It’s Dr. A’s birthday season. The celebration continues next week when we take the brand spanking new Mardi Gras Express to Mobile and back to New Orleans. Why are we riding the rails? Why not? It’s something different, after all.
We saw Rodney Crowell last Tuesday at a jam packed club. Chickie Wah Wah’s capacity is 200 and it seemed more crowded than that. Let’s just say the space is intimate. There was too much audience chatter for my taste: same as it ever was. It didn’t bother the headliner, he had a whale of a time. So say we all.
Can a living legend be underrated? If the legend in question is Rodney Crowell, the answer is an emphatic YES. He’s been making records for 45 some odd years, so he didn’t play everything I would have liked hearing but that’s life. Suffice it to say that it was a great show with a shocking cover charge: It cost only $30 to squeeze into the club. Thanks, Rodney.
Rodney gives great stage patter. A highlight was his introduction to last week’s theme song, Lucky. He said he forgot his wife Claudia’s birthday so he wrote her that song. It got him out of trouble. Swell song, swell story.
This week’s theme song was written by Rodney Crowell for his 2025 album, Airline Highway. It was recorded as a duet with Ashley McBryde. I give you Taking Flight:
The album came out months after my Flight Song Dozen. It’s okay: Rodney closed out the list with this song that was a Saturday Odds & Sods theme song in 2019:
I’m pleased to report he and his crack band rocked the joint with that song. Thanks, Rodney.
Before moving on, another flighty Crowell tune:
We begin our second act by skipping it altogether. My plate is overflowing so I’m keeping this short. We do, however, have a non-Rodney Crowell last word for the missing act. It goes to Donald Fagen:
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth Casting Edition: I’m hoping to see the new movie Nuremberg soon. One of the stars, Rami Malek, is best known to me for his performance as Freddie Mercury. In this movie, he plays shrink Douglas Kelley who formed an eerily special bond with Hermann Goering played by Russell Crowe.
Here’s Malek side-by-side with Doug Kelley:
Your Basic Basie: Ella & Basie. Say no more.
Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie? That goes for Ella too.
The Best Of Airplane: Make that the best of the best, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
It’s time for a gratuitous skyhook GIF:
Have I told you lately how much I love Kareem?
Classic Film Trailer: After Alfred Hitchcock Presents became a hit TV show, the trailers for his movies became longer and more elaborate. This one is over 5 minutes. It’s NOT for the birds.
Grading Time: I give The Birds 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A-. It landed at #8 on the Alfred Hitchcock Dozen.
I feel a song coming on:
Saturday GIF Horse: The Birds come home to roost, then go after Tippi Hedren and a flock of school kids.
Toon Time: I mocked The Clownfish DBA Jeff Landry in my last irksome things post. Picayune cartoonist Walt Handlesman joins in the fun:
Oy, just oy.
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.
Saturday Closer: I was tickled to find this video. I’m not a stalker so I wasn’t there.
That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Rodney Crowell from the photo shoot for Airline Highway:
