Tina Turner Turns 70

I am a couple days late on this, but on Thanksgiving Day Tina Turner turned 70. So in recognition of her birthday here are a couple videos.

From the Ike & Tina days, here is "Proud Mary".



Then from her solo career here is a performance of "Let's Stay Together".



She has recently been touring Europe to celebrate her 50 years in the music business. A video from just a couple months ago of the Beatle's song "Help".

Sarah McLachlan

I am going to end the week, and this series of post focusing on piano player, with Sarah McLachlan. I been wanting to post the first video for a while now. This is a performance from one of the Live Aid concerts in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban performing "Angel".



Here McLachlan plays the piano accompaniment to Patti Smith's performance of "Because the Night".



Since it is the day after Thankgiving, and thus the start of the Christmas season, I am including McLachlan's version of Joni Mitchell's song "River". This is not really a Christmas song, but in the last couple years everybody has started including it on their Christmas albums. It a good song, so it doesn't really matter.

Ben Folds

I have done several post now on piano players, but they have all started out in the 1950's, I should include some that are a little more contemporary. So today a couple videos of Ben Folds. I saw him perform a couple years ago with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Here is a Letterman clip where he performs "Landed", a song off his Songs for Silverman album.



Here is a performance of "Brick" with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. This is an older song, from when he was still had the Ben Folds Five.



This last video of "Cologne" is from his latest album Way to Normal, which I don't even have yet. But this is quite a production, although I have to admit I don't know what the cat woman is about.

Nina Simone

Last week I did posts on three of the greatest Rock & Roll pianist. But I cannot move on from pianist until I do a post on Nina Simone. She is usually classified as a Jazz artist, but she does not fit in any genre. She is pretty much in a class of her own making. I saw her perform twice, once in D.C. and once in Chicago. I believe the Chicago concert was part of the last U.S. tour that she did.


In my Animation post I included an animated version of one of her most popular song, "My Baby Just Cares For Me".

Here she is performing "Ain't Got No", a song from the Musical Hair.



Simone was a classically train pianist, so I am trying to pick videos that show off here piano playing. "Little Girl Blue" is the title track off her first album released in 1958.



Here is another song that was on that first album, "I Loves You Porgy". This is actually the third version of this song that I have posted. Both the Billie Holiday and Lizz Wright posts include this song.

Ray Charles

Another Pianist to wind up the week, Ray Charles.

"Hit the Road Jack" was released in 1961, and went to #1 on both the Pop and R & B chart. So this video must be from some time in the early 60's.



"Seven Spanish Angels"—a duet with Willie Nelson—went to #1 on the country charts in the mid 80's.



His rendition of "America the Beautiful" might be the most popular version of that song. Here is a video of it from 1972.

The words to this song were written by Katharine Lee Bates, and first published in 1895. The music that the song is performed with today was written by Samuel A. Ward, and first published with the text as "America the Beautiful" in 1910. So the song we currently know is about to turn 100. All the more reason to include it in this post.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Today's pianist is Jerry Lee Lewis.

I think "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" was Jerry Lee's first hit single in 1956




"Crazy Arms" was the first song Jerry Lee released, but I don't think it was a hit at the time.




Here is a video of "Another Place, Another Time" from his foray into country music.



Jerry Lee is in his 70's and still touring, so here a a video of a performance from last summer. This is 53 years after the first video in this post.

Fats Domino

It seems like most of my posts have dealt with guitar plays. So for something different, this week I am going to do posts about piano players. First up Fats Domino, one of the original rock and roll pianists.

Here is a clip from the 1956 movie, "Shake, Rattle & Roll". A movie where the prudes in the town try to shut down rock & roll. This movie theme has been remade several times, but this is probably the original. The clip is "Ain't That a Shame".



Here is a video from 30 years later, his Austin City Limits appearance in 1986. Since this is a Monday post, it is appropriate that the song is "Blue Monday".



Fats is coming up on 82 years old. He has always been associated with New Orleans. In fact during Hurricane Katrina his house was flooded and her had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. So it is only fitting that the last video in this post should be "Walking to New Orleans".

Walk Over God's Heaven

I haven't posted any gospel music for a while, so today's post is going to include several versions of Thomas A. Dorsey's song "Walk Over God's Heaven". This is probably one of his most popular songs, and is performed in many different genres.

Mahalia Jackson was probably one of the first singers to record this song. Even though I cannot find a video of her performing it live, I have to include her version of it, so here is the audio of her recording of he song.



Here is an amusing video set to Alison Krauss and the Cox Family's recording of the song.



I have to think that if Dorsey could hear this next version of the song he would be blown away. This is the Wheaton College Gospel Choir.

Springsteen Covers

Today some of my favorite Bruce Springsteen covers.

First, Patty Griffin's version of "Racing in the Streets".



Levon Helm's version of "Atlantic City'. I saw him perform this about two years ago.




Finally, Emmylou Harris' version of "Mansion on the Hill". She recorded this on here 1992 album "At the Ryman">

Phil Keaggy

I posted a B.B. King version of the song "When Love Comes to Town" a while back. This is the song that Bono wrote for B.B. Here is another great version of the song done by Jonny Lang, Tommy Sims and Phil Keaggy.




I saw Phil Keaggy perform over 25 year ago in a church somewhere in either Champaign or Urbana. Since there is this Phil Keaggy guitar solo from the same concert, I am just going to make this a Phil Keaggy post.




Here the song "The Wind and the Wheat" on acoustic guitar.

Amos Lee

A couple Amos Lee videos today. I have never had a chance to see him perform live, but I like his recordings.

Here is a video of "Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight", the first track off of his self titled debut album.



This is the second song off that same album, "Seen It All Before".



Then here is "Sympathize" off the album Supply and Demand.

Sun

Since I did moon songs on Monday, I decided to post sun songs today. I considered trying to have three sun songs and three moon songs each by the same three artists. I think I could have done it, but decided that I would have to stretch too much as far as the songs I included. So I decided not to do that.

But the first sun song is by that same artist that had the first moon song. Here is Cheryl Wheeler with her song "Pointing at the Sun".



Sun song #2: Ben Harper with "She's Only Happy in the Sun".



Sun song #3: Bill Withers performong his song "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone".

Moon

Since November 2 is the full moon, I am posting a couple moon songs.

First, Cheryl Wheeler performing her song "Howl at the Moon".



Patty Griffin performing her moon song, "Moon Song".



My first choice for the last moon song would be Van Morrison's "Moondance", but all of his videos have embedding blocked. So another song just as good, Bill Monroe performing his song "Blue Moon of Kentucky".