"August: Osage County" (2013)

Powerful drama-around-the-family-table with dream cast and five producers standing behind it.
Tracy Letts  theatre play must have been sensation on the stage and acting in it cathartic for actors involved - now its successfully translated into big screen and boy, is it a strong movie or what. Huge amount of energy and talents are amassed here and most surprisingly is how everybody in this huge cast gets his chance to shine, it is really hard to imagine anyone else in this roles now, its almost as someone dreamed "hey, if we make a movie out if this, who would you like to have in it?"

Meryl Streep is a matriarch from Hell who drives her gentle, soft-spoken poet husband (Sam Shepard) into suicide and in the aftermath of his funeral the family is assembled around the family table, where all the Hell breaks loose. In a heart-wrenching sequence after sequence we follow as parental cruelty creates more unhappiness and cruelty in a vicious circle that never ends and only continues to grow like cancer in Streep's character mouth. Just like Violet (Meryl Streep) herself once suffered at the hands of her own mother, now she is the one who tortures everybody around her and her nastiness spreads around like some infectious disease , affecting not only the youngest, third generation but even innocent bystanders. Even when Violet doesn't spit insults from her cancerous mouth, just her presence and Medusa-look is enough to affect everybody present.

Just as she probably emotionally blackmailed her late husband to the point he could not take it anymore, Violet now manipulates and pulls the strings above her three daughters and its fascinating to watch energy between them. There is the strongest Barbara who has all the predispositions to became her mother (Julia Roberts), soft and self sacrificing old maid Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and a family bimbo (Juliette Lewis) who is basically constantly overlooked,hushed or screamed at. The rest of the family - aunts, husbands, boyfriends and children - are not just a background but all deeply involved with their own dramas. At the end the only single person who has not had meltdown is quiet, recently employed Native Indian (Misty Upham) stunned in her shock of what is going on around her.

As expected, Meryl Streep is nothing less than brilliant, though in this role she comes very close to latter-day Bette Davis. We watch her in horror as she gleefully throws arrows around her in painkillers-induced drug stupor, just to watch even bigger horror her sudden look that wordlessly express she knew everything all along and not a single family secret has ever escaped her. The most fascinating thing about this movie is how it suggests that Meryl Streep is passing her crown to (gasp) Julia Roberts who more than holds her own, in fact Roberts shows such a huge range of emotions here that it caught me completely by surprise - never in a million years I suspected she has it in her and years (nah, decades) in blockbusters behind her only bored me so far. Now I must re-think this.

Old photographs: Amsterdam and Zagreb a century ago

Two beautiful old photographs from beginning of last century, both made in two cities I am very familiar with.

Years ago, when I still lived in Amsterdam, there was a exhibition about classic photographs taken on the streets around the city some 100 years ago. One of those photos was made into beautiful poster (for which I specifically searched the whole town over) and this was the poster I had back than proudly displayed on the wall at my work, to everybody's pleasure. It was a long time ago and I couldn't for the life of me remember the guy's name but thanks to Internet I somehow re-discovered it again and its here to grace my virtual world now: photographer is Jacob Olie and he was a wonderful talent who lived long ago, this picture was taken on the streets of Amsterdam in 1902.

Even more fascinating is this photo taken in my own hometown Zagreb - fascinating because there is absolutely nothing recognizable today on present location. If it wasn't for other people's comments, I would never in a million years recognize the street where I used to pass daily on my way home - "Pod zidom" ("Under the wall") right in the shadow of today's big open air market place Dolac with its colorful red umbrellas and flowers. Nobody knows what year this photo was taken but its wonderful reminder how the street looked back than, not one single building is here right now. Only the street probably follows the same path. I guess lots of people imagined I must be very lofty to actually live right in the centre of historical part of Zagreb, but in reality this ancient little houses were just a slum with distinctively unsophisticated living conditions, tiny apartments crammed with impoverished characters and not only that often one floor would share WC (no bathrooms) but almost everyone used firewood for heating even during 1980s when I lived there. Absolutely nothing elegant about it, except if one imagines himself being some kind of bohemian artist. But its true, the heart of town was right outside my door. I wonder does anybody even thinks today, as they are sipping their cappuccinos during fashionable walk in centre, about faces in the windows above. Present but invisible at the same time.

New Silent Movies - "The Artist" and "Blancanieves"

To my biggest surprise, I just saw - and truly enjoyed - two new silent movies made recently, not by coincidence both in Europe.

As a lifelong admirer of silent movies, I was initially very suspicious when I heard about French movie "The Artist" and even awards that showered it could not convince me this is not just a gimmick.
Until I saw the movie.
It is a love letter to old silent movies made with great sensitivity, joy and passion - kind of "Singin' in the Rain" story about silent stars falling sideways while talkies took over, with two main stars positively glowing on the screen. I honestly don't remember when was the last time I saw somebody lighting the whole screen with a smile, the way Jean Dujardin and lovely Bérénice Bejo do here. Pure magic. I guess everybody is feeling surprised how much they enjoyed it even though it has no special effects, science fiction space shuttles or anything acrobatic - its light-hearted, funny, romantic and wonderfully entertaining experiment.

Strangely enough, Spanish "Blancanieves" was written in 2003 but it had to wait for finances until it was finally done in 2012, when of course "The Artist" had already stole the thunder and overshadowed this beauty, which in my opinion is even better. As much as I loved "The Artist", this Spanish re-telling of Brother Grimm fairy tale is far superior, darker and yes, more original. It turns "Snowhite" completely upside down, placing it in contemporary Sevilla with bullfights, matadors and flamenco dancers. The cinematography is truly   spectacular and although everything is black-and-white, it has a very powerful imagery - one simply can't stop watching it. We know the story, yet it is twisted and turned around so playfully that viewer never know what to expect since this Spanish Snowhite has her own life that only vaguely reminds us on its origins. And the music score is just fantastic.

I must also add that by some technical mistake I had to read "subtitles" in both movies in their original languages, French and Spanish - and I was just fine perfectly understanding everything since silent movies live in their own universe where language is unimportant.

"The Complete Collection of Songs and Spiritual Albums" by Leontyne Price

My very first purchase in 2014 was 12 CD box titled "The Complete Collection of Songs and Spiritual Albums" by celebrated American soprano Leontyne Price.
I can't resist to a nice packaged CD box and have already similar collections by Montserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne - sure, it takes me forever to actually go trough so much music and to be honest, perhaps I would be better off with "The best of" compilation but its usually a curiosity to hear lesser known and now forgotten complete albums that drives me to buy these collections + they have good, remastered sound and original album covers so who can resist.

