As attentive readers will recall, long-time Friend of PowerPop© Allan Rosenberg, aka Capt. Al, has been toiling on a series about his fave recent artists for us for a while now. (The first installment of these musical musings, about Feist, appeared here back in July.)
And now, without further ado, here's the next to last installment. Take it away, you old sea doggie!!!]
Welcome to the “Best Rock&Roll Music of the 21st Century, Part VII”, by Captain Al!!!
We now come to the section where I honor the best utility players on the field. All all-stars in their own right, these great women musicians don’t get the recognition their solo careers deserve but are nonetheless masters at their position.And because I'm a big time fan of Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women I’m going to start by mentioning some of the greats who were, in fact, the Guilty Women.
Cindy Cashdollar:
Cindy is not just one of the great women slide/pedal steel players, she is simply one of the greats! She’s also very modest, as my one 30 second conversation with her proved to me, but you'll have to take that on faith.
Lisa Pankratz:
The short version: Pankratz is one of the most jaw droppingly good drummers of either gender I’ve ever seen! One time at an end of a performance I witnessed, the rest of the band left the stage while she remained behind the drum kit totally exhausted. She just sat there unable/unwilling to move while she got herself back together (and felt proud of herself at how good she had just been) before exiting the stage. Yes, I’m just imagining that, but in my mind it’s true! And I bet you I’m correct!!! 😎
Christy McWilson:
Mcwilson? She sings like a feisty (heh) angel! Christy has released solo albums, been the singer of the 1990’s band The Picketts (they’re wonderful) and sang with Dave Alvin for decades! Here she is with Dave & The Guilty Women singing one of her original songs “The Weight of The World”.
Kristin Mooney:
And now we take a break from les femmes coupables, although the spirit remains the same. Anyway, besides sporadically releasing her own solo work, Mooney has sung with Peter Himmelman, on the road with The Pretenders and is a top studio session vocalist. Here she is performing on Peter’s “Furious World” webcast show and nailing the song “Let Me In." Originally, this was a song Peter featured on, but as you can hear, she sang it so brilliantly it became totally hers.
Okay, everybody -- thank you guys for sticking around for this series, and I hope you've enjoyed it. Next time, i.e. in the final entry, I'll feature my very favorite performer of our current century.
And I bet you’ll never guess who she is!
--- Captain Al
Hmm. I'll take that last as a challenge, mon ami -- and I can't wait to find out. In the meantime, thanks again for hipping us all to some very cool artistes.
And oh yeah -- actual new posting (from the Paris of actual France -- NOT from Forest Hills, the Paris of the Northeast) resumes demain!!!
2 comments:
this is a side topic in response to the "21st Century" title - the rodgers and hammerstein song is from about the time i was born - the equivalent song from my 20ish era is todd rundgren's "we gotta get you a woman" - todd is a year younger than i
sometimes i say i'm a time traveler from the first half of the twentieth century - it's true, but no machine - just one day at a time
i haven't been in paris since the twentieth century, either - as your people say, "enjoy!"
Cristy McWilson’s The Lucky One from 2000 is a beautiful record, as is Bed of Roses, both produced by Dave Alvin.
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