Sunday, March 16, 2008

Others Praise Alex Battles

A few weeks ago, I described Alex Battles' wonderful tribute to Johnny Cash on his birth anniversary. Apparently, New York Magazine agreed with my assessment of the show. They gave Battles a prime spot in the weekly Approval Matrix in the 10 March issue.

Last night, Sandro, Sarah and I went out to Freddy's Backroom to see a show that Alex Battles put together. Since I had to do both Amazing Grace and The Moonshine Show in the morning on WKCR, we couldn't stay for Battles' set, but we did get to hear Eli Smith sing a bunch of traditional folk songs (including two versions of the "Coal Creek March") and also the Strung Out String Band play a full set of great tunes--fiddler Nate Landau was really on! (If you go to the Strung Out String Band's website, you can find an MP3 recording from their appearance on The Moonshine Show. Who knew?!)

The best part of the evening was that Battles had bought two giant sandwiches--six footers, I guess--and they were proudly displayed on the table in the center of the room with appropriate side dishes (i.e. macaroni salad, potato salad and cole slaw, each made with generous amounts of mayonnaise). Battles became fond of saying, "This sandwich and I were born on the same day 36 years apart!" And the crowd would respond with a yell of "Giant Sandwich!" What fun!

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