"WelI, I’ve got a lot of reasons"

"Gathered through many seasons

Some bad and some are pleasing

I just don’t know"

The Grand Slambovians, Circus of Dreams, A Good Thief Tips His Hat

When I was in college, I made a few acquaintances in my department, and one of them was a kid named Brett. He was always walking around campus doing contact juggling, and was always so excited when he got a new contact ball (get out of the gutter). 

One day, Brett uploaded a video to YouTube, and it was him in various places around campus, doing his juggling. The music was Circus Of Dreams. off The Grand Slambovians album A Good Thief Tips His Hat. There are multiple albums out by the group, and the only variation is that they can be listed as Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams (as on the Flapjacks from the Sky album). 

I know how hard Brett tried, in constantly performing, and when I heard the song when I watched his video, I thought it was really cool (not that his juggling practice wasn't paying off). At the time, I did some searching and could not find the album locally. I hadn't really seen him for a while, so I couldn't just ask to borrow the CD, so I left it as is. The only albums I was to find were the Flapjacks "double" album and The Great Unravel. 

Fast forward to 2016, I've started the search again, as I was going through my collection of compact discs, and I saw the aforementioned set. I wanted some new music on my MP3 player, so that's when I started looking for the other discs. Lo and behold, I was able to get the missing albums to complete the collection. I'm actually really excited to receive them and start listening to them, as the band is a bit of a change from what I've been listening to. For the folk people, imagine Phish and Strangefolk having a baby, and you'd get The Grand Slambovians. It's really the best way I can explain them, as they're not hard core screamers or metalheads, they're not explicit rappers; they're just a literal traveling troupe of performers. It wouldn't surprise me if they did some hours long jam session with other jam bands, considering they've got a live tribute album to Bob Dylan, called The Circus Does Dylan. I was listening to the samples, and I liked it. They bring everything back down to the way Bobby probably wanted it, just plain and simple; no theatrics or anything. 

I guess that's it for the check in right now, as there's no special way to push this "new" music, as you just need to find it for yourself and make your own opinion. It could possibly be summed up as "Thanks to meeting new people, new music can be passed along at any point in your life".*

Cheers;

See also:

• The Grand Slambovians Amazon Page

*or not. Your choice. :-D

It could be a beautiful day

... if the storm clouds weren't currently rolling in.

But that's not the point.

The point is I had put some Il Volo on my MP3 player and A Beautiful Day showed up while I was at the gym. Yes, it's an Italian operatic pop trio covering an Irish band's famous song. They do a pretty interesting job on it it, I have to admit, but there's a Norwegian by the name of Kurt Nilsen, who covers the song better. I could only find Youtube videos, as it seems like the song isn't on any of Kurt's albums. I would suggest that if you're interested, do some digging to find it.

I found out about Il Volo when I saw their Live From Pompeii concert on the local PBS station a couple weeks ago. They were performing Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare), a song made famous by the likes of Dean Martin and Domenico Modugno (how I first heard of it. Thanks, Dante... for all the Italian lessons. Where are you now????). An interesting cover was recorded by the Gypsy Kings, and it's more on the salsa / samba side of the song (I don't know what else to categorize it as). I own the Bobby Rydell version, as it's on the All The Hits album, but it's also on the Best of Bobby Rydell album (BTW: Thanks Barry; I still have those albums you gave me. They traveled some more).

The Italian's are a cool trio, as I honestly wouldn't have expected them to be set in the opera genre of music, as they look like they belong in the pop world. Maybe that's why it's so hard to classify them under a specific place; my library had them under Classical, Foreign, Pop and some other categories; yet, the power of the Internet says they're "popera" - pop opera. Which explains the variety of music they sing, as most of their songs are pop songs, but their range is in an opera style. It's hard to explain how they fit into so many areas of music. Maybe if you do some listening, you can come to your own conclusion? Kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

Until next check in....

Cheers;