Nicholas David (Mrozinski)

Minnesota native son (Saint Paul! Eagan!) has made it to the final three on The Voice. Like the other two finalists, he has been gigging around, recording his own music, playing in bands.  They aren't amateurs.
 If you want to hear a genuine Minnesota accent, listen to his dad in this little bio clip. Pure.


 You can find his original music at his website,

He's pretty scruffy in his audition with "Stand By Me," but Cee Lo picks him for his team. Wise choice, Cee Lo, because he has become a fan favorite.

Jennifer Hudson ("Holy Buckets!") worked with him on this Bill Withers song, "Lean on Me" (one of my favorite songs ever).

He gave his own flavor to this up-tempo Barry White song.

 "The Power of Love" gets the soul treatment.

The other two finalists are good.  I don't much care for Cassadee, but the rocker dude Terry McDermott has a great voice, of the power tenor rocker type, and sings with conviction. He has covered songs by The Who, Journey, Boston, and even the Kansas classic, "Carry On, My Wayward Son." (aka "The Supernatural song") Does that mean that the Supernatural fandom will vote for him en masse?  If so, watch out.

Misheard lyrics: "Faster than my puppy"

The band Foster the People has had a huge hit with the incredibly catchy song "Pumped up Kicks.' We've been listening to it on the car radio and singing along, even though we couldn't really decide what they were singing in the chorus. We got the first part:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, they'd better run, better run, faster than....

but then what were they singing? faster than my brother? faster than my puppy? faster than my puppet? What does it sound like to you?




Turns out that the song is really a dark little psychodrama. Ann Powers has a brilliant take on it posted in her NPR blog The Record, where she compares it to The Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer." (but Talking Heads made paranoia a musical style while this is shiny).
I looked up the lyrics, and it's "faster than my bullet."
Note the discussion of the lyrics' meaning in the comments to the lyrics post.

This dubstep remix is great, the dancing is, too.

Victoria de los Angeles sings Lorca arrangements.

The death of Federico García Lorca was 75 years ago, on August 19. I met him first not as poet but as a musician.

Federico García Lorca did the musical arrangements to a series of popular songs. There is a recording in which he plays the piano with a singer called La Argentinita. But my earliest contact with Lorca, before I read his poetry and plays in high school, was through a record my mother had, of Victoria de los Angeles singing Spanish songs. Among them were these four:

-Anda jaleo.
-Los cuatro muleros.
-Las tres hojas.
Los mozos de moleón.
Victoria de los Angeles, soprano. Miguel Zanetti, piano. Many others have sung these songs, some of them arguably with better technique, but Victoria de los Angeles will always be the voice of the first words in Spanish I think of the first Spanish words I ever heard.

Estrella Morente sings "Los cuatro muleros"

Buck, the movie

We saw the documentary movie "Buck" this weekend. If you can see it, you should. It's amazing. It's about one of the leading practitioners of "Natural Horsemanship" (as it has come to be called), which avoids punishment in favor of communication, or "firm and fair" communication.

Here's an interview with horseman Buck Brannaman and the filmmaker, Cindy Meehl.

At the end of the film, there is this song by Pearl Jam that gives me goosebumps:

Phoebe Snow, may you rest in peace

I'm so sad to learn of the death today of two amazing women whose music affected me, in very different ways. One is the marvelous Phoebe Snow, who died of complications following a stroke last year.

I was lucky enough to see Phoebe Snow perform when her hit album came out. What a BIG voice she had, and her guitar playing was also wonderful. She could be jazzy, bluesy, but her voice was totally original. Listen to "No Regrets" (a hit for Billie Holiday):

I wore her records out. I especially love "Let the Good Times Roll":

Why did she drop out of sight after making such a huge debut? Because her daughter was born with with brain damage, and she devoted her life to taking care of her. She kept her alive, despite predictions; she devoted herself to creating a loving life for her daughter for 31 years.  Take the time to watch this story about her life; it's worth it.

'Romance de la luna, luna'

In honor of the lunar eclipse on the solstice, here is a poem about the moon by Federic García Lorca, "Romance de la luna, luna."

Camarón de la Isla sings, with Tomatito on the guitar:

La luna vino a la fragua
con su polisón de nardos.
El niño la mira mira.
El niño la está mirando.
En el aire conmovido
mueve la luna sus brazos
y enseña, lúbrica y pura,
sus senos de duro estaño.
Huye luna, luna, luna.
Si vinieran los gitanos,
harían con tu corazón
collares y anillos blancos.
Niño, déjame que baile.
Cuando vengan los gitanos,
te encontrarán sobre el yunque
con los ojillos cerrados.

Huye luna, luna, luna,
que ya siento sus caballos.
Níno, déjame, no pises
mi blancor almidonado.

El jinete se acercaba
tocando el tambor del llano
Dentro de la fragua el niño,
tiene los ojos cerrados.

Por el olivar venían,
bronce y sueño, los gitanos.
Las cabezas levantadas
y los ojos entornados.

¡Cómo canta la zumaya,
ay cómo canta en el árbol!
Por el cielo va la luna
con un niño de la mano.

Dentro de la fragua lloran,
dando gritos, los gitanos.
El aire la vela, vela.
El aire la está velando.