Just like her name suggest, Leontyne Price is a lioness with a instantly recognizable, fierce and dramatic voice - her discography is so huge that RCA Victor decided to omit her operatic work and concentrate here on complete albums of her spiritual and "song" collections. Like some brilliant link between Marian Anderson and Jessye Norman, Price truly shines on her spiritual albums (particularly on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" from 1962) though I find her whole albums focused on art songs of for example Samuel Barber perhaps less instantly likable - where with spirituals and hymns I love both music and singing, when it comes to "art songs", Berber, lieder and such, here my concentration suddenly wonders off. Like in "box of chocolates" I stumbled quite unexpectedly upon 1964. recording of "El Amor Brujo" piece by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla here and its a joy - for some time now, I loved "Iberia" by Isaac Albéniz and this is just as good - truly delicious, distinctive Spanish music (Fritz Reiner conducted Chicago Symphony Orchestra and it is a perfect setting for Price). This might easily be the highlight of the box set.

The most surprising is actually her take on famous "Four Last Songs" by Richard Strauss ("Grammy" winner for 1974.) that sound strong, powerful and not unlike later similar recording of Jessye Norman - I always assumed that Norman single-handedly turned this work inside out, but now I realize this was not a case, Price was there before. Another curiosity is collaboration with André Previn ("Right as the Rain" album) where she changes that famous powerhouse voice into more intimate, sensual croon - very interesting crossover album. Also included here are two Carnegie Hall concerts (from 1965 and 1991) where Price sounds even stronger on later recording. Just as is usual the case with this kind of "collected album" box sets, it all boils down to subjective preferences and even those can probably change with times - magnificent and dignified singer though, the voice is truly regal and unusually versatile.

BBC's "Planets"

Just watched BBC documentary "Planets" with greatest interest and moment ago finished the last episode, still dizzy from excitement and ideas.

The world of science is amazing and ever inspiring - we made some really fast progress in the last few hundreds years; each step, each new idea fighting to be accepted because human nature is prone to suspect, doubt and reject anything that is clashing with old ways. Most of these scientists, old and wrinkled as they might be today, still have wonderfully alive spark in their eyes as they talk about their discoveries and why this is so important for humanity. Russians, Americans, French, Indian.. they are dreamers who dared to follow their dreams even when experiments were disastrous and sending probes into space often meant exactly that. There was a funny story told by a elderly Russian scientist who was building machine that would examine signs of life on Mars - just before machine was being send, they decided to experiment on Earth first and it didn't show any signs of life here either! So its all about hit and miss.

With all this fascinating informations we have today about our solar system, its history and probable future, detailed pictures of Moons around Jupiter and Saturn, our own little pale dot so tiny in universe and even new science that tries to find other stars and solar systems outside ours, its really amazing that people here on Earth still follow such nonsense as religion. I really can't believe that with all this scientistic evidence of life creation, universe and planets, there are billions of uninformed humans who simply refuse to open their eyes and educate themselves - even trough well made TV documentaries if they can't be bothered to read - I really, really don't see the point of church, priests, confessions and all that circus at this point when we are gazing at the distant stars and discovering things so far away. We are intelligent beings, formed from a star dust brought here on all kinds of comets from far away trough billions of years ago. And just as our world is dazzlingly varied, the world out there must be even more varied - perhaps not necessarily friendly, who knows - we might end up simply as a food for someone out there, I wouldn't be surprised. Just looking back at our own past, when cultures meet often there would be all sorts of epidemics sweeping the unknown territories.
I truly enjoyed watching "Planets".

The Record Of Singing 1899-1952

A staggering 10 CD collection that attempts to cover earliest days of gramophone recordings from 1899 to 1952, its classical music stars and artists preserved for posterity in their various singing styles, divisions by different types of schools and background. Apparently this massive volume was first published as 12 LP box back in 1977 but there were some confusions about the right pitch and this has all been corrected now.

This huge, wonderful collection is a true cornucopia overflowing with ancient recordings that go back as far as 1899 and it showcases voices from long gone eras and what was popular back than - right at the start we are treated with the last known recording of true castrato Alessandro Moreschi and contrary to expectations, his voice sounds actually very alien to modern ears (more like old woman's wail than thing of beauty we read about) which has probably more to do with our point of reference than any recording imperfections. For every Moreschi there are dozens of fascinating voices like Adelina Patti, Nellie Melba, Geraldine Farrar or Mary Garden - and gentlemen like Pol Plançon, Edouard de Reszke, Enrico Caruso and Leo Slezak.

Naturally this kind of collection serves not only as a time capsule to a world long gone now (a true time machine) but also as fascinating introduction to some lesser known voices (at least for me) and introduction to dazzling talents of singers like Nikolay Figner and his wife, Dimitri Smirnov (a Russian counterpoint to Beniamino Gigli), Marcel Journet, Elvira De Hidalgo (singing teacher of Callas) and countless of others who worked, lived and breathed during 78 era and were actually loved and celebrated way back.
Naturally it makes one wonder about fleetingness of fame and how much our lives actually leave the mark - on many instances here, these artists have inspired young generations who came after them and who in turn, created something else, completely original on their own. Contrary to accepted belief, I don't find so many of earlier singers superior to what came afterwards - its simply that public taste had changed and new recording techniques pushed the envelope, I am absolutely sure that listeners in 1912 would equally be impressed with amazing vocal feats of Marilyn Horne or Joan Sutherland if they had a chance to hear them.

Višnja Korbar Zlatna Kolekcija

So far the best career retrospective of "Croatian Milva" this "Golden Collection" is divided between two CDs, one for each face of her music.

Nostalgic radio listeners would recognize CD1 as testament to her (now extremely rare) EP and single recordings from 1960s/early 1970s when velvety-voiced Višnja Korbar graced many pop festivals stages. Its a joy to hear many of these old songs now remastered and still sounding good, because she truly was one of the best voices around, even though like so many other singers at the time her repertoire heavily relied on international covers - when in 1968 she finally got her own originals ("Subotnje veče") it was a glowing bossa nova that pointed what a sophisticated singer Korbar could be with the right material. However, maybe Korbar's resistance to face commercial aspects of music business dwarfed her visibility on pop scene (as Siniša Škarica's informative liner notes point, its a Sisyphean task to avoid mainstream in this industry) and though she might have cautious and selective with her choice of right music, this approach never paid off as at the end of the day she was "pop schlager" singer without a hit.

