Good Old War is a scruffy folk trio from Philadelphia, formed in 2007 by lead singer Keith Goodwin with drummer/accordionist Tim Arnold (his former bandmate in Days Away, who recorded a single album for the Fueled By Ramen label in 2005) and guitarist Dan Schwartz. Citing influences like Simon & Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the trio create songs that feel sweetly intimate with meticulously blended three part harmonies. Check out this amazing live performance of the song “My Own Sinking Ship” from their self-titled sophomore album released this past summer. If you like it, click here to get a free download of it.
Tom Bosley in Fiorello! – The Broadway Cast AlbumYesterday, Tom Bosley passed away at the age of 83. Though Bosley is best known and celebrated as the TV actor who played Mr. Cunningham on the show Happy Days in the 70s and 80s, he was also a celebrated stage actor, and in 1960, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the title character of Fiorello!, a musical based on the life and loves of New York governor Fiorello “The Little Flower” LaGuardia.
Debuting in the same season as Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, Fiorello! managed to tie with that musical for Tony Awards in four categories including Best Musical. Written by the team of composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick (the team who would go on to write Fiddler on the Roof) with a book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott, the show was also awarded the Pulitzer prize for drama, one of only a handful of Pulitzer Prize winning musicals. It ran for nearly two years, closing in October of 1961, and in those two years, Tom Bosley never missed a single performance (sucked to be his understudy).
50 years on, the show enjoys more a cult following than actual popularity. It’s rarely produced and it’s been overshadowed by Harnick & Bock’s later successes – Fiddler on the Roof, of course, which, when it closed, was the longest running musical in Broadway history, and later She Loves Me, which actually preceded Fiddler as a Broadway disappointment in 1963, but received a celebrated Broadway revival in the 90s. Despite its relative obscurity, Capitol Records’ cast album of the show has been reissued on CD a couple of times, and it’s well worth seeking out. Not so much for Bosley’s performance: Fiorello doesn’t really sing all that much, and when he does Bosley delivers the part with the kind of gung-ho salesman’s pitch shout-singing Robert Preston brought to the part of Professor Hill in The Music Man. Here he is on the stump as a mayoral candidate with a pitch he delivers in multiple languages and dialects in the song “The Name’s LaGuardia”.
But the score itself is a lot of fun, translating the colorful goings on of a corrupt political party in peril into the language of musical comedy via songs like the barbershop style waltz “Politics and Poker” and the second act showstopper “Little Tin Box”, both of which featured Howard Da Silva in a role that delivered him and his career out of McCarthy-era blacklist hell. The opening number “On the Side of the Angels” follows LaGuardia’s idealistic campaign team through the trials of working for that rarest of beasts – the upstanding politician. But one my favorite moments is Bosley’s fiery delivery of “Unfair” in which he helps a group of mild-mannered labor ladies on strike get in touch with their outrage.
Anyone with a thing for classic Broadway who doesn’t already have this cast album should go out and have a look for it. It really is a great score, and it’s especially fun to listen to in the midst of a vicious off-year election cycle, especially this year’s elections which seems to have brought us enough characters to populate several great musical comedies – and that’s just the New York gubernatorial debate. (“The Rent is Too Damn High” would make a great song title.)
The new American Idol judges are … exactly who we heard they would be.
Ryan Seacrest confirmed it on his Twitter account earlier today.
It’s official: your new #IdolJudges panel is @yo_randyjackson, @JLo & Steven Tyler! RT!
To me, Jennifer Lopez isn’t a surprise at all. Though not a very talented singer, she’s done more with her talent than almost anyone in the world of Hollywood and music. Did you see any other In Living Color dancers become the biggest female star in Hollywood and top the pop music charts? And, let’s not forget this; this show is in HD and Lopez still looks fantastic.
The surprise is Steven Tyler. For one, he’s not necessarily someone who I can completely understand when he speaks. His signature wail works on records, but doesn’t necessarily work on a show when it’s his job to critique singers to an audience of some 20 million viewers. Also, he’s almost too professional for these amateur singers. It’s the same reason Michael Jordan would never be a good coach. He’d expect too much out of players who can never be nearly as good as he is. I think it’s the same deal with Tyler. Unless he has the ability to see things that Simon Cowell could see, I really wonder how long Tyler lasts.
The last thing is that this show is still missing a Simon type of character who is the last word. It really didn’t matter what Randy, Paula, or Kara ever said. Simon had the last word and his word was the word that mattered. Who is going to be that judge this year? That’s where they are empty.
