Music & More

5 Freshmen

The St. John's Red Storm men's basketball team pulled off an upset this past Wednesday evening, defeating West Virginia at Madison Square Garden, 78 - 62.  OK, it wasn't a major upset like knocking off Duke or Kentucky. But it was a big win. West Virginia was 5 - 2 in the Big East and 15 - 5 overall. After routing Providence in their Big East Conference opener, the Storm proceded to lose 6 of their next 7 games. Their conference record now stands at 3 - 6, 9 - 11 overall. It's about to be 9 - 12 since they travel to Duke today.

The Johnnies were led by Moe Harkless with 23 points and 13 rebounds, D'Angelo Harrison with 19 points, Phil Greene with 11 points and 8 assists, Amir Garrett with 11 points and 7 rebounds and Sir'Dominic Pointer had 8 points. Off the bench, juco transfer God's Gift Achiuwa got 7 rebounds and junior Malik Stith, the only holdover from last year's team, had 4 points. The starting five consisted entirely of freshman. Up until the West Virginia game, Achiuwa had been starting almost all of the games. According to the SJU website, the last time St. John's started 5 freshman was in the 1927-28 season, a team known at SJ as the "Wonder Five". Freshmen were inelible to play varsity sports from the early 1950's up to 1972.

In stark contrast, last year's Red Storm was more likely to start 5 seniors. In coach Steve Lavin's debut season, the team won 21 games and lost 9. While they made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002, they were eliminated by Gonzaga University in the first round. No member of the 2010-2011 team got drafted by an NBA team. Coach Lavin is still recovering from prostate cancer surgery so this year's Storm has been led by assistant Mike Dunlap. Lavin attempted to coach the team early in the season but was unable to continue.

St. John's has been playing only 7 players all year so depth has been a problem in addition to inexperience. Size has also been a problem. Harkless, from Queens, NY is 6'8" as is Achiuwa, a Nigerian. Garrett, 6'6" is from L.A and, in adition to basketball, has been signed as a pitcher by the Cincinnati Reds. A lefty, he throws over 95 mph. Detroit product Pointer stands 6'5". Harrison from Texas is 6'3" and Phil Greene from Chicago is 6'2". Stith from Hempstead, LI is 5'11". Harkless set a record in the Big East opener against Providence when he scored 32 points. The previous record for a freshman in a Big East debut had been 30 points by Alan Iverson and Troy Murphy.

The rest of the SJU season includes a home game against UCLA and 9 more conference games, 5 on the road. To be realistic, the team's chances of making the NCAA tournament are slim. With the development of their freshman, next year should be a lot better. Hopefully, the program under Lavin will soon be able to recapture the success enjoyed under Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Lou Carnesecca. A potential problem is that their best player, Harkless, will almost surely leave for the NBA after his sophomore season. Hope he doesn't go sooner.

 

 

 

 

 

They Didn't Make It Big, Part 3

In the first two parts of this series, I covered Yankee Grey, Big House, Jamie O'Neal, Pinmonkey, Mark McGuinn and Kevin Sharp, all very talented folks. Here are three more country singers I thought would be big stars:

When I first heard Oklahoma born Kellie Coffey, I thought wow we have another Trisha Yearwood caliber singer in country music. She had a very good debut cd with "When You Lie Next to Me", which led to her winning a Top New Female Vocalist Award at the 2003 ACM's. Her uptempo single, "Texas Plates", reached # 24 in '03 - loved the video too - and she followed it up with a great cover of the Luther Vandross song, "Dance With My Father", which Vandross co-wrote with Richard Marx.

Kellie's second album, "Walk On", was self-released in 2007 and failed to chart. The album's only single, "I Would Die for That", met the same fate chartwise. The song, written by Trina Harmon, James Slater and Kellie, dealt with the issue of infertility.  She would die to have a baby. "With every test and checkup, we're told not to give up, he wonders if it's him, I wonder if it's me".  The album also included great uptempo songs "Bandwagon" and, my favorite, "It". Give "It" a listen to see what it is. 

Kellie didn't just show up and sing on her albums. She co-wrote 7 of the 11 tracks on her debut cd and 11 of the 12 tracks on "Walk On". Perhaps the lack of success for the second cd can be partially attributed to the fact that she never toured in support of it. With two young children she may have decided to pack it in, at least temporarily. The news section of her website hasn't been updated since July of '08.

