Of all the singer categories in the world, one category seems to kind of spiritually rise above the other, somehow standing head and shoulders above as the grandest of them all: The “tenor.”

Names like Caruso, Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras and other legendary tenors have always exuded a certain special kind of, well, mojo. They seem to possess an innate gift, a rare ability to transcend even the more revered mainstream rockstar vibe with their stirring and emotionally charged operatic arias, and in modern times even via popular music melodies, with sweeping notes that are sustained for what seems like hours, even days. If you’ve ever been in the room when a tenor’s on a roll, it’s pretty damn spectacular.

These days, one very talented tenor is taking his craft by storm, especially in his homeland of Russia, but it definitely isn’t stopping there. His name? Nikolai Baskov, the so-called “Golden Voice of Russia”, and next year he will be bringing his stunning vox and sexy demeanor to America as he embarks on his first US tour ever. His 2011 PBS special (and accompanying DVD/CD package) “Nikolai Baskov: Romantic Journey” is Russia’s most expensive and elaborate performance ever recorded for international television. The special has been a sure road-paver, as 24 (yes, two dozen) HD cameras capture the spectacle and majesty of a glorious Baskov performance. The exciting and daunting prospect of an American tour isn’t spooking this Russian treasure one bit; in fact, he’s chomping at that bit.

“I’ve never toured in the U.S. before, so I’m very excited to be in front of a new audience,” Baskov, 34, said this week. “Outside of the Russian community, many people will be seeing me live for the first time. Americans are mostly familiar with me through my special on PBS, so it will be great to actually share the music in a live setting. I’m also just excited to spend time in the U.S. and with the people here. New York especially is one of my favorite cities in the world – I love the dining, the parks, and most of all…the shopping!”

It seems like Baskov has had this moment on his radar since his childhood.  He’s one of those gifted and accomplished singers who, for as long as he can remember, wanted to be exactly where he is right now, doing what he’s seemed destined for. And there’s nothing like a supportive “mat” (“mother” in Russian) to help foster your dreams.

“I started singing as a child. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to sing. Even as a little boy when I would visit other people’s homes with my parents, I was always the entertainment. My mother was the first one to support my interest in music.  She said from an early age that I was destined to be an artist. I went to the Children’s Musical School and started studying music when I was five, and then started studying vocals when I was sixteen.”

As a result of his obvious and fast-developing talents, Baskov’s accolades were many on his ascent to his current status as one of the world’s top tenors. He studied at the Gnessin Music Academy in Moscow and the Moscow State Petr Chaykovsky Conservatory. In 1998, he won first prize in the All-Russian Young Singers Competition and took second prize in the Grande Voce competition in 1999 in Spain. The same year, Baskov was invited to join the esteemed Bolshoi theatre troupe and it was there that his talent seemed to truly take flight, performing major arias in such operas as Yevgeni Onegin, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Traviata and others. In 2000, he recorded his debut solo album “Posveshenie” (Dedication), and a video called “In Memory of Caruso” was aired on Russian TV, increasing his popularity. In 2001, Baskov left the Bolshoi to set out on his own burgeoning solo career. It was clear that the young singer was on the road to superstardom, and everything that happened since has fallen along that path.

Nikolai Baskov ponders his promising past and bright future

So who does a tremendous talent like Nikolai Baskov regard as his influences? They are many and varied, from past operatic and popular music legends to, yes, even a current pop diva.

“I love all types of music, both opera and pop music, and some of my influences include [Italian singer/songwriter] Lucio Dalla, Barbra Streisand, Pavarotti, and more contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga,” said Baskov.  “My favorite singer is Mario Lanza. His performances are beautiful and passionate. He can express all the emotions that I try to express onstage – his voice can make you cry and it can make you laugh. On a personal level, the incredible soprano Montserrat Caballe took me under her wing and became my vocal teacher about seven years ago. She has taught me so much, from performing tips to ways to take care of my voice day to day. She is my vocal mama!”

Baskov’s next big step is what all musicians dream about: a tour in the United States. And all the hard work and accolades have come down to this. As far as what he will deliver at the pivotal point in his career, this is a man who has roots in the classics, but loves the mainstream side as well.

“I like to sing both. My tour will be both classical works and more contemporary work, including a few pieces from Broadway. To me, performing an aria isn’t just to perform a piece of music. It is to communicate my emotions and connect with the audience. I have a very warm heart and like to make people happy, and I try to communicate that with my performances.”

With one hand on the wheel while driving across America in a rental car to his next gig, an American musical treasure talks about how Jim Morrison is his right hand, playing live is what it’s all about, and how composing is like giving birth.

By Steve Houk

You’d think such a tremendously gifted, world-renowned talent like pianist George Winston would be jet setting from San Francisco to his next gig in Minnesota on a sleek private jet, a limo awaiting on the tarmac to whisk him away to a four star hotel, where his PR peeps would be there to escort him to a spacious suite and fans would be camping out in the hotel lobby hoping he’d deign to sign their weathered album covers of his new age classics like “Autumn” or “December.”

Yes, you may think that’s the way it would be. But therein lies the inherent humility and wonderful charm of the enigma that is George Winston.

When we talked last week, Winston was cruising along in his rented Toyota on a highway somewhere in Nevada, soon to cross into Utah, only a mere 22 hours to go until he reached the Minnesota city of Rochester for his Saturday night performance at the Mayo Civic Center’s Presentation Hall. But he’d be stopping for the night in the first hotel he found, “when I get tired.”

Yep, just another musical genius tooling across America, playing his harmonica when he’s not on the phone with people like me, looking out at the vast landscapes passing by, waiting for the next brainstorm of miraculous Winstonesque music to waft through his mind. And what did he care most about? That his cell signal kept dropping out.

“Sorry the call keeps dropping,” he told me several times. “I know you’re busy. It’ll be better when I get into Utah, probably.” 

“I could go on all day if this is how I get to talk to George Winston,” I replied.

“You might just be goin’ on all day!  No problem with me — I’m just drivin’ for 20 hours or so.”

George Winston comes off as a tremendously humble and even ordinary man, in both attitude and appearance. But his piercingly evocative and utterly special music, and the successful career he has created with his incredible talent, are far from ordinary. In fact, they are extraordinary.  If you’ve heard of George Winston, you no doubt own several of his works and his music is somehow ingrained deeply somewhere in your psyche. If you haven’t, well, you’re missing something incredibly special. Over the last thirty-plus years, Winston and his treasured Steinway have bridged the gap between startlingly gorgeous and emotional New Age compositions and beautifully familiar traditional melodies to form one of music’s most unique and lasting legacies.

Since his debut Ballads and Blues in 1972, Grammy-winner Winston has released over a dozen albums of largely his own self proclaimed “rural folk piano ” music that have sold in droves worldwide – including albums supporting  those affected by 9/11 (Remembrance – A Memorial Benefit) and Hurricane Katrina (Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions – A Hurricane Relief Benefit), as well as tribute albums to The Doors (Night Divides The Day – The Music of The Doors) and two dedicated to one of his many idols Vince Guaraldi (Linus and Lucy & Love Will Come). He also plays over 100 mesmerizing solo shows a year (including this December 10^th at George Mason University), even dabbling in acoustic guitar and blues harmonica sometimes in concert as an extra added treat. But every time you call up one of his compositions, say on You Tube, there are dozens of comments that illustrate the deep emotional impact he has on those who have come to love his music. People feel his music, it becomes part of their heart and soul. Believe me, I speak of what I know, my wife and I both had tears running down our cheeks the last time we saw him live. But tell him that he has this kind of deeply personal effect on people, and he will humbly explain it away as being just a matter of one’s own personal tastes.

