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.

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.

Baseball Notes: Just a Perfect Day

Posted on September 19, 2024 by AD

This column returns on a Thursday evening with two notes as lovely as forgetting your problems and drinking sangria in the park.

Scott Harris and the Young Tigers are Going Streaking:

The Detroit Tigers are off today, and, based on their recent performance, only the MLB schedule-maker can stop them from winning. On August 10, Detroit was 55-63, and, according to FanGraphs, their odds of earning a playoff berth stood at 0.5%. Since then, they’ve been the best team in baseball, going 25-10 to push their record to 80-73. They just completed a series sweep of the Kansas City Royals and, amazingly, now sit just a half game out of the American League’s last wild card spot. Those playoff odds accordingly have skyrocketed to 42.3%.

Without a game, I spent the evening listening to an interview (video below) with second-year GM Scott Harris. It’s from June 25, when the team was 36-41. It of course is exciting to hear about all of the front office’s plans and aspirations when, almost three months later, they seemingly are coming to their near-term fruition. It is pretty illuminating to hear Harris speak with confidence about those plans at a time when, at least from the outside, things were not looking too hopeful, though. I also enjoyed this interview because hosts Dan Dickerson and Jason Benetti were able to draw Harris, a self-described introvert, out into the public light in a way in which he has not previously shown himself. The public hasn’t seen or heard very much from Harris since he arrived in Detroit, and what I had observed prior to today wasn’t particularly compelling or illuminating. This, by contrast, was both insightful and enjoyable.

The MLB playoff hunt officially is on in Detroit. The team has nine games left to play, three each against the Orioles, Rays, and White Sox.

Shohei Ohtani, and only Shohei Ohtani:

Today certainly was not an off day for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not only did the team, in routing the Miami Marlins 20-4, clinch a playoff berth for the twelfth consecutive season, but Shohei Ohtani may have had the best single day a major-league hitter ever has had on the diamond. He went six-for-six– including three home runs and two doubles– and stole two bases.

In the process, Ohtani also became the first MLB player ever to hit fifty home runs and steal fifty bases in one season and actually stands at 51/51 with nine games remaining. We knew and hoped Ohtani would be special, but this is uncharted territory.

A perfect baseball day? I’d say so.

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Previously
Baseball Notes: New WAR Without an Act of Congress
Baseball Notes: Offensive Discrimination
Baseball Notes: Current Issues Roundup
Baseball Notes: Baseball’s growth spurt, visualized
Baseball Notes: The WAR on Robbie Ray
Baseball Notes: Save Tonight
Baseball Notes: Current Issues Roundup
Baseball Notes: The In-Game Half Lives of Professional Pitchers
Baseball Notes: Rule Interpretation Unintentionally Shifts Power to Outfielders?
Baseball Notes: Lineup Protection
Baseball Notes: The Crux of the Statistical Biscuit
Baseball Notes: Looking Out for Number One
Baseball Notes: Preview

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.

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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

Long Way To Go Home: When the Zen Master Wasn’t Zen

Posted on September 30, 2022 by AD

In June of 1993, the Chicago Bulls stood as back-to-back NBA champions looking to complete the first threepeat since the 1960s Boston Celtics. After finals series wins over the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991 and Portland Trailblazers in 1992, the Bulls faced Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA finals.

Phoenix, winner of sixty-two games during the regular season, held home-court advantage over the fifty-seven-win Bulls in a two-three-two finals series format. The Bulls won the first two games on the road, and the teams then split the first two games in Chicago. Holding a 3-1 series lead following their home win in game four on June 16, the Bulls had one opportunity to close out the series at home– game five on June 18– before the series would return to Phoenix for possible games six and seven.

Bulls forward Horace Grant was worried about the possibility of a summer return to Arizona, and Phil Jackson, Chicago’s cerebral coach dubbed the “Zen Master,” was especially interested in wrapping things up at home in game five, including for personal reasons: he had a concert to attend.

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Halftime Score: Age statements for past Super Bowl halftime show performers

Posted on February 15, 2022 by AD

People say age is just a number. Here are some super numbers:

Extra credit awarded to Phil Collins and Shakira for performing at the Super Bowl on their respective birthdays.

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: