Like most Americans, I struggled for some happiness in 2019.

And now 2019 is looking pretty good, compared to how 2020 is starting.

Here are some of the other things that kept me relatively sane in 2019:

BEST MUSIC (POP)

One of the best things about living in the Los Angeles area is the variety of great live music to be seen, almost every day of the week. This year I saw some wonderful shows, but these stand out:

BRANDI CARLILE sings Joni Mitchell’s “BLUE” album at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Brandi Carlile’s following has been growing for a while, and now she’s a full-fledged star. I was lucky enough to score seats for this one-time-only show: Brandi recreating Joni Mitchell’s classic album.

It was unquestionnably a special night: Joni herself was there, and Elton John, too. Everyone’s cellphone was sealed in separate electronic pouches so there was no picture-or-video taking during the concert. Dressed in a sharp blue suit, Brandi was backed by an eight-piece band that included Russ Kunkel (one of the drummers on the original record) and Scarlet Rivera on violin.

A lot of it was over-the-top: comparing Joni to Shakespeare, the fawning video introduction by Joni’s famous friends and fans, etc. But the music-making by Brandi and band was so heartfelt and respectfully performed that the entire evening felt like a big Thank You to a Major Artist. (Personally, I like folk-pop Joni quite a lot; jazzy-hipster Joni, not so much. “BLUE” isn’t even my favorite Joni album: I prefer “Court and Spark” and “Ladies of the Canyon.”) In any case, I was happy to hear Brandi tackle my favorite songs from “BLUE” like “River” and “California.”

I was hoping that after they performed “Blue” there would be an intermission, and Brandi would do a second set of her own “greatest hits,” but that was not to be. The evening was all about Joni. Some other time I’m going to have to see Brandi doing “The Story” and “Turpentine” and “The Joke” and “Late Morning Lullaby.”

Brandi sings “The Joke” at the Grammys – a real “Star Is Born” moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJqL1yIm9e0

Brandi Carlile – “Turpentine” – from 2010 – at Paste Magazine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr4dKNdbI7I

Brandi Carlile – “Late Morning Lullaby” – from 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4iRqPeTBlQ

Brandi Carlile – “Raise Hell” – from “The Late Late Show” in 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2oyi7Zm4wg

Brandi Carlile – “The Story” – live, on Jools Holland’s show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mF9XAs5Dmo

The Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby) cover Fleetwood Mac’s THE CHAIN live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLNB3d-2cA

Three Shows at McCabe’s Guitar Shop

This year we saw three shows at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Santa Monica’s legendary temple of acoustic music. It’s a venue I’ve always loved even though it’s on the other side of LA, which can mean an hour-and-a-half-or-more drive in rush hour. But now that there’s a really nice restaurant – Upper West – in close walking distance of the club, and the parking is easy, I’ve tried to see more shows there.

And it was worth the effort: all three shows we saw this year were excellent. McCabe’s has a special charm. Their “concert hall” is the back room of a guitar store that’s like someone’s basement rec room. There are rows of uncomfortable folding chairs (unless you’re early enough and remember to snag a cushion from under the stage.) But everyone is there for the music, and the vibe is always warm and comfortable.

We saw:

Robbie Fulks

For a few decades, Robbie Fulks has been one of the smartest, funniest, quirkiest “alternative country” songwriters around. But Robbie is not just funny. He’s an artful songwriter, engaging perfomer, and a helluva picker.

His show was a lot of fun. Robbie’s been around for a while, and his catalog is deep. In fact, I knew only a couple of the songs he did, but everything was very good. I wanted him to do one of his distinctive covers – like “Dancing Queen” or “Billie Jean” – but he didn’t. No matter: we had a great time, and the TG liked him. (She’s always liked guys who went to Columbia.)

Robbie sings the song that got him first noticed -- “She Took A Lot of Pills and Died” – about Dorothy Dandridge(!) -- from McCabe’s in 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU0A_utlljc

Robbie sings “I Push Right Over”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIdcx6aXB3o

Robbie sings “The Buck Starts Here”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKX-sToS128

Robbie covers ABBA in Sweden – “Dancing Queen” – starts at 2:48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkrPmfUB5ig

Robbie covers Michael Jackson brilliantly – “Billie Jean”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teOIeoZz3eI

Peter Asher and Albert Lee

The Peter Asher-Albert Lee show was a sheer delight: in words and music. Peter Asher (half of Peter and Gordon, producer of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, younger brother of McCartney-girlfriend Jane Asher, and first A&R man at Apple Records) has the greatest anecdotes in the world. I listen to his show “From Me to You” on Sirius Radio’s Beatles channel all the time. And Albert Lee (the English genre-crosser who’s played with/for Eric Clapton, the Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Eddie Van Halen, etc.) is simply one of the world’s best guitarists.

They traded stories and tunes most enjoyably for an hour and a half. Asher said that there’s no venue in the world like McCabe’s, and I think he’s right.

Albert Lee – a full set from “Rockpalast” from 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHbHDfOZBg

Albert Lee – an interview with Reverb magazine – demonstrates his favorite licks and influences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9lg-JZvxs

Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison

I’ve been a fan of Texas songbird Kelly Willis’ for many years, but she hadn’t played LA for almost two decades. She seems to have chosen a family life in Texas over running around the country, touring: good for her. When she came back, it was with her husband and music partner, ace songwriter Bruce Robison.

I wish they had brought a full band. (McCabe’s stage is very small, but you can still fit a few more players.) But I was very happy to see them with just one supporting super-guitarist.

They sang some new songs, some favorites from her longish career (she’s 51 now), and some of the songs that Bruce wrote for George Strait (“Wrapped,” “Desperately”) and the Dixie Chicks (“Traveling Soldier”).

McCabe’s is all about the love of acoustic music, and that feeling was palpable that night. Kelly’s long absence from LA created a very responsive audience.

And I got Kelly Willis off my Bucket List.

Kelly Willis – “Back Being Blue” – recent Kelly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iici9bA-ffg

Kelly Willis – “What I Deserve” – from “Sessions at West 54th”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqcJWSGRge8

Kelly’s cover of Tom T. Hall’s classic “That’s How I Got to Memphis”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHCxqON0IWU

Kelly’s killer cover of Billy Paul’s “Me and Mr. Jones”(sic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeIupWJjJLo

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis – sing Bruce’s “Angry All the Time” – a huge hit for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jf9HSeIkl0

Bruce Robison sings “What Would Willie Do?” – too funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkp-gjQAxvc

BEST RADIO

Howard Stern’s Interviews

I’ve been a Howard Stern fan for a long time. (We grew up a few towns apart on Long Island. Check out my early blog on him.) Many hours have I lost to his nonsense, many hours have I laughed myself silly. Through the years, his show has changed. As Howard “matured” and underwent lots and lots of psychotherapy, he became an even better interviewer. He was always good, but the interviews were about his ego and getting laughs for his audience. Now he has the time – some of his interviews run for two hours – and the inclination to go deep into his interviewees’ lives, problems, and psyches. And there is a level of candor that Howard achieves that is simply umatched. People say things to him and talk in ways that you just don’t hear anyplace else. And he still gets great laughs, too.

This year, when he released his book of interviews HOWARD STERN COMES AGAIN, he really hit his stride with the interview thing. Some of the best were with Hillary Clinton (if she had talked this way during the election, she would have won by even more!) … Seth Rogen twice (once with Charlize Theron and once with Snoop Dog when the two of them got Stern’s cast member JD high for the first time at a legal Calfornia weed café) … Alec Baldwin … Russell Crowe … Demi Moore (what a life!!!) … and few people whom I really didn’t know well like Billie Eilish and Bella Thorne.

Often I have to turn him off, but sometimes he’s great radio. He gave me lots of entertainment this year.

BEST DANCE

“JEWELS” by George Balanchine, performed by the Mariinsky Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles

I’ve been lucky enough to see Balanchine’s masterpiece “Jewels” a few times over the years, performed by his company, the great New York City Ballet. But this year, the Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, one of the most esteemed ballet companies in the world and the place where Balanchine trained, brought their version of “Jewels” to Los Angeles.

“Jewels” was the first three-act abstract ballet (i.e., no story) ever staged when it premiered in 1967. The three acts are: Emeralds (music by Faure), Rubies (music by Stravinsky) and Diamonds (music by Tchaikovsky). It’s all about the music and the costumes and the glory of what the human body can do. There’s nothing like a great Balanchine ballet being danced well; his art is of the highest caliber.

The Mariinsky Ballet danced more than well. It was as if they wanted to show Americans how Balanchine should be danced, that he still belonged to them. Of course Balanchine belongs to the world, and his style combines French, Russian, and American influences. But you can see why the Russians want to claim his genius for their own.

Each time I see “Jewels,” I like a different act more than the others. Although I prefer Faure and Tchaikovsky, this time, the winner was the Stravinsky.

For a word-person like me, there is no mental vacation quite like ballet.

(And for Christmas, I got the TG a DVD of the Mariinsky Ballet from 2011 dancing “Jewels.” Different dancers, same excellence.)

The great Diana Vishneva dancing “Rubies”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51JELveLPkg

Three dancers tackling “Emeralds”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7o4MVrRCco

Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins in “Diamonds” Pas de Deux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WOwWjwm-QY

BEST BOOK

The best book of 2019 was my novel WHEN I GOT OUT, dammit. But book writing is a long game, and books have time to develop a wide readership. And The Story Plant is re-issuing WHAT IT WAS LIKE in April, which will generate more interest in both books. I hope.