“I think everyone just likes what they like, and I really respect everyone’s tastes,” Winston told me from the highway. “One person could like it and another person doesn’t hear anything in it, and sometimes, you hear something and you might like it later, too.  Everybody has their favorites, ya know, me included. Nobody’s universally liked, but I do appreciate it, because it gives me the chance to play live. I’m very grateful for the chance to play live, that’s my main thing. I’m glad some people like it, because if there’s hardly anyone there, you couldn’t play live (laughs). Live music is playing the songs…and somebody listens.”

Opening The Doors

Among George Winston’s biggest musical influences are New Orleans piano legends Professor Longhair, Henry Butler and James Booker, and the great stride pianist Fats Waller. But before hearing those great N’Awlins piano men, it was the music of one of rock music’s most innovative bands, and particularly their own piano man, that pretty much kicked things off.

“I didn’t listen to music until I was 12, except something out of a car radio, a Christmas carol or something like that. But when I was 12, that was 1961, and that was the year of a lot of instrumental hits, so the instrumentals were what I loved, particularly the organ. So after listening for six years, I saw a record by a band called The Doors, and I thought it was the greatest thing I ever heard. I thought, ‘I got to get an organ and play in a band’, so then I played organ in a band for about four years, but something wasn’t quite right, and I just thought well, I just haven’t played very long. Then in one 30-second time period, I got a Fats Waller piano recording from between 1929 and 1936 from the library, and I heard that first 30 seconds, and I said, ‘Solo piano, not organ in a band’, OK now, I can get started.  It was just like hearing The Doors, it’s those moments in our life when thirty seconds changes everything. There was no decision and there was no thought, it was just, this is what it is.”

Speaking of The Doors, Winston is currently working on his second tribute album to the influential sixties foursome, and clearly feels the band has been a special inspiration to him as he has evolved as a musician. But not just the organ sound, their lead singer has something to do with it as well.

“I got the (Doors) album because of the organist, that’s what got me to buy it. But it was the whole thing. I always thought the singer and the organist were the same person, because it was so like…well, like Ray Charles played piano and sang, one thing, you know. But I thought the organist was the singer, I didn’t know anything about the band or anything, and I discovered it later. I didn’t really realize until about two years ago that Jim Morrison was the essence of my right hand – not the notes but the expression. The notes come from James Booker, Professor Longhair, Henry Butler and New Orleans, but the desire you express, and the expression itself…well, I could say James Booker’s my left hand, and Jim Morrison’s my right hand. As far as Ray (Doors keyboardist Manzarek), we played a show a while back and we correspond now and then, but I love (Doors members) Robbie, John and Jim just as much. It was all four, it was like, god, these guys are like one person.”

Yes, Winston had a number of important influences in those early days, including groundbreaking pianist Vince Guaraldi, and his mind became almost a bubbling brew of piano sounds that began to formulate and cast the dye for what is now his unique and influential sound.

“I heard Cast Your Fate To The Wind (from Guaraldi’s Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus record) in 1962 when that was a hit for him and I loved it, and then I heard of course the Peanuts special in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and I just loved his piano in there. And I went to my local record store and there was the record. It was the first record I heard that seemed to me like one song all the way through with 11 parts. And that happened to me with the Doors record later, oh about 13 months after that, and that really struck me, another album with one song with multi-parts.  The whole thing is a song. And that kinda ruled what I did from ‘Autumn’ on, one song connected together, up until then I didn’t really use a thematic concept. And that was the next step to say, ‘My favorite, favorite albums are really one song with multi parts.’ So that’s how I started doing them. I kinda floundered around into the late 1970’s, and then I heard Professor Longhair’s solo piano 1949-1953 recording, and I said ‘I got to try to play that’, and soon afterwards, I did ‘Autumn.’ And as far as that Professor Longhair tune? Ha, I’m still working on it. I’m still working on Break On Through by The Doors too, that’s gone on for, oh, 44 years.”

Some of Winston’s most profoundly beautiful works – Autumn, Winter Into Spring, December, Summer - are based on the stunning magic of the changing seasons, which isn’t a surprise at all considering where Winston grew up, and the profound effect the changing times of the year had on him as a child.

“My biggest inspiration is the seasons, because the seasons are color, and they’re different every place; for example if it’s winter, it’s a different kind of winter in one place than the other. I think growing up in Eastern Montana, there was one radio station, no television, so the seasons were the entertainment; you rake the leaves and jump in a pile, or go out and sled, or go swimming in the summer, the seasons were the movies and the TV and all of the entertainment, the seasons were it. That just stayed with me, that’s the main thing, I’m always thinking of it, I might be in a big city, or in the country, but it’s still you know, the same date everywhere. I like urban settings as much as rural, it’s like wherever I am, it’s good. If there’s oxygen, then I feel that’s a good place.”

George Winston and his Steinway (photo by Joe del Tufo)

Giving Birth

Another unexpected facet of Winston’s fascinating musical palette, of which you find are many as you speak to him, is his creative process. He doesn’t seem to agonize over searching for those elusive chords and notes that become a composition, the music, well, just seems to come to him, and his analogy of giving birth to a song is something that is particularly striking and memorable as part of that process.

“Sometimes when you have a project inside you, it must be kind of like being pregnant or something.  You have an idea, I mean, it’s growing, without you doing anything. And then something maybe fertilizes the idea, like an event or a scene, but then it grows and it grows, and then you want to put it on canvas, or on a record. Things come to me pretty naturally, I don’t really write it down, I don’t do too much repetition, I just sort of get it to where if it’s in my sleep, I wake up, if it’s the first thing when I wake up, I go, ‘Well, it’s the day to work on this song.’ I wake up thinking it, and it’s just in you. I never try to compose a song, something just kinda starts happening. It can happen in the absence of a chord, or wow, those chords are pretty nice, I’ll write those chords down, or I’ll just dream them up. But I generally don’t do anything, I don’t write it down, sometimes I don’t even go right to the piano,  I’ll just let it happen when I find myself playing that idea. Sometimes I’ll go, ‘I remember that thing I did six months ago. Oh OK…’ Each thing is totally different. I just don’t think about it too much. It’s gotta come out somehow. I never do it consciously. I never want to compose a song, and I never try to compose a song, it’s just something that happens, occasionally.”

The thing you keep returning to after spending a little time with George Winston is his humility and also a feeling of underlying generosity and advocacy. It’s not surprising that he has done a recent work dedicated to the Occupy movement, and that merchandise sales from his shows often go to local food banks. But how does someone who seems to be able touch so many people so deeply not become enamored with himself and that feeling of profound influence? Well, for the ever humble Winston, he just keeps remembering who got him to where he is: the audience. It is not lost on him that without them, well, he wouldn’t be able to do what he so clearly and deeply loves doing.

