A history of pools and segregation, what's next for California's high-speed rail, and how parents watch out for teens in the age of the Internet.
Buffy Sainte-Marie and her new album, Power in the Blood
Buffy Sainte-Marie made a huge name for herself in the 1964 with her album “It’s My Way.”
The Cree singer-songwriter and activist has done practically everything since then - winning an Oscar, Juno, and a Golden Globe.
She also made a name for herself with her appearances on Sesame Street, here she is in 1977 singing one of her songs, Cripple Creek:
And now Buffy Sainte-Marie has a new studio album, "Power in the Blood," which features a new version of that first hit song, "It's My Way." She stopped by the studio recently and began talking about her origins in music - and how she got her start.
"When I was three I just saw a piano and I fell in love and I've been playing with it ever since, I never got around to working at music, it's always been play for me." - Buffy Sainte-Marie
Alex Cohen talked to her about redoing her first hit - and why this new version seems even edgier than the original:
It was edgy in the 60's but I was real young. I was kind of small potatoes next to the big stars, but now things are different, I've had a pretty great life on the cutting edge of Native American issues, and I continue to be very actively involved in alternative conflict resolutions you know peace efforts of all kinds … so I have 50 more years than when I first wrote It's My Way …
US gets win against tough Australia in World Cup opener
The U.S. fought off an aggressive Australian team in its first game Monday at the World Cup, to come away with a win and an important three points in pool play.
The score was 3-1, with two goals coming from midfielder Megan Rapinoe and another from Christen Press. The win means the U.S. leads its pool in points after the first round of games.
There were some big questions going into the game: could the U.S. step up on the big stage, especially dealing with injuries for key players, such as Alex Morgan? Could the U.S. strike early in a group of teams considered one of the toughest in the tournament?
Despite the important win, some of those questions remain for Team USA, said Laura Vecsey of Fox Sports.
"This team is still very reliant on a very direct style of play and when it doesn't work, it falls apart, especially in the midfield, which is what we saw yesterday," she told Take Two from Winnipeg, where the U.S. game took place.
During a sluggish start, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo made a couple key saves to keep the score even, showing why the U.S. has kept her in the starting lineup, despite off-the-field controversy, including new details reported by ESPN this week on an allegation of domestic abuse.
Next up for the U.S.: Sweden on Friday in Vancouver. That game could shape up to be a classic, said Vecsey.
"This is going to be just epic," she said, pointing out that former U.S. coach Pia Sundhage now heads Sweden's team and may bring extensive insight on US players to the match. "They're going to be playing against a coach who knows how to take them apart. It's going to be great."
New music from Melody Gardot, Richard Thompson and more
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment. Host A Martinez sits down with music journalist
to chat about what he's been listening to.
Steve Hochman
Artist: Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys
Album: "Voyageurs"
Songs: "Au Revoir Grand Mamou," "Madame Faillelle"
As you know, June is National Accordion Awareness Month. So today let’s be aware of Cajun accordion wizard Steve Riley. Hailing from — as the band name implies — the town of Mamou in the heart of the Louisiana prairies, Riley’s been expanding the musical traditions of the region’s cultures for 27 years now, with 14 Mamou Playboys albums and a basket of side projects and collaborations to show for it. And yet he still seems like a leader of a new generation, not part of the old guard. Part of that is how he’s always looking to try new approaches to the traditions, add new ideas and sounds, without ever leaving the metaphorical home.
Well, until now… metaphorically. The album title "Voyageurs" sets the tone, and the opening song makes it explicit, waving "Au Revoir a Grand Mamou" — good-bye to Grand Mamou. And off they go, Riley’s accordion leading the way, with Kevin Wimmer’s fiddle right behind. But just as key is the electric guitar of Sam Broussard — not standard in this music — spikes many of the tunes. The journey sweeps up funky Creole Zydeco, country swing, blazing rock, R&B-inspired Swamp Pop… Okay, so they never really go that far from home. The trip out of Grand Mamou is a grand tour of the music of Southern Louisiana, one of the richest lands for music you’ll find anywhere.