Other than mine, the best 2019 book I read was written in 1985. It’s Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’ LAST WITNESSES: An Oral History of the Children of World War II, and it was just translated in English this year. It’s the last of the five books by this Belarusian master journalist/oral historian/prose magician to be translated, but it was the second one she wrote. I think her technique/genius has developed over the course of her career, so that her last book – SECONDHAND TIME – about the collapse of the Soviet Union, is her masterpiece. But this one is stunning, too.

Just to give you a taste of the heartbreak between the covers of this book, here are some chapter titles:

“They Lay Pink on the Cinders” … “I Still Want My Mama” … “I Gathered Them With My Hands … They Were Very White” … “And They Tamped It Down With Shovels” … “I Screamed and Screamed … I Couldn’t Stop” … “Did God Watch This? And What Did He Think?” … “In the Last Moments, They Shouted Their Names” … “My Dear Dog, Forgive Me … My Dear Dog, Forgive Me” … “I Waited a Long Time For My Father … All My Life” … “Why Did They Shoot Her In the Face? My Mama Was So Beautiful” … “You’ll Be My Children Now” … “Whoever Cries Will Be Shot” … and so many more.

After people read my book, they should read this one.

Besides that, I caught up on some books this year that I should have read long ago. (When I’m writing my novels, I’ve sometimes had to put some restrictions my reading: can’t read anything too “influential.”)

So in between writing, I caught up on some outstanding books: BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ incendiary memoir/missive/missile … THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES, Lawrence Ritter’s famous oral history of early baseball … the marvelous THE SECRET HISTORY by the marvelous Donna Tartt.

I know there are some others, but I can’t think of them now.

#WHENIGOTOUT

#adultromanticthrillernovel

#adultromanticthrillerstory

#adultromanticsuspensenovel

EVERYTHING ELSE

Time With My Grandsons

I’ve experienced many kinds of happiness in my life, but the happiness I feel spending time with my grandsons is something unique and pure. Nature knows something, rewarding us older people with the pleasures of grandparenting. And we help young families that need help. Little kids just seem to like old people: they are at the beginning and we are at the end, so we meet to close the circle.

This summer, I spent lots of time swimming with now-five-year-old Calder. (He took lessons at our pool.) That was a great of fun for me, even if I was always on razor-sharp alert. But I made sure that he was wearing his “floaties” and I was buoyed by multiple pool noodles, one of the world’s great inventions.

I’m also getting to know tiny Silas. He’s another super-aware, super-cute boy. I can tell, at six months, that he already likes me: it’s instinct. It’s blood.

Simple pleasures are the best, and I had a few real Time-Stands-Still moments with Calder. Just the other evening, he and I were having a catch with a Frisbee under the night lights on my basketball court, and he said to me with a big smile on his face, “This is a great night.” My heart stopped and melted. I could have died, right then and there.

Yoga

I’m one of the least doctrinaire people I know, but I believe in yoga. Yoga works, for the mind and body. (I do yoga four times a week and could do it everyday.) In a very tense year, yoga kept me calmer, happier, and more flexible. If I were a billionaire, I’d pay for yoga for anyone who’d want to practice it. Yoga in schools, yoga in prisons, yoga in the Army, yoga in Congress, yoga for the homeless. Even yoga for Trump. (Did I actually say that?)

The Dodgers

I spent a lot of time with the Dodgers this year. Much joy, and then a quick exit from the post-season.

I love baseball, even for it’s heartbreak.

We already have tickets for a game against the Brewers in July. Cody Bellinger vs. Christian Yelich. Can’t wait.

AND SOME MOVIE EXTRAS

To appropriate a term made famous (and wrongly used) by Pauline Kael about CITIZEN KANE, Sam Mendes’ 1917 is a “shallow masterpiece” but it should still win the Oscar … Renee Zellwegger as Judy Garland will win the Best Actress Oscar but Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman deserves it. … DOLOMITE IS MY NAME starts strong and ends weak. But it’s good to see Eddie Murphy at work. … HONEY BOY with Shia LaBoeuf was excellent: a real surprise.

I wanted to like LITTLE WOMEN, but it’s a disappointment. I like Saoirse Ronan, but Greta Gerwig’s re-jiggering of the story just doesn’t work very well. Some bad casting, too. It’s OK to want to try and change a classic, but sometimes a project fails. Future generations will go back to the George Cukor (1933) and the Gillian Armstrong (1994).

Other disappointments: MARRIAGE STORY (real phony) … The Mr. Rogers movie because I liked Marielle Heller’s last movie so much.

And finally …

JERRY HERMAN’S DEATH

Here is perhaps Jerry Herman’s greatest song – “Time Heals Everything” from MACK AND MABEL -- with the original high ending that Bernadette Peters couldn’t sing: a fine version by Helen Sjoholm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z40Mm_6raGw

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