“I guess I kind of think of it in reverse,” Winston concludes as he crosses into Utah in his rental car. “I’m there because of them. If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t be there. I would be someplace else.  It’s kinda like being an astronaut. You’re up there in space, but you know, it took a lot of people to get you up there.”

Damn, do I wish I was riding shotgun with him right now.

To go to George Winston’s website, click here.

For tickets to George’s 12/10 show at GMU, click here.

Embarking on a career as a musician is, to say the very least, taking a big chance.  A whale of a chance, in fact. The world is full of extremely talented musicians who end up wannabes. The sheer number of them who are able to maintain a successful career over time is tiny compared to those who try and fail.

But if it’s melded in your heart to try, there’s an almost magnetic pull for those who have music in their souls to give it their best shot, and hope that some skill, a little bit of luck, and even a good dose of positive fate blend together to propel them to stardom.

Well, that blend of skill, luck and fate just may have fallen on three very talented young women who call themselves, aptly, Say Chance. 19 year-old California native Kelly Rosenthal, along with her fellow bandmates from Maryland, Maddie Freeman, 17, and Taylor Broom, 16, are taking that “chance” — they are all bypassing the “expected” path to pursue, yep, their rock and roll dream.

“I may as well take a couple years of my life and give this a shot,” a confident Kelly Rosenthal told me last week. “It could potentially turn into the greatest thing of my life. If it doesn’t, then I knew that I tried, and I won’t have to live with the regret. I knew I was going to have to make a huge decision. But I have the time and ability to be here right now, and I made a conscious decision to give it a shot, because I felt like not trying it is the equivalent of failing. It’d be worse than failing.”

And it appears, so far, that failure isn’t part of this particular picture. Say Chance has gone from the casual blending of three teenage musicians who found some common musical ground online, into what could very well end up being an overnight sensation, with emerging songwriting talents beyond their years coming to bear, a great response to their live gigs and others coming fast and furious, and most recently, their excellently crafted original music becoming available around the world to their burgeoning international audience via iTunes and other online portals. To say things are moving swiftly for these three talented young ladies is, well, an understatement.

“Things have literally blown up,” said Rosenthal. “We established our band at the beginning of 2011, and it was all just dream stuff up to that point, and now it’s turning into reality. I definitely, definitely didn’t expect things to go this fast. Even day by day things are just moving so quickly.”

Kelly, Maddie and Taylor basically met how many young people meet these days: online. The guitar-playing Californian saw the Maryland-based singers videos while perusing the internet, fell in love with their singing style, and realized that the three of them just might be able to make some beautiful music together.

“I came across some clips of them and I had put some videos out there of me playing guitar as well,” Rosenthal continues, “and I reached out to them because I was just really moved by what they were doing, I really thought they were amazing. So we just evolved a bit of a friendship, we created a collaboration of sorts over the internet, and in the process of that, we just discovered that beyond the music, we have a lot in common personally. So the girls traveled out to California for spring break (in 2010) to visit Taylor’s aunt, and they were so close to me, we were like, why don’t we meet up in person and see if the music gels that way. So we met up, and we just like really hit it off personally, it was really cool, and we kinda made an excuse for every few months to try and see each other from then on, and it kinda got us to here.”

Rosenthal, who had already graduated from high school in California, eventually scrapped her college plans and moved east to live with Broom and her family in Towson, Maryland, where Freeman and Broom are now high school seniors.

“Even after I met them, (college) was the route I was choosing to go. But then there was this passion I literally couldn’t ignore, I mean, I tried so hard in school, I did very well in school, I got into my dream school which was USC, and I was so pleased, but there was just something in me where I was like, I’m so young and I have these opportunities. I’ve been somebody who’s been very school-oriented, however that’s changed, in that the music thing is kind of at the forefront right now, and it’s at my fingertips.”

Say Chance's talented trio: (L-R) Taylor Broom, Kelly Rosenthal and Maddie Freeman: all aboard for a ride towards stardom (Photo credit: Becca Zeigler)

The three soon called themselves Say Chance after the obvious chance they were taking, but also after a blend of a couple of songs that helped get them together. After recording and posting YouTube videos of them singing covers like Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” sitting huddled in their bedrooms, they got down to business and started writing their own songs, and have posted videos of some of those original tunes online as well. And so far it’s proven to be a wondrous collaboration seemingly made in heaven, with everyone having equal say and actively contributing to the truly exceptional end product.

“It’s, like, the greatest thing ever,” says Rosenthal.  “Something that’s really important to me although I don’t sing is writing lyrics, and Taylor and Maddie make that really easy for me to be a part of. We all write our own lyrics, it’s pretty much equal, you would never call any of these songs just one of ours, or two of ours, it’s three of ours. As far as the music goes, sometimes I’ll have a riff thought up and we’ll start writing to that, but it all happens together. It’s not like one of us comes to the other in general, sometimes we bring stuff from the past up, but generally we start new, start fresh, and we make a Say Chance song, not a Kelly song with Maddie and Taylor, or Maddie’s with Kelly and Taylor, or anything like that. It’s so great, it’s so collaborative, it’s wonderful, it’s definitely an equal contributing process, we do it all together, so it’s really nice.”

(Photo credit: Becca Ziegler)

Again, there are plenty of talented musicians who never make it, but in talking to Rosenthal, you get the feeling that this affable young woman knows deep down that she and her fellow Say Chancers have a real shot at making it, not just because they’re talented, but because they have just the right attitude going in that could set them apart from other up and comers with different aspirations.

“I think what separates us is that we want a lifetime career in music, we’re not into the whole one-hit wonder thing. We really want a lifetime of doing this, so I think it’s really important for us to keep our integrity and to keep everything organic and pure, like it was when we started. I mean when we started playing music together, it was a dream that seemed very out of reach, but when things started becoming a reality, I think that we all kinda looked at each other, and said, ‘Well, we’re still doing this for us, we’re still doing this for the three girls who sat in a circle in our bedrooms just playing our guitars together and singing.’ So I think it’s really important that we stay organic, and we keep our integrity.”

Things are beginning to really gel for Say Chance. After a trip this past summer back to California where they played some gigs at a couple well-known rock clubs and visited Rosenthal’s family, the three returned to Maryland to continue writing and planning their next moves, which include a trip to Nashville in November to write songs and experience the history of “Music City.”  A big break just came down in the form of a gig at the new Fillmore in Silver Spring on October 1st. They also have management they trust and most importantly, a close circle of supportive friends and family that really makes this uncertain journey at their young age easier than if they didn’t have that support network.

“I don’t think any of our parents thought of us going the music route realistically,” Rosenthal said, “so it’s been a big change for everybody, but they see how passionate we are about it. My parents are really proud of me for pursuing something that I’m very passionate about, they’re extremely supportive. At first it was a little bit rocky but once they see all the things I’m doing and how committed I am to this and how committed we all are to this and how much we want to do this, they can be nothing but supportive. It means so much to me. It’s really hard to be apart from my family, I’m extremely close with them, they believe in it as much as I do, and it seems a lot of other people do too. It’s great. I’m lucky.  And Taylor and Maddie are really lucky too, they have great families who are very supportive of what they’re trying to do.”

