The late singer-songwriter Greg Trooper gives an intimate performance in this video from 2016.
Today, I read some conspiracy theory crap on Facebook, which always makes me despair at what the Internet is doing to us. But then I find something genuinely uplifting I likely would never see without the Internet. And so I become more hopeful for humans. Today, I was uplifted when I ran across this live 2016 performance by the late Greg Trooper.
The video is from the East Village Folk Festival on June 12, 2016, with Trooper on stage at the off-Broadway Theatre 80 St Marks in New York. Trooper passed away around six months later on January 15, 2017 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.
Artists such as Steve Earle and Billy Bragg have recorded songs written by Trooper. But Trooper’s warm voice is in a class by itself, and despite his battle with cancer, he sounds perfect in this performance.
He was also a great songwriter. His warmth, compassion, and humor comes through his own lyrics as well as his voice. He sings about love, he sings about the dreams of a victim of abuse, he sings from the perspective of a homeless man, and he gives the best tribute ever to Muhammad Ali. And those are only the first four songs.
With a well-played old guitar, Trooper engages the audience here with several of his wonderful songs and a few stories. Check out the entire performance.
The songs in the set are: “This I’ll Do,” All the Way to Amsterdam,” “They Call Me Hank,” “Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas),” “Everything’s a Miracle,” and “Ireland.”
A modest baseball song by Kenny Rogers, “The Greatest,” offers a heartwarming lesson.
Anyone who was not an all-star in Little League Baseball will have to appreciate Kenny Rogers’s ode to the hopeful optimism of childhood with “The Greatest.” Released in 1999, it is one of the more heartwarming baseball songs, turning the strikeout tale of “Casey at the Bat” on its head.
Kenny Rogers always had a talent with story songs. If you discount his talent as being too pop, just compare his version of his greatest hit “The Gambler” to the recording of the song by Johnny Cash. Both versions were released in 1978, and while I think Cash is one of the all-time greats, there is a reason that Kenny Rogers’s version of “The Gambler” is the one we remember.
Rogers never had a story song surpass “The Gambler.” Around a year after that song’s release, his revenge tale “Coward of the County” became a top-ten hit in 1979. It is a catchy tune and became a TV movie in 1981, but it has not aged as well as “The Gambler.” The Chipmunks also covered “Coward of the County,” of course not near as well as Rogers, although their version has the advantage of being more chipmunky and deleting the rape.
“The Greatest” did hit the country charts in 1999, but was not much of a hit. It did spawn a book but no movie. I’d never even heard the song until very recently. That’s probably okay, as the song seems not to be trying to hard. It presents a modest tale about a young kid, with no life-and-death events as in “The Gambler” and “Coward of the County.”
Like “The Gambler,” the song “The Greatest” was written by Don Schlitz. Schlitz also co-wrote Randy Travis’s “Forever and Ever, Amen” and Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing at All” (also recorded by Alison Kraus).
Three Strikes!
“The Greatest” tells the tale of a young boy one afternoon tossing a baseball in the air and trying to hit it. Alas, he misses three times, striking himself out. Like many young children, the boy was dreaming of being “the greatest” while playing with the bat and ball We imagine his disappointment at striking out.
But a twist comes at the end. “The greatest” realizes he can still call himself “the greatest” as the greatest pitcher.
It is a sweet message about adjusting one’s perspective to see the best in ourselves. Check it out.
Michael Stanley, often categorized as a local rock legend, created some great music and meant a lot to people in the Cleveland area.
For those, like me, who spent the 1980s in Cleveland, the Michael Stanley Band played a large role in your life. The Cleveland radio stations played MSB songs so often, many of us in those pre-Internet days would be surprised to learn that the band was not well-known outside the Midwest. So, hearing that Michael Stanley died recently on March 5, 2021 from lung cancer at the age of 72, brought back a flood of memories.
Headlines announcing Stanleys’ death refer to him as “Cleveland’s Hometown Rock Hero,” “Cleveland Music Legend,” and “Cleveland rock legend.” There almost seems something unfair about localizing the importance of regional bands. The music Michael Stanley made with MSB, by himself, and with other bands, stands on its own as great rock music without a local qualifier.
Yet, I doubt Stanley would mind that the headlines emphasized his importance to people living on the North Coast, which coincidentally, was the name of the first Michael Stanley Band record album that I purchased. Stanley was proud of his connection to Cleveland, having made the choice to remain in that city as opposed to seeking wider fame by moving to New York or Los Angeles.
