Tag: Rock

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Episode 49: Twenty-two Songs, Seven Encores and the Power of … Maybe?

In our first episode back from our vacation hiatus, we begin our recap of this year’s trip to Ireland, a country that is near and dear to us. We briefly talk about our visits to Dublin and Cork, using GPS to navigate, and the many (many) modes of transportation we used.

But we spend most of the episode talking about Bruce Springsteen’s fantastic show at Croke Park on May 19. Bruce’s 2023 show at Dublin’s RDS Arena was great and will always be a special experience, but this year’s show was really something. In front of 80,000 adoring fans from Ireland and around the globe, Bruce had a renewed energy, a strong voice, and a seemingly invincible spirit. The 2023 show, while uplifting and life-affirming as always, had somber, introspective moments that simultaneously made you feel glad to be alive but appreciate how fleeting it all is. This year’s show, on the other hand, convinced us that Bruce and the rest of us will live forever. 

Figuratively, at least.

Some highlights from his twenty-two song, seven-encore performance in Dublin:

  • Opening the show with “Lonesome Day” from The Rising, a pleasant surprise in its own right, and following it immediately with “Night” from Darkness on the Edge of Town, a diehard fan’s favorite.
  • Bringing back “Darlington County” from Born in the U.S.A., a song he might have left behind because of its comical (obviously pre-9/11) reference to the World Trade Center.
  • Giving Nebraska’s “Reason to Believe” a full E Street Band/ZZ Top-inspired treatment.
  • “Wrecking Ball,” the only song he played off of that album, which the crowd always goes crazy for.
  • “She’s the One.” Nothing else to add here, really. It’s simply one of the best songs ever recorded.
  • “Nightshift” from Only the Strong Survive, Bruce’s 2022 album of soul covers. This song lets the E Street Band’s great backup singers step into the spotlight.
  • A rousing, emotional “My City of Ruins,” a song he originally wrote for Freehold, NJ, that became a New York City anthem after 9/11.
  • An incredible set of encores featuring “Land of Hope and Dreams/People Get Ready,” “Born to Run,” and a cover of the Isely Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” (Dublin did not cut the power half-way through, unlike London when Bruce and Paul McCartney sang it at Hyde Park).
  • And the emotional crescendo of the evening: closing the show with a cover of the Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in SoHo” as a tribute to the late Shane MacGowan. We knew it was coming, but that did not lessen the impact.

We then talk (half-jokingly and half-seriously) about the power of saying “maybe” instead of “yes” or “no.” You know, we really might be onto something here!

And finally, we think we found the place where we will ultimately retire (God willing). But you’ll have to tune in to our next episode to find out where that is.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time! 

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Episode 47: Garland Jeffreys — 35mm Dreams

In this week’s episode, we first talk about San Antonio and its famous River Walk, which is a great place to visit. If you’ve never been there, check it out.

But we spend most of the episode discussing last weekend’s trip to the Milwaukee Film Festival to see a documentary about our good friend Garland Jeffreys. The film is called Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between. Garland’s wife Claire — also a good friend — wrote, directed, and put the film together with the help of editor Evan Johnson. 

We’ve talked about Garland and this documentary before, but this was our first opportunity to see the film in a theater with Claire. We also spent time with Claire and Evan before the screening, which was great. We talked to them about making the film and Claire’s life with Garland … and some other famous people.

This week’s episode also goes into how we got to know Garland and Claire and the many times we saw Garland perform over the years, from a street festival in Chicago in 2012 to his farewell performance at City Winery in New York in 2019. 

And we talk about brisket sandwiches. Which all ties together. You’ll see.

Anyway, it was such a special experience to share with Claire after all these years and we had a great time recapping the whole thing. 

So, we encourage you to see the film if you can and to get to know Garland’s music. You won’t be disappointed.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time! 

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Episode 46: Music for All Occasions

We take the title for this week’s episode from a 1995 album by one of our favorite groups, the Mavericks. But more on that later.

We start out with an update on our local walking club, which we joined a few weeks back despite some initial … hesitation. Turns out, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re glad we joined. Then we discuss our upcoming schedule. We will be out of the box for most of May, going to our youngest child’s college graduation followed by yet another trip to Ireland. 

At least we have excuses this time. And we’re telling you up front!

After that, we circle back to last week’s topic — mental health. And, in particular, how to manage your mental health on social media. This week’s story begins with an infamous comment by an infamous billionaire author who’s made it her life’s work to trash trans and nonbinary people, and what happens to normal people when they push back. We talk about the positive side of social media (that it can give you a voice when you feel like you don’t have one) and the negative side (that angry mobs will try to silence you if you challenge their narrow-mindedness). And then we talk about the strategies that work for some of us: Don’t engage the haters. Instead, go ahead and block them, mute them, and leave conversations to protect your own mental health. These strategies may not work for everyone, but they give many of us peace of mind while still allowing us to have our say.

We then turn to much happier topics: Seeing the above-mentioned Mavericks in concert this past weekend for what is at least the sixth, if not seventh, time. From the first time we saw them at a small club in the Chicago suburb’s touring in support of their 1994 LP, What a Crying Shame, to this most recent show, they’ve never let us down. Their music spans country, rock, blues, and Latin, but it’s all universally fun. And they’re fantastic musicians, which doesn’t hurt. They also have a new album coming out called Moon and Stars which will be available on May 17. We’re really looking forward to that.

Finally, we talk about an interesting new album called Petty Country: A Musical Celebration of Tom Petty. As the name suggests, the album consists of twenty covers of Tom Petty songs by a diverse group of country artists, including Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, the Brothers Osborne, Willie and Lukas Nelson, Margot Price, Wynonna Judd, Marty Stuart, Steve Earle, George Strait, and Rhiannon Giddens. We’re not entirely sure what to expect, but we’re looking forward to giving it a spin.

So, we hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time! 

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Episode 35: A Quieter Podcast … Sort Of

On this Week’s Episode: Haircuts. Heated conversations. Why people feel like they don’t have a platform when there are more platforms than ever. The Clash and the ethos of punk. Bruce in Ireland (again!) and how Little Steven trolled the haters. A chance meeting between Joe Strummer and Bob Weir. RIP and Pee Wee Herman and Tony Bennett. Johnny Cash always got it. And more!

So, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! And follow us on Twitter at @itsotetPodcast.

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Episode 30: 80th Birthday Tribute to Garland Jeffreys, the King of In Between

On this special joint episode of our two podcasts, In the Shadow of the Evening Trees and Two Minutes Fifty-Nine, we celebrate one of our favorite artists, Garland Jeffreys, who turned 80 on June 29.

To those who don’t know, Garland Jeffreys is a singer-songwriter from New York who wrote and performed some of the most influential, if not necessarily widely-known, music over a 50-year career from the late 1960s to 2018 or so. His first big hit “Wild in the Streets,” has been covered by multiple artists and featured in movies and on television over the years. He also traveled in the same circles as Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Willy DeVille, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls back in the day.

In this week’s show, we talk about how we connected with Garland, first through the music and later through social media, and how, in a weird sort of way, we lived parallel lives without knowing it. Which is to say, we both started having kids around the same time, which led Garland to pause his musical career and us to drop out of pop culture for awhile, as parents do when their kids are young. And so we both reemerged, in a sense, around 2011, and that’s when our paths crossed in real life. Since then, we’ve gotten to know Garland and his wife, Claire, we saw Garland play live in Chicago on multiple occasions, and we ultimately traveled to New York for his farewell concert five years ago.

It’s impossible to summarize Garland’s career or what his music means to us, but he and Claire are working on a documentary of his life and music called Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between (a fitting title, as we explain), and we’re hoping that it’s out soon. In the meantime, you can contribute to the pos-production costs here.

So, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! And if you’re new here, you can also follow our Twitter account, @itsotetPodcast.

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