(Photo credit: Jacqueline Harriet)

Another essential ingredient of long lasting success in the music business is actually enjoying the company of the people you’re playing with, and at least at the outset of Say Chance, the sincerity of the positive relationship that’s been built over the last two years between these three ladies clearly comes across in their videos, and also in their songwriting. You just get the feeling that they really are the best friends they say they are, and that they love being in each other’s company. All in all, they seem like good people whom you naturally want to root for.  And if the first steps of their career are any indication, they just may beat the staggering odds.

“I think it’s really important that our sincerity is coming across, because for us, it really is about the chemistry that the three of us have together. When I do the videos, you’ve probably noticed that I can’t wipe the smile off my face, and it’s entirely genuine. And when we play live, I’m giggling just looking at them, because I’m just entirely in love. The way I feel when I’m playing with Taylor and Maddie, they just have these voices that move me to my core. I just feel so very blessed to be lucky enough to be doing this, and I hope that cuts across. We just love each other as people, and as musicians.”

For a selection of Say Chance videos, click here.

To see Say Chance’s website, click here.

To see Say Chance live at the new Fillmore in Silver Spring on October 1st, click here.

No matter what your political persuasion, no matter which party you’ve sided with over the years, no matter what side of the aisle you may currently be on, it’s really hard to argue against putting a guy like Steve Stuban onto the Fairfax County school board. Why? Well, because this really isn’t about politics at all. This is simply about a father’s quest to find a way to make sure no family goes through what his family went through, which ended in the ultimate tragedy.

Sure, no denying it, Steve Stuban’s had his share of hard luck. Heck, you could argue that he’s had ten people’s share. If it isn’t enough that his wife Sandy has (luckily) lived longer than expected with the debilitating incurable disease that is ALS, if that’s not enough for one man to bear, his only child Nick, his pride and joy, committed suicide last year. But that’s not only why you should care about a guy like Steve Stuban. It was Nick’s suicide in the aftermath of a high school disciplinary system gone awry that has put Steve on a tremendously honorable and passionate mission to try and right the wrongs that he feels strongly contributed to his son’s death.

You see, Steve, along with Sandy and others that cared deeply for the Stubans, watched painfully and helplessly as his son, after a relatively minor infraction, was raked over the coals, treated like a convicted felon and ultimately held hostage and ruined by a school system’s archaic disciplinary system that had no understanding of the chaos and confusion they were causing by not doing one simple thing: giving Nick and the Stubans a fair shake. Sure, you could argue that when you play, you pay, and perhaps there needed to be some form of adequate punishment meted out here. But that’s just it: the punishment meted out was not adequate, it was not measured properly against the infraction, frankly, it was carried out without basic understanding and common decency. The process that preceded the implementation of the punishment was, in a word, and perhaps even understatingly, horrendous. A simple balance between cause and effect was ignored here, and as a result, a young boy is dead, a father and ailing mother are forever devastated. And nothing can make that right. Nothing can ever erase that pain.

But as hard as it may be, don’t feel too sorry for Steve Stuban. Sure, he has grieved agonizingly for Nick, and he will grieve for the rest of his life, every second of every day in fact. But he has taken that grief and channeled it into action, specifically, into a tireless and passionate campaign for a seat on the Fairfax County school board, in order to work on ways to right the wrongs that he feels directly contributed to his son’s confusion, sadness, depression, and eventually, to his death, and that of other kids who met the same fate for largely the same reason. Steve saw first hand what was broken with the system, and instead of screaming and yelling and stomping his foot in anger and then retiring into a bottomless pool of sadness to waste away, he decided he wants to do something about it. Personally, he wants to make a difference. He has made it his goal and the platform of his campaign, if elected to the school board, to insure that other families and specifically other children, aren’t subjected to the same medieval process of discipline and lack of good common sense that he witnessed happening to his own flesh and blood. And no matter who you may support already, simply just understanding where Steve Stuban is coming from is a way to understand a deep love of family, and most importantly, the innate and driven desire to fix a broken system by becoming involved in that system itself.

Sandy Stuban wanted to live long enough to see her son graduate from high school. But Nick is gone, and that will never happen. Now, she wants to be around long enough to see her husband become a passionate advocate for kids and their families so that, once again, no one goes through what her family has endured. And if we’re lucky, we may all be around to see Steve Stuban become just that.

Steve Stuban doesn’t want your sympathy, he’s got plenty of that all around him. He just wants you to know that he’s on a sincere, honest and very personal mission to fix something that is clearly terribly broken.

There was an unusually sugary sweet feel in the Virginia air last night, I mean, so much that it made your teeth kinda hurt.

Reason? Teen pop idols Miranda Cosgrove (that’s iCarly for those not hip to the Nicklodeon TV star) and fellow cutie pie Greyson Chance spent this summer night bouncing around the legendary Wolf Trap stage, and man, did they have their sweet little wide eyed mindblown fans excited for their sugary pop offerings. Such sweet innocent unabashed smiles, from both crowd and performers. Such exhilarating squeals of delight and unconditional adoration from their little fans, many giving it up for the first time. And for her first time, my 9 year old Kelly Lynn seemed legitimately smitten by the presence of a member of the opposite sex, the teen idol of the moment, Mr. Chance. Yes, it was sweetness to the Nth degree. 

Kelly at our dinner spot on the meadow.

And I survived, braving the inevitable onslaught of sugar syrupy dripping teen pop star love, willingly along for the ride, leaving behind my rock and roll stew for some, yes, pop tarts. And mainly because it meant a date with just my youngest daughter, a rarity to be sure in this day of no time for anything. We got a sack of carry-out Chipotle, some cold beverages hard and soft, and snagged a familiar picnic table overlooking the beautiful meadow that sits adjacent to the amphitheater, pretty much exactly the same spot Mimi and I grab for our pre-show dinners there.  We dined on massive head-sized burritos & cheesy enchiladas, yummy guacamole and chips, soon becoming gorged on our main course, with only the sugary sweet dessert of Kelly’s teen pop idols to follow.

Kelly before the thundering Green Day onslaught, summer 2010.

Truth is, this was really Kelly’s first concert that she could enjoy most of. Her first actual concert was when Ben and I took her to see Green Day last summer (oops) in the 20th row (see above pic before the sky fell), and maybe twenty minutes into their deafeningly loud set replete with F-bombs and unexpected explosions, Kelly’s look of horror told me, “Hey Daddy, we either make another plan here, or call it a night and you get me the hell out of here.” Luckily, we climbed to the top of the lawn where the sound was lighter, the explosions muted, and as the evening sky buffeted the strains of Basket Case and American Idiot, we found a family with similar kid fears way up on the back of the lawn and Kelly finally was able to enjoy herself with her new friend, dancing on the back hill while Daddy and Ben rocked out to Billie Joe and Co.

Adoring crowd awaits Miranda.

The Chance faithful cheer on Greyson's surprisingly solid warm up set.

Earth to Kelly...mesmerized by teen idol Grayson Chance.