Some other factors also contributed - the most impressive moment in her discography ("Zbog jedne davne melodije") was not included on "Opatija 70" album (or any single), planned TV shows were cancelled, technical difficulties botched up her first (and only) LP album, international job offers were refused and her involvement in Croatian version of "Les Miserables" was aborted when show was taken off the program (and a year later became huge hit on London's West End).

When in 1966. Korbar was invited on regional festival "Krapina" that promoted music with strong local village flavor (therefore, interesting only for locals) it was just a nice offer from her birthplace - in her wildest dreams Korbar couldn't possibly imagine this will be her home for the rest of career. Here, far from big national festivals and on a fringes of business, she thrived trough waltzes, polkas and what is best described as Croatian "country" - CD 2 presents her "other life" on stages of regional festivals where local dialect naturally limited visibility of this kind of music. Seems that Korbar found far more pleasure in happy ditties like "Šala bila,šala bu" than anything she had done earlier in her Gershwin covers - here finally she had found her true home and seems that she accepted this kind of music as her destiny. It is not by any stretch bad, only somehow a bit letdown to hear this magnificent voice languishing so far from a limelights.

Elvira Voća Zlatna Kolekcija

Elvira Voća (b.1942) was one of ubiquitous names in 1960s and 1970s Croatian music scene, one of those also-runners on numerous pop festivals so popular back than but for the life of me I can't remember any of her big hits and I doubt she ever had any. Not that anything was wrong with her - she had a pleasant voice and was attractively coiffured blonde - but at the end of the day she always sounded as whitewashed copy of already well established Gabi Novak and her repertoire was so darn unadventurous that she seems to have passed her life unwittingly attempting something that was far beyond her.

CD1 tries to recapitulate Voća's pop career and at the end of the day it all falls on listing countless festivals where she performed - there is nothing offensive here but nothing of much interest either. Voća croons gently again and again trough her "schlager" repertoire like some good natured neighbor lady who imagines herself like a singer - having famous and influential husband couldn't hurt - but when she covers everything from Engelbert Humperdinick to Abba or Stevie Wonder, I really think WTF this was fight with windmills, five decades and not a ripple left behind. I mean, who cared besides Elvira herself? Deep down inside, she was probably forever star struck winner of amateur contest who saw herself fit to bore audiences with her thin voice for decades. The only mildly interesting track here is cute, rare early 1960s single recorded in Italy when her little chirp got her noticed over there (kind of early Mina music) before she returned home and had sunk in mediocrity. She might boast about performing on 365 festivals (guess who had arranged this?) and no one ever cared.

CD2 collect her work on regional festivals in Krapina and Slavonija - this is a fairly uninteresting stage, to be honest, a place where artists who were never successful nationally found their home, singing waltzes and polkas in local dialect. I am not being cynical when I think this is what famous composers used to promote their wives. Here Voća crooned forever, year in, year out, without ever inspiring anyone or leaving any trace of her life work. To be fair, in this kind of music she is perhaps passable because there were no big names to overshadow her. No doubt, there must be audience for this but its simply Sunday afternoon radio fodder, nothing more.

Bruno Petrali

Brainchild of composer Mario Kinel, Bruno Petrali (b.1925) happened to be young radio presenter with fine voice that Kinel needed for his ideas.
Post-WW2 Yugoslavia was not exactly the best place for pop music (considered "opium for masses") and re-building of war-torn country was considered far more important task than entertainment, however people at Radio Rijeka used their proximity to Italy to translate than-popular hits from San Remo and Italian repertoire to Croatian language and in process they not only promoted some local artists but also got some serious home-grown discography at the time when not many people even owned gramophone.

Complete Petrali's discography (1955-56) is collected here on this compilation CD and he was actually very good - less wooden than more known Ivo Robić and Zvonimir Krkljuš, Bruno Petrali was a fine crooner with a tender, masculine voice who was clearly inspired with Italian singers popular at the time (Alberto Rabagliati and Ernesto Bonino) and their repertoire, he even sings in excellent Italian language and his songs sound surprisingly well when compared with originals. Most of them were note-for-note covers with lyrics translated by Mario Kinel who was lifelong admirer of Italian sound and used all his energies in promoting it as popular music, often completely ignoring what was popular in US at the time (consequently, rock music would arrive to Yugoslavia dressed in Italian covers). Petrali himself later turned to theatre and journalism, since singing was not considered a proper job. his 1950s work mostly forgotten until CD release unearthed this chapter of his life.

"Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim

Last night I felt inspired to watch a movie made from Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd" and I honestly must say I was truly surprised - shocked even - with everything. I know Sondheim of course as a Broadway genius but for some reason I was not familiar with this particular story.

What a strange, bizarre story this is - worlds away from what I imagined Sondheim musical would be - its roots are deep in 19th century pulp fiction that used to be published in chapters that would thrill newspaper audiences back than and there is something so strongly chilling and repulsive in subject that it survives time and lives on in various disguises on theatre, radio, stage and screen to this day. Tim Burton is clearly inspired with this story about revenge-turned-obsession, cannibalism  and social injustice - the sets are magical (London never looked so grim and horrifying) and even though the stars are not really singers, they pull it off because its not about singing really anyway. The story itself is so fascinating that music is actually in the background here, it was not until I finished watching that I realized Burton had cut of a lot of original music and he had focused more on visual spectacle, a grotesque, dark and disturbing vision of true horror. I was repulsed and couldn't take my eyes off the screen to the end. Fascinating.

As opposite to Tim Burton screen adaption, original 1979. stage cast album is a truly Sondheim work trough and trough - where Burton wallows in visual effects, blood spurting and dark skies, this recording is all about acting, talk-singing and music that suggest everything. I must confess that naturally this is very enjoyable once I had seen the movie so now I can place songs in their contest. Stephen Sondheim is a genius and this is probably the most completely perfect work I have heard from him so far, everything is done by perfection and there is a lot of fascinating little details, leitmotif, strange harmonies and almost operatic sweep that probably works excellent on a stage. Singers are much better than in a movie version - again, it is not about a beauty of voices but about expressiveness and wink & nudge that poke the listener all the time. This original cast was showered with all kinds of awards, including "Tony" for Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury and their director, outstanding musical of the year and so on. Its funny how even with this grim, horrifying story I found myself humming along to "Pretty Women" and "Not While I'm Around", two songs that shine the most out of their original roots and had lived on trough countless other versions since.

