"Everything is OK!" - Week 1 Playlist

Upside Down - Jack Johnson
Pride (In The Name Of Love) -  Dierks Bentley (Feat. Del McCoury)
Walking in Your Footsteps - The Police
It's Hard To Listen - Coal Train Railroad
Listen to the Music - The Doobie Bros.
Walking the Dog - Hans Theessink
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
Heavenly Day - Patty Griffith
Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down - Robinella & The CC String Band
Iko Iko - Dr. John
Itchy Twitchy Spot - Run C&W
Over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole

Notes from Eric

Upside Down - Honestly, I didn't really care for Jack Johnson until I heard this one. Now everything before this makes sense!

Pride (In the Name of Love) - If we do anything here at OK Playlist I hope we always do it In The Name Of Love!

Listen to the Music - My brother had the first Doobie Brothers.I was 13. I was changed. Suddenly, I wanted to be a rhythm guitar player. Oh, I didn't know what that was then. But looking back now...the music of the Doobies helped me "hear" where I wanted to be as a guitar player.

Walking the Dog - Classic song without a doubt. Russ introduced me to this version. I love it! Treat yourself to Run C&W's version soon! Into the Twangy-First Century/Row vs. Wade

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Aside from all the early Simon and Garfunkel stuff, this is the best work Paul Simon ever accomplished. I remember when Graceland came out. It was unlike anything we'd heard up to that point. We all stopped...and listened.

Heavenly Day - A friend and former bandmate of mine plays with Patty. I knew nothing about Patty until he started playing with her. This song is wonderful.

Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down - It's artists like Robinella that make the craziness and scariness of popular music fall silent.

Iko Iko - I love watching my kids' butts wiggle to this one...they LOVE it!

Itchy Twitchy Spot - We love Run CandW here at OK Playlist. You may recognize the lead singers voice...that's Russell Smith of Amazing Rhythm Aces fame. And that banjo pickin'? None other than Bernie Leadon. Formerly of the Eagles! The other 2 "Burns Brothers" ain't too shabby either. Jim Photoglo and Vince Melmed, hit songwriters.

Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - 2 of the greatest popular songs of the 20th century performed magically

Notes from Russ

Upside Down - This is from Curious George The Movie. It is a staple around my house. Dr. John did the theme for the PBS television show. I am sure we will see that song on the OK Playlist soon.

Pride (In The Name Of Love) - HOLY COW this is awesome. Dierks new album came out a couple of weeks ago and there are a couple of bluegrass tracks that are great, but this one fit in nicely with the family theme.

Walking in Your Footsteps - A great history lesson about dinosaurs.

It's Hard To Listen - Coal Train Railroad is a local Nashville band made up of some All-Star Musicians. This is one of my favorite new kids bands. Pandora describes the music as "kid-friendly vibe, subtle use of vocal harmony, demanding instrumental part writing." Check them out at coaltrainrailroad.com

Listen to the Music - Just a pure classic. Plus its just fun to say Doobie (even if you don't know what it is).

Walking the Dog - This guy goes unnoticed. A Dutch Blues Guitarist. Not a common mix. I first heard this version on the closing credits of a Sopranos episode. It is really great. Other great versions include Rufus Thomas' original from 1963.

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - I can't rave enough about Paul Simon's Graceland Album. Almost every song is "OK" and most of them include the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo as backing vocals. There will be many more songs from Graceland showing up on the OK Playlist in weeks to come.

Heavenly Day - My wife loves this song and I can't disagree. She has good taste in music. It is the most inspirational songs in this weeks OK Playlist and to come out in recent years. Patty comments in the YouTube video that she wrote her first love song...for her dog. You gotta love that!

Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down - Robinella is a Knoxville gal and this was a song from her most recognizable album's to date.

Iko Iko - I LOVE DR. JOHN. This guy can boogie woogie. This version from the album GUMBO features The Meters as the backing band and can be best described as greasy, sticky, slimmy funk. Pure awesomeness!

Itchy Twitchy Spot - Run C&W flew under the radar in the early 90's. OK Eric commented that these guys are All Star musicians that decided to have fun dressing up like rappers and covering soul tunes bluegrass style. This parody of Billy Ray Cyrus' Achey Breaky Heart is pure gold. Funny and masterful instrumentation, but that's the whole album Into the Twangy First Century.

Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - This is just awesome. these 2 songs sang together by a Hawaiian man on the Ukulele

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Victor Krauss is OK! - Live @ Dragon Park - Nashville

Nashville is one of the few cities in the US where you can catch a great show any day of the week.  This past Sunday was no exception as we met some friends at Dragon park to catch one of the FREE! 2010 Dragon Music Sunday Concerts put on by the Nashville Metro Parks.  This week's artist was one of the best bass players around (IMO) Victor Krauss and his band.   


Victor Krauss stands on his own as a musician and a bass player, besides being the brother of Alison Krauss (who was also in attendance along with their parents and her son).  I first heard about Victor from my friend Tim "TIIIMMMMYY!" Shirley who introduced me to the album Far From Enough (2004).  That album includes legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and Jerry Douglas (among others), along with Victor's sister Alison Krauss appearing on a couple of tracks including a strong version of Robert Plant's Big Log.


The entire album is "OK" for kids to enjoy as most of it is instrumental, but my experience has shown that kids lack the patience for instrumental music. But for those that do like instrumental, ambient Jazz they will love it.  If you have tweens or teens that are into jazz i would give it a spin and if nothing else add it to you personal collection.  A five star album indeed.


Cheers!
Russ


  


 Notes if you are attending the 2010 Dragon Park Concert Series:
It's hot.  Really hot!  Dress and plan accordingly.
The main act always starts around 4-4:20P so note the time when you are planning your day. 
There was plenty of shade, not a lot of people and plenty of  playground fun to be had by all. 
Dragon Park is also Fannie Mae Dees Park directly across the street from Vanderbilt.

MAP

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The Definitive Playground List

I was scouring the web the other day in search of the definitive playground map for all of the playgrounds in my area.  A site (maybe a google map overlay) that not only showed all of the playgrounds in Nashville, but in any given city.  I was surprised to find that no one site had them all. I finally found one through Nashville Parks and Recreations, but it even lacked a few that I know of.
KaBOOM.org has a pretty extensive playground list in some of the major cities and even offers some photos and reviews.

A little tip:  If you are ever curious of the "other" playgrounds out there...start your search at your local parks and recreation department and expand from there.

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