But Kelly’s face while watching him…that was worth the whole effort of coming, she sitting there smittenly mesmerized, well, as best as she could be with the distraction level at a fever pitch with all the “I love you Greyson/Miranda!” signs, the screaming and the gyrating, jumping little bodies. But when she realized HE was right up there, she was locked in. So cool. Just like a little blonde boy felt 35 years ago when concerts started becoming a major part of his life. I could see her really digging it, the “live show”, and oh, what a thrill that was. It wasn’t TV!!! It was that thrillingly amazing feeling of seeing a live concert. And there was my girl, feeling it.

Just before one of today's biggest teen idols took the stage.

As her set went on, she proved assuredly that she has a rabid following, and yes, more importantly, a pretty good possibility of making it as a real singer, with some work, that is. Her image to date is all studio manipulated and delivered, but this is live music and it’s time to step up, and she’s trying. Her vocals were pretty much buried a good amount of the time, but I’m not sure that’s totally by accident. Hers is a voice that’s not really established yet in a live concert setting so her band is really the support system to take away the negatives. The studio can make anyone sound good so this is a real test. As I understand it, this is her first real “tour” persay and so she has a lot to learn about projection and singing live while also enduring the “rigors” of a bus tour. She tended to care more about her body movements than her singing at times which is very common I would think.

Miranda belts it out for her little peeps.

One huge plus: the band she has is excellent. Evidently (and I learned this in the opening video, so yes, I WAS listening!) they were together before she hired them as her band so they definitely had a chemistry. They really carry the show and Miranda on their shoulders. Their redheaded vocalist was stunning (and not looking 16 yrs old like Miranda so I felt OK about thinking that) and an excellent vocalist, she inevitably carried Miranda a lot, but hey, that’s the plan. Buoy her along, give her good advice, and she will hopefully come into her own. I will say their version of No Doubt’s Just A Girl was very good, a great duet on the main vocals, and a shining moment for both women…uh girls….uh, one woman and girl….oh forget it.

Miranda rolled sugary hit after sugary hit, mostly about first kisses, first big steps in life, and feeling all fuzzy inside from first runs at love, with the most edgy roll being a song co-written by the great Rivers Cuomo from Weezer, called High Maintenance. Hey, not a bad thing to teach little girls from the beginning to hold on loosely, right? Ha. Shut my mouth.

Would I go see Miranda and Greyson live again? If Kelly wanted to, damn straight, sign me up for the piercing screams and frenetic dancing any day. If it means being on a date with my baby girl, you bet. I can always come home and crank up the Brothers later.

 

Greyson Chance and Miranda Cosgrove; check these guys out at the links below.

 

Check out Miranda Cosgrove here.

 

Check out Greyson Chance here.

 

 

Saying that “alot” has happened to Imelda May since the last time she and I talked a year or so ago might be the understatement of the year.

Let’s see. For starters, how about singing for the President of the United States and the First Lady in her home country of Ireland? Or going triple platinum there and gold in the UK with her first major release Love Tattoo? Or garnering “best new artist” and “best breakthrough artist” awards?  Oh, and lest we forget getting rave reviews for her long-awaited follow-up out next week, Mayhem.

Yep, it’s clear things are going pretty darn well (another understatement) for this super cool Irish-born songstress, who’s embarking on a string of summer dates in the US, including a July 26th date with Wanda Jackson at DC’s 9:30 Club. After a whirlwind 2010-11 tour with her buddy, guitar legend Jeff Beck, playing Beck’s and other classic tunes, May is ecstatic to be out on the road playing her own songs that blend rockabilly, jazz and blues into her own unique style. And she conveys her excitement with her typically effusive, refreshing enthusiasm.

“It was great playing with Jeff of course, the genius that is Jeff Beck,” she told me on the phone from England in her uber-charming Irish brogue. “But that gig with Jeff was a one-off, we knew we weren’t going to be doing that for a long time. I can’t wait to get back over there (to the US) and do me own songs with me own band. It means more when you’re singing your own songs. We have such a great time on the road and I love getting to do me own stuff. And it’s brilliant to see people singing back. It feels great and we can’t wait to get to America again, I love gigging in America, the audiences are terrific, and they get the music immediately.”

Imelda May’s stratospheric rise to success has not been an easy one, it took years of odd jobs and playing small gigs in small clubs, plus some some lean, mean, hard-working times for her and her band, which includes her husband, revered English-born guitarist Darrel Higham, as they begged, borrowed and built their way to where they sit today, on the cusp of superstardom.

“I hadn’t had a record contract, I wasn’t signed to any label. I’d talked to some record labels, and they said we don’t know where to put you, we don’t know what genre to put you in, maybe rockbilly or more jazzy. I never heard from them again, but I wanted to make the album so I begged and begged, and I finally got into a studio thanks to my husband and his friends, who built the studio literally with their own hands, and I made Love Tattoo. It was a great way to start, because I got to make the album that I wanted to, with no pressure and nobody watching.  Then afterwards thanks to Jools Holland, he put us on his TV show, and everything kicked off, and a record company rang up and said, ‘Well we get it now, can we talk?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely!’ “

After scratching to put out that first major release, making her latest album Mayhem was another labor of love for May, and even with a record company’s eyes now upon her, she was again able to do it her way, making the calls she wanted to make.

“Making Mayhem was greatly different because then I was signed to a record label and they were very interested in supporting the album. But I really enjoyed making Mayhem, it was slightly different making the record, it was a bit more produced, I wanted it to be a bit better….with anything you do, you always want to improve as you go along, but I didn’t want to lose the charm of Love Tattoo either so I wanted to get a good balance of it.  It’s an amazin’ feelin’, I’ve put me heart and soul into it, into this album, and all the music that we do, I put me heart and soul into it, I didn’t compromise it for anybody.”

Imelda stands front and center with President Obama (back center) and the First lady (left) smiling behind her during their 2011 visit to Ireland.

So, of course I had to ask: Just what was it like to sing in front of the leader of the free world, in her home country to boot? You could feel the sincere tittilation in her voice as she recounted this once-in-a-lifetime experience; not bad for the little girl born Imelda Mary Clabby thirty seven years ago this month in Dublin.

“I nearly fell over when they asked if we’d do that, perform for Mr. and Mrs. Obama! It was a terrific day, I felt that it was a piece of history. The crowds were as far as the eye could see all the way down the street. I really felt very very proud to represent me country, and welcome the president and the first lady. And me parents were very proud, it was wonderful. To get to meet both Barack and Michelle Obama afterwards was an absolute joy, they’re lovely people, and she was a wonderful, lovely woman, very classy lady. I was chatting with them about Washington and about Chicago, I asked them if they knew about (a well-known recording studio in Chicago)  and they said they did, and then we got a photograph taken. It was a thrilling day. And when the president and first lady left, they gave us special edition M & M’s with the presidential seal on them! How weird is that? I thought that was the coolest thing ever. They said here are some commemorative presents and it was M & M’s!”

For Imelda May, the sky and beyond seems like the limit. And when they say good things happen to good people, the adage never seemed more apropo for this sweet, engaging Irishwoman, who clearly is thrilled that she’s been able to do things her way so far.

