You Can't Spell Nostalgia without L-A-G

Just one of the numerous albums put out by Jandek, perhaps the most
cultiest of cult artists in the music world today

Does owning one album from a cult artist count as nostalgia?

Back in college, my favorite place on campus was not the outdoors and most definitely not the classroom, but rather either of the two listening rooms deep inside the bowels of the college radio station. I couldn't imagine much better than cozying up by my lonesome a couple hours with a few dozen vinyl albums, both new and the previously unexplored, prepping for the week's show.

One day, a colleague of mine asked me if I had heard of Jandek.  The Jam, John Lydon and Jesse Johnson, sure. The Jesus and Mary Chain? Joy Division? Yep. But Jandek? I shook my head no.

My colleague's eyes rounded like large saucers. He touted his love of Jandek (almost certainly one Sterling R. Smith), his reclusive nature, and his rambling, weirdly bluesy compositions. In fact, Jandek, who sports Texas roots, might be the cultiest of all cult artists; through his Corwood Industries label, over 100 albums have been produced since the first LP was released in 1978.

An inquiry from an interested party might be reciprocated with a bundle of copies of his latest work, and generally his work can be obtained at relatively low prices. Before I knew it, a copy of his latest album, "You Walk Alone" (the album pictured above) was in my hands.  He looked a bit like Beck, though I would not reach this conclusion until several years later when Beck released his 1994 debut "Mellow Gold." Best of all, the album was free: for a broke-ass college student like me, anything free was indeed gold.  And now for nearly three decades, I've owned a piece of Jandek.

Indy In Threes: Beer and Wine and a Voice Divine

Midtown Carmel, located to the north of Indianapolis. Not unlike Columbus,
parts of this city are undergoing a massive redevelopment effort

Indianapolis, the state capital of Indiana, has been a city that we have dabbled in on previous journeys, but have rarely dug in as deeply as we might like. With our current status of having to having to stick a little closer to home due to job-related duties, easy weekend jaunts to places like Indy (in this case, a mere straight three hours west on I-70) have a very high desirability factor.

This first post of this mini-series is composed of highlights, but only in the sense that these three destinations either inspired our trip to Indiana's capital city in the first place or stuck out in our minds immediately as definite must visits. As it turned out, we found much more to keep us entertained during our stay, with the realization that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of things to do here.

Down Home & Absolutely Fabulous: The Ohio State Fair & Dolly Parton

Double the pleasure, double the fun: The Ohio State Fair & Dolly Parton

There was a brief time in my life, a bit cocksure and a lot less wise than I thought, when I felt I was too cool for the fair, no matter what its incarnations. I had graduated from the entry-level spin-laden midway rides to greater G-forces, the food was the same old burgers and dogs and lemonades, and the musical acts seemed geared to people much older than I.

The passage of time has a way of changing attitudes, and I am no exception - I have returned to the notion that the fair is one of the coolest things around.

Sure, some things remain the same, and The Ohio State Fair, in existence since 1850, has plenty of those elements. From the old school midway games to the marching band parades every few hours to arts and crafts competitions across all fields, these institutions have become the traditions that provide the base structure of the modern day event. And yes, every opportunity to raise your cholesterol a few points still remains an option at every food booth you see.

For me, the human element has become the most appealing aspect of the fair, whether it be the earnest efforts of children participating in their 4-H or Scouting activities, or the sometimes spectacular arts and crafts produced in that year's competitions, or the whimsical sets of the local train club and the wide-eyed kids watching a miniature B&O-styled locomotive line whiz by.

No Broken Hearts Here: Norah Jones & Ruby Amanfu (Palace Theatre, October 23, 2015)

Like to our trip to see the revival of Pippin earlier this year in Cleveland, our visit to see Norah Jones at her tour stop at Columbus' Palace Theatre was definitely more about my spouse's music tastes, as she was owner of Jones' first three albums. Not that I personally didn't like Jones' style of music: I myself own a copy and got a lot of enjoyment out of her debut album Come Away With Me, which has sold more than 26 million copies to this date and earned her numerous initial accolades. But as is the case with my ADD-riddled musical tastes, I figured I had pegged what I would get from Jones' future albums when her similarly-styled 2004 follow up Feels Like Home came on the scene.

Friday's concert showed both I had missed out on quite a bit of development by Ms. Jones on the musical front in the decade since I more or less stopped paying attention. Even my spouse, the more fervent fan but was slightly behind on Jones' album collection, found a surprise here and there that elevated the artist more in her mind

The night opened up with a beguiling artist in her own right in Ruby Amanfu, a Nashville-based singer with roots in the African nation of Ghana. Known more recently for her collaboration singing with country duo Sam and Ruby and guest duet appearances (most famously with the White Stripes' Jack White on "Love Interruption", a song off his first solo album Blunderbuss), she recently has returned solo artist status with her recently-released mostly-covers album "Standing Still". Her unique takes on lesser-known songs by a diverse cadre of artists (including Kanye West, Wilco and Brandi Carlisle) has received critical praise from media outlets like Rolling Stone magazine and NPR.

