THERE'S SOMETHING UNIQUELY APPEALING about a 10-mile run -- just ask the 26,000 people who will be lining up this Sunday for the Army Ten-Miler. "It's challenging because it's not your regular 5K or 10K, but it's not so daunting as a marathon or a half-marathon. You can do it without being wiped out afterwards," explains Alisa Harvey, who makes it sound so simple because she's won the race four times.
While other folks might not be as speedy as Harvey, she thinks just about anybody has the ability to complete the course. But it could help to get some advice from her and from two-time Olympian runner Meredith Rainey Valmon, who are offering pre-race expo clinics this Friday and Saturday (at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel — see Armytenmiler.com for details).
Continue Reading "The 10-Mile Commandments: Army Ten-Miler" »
NOSTALGIC FOR New Orleans?
Well, you could go there, but gas is pricy and the Subdudes are right here in Virginia.
This band epitomizes Louisiana swamp-rock, with its folky bayou sound and lyrics that evoke all that is good and Southern. You can see one of their past performances (this one at Wolf Trap) here.
» Birchmere Music Hall, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria; 7:30 p.m., $25; 703-549-7500.
MURRY HAMMOND'S SOLO DEBUT isn't a concept album.
It's a metaphor record about trains as spiritual vehicles, traveling a dangerous route to a heavenly destination.
The collection reflects his lifelong fascination with not only with Texas railroads but with old-time music in general. Fittingly, "I Don't Know Where I'm Going but I'm on My Way" sounds worlds removed form the music Hammond makes with his day-job band, the Old 97's. Instead of power pop with a country edge, he puts the "western" back in country & western, creating sepia-toned songs about trains, travels and tribulations. Hammond yodels, croons, yearns and prays throughout his own originals as well as Carter Family covers and compositions by Mormon poet Eliza R. Snow.
It's an album as a long journey, relating disappointment and grief but ultimately arriving at a hard-won redemption.
Hammond retraced his footprints for Express track by track, and you can follow along by listening to the album at Last.fm. (And if that doesn't work, several songs can be heard at his MySpace page or at CD Baby.)
Continue Reading "Liner Notes: Murry Hammond on 'I Don't Know Where I'm Going But I'm on My Way'" »
RACHAEL YAMAGATA DIDN'T want to make a double album. She didn't want to make a particularly long album either.
In the end, she kind of did both.
Yamagata's sophomore effort, "Elephants ... Teeth Sinking Into Heart" (Warner Bros.), out Oct. 7, is an album divided into two distinct halves — not a double album (though it's on two CDs), just a record in two parts, separate yet linked.
And it took her a while to get there.
"I probably did 50 sequences of this record," Yamagata said. "At the end of the day, I found this sequence for "Elephants" [which makes up the album's first nine songs] to be more of like a film score. It's really one of those things where you may listen to it once a year when you're by yourself and in a certain mood, and that's how I envisioned it. I wrote [most of] it in the woods at 4 a.m. It's definitely a mood piece; you can't listen to it at a party. It's definitely magical in that way."
On the other side, "Teeth Sinking into Heart" is Yamagata's more rocking side. If the first half is her trapped in a depressed rut, the second is her breaking free and starting to stand on her own.
WHAT DO YOU GET when you mix hip-hop and soul? Mary J. Blige. Today's joke is brought to you by the letter Obvious. The woman has eight Grammys. EIGHT. How many do you have? I bet it's not more than two.
And she's coming here. Well, to Virginia, but close enough. You can check out her music here, which is where the problems begin. And by problems, I mean you may begin to imagine that you and she could be very close friends if only you got to know each other, and that this concert might be the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself, whereupon she would recognize your inner awesomeness and give you one of her Grammys as a friendship token. And then your therapist will tell you that's a bad idea, and if you don't have a therapist you can borrow mine. Just enjoy the music.
Please don't stalk Mary J. Blige.
» Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, 7800 Cellar Door Dr., Bristow; Sat., Sept. 20, 7 p.m., $49.75-$125.75; 800-551-7328.
Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
THE ANTI-FOLK movement is alive and well and living in Britain. Luckily, it tours to the United States with some regularity.
If you need a definition of anti-folk, look here. If you want an example of an awesome anti-folk rocker who was in part inspired by Shakespeare (hey, come on, that's cool), you can watch Johnny Flynn on YouTube, or you can go to the Birchmere Thursday night. Your call.
» Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria; Thu., Sept. 18, 7:30 p.m. $20; 703-573-7328.
Photo courtesy Marius Hansen
LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT Callie Kimball has impish fun with a 2,000-year-old play as she adapts Aristophanes' surprisingly resilient "Peace" into a bright, scathing antiwar comedy.
The Washington Shakespeare Company shoots at everything that moves in this impudent work, in which an anguished father from Carthage, Tenn., demands restitution — or at least an explanation — from the gods after his son is killed in battle. And getting answers from anyone in charge proves to be tougher than this citizen bargained for.
» Clark Street Playhouse, 601 S. Clark St., Arlington; through Sept. 28, $24-$50; 800-494-8497.
ON SATURDAY MORNINGS, vendors set up shop outside Great Wall supermarket in Falls Church. They serve sweet-smelling Chinese breakfast treats including flaky breads topped with sesame seeds; rice rolls stuffed with dried pork; savory sesame balls filled with green onions; and deep-fried doughnut breads — almost like giant churros without the cinnamon sugar.
Inside Great Wall, there's even more action.
Sunny Chang, a 24-year-old accountant living in Arlington, has become a Great Wall regular. (Full disclosure — we've known Sunny for 10 years.) A first-generation Taiwanese-American, she discovered the Asian market on a shopping trip with her mother.
"My mom goes every weekend," she said. "It's super, super cheap. She says it's better than Lotte, Super H-Mart and Kam Sam." Sunny's mother, Nancy Chang, who lives in Fairfax, says Great Wall specializes in traditional Chinese produce, poultry and live seafood.
Continue Reading "Exotica Adjacent: Great Wall Asian Market" »
A HEALTH-FOOD STORE in the projects is "like a fried-chicken joint in a vegan compound," the owner of said shop opines in Daniel Beaty's "Resurrection." Indeed, Mr. Rogers (Michael Genet) considers closing his anomalous store, from which his brilliant 10-year-old son, Eric (Thuliso Dingwall), concocts a mystery tea for the soul.
The lives and struggles of six African-American men from six decades converge in Arena Stage's latest. The play, which is making its official world premiere, has D.C. roots, having originally been first read last summer at Busboys and Poets.
Continue Reading "Connected Struggles: Daniel Beaty's 'Resurrection'" »
TALK FOR A WHILE to Ontario singer-songwriter Hayden, and you realize his quiet act isn't really an act at all. The indie cult hero is just as low-key in conversation as he is in song. Several times during our interview, the hum of the international telephone line threatened to drown his voice out entirely.
His mellow vibe is probably one reason Hayden (aka Paul Hayden Dresser) is the type of musician beloved by listeners of National Public Radio's World Cafe (on which he appeared Sept. 10) and ignored by everyone else. Well, there's that and the fact that he operates according to his own rules, releasing records when the spirit moves him.
Since his 1995 four-track debut CD, he's released only four full CDs of music. Even his MySpace page refers to his cycle of recording and touring but also boasts of his taking "lots of time off." He released his newest CD, "In Field & Town," on his own Hardwood label in Canada. Don't expect him to hop aboard the record-company treadmill anytime soon.
Continue Reading "Stranger in Town: Ontario Singer-Songwriter Hayden" »
Addison Road