“I’m really glad that it’s all happened on me own terms, that everything has gone well with the music. It’s close to me heart, it’s me own music, and I completely feel passionately about it. I think people get that, people can tell, they’re not stupid, they can tell when things are true and real to the artist. I didn’t do all this just to be successful — I obviously want to be successful, but I ‘m happy with the songs I’m writin’. I can’t tell you how happy I am that it’s gone well, because it means I get to sing the music that I love every night, and with a band that I’m passionate about.”

See Imelda sing “Inside Out” from Mayhem live here.

It’s no secret. Music has always been a passionate harbinger of change and social activism.

From Woody Guthrie’s “This machine kills fascists” message emblazoned on his beat-up acoustic guitar, to Bob Dylan’s stunning political messages perhaps most unequivocally stated in his timeless anthem “The Times They Are A Changin’”, to the Woodstock era’s desperate and eloquent pleas for peace during the Vietnam war, even up to Bruce Springsteen leading the charge on a couple of Vote For Change tours here in the 21st century, the musical community has forever used it’s bully pulpit to sing loud the possibilities of making the world a better place, or at least reminding us of what’s wrong and offering some ways to fix it via song.

But perhaps no single musician has had a bigger influence on a bigger audience than the brilliant Senegalese musician/percussionist/activist Youssou N’Dour. Lauded by Rolling Stone in 2004 as perhaps “the most famous singer alive” because of his ability to reach out and touch more actual human beings than anyone else given the massive African audience that has embraced him so fully, N’Dour has fostered change and awareness for such social issues as women’s rights, the fight against malaria, reducing African debt, and urban youth activism. He believes that he has the responsibility to foster at least awareness, if not actual change.

“Music is something uniquely used to fight against a lot of problems. I realize the power of music and I use my music to do a lot of promotion of things I like, and we’ve learned that something good can come out of it.”

Then it is no surprise that N’Dour’s most recent passion is to join musical forces with one of his idols, the late Bob Marley, another impassioned musician who wrote powerful political songs amidst social unrest in his own underdeveloped home country much like N’Dour has. The stunning result is the striking new CD Dakar-Kingston, a collection of Marley’s and other popular reggae tunes infused with N’Dour’s unique African rhythms and styles. N’Dour will bring these songs and others from his impressive canon to Lisner Auditorium in Washington Thursday June 23rd.

N’Dour hails from Dakar in Senegal, and Marley called Kingston, Jamaica home, thus the thread symbolized by the album’s title. N’Dour feels it’s a proper tribute to a man he feels a very special kinship with.

“When I was young my uncle was working in a store where they sell music, a lot of music,” N’Dour told me by phone from Dakar recently. “And every weekend he would bring home a lot of Bob Marley. I was really touched since it was coming from another underdeveloped country. Bob Marley is my hero, not because of the music only, but also because of what he symbolized. I’ve been a big fan of reggae music since long time ago, I’ve always wanted to think about the roots of reggae, how this music touches us, I’ve always found something very interesting about the roots, it’s like when the slaves left [Africa]. When I see all the same thing happening when I was in Kingston, I’m sure now there’s a connection between this music and Africa. I have the freedom to do what things I like so I was thinking about doing the reggae music.”

The feel of Dakar-Kingston is a unique blend of the familiar strains of reggae music and N’Dour’s native Senegalese sound, which meld together beautifully and bring the listener to a place that wonderfully combines the two genres into something recognizable yet different.

“Whenever I’m doing something new, I make sure that my style and my music are on the inside a lot. I was thinking about the guitar and the percussion of reggae as I was planning to do this album, it’s something really interesting. And when you listen to the album, you hear the percussion with the guitar as well as my sound and it’s something really unique. I call it not just reggae music, but Youssou and reggae music.”

As for his passionate never-ending social activism efforts, N’Dour’s latest focus is on important elections in his native country. It’s clear this world-renowned artist and activist is not slowing down, in fact, he’s moving faster than ever on his humanitarian path.

“Now my real vision is to make sure….we have a lot of elections in Africa, so I want to make sure people have their [voting] card and be ready to vote for their party, make sure a lot of people participate in the next election in Senegal. I am really positive, I see people trying to get the power. There is something really positive about today, people working to be heard and getting the power to make change.”

From the beginning, N’Dour hasn’t been premeditated in his activism. But when he sees how he can make a difference, he answers the call whenever he’s needed.

“I don’t have a plan, but I can use my music to do a lot of social things. Every day I meet people, and if I see situations, I act.”

With a combination of mesmerizing presentation and a refreshingly supportive behind the scenes vibe, the West Springfield High School dance team is winning big, both on and off stage.
By Steve Houk

Is it the opening to the latest installment of the film horror fest “Saw”?  The sequel to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”? An episode of cable’s “The Walking Dead”? No on all counts.

It’s actually the beginning of one of the most powerful and astonishing dance performances of any kind you will ever see, one that sears into the mind, disrupts the soul, yet makes you want to watch it again and again. And even more surprisingly, it’s all high school kids, or better yet, national champions, as in the national champion hip-hop dance team from West Springfield High (VA), who recently won their second straight hip-hop dance title at the National Dance Association championships in Orlando in the Medium Varsity Hip-Hop category.

Team coach Jason King knows exactly what he and fellow coach Tara Perez want their team to do when they’re out on the floor performing this mesmerizing “Matrix”-themed routine, or any of their stunning, award-winning hip-hop routines for that matter: they want their dancers to get into your head, to make you squirm, to above all, be memorable. This is clearly no ordinary dance team, and certainly no ordinary dance routine won them their national crowns.

“If you’re really close, you can see their eyes roll back in their heads, and they’re walking with their mouths open. And before we go out and perform stuff like that, we tell the kids, look, certainly perform right, be in time, but also, make people feel uncomfortable when you’re dancing, look into people’s eyes, look right through them, because that’s how you’re going to get emotion out of the crowd, and make them never forget what they just saw.”

Coached adoringly yet precisely by Perez, 29, a former Washington Wizards dancer/instructor, and King, 30, a mechanic-cum-underground hip hop hoofer who had a stint on So You Think You Can Dance, this group of kids from Fairfax County have clearly created something very special, not only on stage, but off stage as well. They do other more traditional routines, but their dark and startling hip-hop numbers are what people will remember, and what has won them national titles. So how do they begin to craft such dark yet memorable performances?

“We’ll take various bits and pieces of clips, from all different types of songs, and sound effects and everything,” says King. ”It’s a lengthy process to mix it all, we base it on what kind of theme we’re going with. We want a lot of really intricate sounds, transformers, and metal cranking, and clicking, and ticks and tacks and stuff like that, to really set off the mood of the routine, we want something really powerful. The music is the first thing that everyone hears, it’s the thing that gets the kids going. The actual song from the performance has about fifteen different songs mixed into it, all sorts of different pieces and overlays and background ambience.”

Their hip-hop performances certainly live on the darker side and that’s what makes them special, and they can definitely elicit some emotional responses from the audience. King describes one time last year when the team was performing another astounding routine based around Heath Ledger’s Joker character in “The Dark Knight” at a WSHS basketball game.

“Apparently one child was crying at the performance, so one of the parents wrote to the school, saying that they’re not going to return because their child had nightmares all weekend. So they asked us to tone it down just for the basketball games and stuff like that. It was really intense, but that’s exactly what we want.”