Joni Mitchell

For the past few days I have been intensively listening to music of Joni Mitchell whom I consider one of the greatest artists of 20th century so I might as well add some of my musings about this awesome Canadian lady. She is considered to belong in the holy trinity of pop songwriters - Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Joni are recognised as best in genre and though there are great differences between them, they influenced generations of musicians and inspired a lot of listeners around the world, with amazing body of work that works outside of "entertainment" and functions as intellectual food - in my case, I always found Joni a perfect soul-nurturing music that keeps my brain occupied. Where I need courage to face Dylan and have to be in right frame of mind to enjoy Cohen, I never had any problems with Mitchell who is a poetess of first order. All three of them were product of 1960s folk movement where focus was on interesting, original lyrics, all three had great success with hits covered by other artists and all three experienced occasional slip downward when moving away from pop format that audience expected. Where Cohen was never strong in music and often I find his albums unadventurous examples of dour repetition, both Dylan and  Mitchell fast outgrew their confessional folk roots and moved around in unexpected directions, as true artists would - even if this worked against commercial success, there was always a passionate cult following that supported them trough thick and thin to this day.

For me,  Roberta Joan Anderson is a ghost from cold, windy Canada. There's no way one can put her in the same category as Joan Baez, Judy Collins or any of the 1960s songbirds with guitar from that era, no matter how fiercely intelligent those other ladies were (or any of 1970s that followed) Mitchell always had that extra quality that placed her above competition - and she herself always hated being described in terms of "female songwriters" because in her opinion its unfair, disparaging and chauvinistic to box any artist this way. Come to think of it, nobody talks about Beethoven and Mozart in terms of "male artists" so there is something in what she is saying. Trough the years Mitchell's strong personality and opinions made her look like somehow aloof and (to put it mildly) disappointed in music business, hence her recordings are far and in between, specially as she focuses on painting and does not really care much about being saleable. Her early work (late 1960s/early 1970s) is my favourite, easiest to understand and still solid confessional songwriting. From mid-70s  she started to experiment with free form Jazz music, which is all fine for artist who wants to spread her wings above expected but as the subject of her songs became more vague, even her music somehow lost focus and she had lost quite a lot of followers (and baffles me as well). Mitchell whizzed trough 1980s more or less completely ignored and if she got noticed later it was always when she would tone it down and work in recognisable frame of whatever pop song means for her nowadays - she is showered with great awards today and people love her (old) songs but I have feeling that as musician Joni had moved so far away from mainstream that her later music is simply too cryptic for most of listeners.

Ah yes, how on earth I had ever discovered Joni - well,it was thanks to my Croatian rock diva Josipa Lisac who always talked about her in interviews so naturally I had to find out who this Joni person was, imagine my surprise when I discovered it was actually a woman. Because her albums were actually not released in Yugoslavia, the only one I stumbled upon completely by accident was one of her most uncompromising Jazz experiments from late 1970s ("Mingus") that totally confused me and for the life of me I couldn't understand why was my powerhouse vocalist infatuated with this strange, cold woman. Of course today I have her complete discography.

"Songs To A Seagull" (1968)
When Joni Mitchell today dismisses her early work, I believe its probably similar to embarrassment we feel looking at our high school pictures - in the meantime she outgrew this skin and moved on to new worlds, however the fact that her 25 years old self moves me so much even now (and I'm 44) speaks not only about the brilliant, white-hot imagination she had back than but also of my own soft spot for intelligent lyrics, poetic stories and simple music that don't need tons of backing musicians. This is not a communal experience - its a kind of album one listens alone, I always find "Songs To A Seagull" absolutely hypnotic and strange as it sound, true to myself, almost spiritual experience. Similar to reading a book that one can't shake off, this simple voice-and-guitar album is a collection of haunting, dreamy songs with a twilight atmosphere - even in a such crowded competition as 1960s acoustic folkie girls, Mitchell was standing head and shoulders above anybody around I know. Yes, its a thin voice of some arty, brainy little white girl (its easy to imagine her even if one is not familiar with the way she looked than) who probably adored poetry and foreign movies, but resistance is futile, I really, truly love this music and will always love it. This morning I had attempted to listen her 1980s work and found it insufferable ("Chalk mark in a Rainstorm" anyone?) - strange how Mitchell herself thinks her later work is more important but its this early stuff I find very powerful, not her later ecological ramblings.

"Clouds" (1969)
Gentle acoustic folk musings with clearly more confident sound - not that I ever doubted Mitchell's confidence, but where on previous album she was ethereal siren singing from some distant fog, here she could be next door beauty going trough her own poetry and diaries. It could as well be that young lady tapped in her own resources of dreams and realized this actually works, hence slightly firmer tone of her songs. It is still a quintessentially 1960s collection ready made for anyone to sing along with a guitar, a precocious arty little thing who spreads her wisdom while consciously ignoring pop fluff that (gasp) sells. Yes, perhaps she was a bit too young to sing about all that melancholy, doom and gloom but it certainly had its appeal and followers - Baez and Collins could occasionally write a song or two, but not a whole album worth of poetry like this. Both "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now" were already hit singles in covers by Judy Collins and its interesting to compare them to Mitchell's own versions. A haunting "Songs to Aging Children Come" is a highlight here, Mitchell using her delicate voice effectively harmonizing with herself, circling around the melody like some satellites around the star. "Grammy" that graced this album is in my opinion not for improvement over her previous debut as much for media visibility that resulted in higher charting and better sales - I still find "Songs To A Seagull" indefinitely more interesting and original than this album, which basically continues guitar-and-voice path. Mitchell produces and paints the beautiful cover.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Remember Audio books?
I certainly do and that is why I bought a CD with a novel "84 Charing Cross Road" as a gift for a friend. Needless to say, its still here with me almost 2 years after, unpacked, waiting to be sent eventually. So last night I decided to hear it for myself as I had actually never read the novel. What I do remember is the almost purring pleasure of listening something that has been recognized as a quality story, read by excellent actors with the just perfect acting ability. I also remember having some audio tapes long ago (bought in London's bookshops) and listening "radio-drama" program in my childhood it is probably grown up equivalent of storytelling.

