “pop” record, anyway? That catch-all field includes one prize each for male, female and duo/group vocals – in addition to collaborations and instrumentals. The Big “Pop” Tent includes everyone from Bruce Hornsby to the Black Eyed Peas, Pink and Enya.

Enya?

The real trick, it would seem, is NOT getting nominated for one of the things, right?

Hardly. Take, for example, Record of the Year and Song of the Year; four songs are nominated for BOTH awards. One of those, “Taking the Long Way” by the Dixie Chicks, also has a shot at Best Country Song. The Academy was apparently unaware that nobody, least of all the Dixie Chicks ,considers them a country band anymore.

What’s most offensive about this year’s Grammy class is that, with thousands of possible picks for 540 nomination slots, the same names keep coming up over and over. Emblematic of this sorry state of affairs is Sheryl Crow’s Best Female Pop Vocal nomination – for a cover of an old James Taylor song (“You Can Close Your Eyes”) included on a record which can only be bought at Starbucks coffee stores.

Anybody wondering about the music business’s elitist snob image need look no further than this. Crow, by the way, also picked up a Best Pop Vocal Collaboration nomination for her duet with Sting (“Always On Your Side”).

I expect that “Best Duet With Sting” will eventually become a standalone category.

Peter Frampton, who Grammy pretty much ignored during his Seventies heyday, is nominated for an instrumental cover of a Soundgarden song. I suppose that’s better than the Best Heavy Metal nomination Pat Boone got a few years back.

Gnarls Barkley is up for Record of the Year, and is also nominated in the R&B category. But the kicker is that the band’s infectious hit “Crazy” is in line for Best Alternative Album.

Alternative to what?

Bob Dylan’s roots-fortified “Modern Times” disc gets an out-of-place nod for Best Rock song (“Someday Baby”), where he keeps company with Beck and John Mayer, along with a Neil Young protest song and a Tom Petty record that no one outside the industry has even heard.

More just for Dylan, perhaps, is his nomination for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana album. That category is full of many “don’t know what to call them, but they deserve a statue” contenders – like the Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris collaboration (“All the Roadrunning”), Rosanne Cash’s meditation on family and death (“Black Cadillac”) and insider darling Guy Clark (“Workbench Songs”). Jackson Browne rounds out the list with a career retrospective (“Live Acoustic Volume 1”), but after ignoring everything from “Doctor My Eyes” to “Running on Empty,” why does Grammy bother?

That’s the Academy’s biggest sin – they’re always at least one or two years behind the curve. There’s a record nominated (“Travelin’ Through”) that lost an Oscar bid nearly a year ago – in other words, a song made in 2005 is being considered on a 2007 awards show.

That they try to compensate for their myopia by puffing up the ceremony with awards for things like for box set design, liner notes and “Best Spoken Word” release – a euphemism for books on tape – only makes things worse.

It’s utterly fitting that this year’s show, to be broadcast February 7, 2007, will be hosted by faux newsman Stephen Colbert. Colbert, of course, coined 2006’s “word of the year.” That word, in case you didn’t know, is “truthiness” – defined as “something that seems true because an individual wants it to be.”

The reality-battered record industry must love the notion that there are 108 deserving artists on this year’s pathetic list of nominees, and surely believe that all that precious metal is a harbinger of strong times ahead.

The whole idea reeks of truthiness.

Today’s Free Download – “O Holy Night”

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Finally, NBC has posted an MP3 of “O Holy Night,” the amazing “Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip” performance by the Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews-led New Orleans horn band, which aired last Monday.

The Studio 60 “Christmas Show” episode repeats on December 18, and it’s worth watching for more than the music.

The dialogue is sharper, character development more focused and (very important to critical detractors of the show in its early days) the comedy in the fictitious variety show is much, much better. The “Dateline: To Catch A Predator” sketch was funnier than anything on SNL last night.

I do hope they keep this show on the air. Matthew Perry’s character is so much more satisfying (to me, anyway) than his one-dimensional “Friends” role. Bradley Whitford is always good, and the relationship developing between him and Amanda Peet is a good story move. I’m waiting for Steve Weber’s network chairman to throw a monkey wrench into that one. Whose baby is it, really?

Back to the music – this song is even more beautiful without the dialogue. Thanks, NBC. If the sole legacy of “Studio 60” were just “O Holy Night” and the shout-out to New Orleans music it engendered, that would be more than a lot of shows I could name.

Download it here. Right click and save is best.

Note: NBC took down the file, so I’m engaging in a little guerrilla promotion to ensure this song is heard.  Send a donation to Tipitina’s Foundation to show your gratitude.