Summer Songs

by Dee in Editorials, Honoring Lives, New Releases, Opinion Posts

Okay, I admit it.

I really, really, don’t like summer, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this, either.

I mean, we’re supposed to like it, even revel in it, with all of the big box retailers proclaiming “It’s Summer!” like we’re all supposed to come out of our homes and begin to barbecue on our perfectly sealed decks with humanely raised beef steaks and serve them up with heirloom tomato salads. 

I don’t like warm domestic beer, warm wine or any salad with mayonnaise that’s been sitting out in the sun for three hours, and I really don’t like sitting in traffic for ages to get to “Da Shaw”, where paying for parking and entrance to the beach just may cost more that filling up your tank to get there in the first place.

This is not my idea of a good time. 

But, just “going local” and visiting the local farmers’ markets makes me very, very happy.

Coming home with bags and bags of local produce inspires my inner cook, and here’s what I listen to when I’m making pesto, ratatouille and fresh tomato sauce for dinner:

Melody Gardot’s “Worrisome Heart”: It’s a short CD, but this very young jazz singer from Philly has certainly gone through things that we can’t imagine. Beautiful and soulful, it’s worthy of your attention.

Danielia Cotton, “Rare Child”: From her upbringing in Hopewell, NJ, here comes a true rocker who isn’t afraid to play “AC/DC’s” “Back In Black” in concert, or ask you to “kiss my black side”, LOL! She’s truly a force to be reckoned with, in the style of any good blues guitar player on the planet. She can also sing the blues, and break your heart while doing so. She should be a star; why she isn’t, I don’t know.

Tony Bennett, “Artists’ Choice”: I make absolutely no apologies for my love of the “Great American Songbook”. I just can’t get enough of Tony, Frank, Ella, Oscar, Duke, Rosemary, Billie…for me, this is the good stuff.

So, I was thrilled to find a used “Hear Music” compilation in a record store from 2003. Picked personally by Tony Bennett himself.

You might like music, you may love music, but you just might imagine that when you go to heaven, you’ll have Rosemary, Count Basie, Bing, Judy, Art Tatum, Walter Huston, Les Brown, Louis, Nat, Duke, Frank, Mel and Fred singing you in.

Who needs “The Boss”?