"84 Charing Cross Road" moved me profoundly. I listened and listened, smoked and smoked, gulped the tears, laughed out loud with joy and sighed heavily with emotions ready to burst - I have almost forgot that post WW2 UK was impoverished country and packages with foods that bookworm lady from New York was sending to this little bookshop was like best Christmas present for all the people who worked there. Being bookworm myself I easily identified with Helene Hanff who lived trough her books and educated herself trough them, this is exactly what I always did without anybody ever showing me the way or pointing how to do it, it just comes naturally to some of us. The story about correspondence between New York writer and employees of little bookshop in London is truly a fascinating one, I love it dearly.


Than I saw the movie. Twice in one day.

It is very interesting how this story had so many lives - first letters, than a novel, TV drama, stage play, radio play and finally the movie. Obviously it had moved and touched many people over the years. The movie rights were a birthday present for Anne Bancroft who clearly loved it and immersed herself so much in the role that is difficult to imagine anyone else doing it afterwards. It is a lovely story - a decades long correspondence between eccentric, lovable New York writer and a British gentleman working in London's little bookshop - that some describe as love story but for me its about humanity, passion and life. To make it clear here, neither side ever writes love letters, they communicate strictly trough book orders but with time their letters get more and more friendly, relaxed and casual. Where impulsive Helene Hanff affectionately sends food parcels to bookshop staff in post-war London, they respond with heartfelt gratitude and make sure she gets rare, ancient and out of print books she loved so much.

Movie is surprisingly powerful, not only because it faithfully follows the original but also because it adds certain carefully placed scenes that spotlight other supporting characters and perhaps explain things a little better, like British neighbour who informs Hanff about food shortage in England or a very powerful hospital scene where Anthony Hopkins read her letter to his elderly colleague on a sickbed. Both Hopkins and Bancroft are excellent, so are countless little supporting roles with one notable exception of Judi Dench who has a very ungrateful role as a mousy housewife and there was nothing she could really have done besides quietly serving food on a table - as ever, Dench is spotless in her portrait of a servile, self-sacrificing 1950s mother but the movie simply does not need her, its more of a cameo.

Sinatra according to Kitty Kelley

Kitty Kelley is American phenomenon, best selling author who calls her work "investigative journalism" and writes unauthorised biographies of celebrity icons, exposing so much warts, scandals and skeletons from the closets that reader can help but wishing to kick some butt after reading this.The original Rita Skeeter, Kelley does some heavily research and goes deep, deep inside all sorts of archives, interviews, dusty corners and what not, exposing not-so-likable portraits of people who are considered untouchable, protected with agents, security and big walls. God help me if Kitty ever writes a book about me, she would describe me in such nasty colours that everybody would hate me.

My first introduction to Kitty Kelley was completely unwitting: I was working as a journalist and got a job to write about than recently deceased Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, so I grabbed Kelley's book thinking it will provide some information. Wrong. Unintentionally I was influenced by this and wrote a nasty portrait, which readers probably loved because this is what they wanted in the first place. Down with rich and famous, because we are not. Small people united in hate of privileged few. It was much, much later when I realised Kelley was not exactly the first person one would go for objective information about anybody - her speciality is on contrary, to throw mud on her subjects.

Sinatra is easy target, since his short temper and hatred of journalists (no doubt, created from first-hand experiences) was well documented and world known. Like all of us, he probably had some positive and negative sides - Kelley however is not interested in anything positive and she weaves a portrait so unflattering that it makes one wonder why anybody ever liked this man in the first place. His life work - music - is described only trough financial perspective and influence this creates, which of course shows author's tunnel vision - she went in for gossip, dirty secrets, nastiness and hidden portrait in the attic. Almost grudgingly she admits Sinatra also helped a lot of people along the way, but hey, this book is not about good Sinatra, next page she switches on another fight, insult and abuse. She can be very persuasive sometimes, when someone finally punches him and breaks his teeth, I almost cheered. It does not diminish my pleasure in his music, but once you read Kelley you never see her subject with same eyes.

What Kitty Kelley does - and very successfully - is to fight against surreal celebrity cult that grows stronger every day in tabloid America. She uses all weapons in her disposal to throw mud on Icons lot of people actually worship simply because they are famous, there is a interesting psychological idea behind this and like it or not, there are people who actually believe that TV stardom (of any kind) will make them happy. Like all of us, Sinatra was a mortal who used the time given to cope with his share of troubles and Kelley surely focuses on troubles only.

From Laika to Brundo

Relaxed and content - being here alone in a countryside, without anybody to bother me, without any brutal working hours and obligations, I am close to my own nature and yes, to myself. There are no worries, problems or reasons to hurry, I do what I want to do when I want to do it & if I want at all.
If I decide to spend a day in my underwear, not even bothering to look in a mirror or wash my face, so be it.
If I decide to crank it up at 3 a.m. because I just feel like it, there is no Ukrainian roommate to switch on MTV or someone from a thin-walled cabin next door to complain. I can fart, burp and do all kind of natural and unnatural noises knowing darn well it does not disturb anybody.

Yesterday I was reading something on Internet about the planets, Sun, Earth, Mars, Venus, Moon and than somehow got to Russian dog Laika that was intentionally send to die in Universe alone. Now that story always disturbed me, because I just feel so sorry for that little dog whose life was used for experiment, this was something really cruel and I don't care for any scientists explanations and reasons, if I have a pet rat I would protect his life. I collect insects from the floor and take them outside the house just not to step on them. Apparently even Russian scientists felt sorry for Laika because the day before she was sent to space, one of them took her home to play with his children. Than before they closed her in a rocket, they kissed her nose and sent her away. Now this story somehow stayed in my mind and I mulled about it later when I stumbled upon a Facebook photo of a little homeless dog ("Brundo") scheduled to be put to sleep during the next 24 hours because there was no home/funds for him.

To my biggest surprise, all the people I contacted basically shrugged it off, saying there is nothing we can do and there are so many similar cases, who could solve it all.
It angered me very much, how easy it is just to click "like" on Facebook and do nothing except continue self-obsessed navel gazing. People can change the world if they try just step by step, little by little. There are some who are not even honestly interested to help a homeless dog because "its just a street dog, a half-breed" well what a nonsense, like people have pedigree - are we judging people's basic qualities and goodness from their looks? And animals themselves, well they love us unconditionally and honestly without ever thinking about the way we look, how we dress and how much money we have. I am perfectly aware that this kind of help can turn into bottomless pit, so what. And this little dog on the photo looks so small, hungry and blameless, I had to do something about it. If I only knew before, I could have take him here with me in a countryside and take care of him for two months.

