Readers’ Choice
Part Three
- Today’s theme is rock and roll and Deb Rooney uncovers a one-off 1995 performance featuring Melissa Etheridge and Bruce Springsteen duetting on Thunder Road
- Rock and rolling Harvey McKinnon offers a strong playlist of seven solid tunes by three different artists – veteran New Orleans band The Revivalists, Nova Scotia’s Matt Mays and US-based Grace Potter. Rock on, indeed!
The 4th Annual Readers’ Choice
Kurated readers share their favourite music of the last year in the annual Readers’ Choice series. Anything musical is welcomed whether its new, an old favourite, something self-composed and more. Thanks to all the contributors!
Stay tuned and enjoy,
02 January 2022
Deb Rooney
Vancouver, BC
My Favourite Duet: Bruce and Melissa!
Oh, yes! My choice for a favourite duet would be Bruce Springsteen and Melissa Etheridge singing Thunder Road together. Just the two of them with their guitars. It was a live performance, never formally recorded. Although they aren’t always perfectly in sync they’re pitch perfect and, somehow, the performance is the better for a bit of roughness.
The backstory I listened to on Sirius (which I hate for their creepy marketing practices, but they do have some intriguing stuff sometimes) went like this:
Etheridge wanted to do a duet with Springsteen and he accepted the invitation. They decided to do Thunder Road and discussed, then rehearsed, who was going to take what part (harmony or melody, high or low) and sing which line.
Etheridge had recently come out publicly and asked that she get one of the closing lines ‘So Mary, climb in’. She said in the interview that she was so thrilled to be doing this song with him and so engrossed in watching him rehearse his part that she kept forgetting to jump in with the Mary line near the end and they’d have to start over. So in the live performance, when she sings that line, you can see Springsteen smiling because she nailed it and got a big hand at the same time.
About Deb: Deb Rooney is a gleefully retired illustrator who continues to poke fun at the woes of the world through her drawings and cartoons
Harvey McKinnon
Vancouver, BC
7-song Playlist
plus Matt Mays full concert
These Three Artists
Three artists I spent a lot of time listening to in 2021 are The Revivalists, Matt Mays and Grace Potter.
The Revivalists
Change
Soulfight
Matt Mays
Released in 2021, the album From Burnside With Love (Live) is fantastic.
Station Out of Range
Tall Trees
Once Upon a Hell of a Time: Full concert on CBC’s Music First (46 mins)
Grace Potter
I had tickets to see her the night they shut down all shows because of COVID on March 13, 2020.
Back to Me
The Lion, The Beast, the Beat This one really starts rocking at 1:45
Release
About Harvey: Harvey McKinnon is an activist and fundraising consultant social isolating in Vancouver. He has published five books and loves comedy, theatre and music – especially live.
