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NauenThen

Lal! II

May 10, 2018
Tags: Michael Lally
I was honored to be asked to introduce Michael Lally at the Poetry Project last night. Here's what I said:

I love the close harmonies of old country blues singers, in particular brother acts like the Blue Sky Boys, the Louvins, the early Everly Brothers. The way these siblings sing together is sometimes called blood harmony.

In a way, you could think of Michael Lally as being in blood harmony with the whole world—the  Read More 
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Lal!

April 29, 2018
Tags: Michael Lally
Michael Lally at Howl gallery, April 25, 2018. I know he looks like an alien but that's just my bad photography.
What an excellent poet he is & how great to have his giant new book Another Way to Play: Poems 1960-2017, published by my old friend Dan Simon at Seven Stories. Bob Holman introduced him & then Lal sat down at the piano & played some lovely riffs—he used to play in bars, he reminded us. He read old & new work, the older work deepened by age & health troubles, all of it as straight-on as ever.

If you missed this event, he's at the Poetry Project on May 9. Read More 
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Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra

April 7, 2015
Tags: Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Michael Lally

Check out Lally's terrific riff on Frank Sinatra: "I've always been impressed with humans who can extend the natural talents of our species beyond what anyone previously thought was possible. The great artists and scientists and athletes and thinkers and leaders etc. Sinatra was one of those."

Billie Holiday, born 100 years ago today, may not have been as tenaciously devoted to craft & technique, but she can blow your head off. It's the old dilemma: technique or passion—but great artists, like great lovers, have both.


Sinatra's mean attitude toward women is what comes out to me in his singing. Johnny says all singers learned from him—if you can understand Johnny Cash's words, it's because he understood Sinatra's phrasing.

Billie Holiday just seems beyond understanding.

Not so much comparing, just thinking about why I hands down prefer Holiday.

Also see: Frank O'Hara's fantastic poem "The Day Lady Died." Is there a great, moving poem about Sinatra?

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