My Sappy Songs post of 9/29/08, included two hits from Tammy Cochran. She had a #9 hit in 2001 with "Angels in Waiting", written by Jim McBride, Stewart Harris and Tammy. In '02, "Life Happened", written by Kerry Kurt Phillips and Patrick Matthews, made it to #20. Two other songs made the top 40 but she's had nothing significant in the way of chart success since. The line in "Angels" that always gets to me is "They always knew they wouldn't grow old, sometimes the body is weaker than the soul". Her two older brothers, Shawn and Alan, died of cystic fibrosis.

Her last two albums were on independent labels. "Where I Am" in '07 and "30 Something and Single" in '09, failed to produce any hit singles. On the last album, she co-wrote all but one song (a cover of "Stand By Your Man"). Three songs were written with Gary Harrison, the title track, "It's All Over But the Leaving" and "He Really Thinks He's Got It". Love the line from the last about unwanted attentions from "Mr. 1979", "I'll bet you've tasted pepper spray a time or two". There was also a song called "Half the World Away (Shawn's Song)" about her adoption of a boy from Guatemala whom she named Shawn Alan.

Although Tammy's still without a major record label deal and her website hasn't been updated in almost two years, she does still perform occasionally. I saw her at the Bluebird Cafe four months ago and she sounded great.

Michael Peterson's country music career got off to a great start when his first 3 singles cracked the top 10. In 1997, "Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie" made it to #3 and "From Here to Eternity" hit the top spot. In 1998, "Too Good to Be True" reached #8 but "When the Bartender Cries" peaked at #37. He had a few minor hits in 1999 to close out the century, but nothing in the top 40 since then. If you're new to his music, a good start would be to buy the Warner Brothers Nashville Super Hits Volume 5 album, Michael Peterson. (It's available on i-Tunes.) Besides the hits, there are two excellent duets, "I Finally Passed the Bar" with Travis Tritt and "Two of the Lucky Ones" with Bekka Bramlett.

I saw Michael at the Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville twice. He's a great singer and songwriter and has a good sense of humor. You can see him perform his funny song about living life in reverse, "From The Grave to the Cradle", on You-Tube. As a songwriter, in addition to co-writing most of his own hits and album tracks, he's penned such great songs as "My Heart Is Bethlehem" for John Berry and "Right About Now" for Ty Herndon, the first a solo writing effort, the last with Darrell Brown.

Peterson has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan nine times to perform for the troops. In addition, he's been involved with the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival and is creating a music project for the Military Child Education Coalition.

 

River of Doubt

Although I'm probably one of the least adventureous guys around, - no motorcycle riding or downhill skiing for me - I really enjoyed reading "The River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" by Candice Millard. Published in 2005, it's about 350 pages in my paperback edition from Anchor Books. I never heard of Candice Millard, a former writer and editor for National Geographic, and I got two of her books for Christmas. The other is a book with the intriguing title of "Destiny of the Republic, A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President". I love alliteration. Maybe more on the three M's book at a later date. I haven't read it yet.

Back to the River. Teddy had recently lost his attempt to win back the Presidency as a progressive against the incumbent republican, his hand picked protege William Howard Taft, and the democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson. Former Dakota rancher and Rough Rider, TR craved adventure. He was not a man built for retirement, staying home with the wife and doting on grandchildren.

This tale of Teddy's trip to the Amazon rainforest region of South America began in 1913. TR, 55 at the time, was accompanied by son Kermit. The expedition leader, Candido Rondon, was Brazil's most famous explorer. The  5'3" Rondon hoped to map the River of Doubt, a rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. There were a few obstacles: piranhas, snakes, deadly insects,  hostile natives and raging rivers, heat and heavy rain, just to name a few things that reduced the men to near starvation and for TR, a life threatening illness as well. We get some insight into TR's character, as well as Kermit's, Rondon's and others, through Millard's description of how they handled their adversity. "River of Doubt" is a great read. But don't take my word for it. Read the many reviews on-line.

The edition of the book I have included 8 pages of photos of TR, Kermit, Rondon, etc. They appeared between pages 178 and 179. The same photos appeared in reverse order between pages 226 and 227. It appears that  different photos were meant to be included in the second group since the credits listed on page 408 mention 16 pages of photos and their source. I'll have to check out the hard cover edition in my local library to see the other photos.

Other books I've read by or about TR:

"Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" - Theodore Roosevelt (originally published in 1888, it covers the years 1884 - 1886 in the Dakota territory.)

"TR, The Last Romantic" - H.W. Brands (full bio of TR published in 1997)