After the Michael Stanley Band dissolved in 1987, Stanley still performed music, sometimes with his old band members. And he stayed in Cleveland, working first on local news shows like PM Magazine. I remember it seemed odd to me to see the talented musician as a TV host, but he did a great job. His rock past and his voice, though, seemed more fitting for his job as a classic rock radio disc jockey, which he did from 1991 until his death.
Not surprisingly, Cleveland named a stretch of a major road after Stanley. There is no shame in being a local hero, and Cleveland was able to retain Michael Stanley even if the city could not keep LeBron James. Stanley made his stand in the Land in earnest, not long after Randy Newman started singing about Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River catching on fire in “Burn On.” He brought us together during tough economic times as our sports teams broke our hearts and when others outside Cleveland made jokes about the city. Stanley’s love of this town helped make us all proud of it.
Those who have the most impact on the world often work in smaller communities, helping their neighbors and bringing joy to those around them. Michael Stanley did all that and more.
And for those who listened in the 1980s and those yet to discover him, he left us with some great rock music. Some songs by the band did make the national charts, like “He Can’t Love You” (written and sung by Cleveland-born band member Kevin Raleigh).
And in 1983, the band had a 40 song, “My Town.” It earned Michael Stanley Band an appearance on the pop TV show Solid Gold and a rocking video of Stanley driving around Cleveland.
Michael Stanley Band also put on great shows, and I remember having a blast at a downtown free concert they gave one year. One of my favorite songs by MSB is “Lover,” which is one of the greatest songs of the decade anywhere.
So I like to think that somewhere in heaven right now, there are angels singing along, “thank God for the man who put the white lines on the highway.”
Jackson C. Frank’s life featured a lot of pain, but he also created great beauty with his 1965 folk album, which featured “Blues Run the Game.”
Jackson Carey Jones was born on March 2, 1943, later taking the surname of his stepfather to become Jackson C. Frank. Between the birth and his death at age 56 on March 3, 1999, Frank encountered many tragedies and released one of the great “lost” folk albums of the 1960s.
Paul Simon produced Frank’s 1965 album, Jackson C. Frank. The album failed to launch the career that Frank’s music deserved, although it influenced other artists and is loved by man today. The leadoff track, “Blues Run the Game” has been covered by several artists and appeared on TV and in movies.
Livin’ is a gamble baby, Lovin’s much the same; Wherever I have played, and Whenever I’ve thrown those dices, Wherever I have played, The blues have run the game.
A number of singers have since covered the song. Artists who covered “Blues Run the Game” include Nick Drake, Sandy Dennis, Counting Crows, and John Mayer. The wonderful TV series featured Frank’s original version over a montage giving the heartbreaking backstory of one of the characters.
Paul Simon would also record “Blues Run the Game” with Art Garfunkel. The song appeared on the Simon & Garfunkel box set Old Friends.
Frank would never release another album during his lifetime, although he did create more music (now available). His life seemed to be haunted. When he was eleven, a furnace exploded at his school, severely burning Frank and killing fifteen of his classmates, including his young sweetheart.
After recording his 1965 album, Frank suffered from depression and other mental and physical health problems. At one point he was homeless. He died of pneumonia in Massachusetts in 1999.
The following short clip from a Buffalo news stations gives a little more information about his life.
I only discovered Frank’s music recently after seeing a reference on Twitter. It is clear he was a great talent, so it is no wonder that he is well-respected despite the unfortunately small amount of music we have from him. Check out more of his music if, like me, you are new to his work.
In 1970, Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge met on an airplane flight, leading to Kristofferson getting off the plane with Coolidge in Memphis instead of continuing on to his planned destination of Nashville. The two would eventually marry. Although the marriage would not last, the two made some great recordings, including performances of Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
In the 1972 UK live performance below, a viewer can easily see that the two are captivated by each other. Kristofferson does not take his eyes off Coolidge and the two are touching or nearly touching throughout the song.
The performance appears to capture two people intensely in love in the time leading up to their marriage the following year. Or maybe they were just acting. You be the judge.
In 1978, Kristofferson and Coolidge both appeared on an episode of The Muppet Show. During that episode, Coolidge sang her hit song “We’re All Alone.”
On the episode, Kristofferson did sing “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” But he had a new partner, Miss Piggy.
Kristofferson and Coolidge divorced in 1980 after a rocky marriage reportedly marred by Kristofferson’s alcoholism and infidelities. The two had a child, created some great music, and got through some lonely nights together.
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” originally appeared on Kristofferson’s self-titled 1970 album. The album also features other classics written by Kristofferson, who recently retired.
