I’m about to submit myself to a month-long prayer marathon, be bored out of my mind, try to seriously ponder my destiny for the coming year, and sneak in an occasional thought about Aretha and Ray’s ‘Spirit in the Dark’.

Two remarkable voices from the same ‘hood, Smokey and Aretha, velvet and steel, a magical meeting in a magical song. It’s not chemistry, it’s alchemy. Watch it and say a little prayer of thanks for being present at the creation.

I can see your reaction – “Ho hum, another old singer from the early 1960s doing another version of that hackneyed antique.”
Okay, I’ll stake my reputation on this one. You listen to this cut and tell me you weren’t shaking your shaker, bopping your boppers, grinning from ear to ear. I dare you! It’s sparkling, ebullient, irresistible. It’ll make you shake, rattle and roll.

Moses Sumney is the best vocalist I’ve ever heard.
And you know I NEVER exaggerate.

Everyone knows George’s masterpiece, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (actually it’s Eric Clapton’s guitar doing the weeping.) But there’s a remarkable earlier version of the song you might not have heard – a wholly different song, just George playing a melancholy, reflective acoustic guitar. It’s candid, unadulterated, exposed, utterly captivating.

In which Jeff brings you a taste of Mongolian throat singing as a flimsy excuse to tell a true story about yak molar dice games and that inimitable Mongolian penchant for practical jokes.

Jeff’s latest musical fantasy, the origin.
The realization–currently in the oven. Stay tuned.

Carole King’s remarkable metamorphosis from teen mom songsmith to Earth Mother poetess.
She composed the soundtrack of our times on her piano, and wrought the template of our times with her life.