Sing Me Back Home Jam

Posted on November 14, 2025 by AD

Beginning last week, flags across the United States flew at half mast following the announcement of the passing of former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux. In the 1960s, the Alabama native began her professional singing career in the nearby Muscle Shoals scene, where she backed Percy Sledge on “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and continuing up to Memphis to back Elvis on “Suspicious Minds.” During this period, she also provided vocal support for other recording artists, including Duane Allman, Boz Scaggs, Cher, and Neil Diamond.

The following year, 1970, Donna sought a change of scene in San Francisco. By the end of that year she had met and married her husband, keyboardist Keith Godchaux, and experienced her first Grateful Dead concert, likely an October 4 or 5 date at Winterland. Describing the show a a “spiritual” experience, she soon introduced herself to Jerry Garcia and informed him that her husband would be the band’s new piano player. Keith joined the band in 1971, and Donna did the same shortly thereafter. With founding member Pigpen’s vocals and organ work in decline (and all the way gone by 1972),* the Godchaux’s tenure with the band, which extended until 1979, marks what many consider the Grateful Dead’s best era.

We had the good fortune of catching Donna on stage in a surprise appearance with her former bandmates Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart during Dead & Company’s headlining appearance at Bonnaroo in 2016. (So far as I know, it marked her only appearance with that group.) For a first live experience of Grateful Dead music from a band of original members, it was hard to imagine topping this.

A musical life of this breadth merits multiple selections. Here are my four selections for this week’s jam:

* For a fun taste of this interesting transition period– between 1971-72, Keith and then Donna joined the band, while Mickey Hart (temporarily) and Pigpen (permanently) departed– check out December 10, 1971. That night in St. Louis found the Dead in a rare six-man lineup amidst the crossing lines of those four members.

Death, Taxes, and the Detroit Tigers in the 2025 MLB Playoffs?

Posted on August 22, 2025 by AD

You serious, Clark? Yes. As basically first reported by ALDLAND.com months ago, the Detroit Tigers have clinched a spot in the 2025 MLB playoffs. Look for yourself:

If that isn’t surprising to you, I am projecting with 100% certainty that’s so because you are an ALDLAND reader. Before the current season even started, we told you that Baseball Prospectus told you that Detroit had close to no shot– 19.9%!– at returning to the playoffs. At the same time, we also told you why that was very wrong. For their part, the Tigers immediately began proving us very right and Baseball Prospectus very wrong. And now, at last, Baseball Prospectus has thrown in the towel: Rob Manfred himself cannot stop this team.

Arrange your affairs accordingly. We’ll see you in October.

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Previously
More Likely Than Not: The 2025 Detroit Tigers are winning, and winning matters
Maximum Tork: How Spencer Torkelson is cranking up his hot start in 2025
Before you accuse me, take a look at Jake Rogers
Is it Tiger Time? Tarik Skubal says so

Tariff Jam

Posted on February 14, 2025 by AD

We don’t do political content or much policy analysis here at ALDLAND. For nearly fifteen years, we have stood as a virtual pillar of resistance against ahistorical public discourse, though, and news out of Cleveland this week prompted another opportunity for us to recommit ourselves publicly to that mission. We do so now by publishing what follows, this week’s Jam, as evidence against any persistent allegation that rank-and-file populists ever actually preferred tariffs as a means of economic protectionism.

Should you instead prefer a more-recent, more-electrified version of the aforegoing to which your poster served as an eyewitness, just head on over here.

Time for Leavin’ Jam

Posted on April 19, 2024 by AD

After eighty years of ramblin, brer Dickey Betts decided it was leavin time yesterday. Firmly situated in the pantheon of American guitarists, Betts’ melodic, flowing style blended jazz, country, blues, and– self-admittedly– a pinch of Jerry Garcia to build a signature sound that would lead the musical institution known as the Allman Brothers Band for decades following the premature death of his guitar partner, Duane Allman, in its early days. Betts not only carried the guitar load on stage and in the studio, but he also was an accomplished songwriter, responsible for the band’s biggest hit and many of their most familiar songs.