Even with all her performance history, Amanfu seemed a bit nervous and even giddy during her initial hello to the still gathering sold out crowd; perhaps she was realizing that she was performing as a solo artist for the first time in quite awhile. This feeling may have been amplified initially a bit by the setting, as her lone accompaniment on the stage (aside from the already set-up instrumentation for Norah Jones and her band) lay in the form of fellow Nashville-based musician, guitarist Johnny Duke.

However, Duke's subtle and supportive fretwork was perfect in combo with Amanfu's voice; her on-stage swaying and distinctive vocal phrasings on "Where You Going" (original by Jimmy Dale Gilmore) and "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" (an Irma Thomas cover), slowly mesmerized the gathering crowd's full attention to the stage. As her set moved forward, Amanfu continually expressed her thanks to Jones, her musical colleagues and the gathered audience all the way to her performance's finale.

Her next song, the plaintive "Cathedrals" from Jump, Little Children, was a crowd-pleaser and highlight for both of us. We found ourselves were mouthing lyrics like "In the cathedrals of New York and Rome/There is a feeling that you should just go home/And spend a lifetime finding out just/Where that is" without ever hearing the song before. Amanfu closed out her set with a few more songs off her album, including the Bob Dylan cover "Not Dark Yet" (a song she has previously performed live and is also included on the new LP) and a lovely closing number featuring her lone original song off her latest album, the pleadingly romantic "I Tried"

Of course, the vast majority of people here were here to see Ms. Jones, and she and the members of her very capable backing band The Candles received a rousing ovation as they took the stage. The first quartet of songs ("What Am I To You?", "Out On The Road", "I've Got To See You Again" and "Turn Me On") started laying out my preconceptions about what I would be seeing or hearing on stage on their head. Jones was confident, relaxed and playful from the start, and she and her band produced a smooth and strong sound that easily carried through the Palace Theatre, despite her jokes with audience members that were so "way up high" and "being in the dark" beyond the first few rows.

For their part, Columbus audience members clearly let Jones know they were out there and enjoying every note, and she rode this energy quite well. Whatever remnants remained of my preconceptions were pretty much ground into a fine dust when Jones seamlessly moved to an acoustic guitar for "Black", her contribution to producer Danger Mouse's 2011 spaghetti-western inspired album Rome.

Unbeknownst to both of us, Jones had branched out quite a bit from her piano- and jazz-oriented beginnings, delving into country and rock through numerous collaborations and side projects. She moved over to the electric keyboard for "It's Gonna' Be" and "Chasing Pirates" from her fourth album The Fall, then donned the electric guitar for the rollicking rockabilly-ish  "Don't Know What It Means" off her country side project Puss N Boots (along with Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper.) While Jones was the obvious focus, she allowed various band mates to show off their skills in the spotlight at various points of the concert.

After two more energetic renditions of "Lonestar" and "Stuck", Jones took the stage solo behind her piano for two from her debut album ("Painter Song" and the ubiquitous "Don't Know Why") mixed with two off her last 2012 Danger Mouse-produced album (the title track "Little Broken Hearts" and "Miriam".) "Painter Song" was something of a jaunty revelation compared to the more lazy and produced original, while "Miriam" was perhaps my spouse's favorite for the night, revealing a darker side of the singer we had no idea existed.

Jones and her band mates finished out their main set in fine style, including the New Orleans-styled bluesy romp "Sinkin' Soon" from the 2007 album "Not Too Late" and a cover of Neil Young's "Don't Be Denied", in which opening act Ruby Amanfu added her fine vocals (Amanfu and Jones exchanged a loving hug with each other after the song's end.)  After Jones donned the guitar once more "Come Away With Me" for the closing number, the audience's enthusiastic applause brought back a stripped-down edition of the band out for an encore.

After two songs off of her second album Feels Like Home ("Sunrise" and "Creepin' In", Jones and her band launched into an unintended bit of irony, ending the night her tandem contribution (along with bluegrass/Americana artist Gillian Welch) to the 2011"The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams", the playfully wistful "How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart." In reality, perhaps the only "broken" heart on this particular night belonged not to any audience member but rather The Candles' own bass player Josh Lattanzi, whom Jones had forgotten to introduce on stage and good-naturedly admitted to doing through her social media feeds after the show.

Norah Jones
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Ruby Amanfu
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You Can Rest Your Mind Assured: Stevie Wonder in Concert

Concert Event: Stevie Wonder, "Songs In The Key Of Life: The Performance"
Venue: The Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio
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My second move to California as a young kid started the expansion of my music appreciation levels. Up until then, my only exposure to music was related directly to my parents' tastes, which ranged from 1950s and 1960s era crooners (Perry Como and Tom Jones, for example) and whatever pop-music 45s my parents came home with.

A move to San Francisco brought me into contact with my Auntie Max. In her teenage years at the time, my aunt was firmly into the soul/rhythm and blues artists of the time - Earth Wind & Fire, The Stylistics, and so on. It was music like I had never heard at first, and I admit it didn't appeal to me at first.