So - I contacted Facebook person immediately and let her know I am not able to give dog a home but I can help financially and provide for anything he might need if this will stop him from being put to sleep. Even pulled some friends to join in donations. This morning I went straight to a local village and from the post office I had sent amount of my weekly wages to save Brundo. The little dog is out of danger now, he is still very thin and needs a medical attention but he got a temporary home and will not be killed - my donation will provide for his food, collar and a visit to vet. He was taken out of the cage on the very day of his extermination and he is only two years old. I am also aware that its very unjustly towards so many other homeless animals who happened not to be photogenic and they live in cages for years because nobody cares for their photos. But this makes me feel good and proud about myself, I had a good day.

Books, books, books

Books float on the street after a library on Rue Jacob, Paris is flooded during the Great 1910 Parisian Flood.

Tina Turner in 1974.

A a beautiful snapshot of younger Tina Turner (in her mid 30-es) by Andy Warhol, of all people.
This is actually Tina I remember from my childhood, the way she was on album covers back than, attractive black woman with undeniable sensuality that today we call "sexy" though back than, as a child I wouldn't know it and probably found it intimidating.

Like the rest of the world I finally caught up with Turner in 1980s when she was recognized for her unique talent and powerful charisma - it was very lucky for her, because it could have turned out completely different. After all, she was just one of the many artists who worked trough 1960s and 1970s, if it wasn't for inspired management she would definitely fall into "oldies" category performing for nostalgic elderly audiences who might remember old hits (like for example, many of Motown once big hit makers).Thanks to Roger Davies, Turner broke into hit charts big time with excitement and vigour, clearly enjoying her solo success. I can't help but notice that she had unfortunately changed her physical appearance later and "modified" her face, using all sorts of surgeries wealth could provide, not necessary for better.

"I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) by Mervyn LeRoy

Since I am always ready to poke fun at the people who shop,collect and hoard unnecessary things around the house, now it is my turn to admit that occasionally I do the same. After all, this is kind of society we live in, products, products, products. So - among the books I bought but had not touched yet and CDs that I liked for a while and than forgot, there is a pile of DVDs I have ordered via US web site oldies.com because at the time it seemed like a great idea - movies are great but for some strange reason once I got them, I put them aside and continued with collecting other things. And believe you me, I still have some of these DVDs a years later without actually ever watching them so last evening I finally got my head around one of these movies.

"I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) turns out to be one of the best movies of that era and its a darn classic. Set in stone. Not only its well made for this early times (with human touch Frank Capra would be proud of), immensely popular at the time of release and very important in changing public opinion about prison circumstances but its kind of grandfather of all prison movies. One of those old black & white movies that still have power to glue you to a screen.

Paul Muni was nominated for Academy Award for this role and he should have probably got it for his portrait of ordinary, decent man swept away in circumstances. He is truly perfect for this role, with his sensitive face and honest eyes, basically a good guy who upon returning home from war with his medals finds himself restless and changed - he rejects murderous routine and stability of his previous factory job and wants to get out and "find himself" (very modern notion for 1930s!) ending in really heroic but ultimately depressing and dangerous situations. Trough the movie, again and again he is rising up just to be brutally crushed down and its impossible not to root for him since he is really the only nice, positive character around. Circumstances in his prison are not so much different from some later Nazi camps and its all shown with a very strong, effective cinematography (audiences must have been shocked) - hence the real circumstances of story behind this script raised public uproar and the real guy who was inspiration for Paul Muni character (Robert Elliot Burns) eventually got pardoned.

Its amazing when you realize almost everything in the movie actually happened - this is not just some fluffy Hollywood melodrama but re-creation of Burn's true life.
Thanks to this movie chain gangs had been outlawed in Georgia.

A Star Not Yet Born: Milva in 1959

This is exactly the kind of musical curiosity that I always loved - the very first official recording of a young artist before he or she achieved success and fame.

It is a 1959 EP recorded by 18 year old Italian songbird, probably just around the time she participated in a contest for "new voices" and was named a winner above huge competition. On four songs here, young Maria Ilva Biolcati sings with authority and drama quite unexpected for such young person - I'm sure she must have some very good vocal training because this is pure "Bel Canto" projection, voice effortlessly holding long notes and every word carefully pronounced. What is specially interesting is a backing - small, jazzy combo quite different from what she was doing later in life, there is almost Django Reinhardt guitar on "Le Rififi" (move theme) and the whole atmosphere is of a smokey late night bar. This 18 year old kid whizzes self-assuredly trough covers of "Volare" and - the best of all - "Vivro" ("My Prayer" by "The Platters") like someone dead set on a winning the Olympic games. The voice is sweetly young but already recognizable with that particular, individual quality that stands out and promises a great singer. Very soon she will sign with " Cetra Records", get on San Remo stage and rise to the top of her profession nationally and beyond. Quite amazing little forgotten recording that shows embryo of fantastic talent.

Interesting notes on back cover shortly describe this newcomer as being 18 years old, having nice presence, polite behavior and formidable voice.
EP cover is a very stylized picture of a sexy, vampy singer and - though this kid surely was nowhere near looking like this painting - its funny how later in life she closely modeled herself on vamp image. Which in my opinion was completely unnecessary, as she always possessed one of the best voices around but hey, I guess Italians love their women sexy.

Romantic Crooner of 1950s: Zvonimir Krkljuš

I honestly doubt that "ordinary man on the street" (how I despise that expression) would know to name handful of singers from Croatian music scene of 1950s - gigantic shadow of Ivo Robić tower over everybody else in the that first post-WW2 period and seems he is the only one remembered from the whole generation of artists who worked back than. Thanks to archival radio recordings we are now aware that pop singers actually worked locally even during 1930s and 1940s but right after the war the profession of "entertainer" was perceived as somehow frivolous - after all, the youth was engaged in re-building of railroads and such, surely someone "just singing" was not really sweating and getting callused hands. That Robić had actually managed to shrug it off and create beautiful, rich career in these circumstances is nothing short of miracle. That his contemporaries stayed far behind is another story - nicely illustrated here.