Continue reading →

Shorter Jam

Posted on March 3, 2023 by AD

The default mindset when it comes to jams is the longer the better, but, today, we must mark the inevitable planetary departure of Wayne Shorter, a pillar from the most creatively dynamic period in the history of jazz. Even as I recall his headlining set at the first Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C., it still seems impossible that among us might walk giants. Shorter’s catalogue and contributions are tall and wide, but, here at ALDLAND, we play the hits. You heard it as soon as you heard the news, and it’s this week’s Jam:

Always Will/Never Cut His Jam

Posted on January 20, 2023 by AD

Following the losses in recent weeks of Christine McVie, Jeff Beck, and Robbie Knievel, yesterday announced the departure of David Crosby. The founding contributor to The Byrds; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, his own solo career, and other affiliated ensembles remained an active creator until his death at the age of eighty-one.

Collaborator Stephen Stills offered:

I read a quote in this morning’s paper attributed to composer Gustav Mahler that stopped me for a moment: “Death has, on placid cat’s paws, entered the room.” I shoulda known something was up. David and I butted heads a lot over time, but they were mostly glancing blows, yet still left us numb skulls. I was happy to be at peace with him. He was without question a giant of a musician, and his harmonic sensibilities were nothing short of genius. The glue that held us together as our vocals soared, like Icarus, towards the sun. I am deeply saddened at his passing and shall miss him beyond measure.

Crosby’s “juvenile” anthem, undertaken quite maturely in 1974 by CSNY is this week’s Jam:

Although it at times seems as though this site has become something of a necrology, these are significant passings that merit note.

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Previously
Stadium Jam

You Took the Words Right Out of My Jam

Posted on January 21, 2022 by AD

Nobody hit that grand rock production sweet spot like Meat Loaf, who died yesterday at the age of seventy-four, and who, this now being the end of time for which no one prayed, Satan better hope is not coming his way. My first memory of Meat Loaf was an appearance at an MLB all-star game. (Google suggests it might be this one, but I’m not so sure.) When I later heard the original music he created with Jim Steinman, Prof. Roy Bittan, the Mighty Max Weinberg, and Todd Rundgren, with assists from Edgar Winter and Phil Rizzuto, it was almost impossible to believe it was real, and seeing that music presented in the context of the Rocky Horror Picture Show didn’t make it any easier to believe. Bat out of Hell, Meat Loaf’s 1977 debut, is punch in the face after punch in the face, and the title track and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” are knockouts. A decade and a half later, 1993’s Bat out of Hell II proved Loaf & Co. still had it, opening with comeback epic singalong “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do that).” (Full disclosure: this post is not sponsored by Dr Pepper.)

Meat Loaf’s memory can bear two selections, and these two heavy hitters will serve as this week’s Jam:

Riddim Jam

Posted on December 17, 2021 by AD

ALDLAND’s news desk is a bit backed up, but we can’t permit more time to pass without marking the passing of the Jamaican Bass Bard, Robbie Shakespeare, who stepped onto a new groove earlier this month. One half of a stellar rhythm section alongside drummer Sly Dunbar, Shakespeare played with numerous Jamaican artists, including Peter Tosh, before expanding his circle to include others in America and the U.K. Along with Dunbar, Shakespeare joined Bob Dylan as part of his incredible Infidels band, which also featured Mick Taylor and Mark Knopfler on guitars. Dylan’s camp recently released video of alternate selections from those studio sessions, one of which is today’s Jam:

End of an Era Jam

Posted on July 30, 2021 by AD

Nearly ten years after they first were featured in this space, ZZ Top has, with the passing of bassist Dusty Hill, ended its tenure as the longest-running music group with an unchanged lineup. To call this the end of an era is an understatement, as would be any attempted summation of the band’s history and legacy. The trio consistently embodied the total rock and roll package, and today’s Jam is a small tribute of gratitude to their commitment, sound, and style:

Might as well Jam

Posted on October 9, 2020 by AD

Eddie Van Halen was, until this week, a living legend. Cancer erased the first part of that, but he forever will have a prominent place in the pantheon of popular music, his monumental guitar work an essential element of rock music. While the lineage of his sonic legacy flows into harder rock and metal artists, his own music retained a melodic accessibility that helped maintain his mainstream appeal.

I’m too young to have experienced the phenomenon of Van Halen as it was happening, but I still can remember the time in middle school when I first heard “Right Now” and “Jump,” which, together, are this week’s Jam: