March

I'm going to combine food and music in this post. First, the music:

24. Oxford American Music Sampler - 1999

I told y'all there would be several of these. This one is probably my favorite. It was the one that really hooked me on the OA and the music issue itself. Here are some of the artists that make it so great: Alex Chilton, Bob Dylan's "Oxford Town," The Flying Burrito Brothers covering "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," Jelly Roll Morton and John Prine...

Probably the most amazing part of the album is this sequence: A lovely, lazy Southern song by Terri Binion called "Locomotive"> Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl"> Isaac Hayes' "Do Your Own Thing"> June Carter Cash singing "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore." The first time I heard those songs back-to-back, I was blown away and impressed by the variety of genres represented in the OA - which of course was indicative of just how many different types of great music come from right here in the South. It made me proud.

25. Oxford American Music Sampler - 2001

Another great OA offering. This one begins with "Jesus is on the Mainline" by Mississippi Fred McDowell, a footstomping testimony of a song. Other highlights include "You Are Loved" by Victoria Williams, "The Lonesome River," a duet by Ralph Stanley and Bob Dylan, The Gants' "Little Boy Sad," Dolly Parton's upgrade to the Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road," and Emmylou Harris' stunning "Orphan Girl." The great thing about the albums is that the magazine features stories behind or about each of the songs. I have tried to save all my OA music issues because the stories are so good and it's a great education about our Southern music history.

26. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
I gave the Hold Steady a try not long ago, along with some other "new" groups, because I felt like my taste in music was kind of growing stale. I wasn't listening to any new music at the time, and I didn't want to become one of those people who say things like, "They just don't make music like they used to anymore." Granted, there's a LOT of crappy music out there these days, but this album and a few others like it let me know that it's not all that way. I wasn't totally blown out of the water by this album, but I do really like the songs and the fact that it isn't overproduced, auto-tuned-to-death music. It's just real rock.

27. Beck - Guero
I love Beck. He's probably near the top of my list of top 5 solo performers pretty much ever. I was excited when this album came out in 2006 because Beck went back to his roots for this one, both musically and in the subject matter (many of the songs are a nod to his days growing up in southern California amongst the Latinos there - "Guero" is a slang term for a white guy.) I don't think I've bought a Beck album since this one, so I probably have some catching up to do, actually. (Now you're saying, "What kind of fan are you?" But I rarely buy albums anymore at all. I need to fix this problem.)

28. Parliament Funkadelic - Greatest Hits, disc 1
Uncut Funk, the Bomb! I love P-Funk. I put this on this past week in preparation for the St. Paddy's festivities. Nothing gets you relaxed and in the mood to party like P-Funk. I wish they'd come back to Jackson. I saw them at Jubilee JAM years ago and even though George and the others are getting a little long in the tooth, they still put on an awesome show. Who else puts 30+people onstage at one time? I can't even imagine what their tour bus situation must be like.



29. Depeche Mode - Greatest Hits, disc 2

This is not my favorite of the 2-disc set. But it does have a good live version of "Everything Counts," so that is a redeeming quality. The rest of the songs are newer, I guess, and just don't have the same "oomph" of the earlier DM stuff.





30. The Clash - The Story of the Clash

There's too much I can say about the Clash. We'd be here all night. This album is kinda cool because it has some excerpts of interviews with the band, but I can't understand half of what they're saying.





Food:

We've had a busy couple of weeks, so our gastronomic trip around the world has slowed down a bit. We did draw Rome last weekend, so the BF whipped up Spaghetti all'Amatriciana for a Sunday lunch. Here's a recipe . He didn't follow this exactly (he uses Mario Batali's tomato sauce recipe), and he used regular bacon instead of pancetta, but it was still very delicious!

I drew Brazil for this coming weekend, so I'm looking forward to some meat dishes and general yumminess all around.