The national champion WSHS dance team sans the scary makeup.

You can clearly see how special they are on stage, but you can also feel that there’s something else pretty special going on here, in the way the two coaches talk so lovingly about their kids.

“I think we have a really good balance between being an authority figure and also being a coach, and having the family portion of it too”, says Perez, who’s in her 8th year as coach. “I mean, we have some of the kids calling us and begging us to practice sometimes. They’re like, ‘We miss you guys!’ So it just shows you how much we support each other, I don’t know what I would do, and I know Jason doesn’t know what he would do without the team. We’re very close. We consider each other like family, because we’re around each other all the time.”

King, who enters his sixth year as co-coach this coming year, echoes Perez’ sentiments. ”We definitely put a family type vibe out there. From the first day of practice after they make the team, we tell them, you’re a part of this team, there are no cliques, I don’t care if you’re a senior or a freshman, you’re a part of it. I mean, they come to us for advice, we give them the best kind of advice we can. They work harder for each other, it’s not for the trophies, it’s not for the glamour, it’s to be able to look each other in the eye and know they did everything they could for each other, and for us. It pushes us to work harder for them. We see how hard these kids work and it makes us go back and try to change something to make the routine even better, for them. We really push the family feel, we’re always around each other, we literally spend all the time together, and we want to be together, it’s literally a family. We all truly care for each other, there’s nothing like it. There’s absolutely nothing like it.”

So what do Perez and King look for when holding tryouts for this top notch group? Good skills and athleticism, for sure, but for them, that word “family” crops up again and again and is integral to the team’s success.

“There are a couple things we mainly look for”, says Perez. “First more than anything is their dedication and commitment. We practice 4-5 days a week, 3 hours a day, so to make the team, they have to commit to the schedule all year round. But another big thing we look for is respect, we want all the dancers to be humble, we want them to be respectful. We don’t want people on the team who are cocky, or who have attitudes. We’re a family, and we treat each other like family, so we want people who are able to fit into that.”

And it’s not just a girl’s thang, guys are welcome, and encouraged, to try out.

“Most dance teams in the past have been almost all girls,” King continues, “I think we were the first in the area three or four years ago to bring on guys, we had four guys on the team, now we have two. It kinda set the trend for other dance teams to show the guys that it’s OK to dance, you don’t have to be in football or basketball, you can do something to represent your school or represent yourself. For hip hop, you see a lot of guys want to get into it now because dance is so big, because it’s going to open up a lot of eyes, especially in Fairfax County, and even nationally, getting dance recognized as something bigger than a club, and recognized to get funding as well.”

Along with the family vibe, the two coaches want their kids to not only go out and dance, but to put on a performance, something that not many dance teams are able to consistently achieve.

“We want them to always do something really powerful, something really striking”, King says with emphasis. “We make sure the kids know that this is a performance, it’s not just a dance. We always like to compete, but we also like to perform.  You see some other teams, they just compete, they don’t perform. That’s our big thing, we love to have a performance.”

Watch the WSHS team’s winning performance here.

(photo courtesy Joshua Smelser)

For folk-rock rising star Teddy Thompson, having revered parents like father Richard Thompson (one of folk rock’s founding fathers and a renowned singer/songwriter and astounding guitarist) and mother Linda Thompson (a highly respected singer/songwriter in her own right) could be a difficult road to hoe, but to the younger Thompson, well, it could be worse.

“I’ve never really felt the need to try too hard to [surpass their fame]. I’m lucky in the sense that my parents aren’t too-too famous. I think that’s a much harder road, to be Jakob Dylan or Sean Lennon, it’s just a whole different kettle of fish. My parents are not quite in that same league fame-wise, although musically I would argue that they’re just as good. But it hasn’t been a big struggle for me, all along the way it’s not something I paid much mind to, it never worries me.”

Teddy Thompson feels comfortable being the son of, OK, we’ll call them ‘pretty darn famous’ parents then, but luckily for him, he’s got a pot full of talent himself and a style all his own, and the trajectory of his career success shows that he’s sure doing something right, good genes or not. Thompson just released his fifth CD, Bella, to critical acclaim and it debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Heatseeker Chart. He also just appeared on Conan O’ Brien‘s late night TV show, and right now, he’s on a national tour supporting alt/country faves Old 97′s. Thompson appreciates that he’s got the right DNA for musical success, but knows success has to be on his own merits, too, or really, what good is it?

“I think that there’s a certain amount of blood that comes into the equation, genes play a strong part, it’s passed down and there’s definitely a big chunk of that,” Thompson told me this week from the road. ”I do believe that being able to sing and have some kind of aptitude to music is a God-given talent and that it comes through the blood. That’s certainly true. And I certainly share mannerisms with my Dad just as I do with my Mom, certain vocal stylings and that kind of stuff, and part of it is through nature, and part of it’s through nurture, just being exposed to that music and listening to a lot of it, it becomes part of who you are, and what you do musically. Just like any other influence though, everything you listen to melts into this big pot, and then hopefully if you’re an interesting artist, you come out with something on the other end of that that’s influenced by all those things, but it’s still an individual, you know, it’s gotta be YOU.”

Teddy Thompson.

You’d think with parents like the amazing Thompsons, with music around you all the time, it would be a foregone conclusion that any kid of theirs would be destined for a musician’s life. But it wasn’t really the standard parents-as-musicians childhood, and Thompson feels glad he could come about his musical journey largely on his own.

“The perception may be that I was brought up in this hotbed of music around the house, and going to gigs, and hanging around all these great people. It wasn’t the case at all actually, my parents divorced when I was six, so I have only very early memories of music being played around the house, and after they divorced my Mom essentially quit the music business, so there was no singing around the house, there was no getting together around the piano, we weren’t that kind of family. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion, it wasn’t instilled in me at an early age, I didn’t have to learn harmony parts and get up on stage when I was 10 like Rufus and Martha [Wainwright, fellow singer/songwriters and Teddy’s close friends]. It came rather late, I found it on my own really.”

Thompson may have found his eventual career path on his own, but his Dad did introduce him to some seminal artists who would become his major musical influences and shape his sound and style.

“My primary influence is definitely kind of country music, 1950’s country music, the Everly Brothers and Hank Williams and Chuck Berry’s rock and roll stuff, and Buddy Holly…that’s where I began, musically, that’s where I started out learning. That music did come from my parents, probably my Dad, because we used to take road trips when I was 9 or 10 or 11 and he had a couple of tapes in the car, and those were the tapes that we listened to, that’s what he liked to listen to, it was something me and my sister liked as well, it was what we all liked.”

“When I got older, and became aware of contemporary music, I started playing the guitar when I was you know, 10, 11, 12, 13, that music was still really what I cared about the most. I always sort of struggled to listen to anything that was on the top of the pops because it didn’t sound good to me, compared to Hank Williams. So I stuck with that for a long long time, I was really obsessed with older American music. Then I remember Crowded House being one of the first sort of bands that were around that had records out that were successful that I liked, because it was melodic and it had good singing and good playing and I could relate to that, I remember being sort of turned on at that point, and finding some other things that I liked that were happening at the time.”