However, my auntie was often our family's babysitter. And she was older than me. Guess who got control of the stereo more often than not?  Slowly but surely, my appreciation for soul music developed from simple exposure to it and a growing desire to explore genres of all types.

Similar to my appreciation for R&B music as a whole, my full appreciation for Stevie Wonder's music grew over time. My first real exposure was to his music was the big hits off his Grammy Award winning double-album "Songs In The Key Of Life." I didn't get into his albums at all, until I heard groups like the Red Hot Chili Peppers singing Wonder's praises (via their sizzling cover of his "Higher Ground") and Coolio's reworking of Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" into the monster hit "Gangsta' Paradise."

As I have discovered, "Songs In The Key Of Life" is the culmination of an incredible streak of creativity for Wonder, starting with 1972's "Talking Book", followed by "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale." The album cover, where Wonder's appears to be a center of a blazing star, is perhaps symbolic of his talent going supernova on this work - 21 ambitious songs that touched on love, social injustice, musical icons, spirituality and everything in between.

For me, this was an album that needed repeat listening sessions to fully appreciate its myriad of offerings. Also, it is a special album for my spouse and I: music has been one of our ways to express our true affections for each other, and the song "As", a slow-building-until-it's-smoking paean to eternal love, is truly one our personal favorites of those tunes. It was my spouse indeed who surprised for our dating anniversary with tickets for this Stevie Wonder concert at the Schottenstein Center, the focus of which would be the songs of this double album.

The word "performance" was prominent in the concert title banner displayed on the big screen before the show started, and this was for good reason: Wonder brought a full orchestra of backing musicians and singers, including some locally-based musicians acting as the string section and famous-in-her-own-right R&B star India Arie acting as both foil and Wonder's featured guest singer on some of the album's songs. The group's combined talent shined throughout as they provided tight and melodic backup with occasional extended jam sessions on the album's songs.

Wonder did his part to give individual praise to members of his backup band through impromptu vocal chatter and instrumental doodling, but this attempt to share the praise, along with an unexpected delay in the concert's start time, made what promised to be a long night that much longer. Quite a few people were cutting out by the second set's final number (the transcendent funk jam "Another Star"), though it wasn't from a lack of energy by Wonder and his band mates.

I have never seen the now 64-year-old Wonder perform live before, but he came across as relaxed and energized, just happy to be performing and doing his best to unite people toward something better through his message and his music as opposed to dealing with his own personal travails; in fact, he joked freely about these events in his life throughout the concert. He also knew his crowd well, getting off several "O-H!" calls to the audience (the audience appropriately responded, of course.)

His more serious and heartfelt messages were well received by the audience, including his address to the gathered crowd before the start of the show where he stated an individual who practiced hate was simply "blocking their blessings" from God and their loved ones.

Emphasis was placed on "The Performance", and Stevie Wonder and his
band mates did not disappoint, bringing people out of their seats
during rhythmic funk jams like "I Wish" and "Another Star"

With the performances all so uniformly well done, in many ways it's hard to pick out show highlights. For us, the triple funk combo of "Contusion", "Sir Duke" and "I Wish" near the beginning got people out of their seats (the performance was so tight that it got my spouse, who freely acknowledges she is somewhat rhythmically challenged on the dance floor, to jump up and dance, and pulling me, the more dance-inclined one, out of my seat to join her.) Also, many of Wonder's more introspective songs such as "Joy Inside My Tears" and "Knocks Me Off My Feet" gained more gravity for me in the live setting than they did on the studio album. My spouse especially loved the powerfully performed "Pastime Paradise" as well as "If It's Magic." The latter song, which was dedicated to the original harpist on the song, Dorothy Ashby, saw Wonder on the verge of choking up at times.

The acoustics in the Schottenstein Center were sometimes an issue, swallowing some of the more subtle vocal phrasings at times as well as a lot of the kid-recited mutli-racial/gendered-American history lesson in Wonder's powerful "Black Man." It did enhance the power of the rhythm section, though; the seats pulsed from the bass and drums even in the upper reaches of the arena where we were sitting.

Despite the late running of the show, and Wonder's claim that they had to stop performing by 12 midnight, the assembled musicians performed a quick encore. Wonder adopted the moniker of "DJ Tick Tick Boom" and threw out a quick melody of random familiar tunes, starting off with Slick Rick's "Children's Story" and following with some of his more famous compositions ("Do I Do", "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and the always incredible "Superstition".)

This concert is not really for casual Stevie Wonder fan: as wonderful as the album "Songs In The Key Of Life" is in my opinion, it is an album that resembles a wine that is meant for aging. Only with repeated listening can you truly appreciate the breadth and creativity that went into this double-album, and those who aren't familiar with the lesser-known tunes could easily find themselves squirming in their seats.

However, if you're more of a connoisseur of Wonder's work, this show is like manna from heaven, and Wonder himself looks as if he has a few more concert tours left in him as he enters his golden years of life.