Zvonimir Krkljuš (b.1921) who tasted the fame first as a five year old child, being selected for "the prettiest child" on a local magazine contest, later found himself as a radio presenter, actor, composer and the very first singer who performed live on radio Zagreb in 1945. Among Miljenko Prohaska, Rajka Vali and her future husband Bojan Hohnjec, Krkljuš was one of the busiest artists of the period, however the main influence on his work was not any of his music idols (Bing Crosby, Alberto Rabagliati) but local composer, great Mario Kinel who apparently single-mindedly created music scene out of thin air and fought with regime to explain his "rotten western" influences. Just as in case of his great protege Ivo Robić, Kinel is behind majority of Krkljuš's repertoire, including not only translated covers but quite long list of now forgotten hits of 1950s.

Krkljuš was a romantic crooner - his songs have to be taken in contest of times and though later generations satirized him (Arsen Dedić and Đorđe Balašević would occasionally affectionally parodied him in concert performances as example of hopelessly old fashioned music) to poke fun at him would be to laugh at the whole generation of people who lived these sentiments back than. From "Hvala Ti" (1945), "Bijela lađa plovi morem", "Kaži zašto me ostavi", "Jedna noć u Kostreni" and beyond, this is soundtrack of some earlier, perhaps naive years when Italy, San Remo and Hollywood musicals were accepted as family entertainment - Rock'n'roll might have already started but Krkljuš was all into "Ramona", "Arivederci Roma", Mario Lanza and even Nelson Eddy/Jeanette McDonald "Mayday". He was also one of the very first comspoers and performers on than-new Zagreb music festival. It might seem strange that as a artist Krkljuš actually looked backward at previous decades - listening to his music, one can't help but recognize aesthetics from 1930s and 1940s - but he still deserves to be recognized as a stepping stone towards future crooners like Stjepan Jimmy Stanić or Drago Diklić who directly followed his direction. Yes, its all very sentimental and romantic and old fashioned - but there is also a unexpected beauty in his cover of Italian ballad "La Vita E Un Paradiso di Bugie".

Rajka Vali or our Lady of "Blue Smoke"

Rajka Vali (b.1924) was first post-WW2 Croatian female pop star - her beginnings were in Trio Delinski during 1940s when she recorded famous "Tri Palme" ("Three Palms") which is now forever saved in radio archives. Apparently music was her side-hobby because young singer had actually studied architecture and performed on weekends, where she was backed by some of than most popular Jazz bands. One of those Jazz cats she would end up marrying. Colleagues like venerable Miljenko Prohaska have only nice things to say about her and in fact young Vali was used as a vocalist when Jazz bands would audition for National Radio.

Today Rajka Vali is remembered - if at all - only for curious fact that due to lack of "pop singers" the whole repertoire of very first pop festival "Zagreb" was divided between herself and Ivo Robić. Yes, that's correct, two singers. You see, festival was initially planned as a presentation of works by composers and singers were here simply utilized as afterthought. I find this a little bit strange since there were quite a lot of pop singers of previous generation (Nina Selak for one) but perhaps they were not active anymore, who knows. In any case Rajka Vali was our first pioneer in post WW2 pop music and her repertoire reflects western influences like June Christy and movie themes. That singing was not perceived as a serious career shows the fact that Vali took to architecture upon getting her degree and never looked back since, in fact she even relocated in Germany and Switzerland.

This lovingly assembled CD collects all known music Rajka Vali recorded during 1950s and it is quite  discovery. To be honest, personally I don't find her voice particularly interesting or unique (she had a thin sound and was not so different from other female singers who started before her) but from historical perspective its fascinating to hear our own Croatian songbird breaking the post-WW2 pop ice and singing movie themes. By far her biggest hit is romantic "Plavi dim" (Blue smoke) that actually sound quite nice even today but she does some interesting swing numbers, duets with (who else) Ivo Robić and there is early version of now classic "Kapljice kiše" that I know from covers. 

It was released in a beautiful package called "Zaboravljene zvijezde" ("Forgotten Stars of 50's Pop in Croatia") along with similar CD compilations by Zvonimir Krkljuš and Bruno Petrali, lavishly illustrated booklet and informative liner notes by Siniša Škarica, late Dražen Vrodljak and the whole team of music enthusiasts who were determined to save the memory of this era. It is a sweetly nostalgic, beautiful project. 

"Golden Melodies of 1930s and 1940s" - Croatian popular music between two world wars

Since I am something of amateur music historian enthusiast, it was just natural that after collecting ancient classical music recordings and best of 1920s Jazz and Blues, I stumbled upon archival recordings of pre-WW2 Croatia - I was delighted!

This particular compilation titled "The Golden melodies of 1930-es" is full of now forgotten music stars of that time. As liner notes point, we actually had first records released around 1926. in Zagreb and the company was called "Edison Bell Penkala Ltd." - first they had released foreign popular music but very soon they also added local flavor to their repertoire. Artists who recorded these first "hits" were singers from Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb like Margita and Dejan Dubajić and they also performed on than very popular dance contests in "Esplanade" hotel (Ivo Tijardović was conducting).

What is collected here - or should I say, unearthed from dusty archives - is priceless collection of music that was popular between two world wars. Tango, Charleston, Chanson, you name it - the most striking and instantly noticeable thing is how unusual these singers sound to our modern ears, since all of them follow a particular vocal interpretation fashionable back than - gasping pathos, canyon-wide vibrato and theatrics to the ceiling. The world has certainly changed since than. It all sounds quite ridiculous now and I love it dearly. Not for nothing I listened all those 1930s recordings from USA and Berlin, so I can guarantee Croatians could hold their own and their orchestras were just as fine. Some of the names, long forgotten now of course, were Milan Šepec, Aleksandar Binički, Nada Auer and future big radio star Andrija Konc. By far the biggest "evergreen" here is original "Marijana" as recorded by Vlaho Paljetak. Just wonderful.

Delightful sequel to "Zlatne Melodije 1930-ih/The Golden Melodies of 1930-s" this compilation now follows popular music of war decade and its music stars.
To be honest, it is not so radically different from 1930s except that singing style is not so ridiculously old fashioned anymore. Where 1930s singers sound completely alien to modern ears, 1940s vocals are kind of recognizable as crooners and chirping songbirds. Most of these artists were regularly employed in theatre as actors or in operetta so naturally they projected than-popular hits of the day, mostly composed by local songwriters like Nenad Grčević and up-and-coming Mario Kinel who regularly printed their notes and had their material often played on the radio.