Teddy Thompson (right) and legendary dad Richard share the stage live.

Thompson did start out in his late teens/early 20′s playing with his father as part of Richard’s backup band on three of his records and on tour, but luckily for him, he did find that elusive opportunity to head out on his own, although his success did not happen overnight, and dues needed to be paid even for this blessed musical offspring.

“I played with my Dad for a little bit, and it was like an apprenticeship, and then I went back to LA and I started writing a bit more and playing a bit more around town in LA, and things happened fairly quick at the start. I think I was 22 by the time I was playing gigs every week at a place called Largo which was a very cool place to play and a very sort of ‘tastemaker’ spot to play in LA, it was almost like at that time if you played Largo, you got a record deal. That’s how it was going, everybody who was anybody cool was playing there.  So the suits would just come down and sign everybody up, and I was one of them. So I made that first record (in 2000) and that didn’t go very well and I got dropped very quickly and the record was barely released, and then I kind of moved to NY and started again in a way, and it took me a good few years to make my second record which was 2006, so it probably wasn’t until I’d made that record that I felt I had some kind of career and that this is what I was gonna do.”

Like that of the material on Bella, Thompson’s style is based in wry, very personal songwriting, with a sound that can be described as lush folk rock, but his country influences are still evident, maybe even more than he was aware of.

“It’s interesting that depending on where I go, some people will listen to this record and go ‘Wow, this seems like full-out country record’, which I’m kind of baffled by, but that’s just the way I sing. I think if you took all the vocals off the record and just played the instrumental tracks, there’s nothing remotely country about it. It’s really a pop record with me singing, which makes it sound a little bit twangy.”

Some of Thompson’s vocal stylings on the new record have been compared to the late great Roy Orbison, a comparison Thompson is humbled by and can smile about, but doesn’t necessarily agree with. “To me, that’s like a basketball player being compared to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, you feel sort of unworthy, but of course it’s a lovely thing to hear. I don’t have nearly the power or the facility that Orbison did, but that’s a nice thing to hear, yeah.”

For Teddy’s website, click here. For tickets to Teddy Thompson with the Old 97′s at the 9:30 Club on April 10th, click here.

Steve Houk is a freelance music writer who lives in Annandale VA with his beautiful blended family. He is also living a midlife rocker’s dream as lead singer of Northern Virginia classic/modern rock cover band Second Wind, check them out here, as well as Steve’s blog, midliferocker.com.  

Opening day. Hot damn. Mets don’t start up until tomorrow in Florida, but lordie lordie, let the games begin today.

It’s the 2011 baseball season. The smell of the grass, the din of the crowd, the pop of the glove, the crack of the bat. Baseball, baby. It’s all back. And with it, comes a veritable flood of memories that cascade through my soul providing waves of both sweet melancholia and total elation. Baseball is in my blood, it resides in the very fiber of who I am, and runs through some of the most profound moments and relationships I have ever had.

One reason baseball is so special to me is that I played it pretty steadily every spring and summer from the time I was old enough to throw any kind of ball until my late teens. From tee ball with Gilman’s Runts, to the cap/comet/star/minor/major league cycle in our Little League, to summer ball while home from college, and probably most importantly, my high school baseball career — it was as much a part of development as a person as anything. Life was not complete, the balance and order of things were not properly calibrated, without my best friend Tom Newman and I reoiling our gloves, buying new cleats, having that first catch of the spring, buying the first pack of Topps baseball cards, and then agonizing through various tryouts and eventually making whatever team it was — oh, except my sophomore year in high school, when I got unceremoniously cut, a pretty devastating and unusual experience in my baseball life.

My no-hitter game ball from May 9th, 1976

But in time, I rebounded from being cut, making JV my junior year, and also pitching well enough in 1976 for my Little League team Bob Sharp Motors to toss an actual legitimate official Little League no-hitter. Yep, the real thing, I hurled a no-no. I wasn’t an overpowering pitcher but on this day I had strong command the whole game, getting it over the plate and staying poised, while also getting some nice fielding help from my teammates. It magically ended on a one-out bases loaded comebacker to me (I was losing control and had walked two and hit a batter to load ‘em up)  and I went home for out #2, and the catcher went to first for the DP, game over, no hitter intact. I stood there saying to myself, “You just threw a f***ing no-hitter!” Then I was hoisted into the air by our third baseman and my dear friend Matt Carragher, the team circling and cheering around me, the crowd clapping, my folks smiling and hooting.  My coach Dick Papenfuss would hand me the game ball later and the whole team would sign it. The day proved later to have some added poignancy — my buddy Matt was killed a few years later in a car crash in Ohio where he moved, and the ball is also signed by Dave Henwood, whose brother was killed on 9/11 in one of the Towers. So the game ball and whole day take on an even more special meaning for me today. All in all, that day was the greatest “glory days” moment of my life to this day, and it was baseball I have to thank for it.

At Shea Stadium for Tom Seaver Day, 1988

My other reason for holding baseball so close to my heart is being a huge New York Mets fan since probably the age of 8 or so, and that was totally fostered by my father. He nurtured the love of the game as far back as i can remember, and took me to my first Mets game in 1969, a memorable game in which Mets pitcher Tom Seaver, my boyhood idol — I would wear his #41 throughout high school and just got a Mets Seaver jersey for Christmas this year — had a perfect game going into the 9th inning, but it was heartbreakingly broken up with a single by the Cub’s Jimmy Qualls, his most infamous hit ever. I would later work on Tom Seaver Day at Shea when the Mets would retire #41 — and like a dream, I was walking up to the press booth later with a hot dog in hand and coming down the tunnel towards me…is it…no…yep, it’s Tom Seaver. I stopped him and said hello, shook his hand and said thanks for being my idol. He smiled and nodded.

Sitting in the dugout as the Mets get their '86 Championship rings, Opening Day 1987

But all of those early baseball experiences would help kick off a lifelong love affair with baseball and the Mets that would  last to this day. It would provide tremendous highs like winning the Series in ’69 and again in ’86, an occasion punctuated by my being on the field on Opening Day in 1987 and standing ten feet from Gooden, Strawberry, Carter, Hernandez and Co. as they laughed giddily while getting their ’86 Championship rings.  I actually sat in the dugout for a short period, totally dazed that I was in the dugout of my heroes, and they were all hanging out right there.

But it was my Dad  who was there for every season as Opening Days came and went, me with the Mets and him following his beloved Cincinnati Reds, and then later, the dreaded Yankees. But all the while, his eyes would sparkle along with mine as baseball games unfolded on that greenest of grass every year before us. It was something we intimately shared, and I think of him every time I see a pitch thrown, an out called, or a ball hit.

My late great father John Houk taking it all in at Shea, circa the 80's.

Heaven on the Field Of Dreams: Ben's first and our last game at Shea, 2008.

So there ya have it, folks, that’s why every spring, as the tree buds are bursting though, as the first blades of grass are springing up, as the daffodils are blooming, as the air is getting warmer, a rebirth of sorts for me happens too. A rebirth replete with the shining beauty of a very special diamond, one you can’t wear on your finger. And a rebirth of the memories I have of my dad, as well as the ones I have made and will make with Ben. Play ball.