The coronavirus has wiped out Broadway and Bond and basketball, so there's increasingly little to leave the house for unless your idea of live entertainment is toilet-paper riots. In lieu thereof, we're committed to providing a full slate of digital delights you can enjoy right here from your electronic device. Tonight Mark is honored to present another live-performance edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, featuring two of our favorite guests - singer/pianist Carol Welsman and guitarist Russell Malone, together with the Steyn Show band.
Carol was a big hit on our Christmas show with her beautiful rendition of "In the Bleak Midwinter" and on our Valentine's show with two classic love songs - "The Glory of Love" and "As Time Goes By". A couple of Yuletides back, Russell evoked Charlie Brown with "Christmas Time Is Here" and, more recently, evoked Charlie Dickens with "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen".
So we thought we'd bring Carol and Russell together for a song that is celebrating its centennial this year. There aren't many standards whose story ties Al Jolson to Vladimir Putin and Giacomo Puccini, but this one does, as Mark explains in his introduction.
Speaking of accidental connections, on our Christmas show Carol was talking backstage with another of Mark's guests, Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Randy happened to mention a song of his he thought would rather suit Carol. We're pleased to say it will now be a track on her forthcoming Latin CD. For the first time, Carol is launching the album through Kickstarter, and there's still a few opportunities left to attend the recording sessions in Toronto and Los Angeles, or get an autographed CD and other goodies. For more information, please click here. To get through enforced quarantine sanely requires not just bathroom tissue, wipes and ammo: some good music helps, too.
And, with that, on to "Avalon" upon the occasion of its one hundredth birthday: Here's Mark's telling of the tale, followed by a wild performance by Carol, Russell and the band. Click below to watch:
"Avalon", music and lyrics by Al Jolson and Vincent Rose
Carol Welsman, piano and vocals
Russell Malone, guitar
with
Michel Berthiaume, drums;
Jon Geary, guitar;
Mathieu McConnell-Enright, bass;
Bill Mahar, trumpet;
and Jean-Pierre Zanella, saxophone.Eric Harding, musical contractor
~Steyn's Song of the Week is made possible through the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club, for which we're profoundly grateful. Among the pleasures of membership is that you can enjoy our TV content in any medium you desire. So, if you'd rather sample our Song of the Week in audio only, please log-in here. For more on that upcoming album from Carol, see here.
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8 Member Comments
It's not always the singer strong arming the songwriter. I heard from a reliable source about a songwriter/famous singer alcohol fueled creative session in Nashville. The next morning the hungover singer couldn't remember a thing, but the songwriter was very excited about the great song they'd co-written. The singer hadn't actually contributed anything, but the songwriter knew it would get included on the album if the singer was getting a cut of the royalties and he figured half of a hit was better than all of nothing.
As the dowager duchess in Downton Abbey said on the occasion of an unavoidable music recital: "Oh good--I thought we were in for some frightful German Lieder. You can always rely on Puccini."
Wow, Carol Welsman is really something else. To be able to hear her sing and play piano so beautifully and to see her perform with this remarkable group of talented musicians is a lot of fun and very impressive.
Thanks for making this performance available to all who couldn't make the live show, Mark. I can't wait to hear which song of Randy Bachman's will be on the new album. Best of luck to Carol Welsman on this and many more successful projects ahead.
I totally enjoyed this. I am surprised no one has mentioned Catalina Island. To me it is one of the two Santa Catalina Island songs that make me think of the place. The other song is 26 miles across the bay. I love the "travel on" rhyme with Avalon. The Puccini connection is fantastic!
Mark Steyn speaks about century old events as if it they happened yesterday. He is a master of his craft. And what a treat to see accomplished musicians who don't need twerks, tights or tattoos to perform a song. Bravo!
The Perfect ending to a week where the world has entered the twilight zone.
just what the doctor ordered! Think I'll go and indulge in some of the archives of songs and poems while I'm at it.
Thanks Mark for corona distractions.
What a wonderful arrangement and performance by Carol and the band. Your songs, stories and other posts remain one of the few remaining pleasures not banned by coronavirus panics.
I don't weep too much for Vincent Rose's lost royalties from Avalon, for in the same year of 1920, Vincent Rose co-wrote "Whispering," a million-seller for Paul Whiteman's orchestra, revived later by Les Paul and others. Vincent took an English-sounding surname, but he eventually lost his War of the Roses when it came to light that his birth name was Vincenzo Cacioppo, and he grew up grooving on Puccini in Palermo.
Speaking of Grooving, in 1945, Dizzy Gillespie found a more devious way to siphon Rose's royalties by inventing new melodies to cover the unique descending chromatic chord changes in Whispering, titling his new creation, "Groovin' High." What one man invents, another can circumvent.
Mark replies:
Thank you, Gary. I can't believe we've never done "Whispering" in this slot. À propos Dizzy's circumvention, Johnny Mercer, when asked about his tune for "Dream", always used to say it was "Whispering" sideways.
I've noticed the parallel in "Dream" and "Whispering" too, but Johnny Mercer may have been too persnickety when he thought Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile" copied Hoagy Carmichael's "New Orleans" too closely. Sometimes it's just the random blending of those same damn 12 notes coming out heads and tails in the same order too often. Not enough building blocks to go around. Bring back the 24-note micro-tone scale!