Singers represented here are mostly forgotten now but I find them sweetly old fashioned precedents of later popular singers - there is absolutely nothing wrong with Rudolf Dugulin,
Miljenko Sutlović, Trio Delinski (where Rajka Vali started), great Andrija Konc or even early, young Ivo Robić also included here. Perhaps it is a stretch to call Nina Selak a jazz singer but hey, I guess her relaxed delivery was different than operetta. Since two of songs here - "Noćas" and "Zar ne znaš (da tebe obožavam)" were later included in all-time biggest Croatian movie classic "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" set in this time, I am sure many listeners are familiar with them and would find this compilation very interesting.

"Terry Jones' Crusades"

Here is just my little tribute to Terry Jones' "Crusades" series that I recommend to everybody - its funny, informative, visually imaginative and of course has my beloved Terry Jones in it.  It is also a perfect example of how to treat a potentially tricky subject with a delightful nonchalance and with a great dose of twisted humour. Quite amazing to follow these first European "religious tourists" leaving the comfort of their homes and going in a places so far away - talk about the power of propaganda! We usually think only about Kings and Knights, but of course Crusades were also about countless ordinary, little people who somehow got swept away with the tide and ended up walking under the scorching Middle East sun. Terry Jones is wonderful when he tries on heavy steel armour and tumbles down the rainy hill - I watched that particular scene several times and laughed out loud.

"Terry Jones' Medieval Lives"

I liked "Terry Jones' Barbarians" so much that I dived immediately into his highly entertaining "Crusades" and now "Medieval lives" - to my surprise I quickly recognised that I actually have this book in my collection (it was published simultaneously with TV series) but this is a completely different experience because Terry Jones provides his recognisable off-the-wall visual gimmicks, clowning and yes, Monthy Piton-like visual effects. Just like a book, TV series are divided into chapters ("Monk", "Peasant", "Damsel", "Knight" and so on) while Terry Jones works on turning our perception of medieval live on its head. According to Jones, things were not exactly as bleak as we think - peasants did had some say in decisions making, monks definitely lived far better than expected (some had their own brothels!), ladies were not helpless, weak creatures but occasionally strong willed warriors, knights were actually brutal mercenaries and Alchemists were first scientists who actually came to some of important discoveries far before later celebrated names. The confusion about all of this came much later, when people considered Renaissance like a birth of new human perspective but according to Jones it wasn't like that at all - and Victorians created some quite sentimental ideas and images of what medieval people looked like. Highly entertaining!

Mavis Staples

First of all,let me state here how glad I am that somebody like Mavis Staples is still around and have opportunities, offers and will to work.
The fact that artist who has half a century of discography behind her is still relevant, loved and sought after (even though she was never hyped in media) is truly magnificent and shows that a true talent can go on despite all the different music fashions and trends - she was majestic way back, she is majestic today.

This recent album actually nicely combines her spiritual side with some modern production, its not exactly gospel, not exactly rock but fine mix of both. Sure she sings gospel but to my ears this sound very much like elderly Earth mother, nurturing and sweet, gruff and gentle at the same time. Title song has particularly strong lyrics - "open up,this is a raid" murmurs now 70 years old singer to another lonely heart, admitting she is lonely too. Its a spiritual love song translated into 21. century but for anyone interested to do some research, Mavis Staples have been doing this for a very long time, hopefully new listeners might go back to her classic "The Staple Singers" discography.

Quite beautiful sequel to her previous work with Jeff Tweedy, this latest album is another deeply moving collaboration that combines stripped down, gimmick-free production with strong selection of meaningful songs and exceptional voice of this unique singer. I have always loved Mavis Staples but rarely heard her solo recordings so satisfactory like this sudden renaissance that finds her inspired and refreshed. Yes, she might be a bit subdued here but it works fine with choice of material that does not need huge fire, it glows like embers because lyrics are not empowering (like in her young days) but more introspective and inward looking. Just when you think she has mellowed, there are uptempo numbers "Can You Get To That" and "I Like The Things About Me" that quickly remind us the old fire is still here. Excellent.

"The Staple Singers"

While watching that excellent "Soul to Soul" documentary I was suddenly reminded of Mavis Staples - the mighty Mavis, majestic singer with truly God's given, magnificent voice and a beautiful charisma - I always loved her but somehow she had slipped under my radar until now i realized she is in fact still very much alive and active so I dived in my music collection and re-visited some of her older discography. For decades this undisputed giant of American music was part of family group "The Staple Singers" led by father Roebuck "Pops" Staples and sang along her brother and two sisters - she has constantly refused offers to go solo and firmly stayed group member until father died and group finally disbanded but had performed as solo act since than and recently won "Grammy" for her work.

Some of group's earliest work can be find on "Riverside" label and its wonderful, deeply committed gospel music - father, daughter and a son are singing and playing together while focus is on Mavis who was gifted with naturally soulful, unforgettable voice surprisingly mature for such a young girl (she was about 23 years old than).
"Pops" plays excellent guitar and family harmonies are out of this world, however the frame of this kind of music is somehow limiting because after a while it does sound a bit same.

Selection of three "Riverside" albums are now nicely collected on one CD that gives nice overview of family work trough early 1960s. They were always great musicians and  the blend of voices is truly stunning but judging from this perspective they had actually found their true sound just a little bit later on "Stax" where everything fell into a place. Nothing wrong with this music but it does sound a bit stately and too formal compared with what came after. While on "Stax" they are joyous and celebratory, here they are still mournful and bluesy. Still, on tracks like "Old Time Religion" it is clear the group can easy catch the fire when inspired.

I love "The Staples Singers" on "Stax" - it was match made in Heaven. They moved nicely with the times without sacrificing anything from their original sound, in fact they just got better by getting the right backing musicians and some real funky rhythms. "Soul Folk in Action" finds them in transition into a full-blown chart-topping hit makers and its all fine as it could be without sounding overtly commercial. Their cover of "Sittin' on the dock of the Bay" is right there with the original and the rest of equally high quality. In her interviews Mavis Staples had always claimed that it bothered her that all the attention was mostly on her, when the music was result of the whole family - its clear here that she was right because although yes, her voice was in the centre, her family supported her every step of the way and what they created was labour of love from everybody. On this album everything just clicked right.