And in the course of it they pay homage to many who come before, while setting new tones for those still to come. The mix of styles owes a lot to generations of innovatores: Dennis McGee and Canray Fontenot (the fiddlers’ "Crapaud" and "Bernadette" are done here, respectively), Michael Doucet and his band BeauSoleil, to Cajun rocker Zachary Richard, Zydeco great Boozoo Chavis (with a version of "Boozoo’s Blues" here) and to the Ragin’ Cajun himself, Doug Kershaw, with whom Rile recently made a fiddle-accordion duet album that digs deep into the traditional Cajun repertoire. Meanwhile, the new comes in such collaborations as a co-write of a country-ish song by young Kelli Jones-Savoy of the rising-star band Feufollet.
If there’s a loose concept in the sequence, it’s echoed in a promo photo that on first glance evokes the colorful cover of the classic loose-concept album, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But this scene is no arty contrivance. It’s just a photo of Cajun Mardi Gras revelers, in traditional costumes as they go house to house to score ingredients for the celebratory meal. That’s all in the grooves of "La Dance de Mardi Gras," a tune originated by the late fiddle great Dewey Balfa, one of the key figures in the ‘60s Cajun music revival, here kicking off with sounds of trotting hoofbeats and turning into a raucous chase.
But things really heat up when the band stretches out on the traditional "Madame Faillelle," a powerful Zydeco workout that ties together the companion Francophone Cajun and Creole cultures. Wherever these "Voyageurs" go, you know people will be dancing.
Artist: Melody Gardot
Album: "Currency of Man"
Songs: "Preacherman," "Same to You"
With her fourth album, Philadelphia singer Melody Gardot both breaks out of the dark mystique that's marked her career since her stunning 2008 debut album, and intensifies it. Check out the way the song "Preacherman" builds intensity in its layers of sounds — a full-on electric band behind her rather than the expected acoustic new-jazz — and waves of emotions in her words and the way she sings them. It’s as if she’s at once reaching out to us and pushing us away, retreating into her own shadowed world.
Those shadows are deep with her, though, embodied in her very name (straight out of a noir novel), her ever-present dark glasses and her subdued, dusky voice. The shades and the hushed sounds are manifestations of a key thing behind her art — a horrendous 2003 bike accident that left her, after a year of bed-ridden hospitalization, sensitive to light and sound. It shaped her music and her sense of self-in-the-world.
The promotional photos of Gardot with a determined look on her face and an electric guitar slung over her shoulder tell the story. The music, fashioned with Grammy-winning producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, as well as earlier Gardot albums among his many credits) draw on a wide range of jazz, R&B, pop and rock — opener "It Gonna Come" uses horns and strings like a classic Curtis Mayfield production, with Gardot understatedly calling to mind such profound artists as Nina Simone and Nancy Wilson in her tone and phrasing. That gives way to the chunky, low-register guitar tones on "Preacherman," her sultry vocals joined a couple of times by a haunting chorus. And "Morning Sun" breaks the darkness, somewhat, with a gospel-y sense of hope. It’s an exhilarating run, and that’s just the first three songs. And with the fourth, the drivingly powerful soul workout "Same to You," Gardot ups the ante further with a stance at once challenging and threatening, a baritone sax accenting the targeted barbs.
Throughout there’s a sense of an already impressive artist reaching for new things and as often as not surpassing the goals. As great as this record is, one can only imagine how forceful it his music will be in concert.
Artist: Richard Thompson
Album: "Still"
Songs: "She Never Could Resist a Winding Road," "No Peace, No End"
Opening Richard Thompson’s several-dozenth album, the lilting "She Never Could Resist a Winding Road" joins a long list of his vivid, bittersweet portraits of restless ramblers. It’s always hard to tell whether Thompson envies that free-spirit wanderlust or gazes sadly on a lost soul. It’s both, really, which gives this song a compelling quality as it builds from brittle folk delicacy to denser balladry.
For "Still," Thompson took steps to keep himself from a well-worn road, enlisting Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to produce. While it’s still clearly recognizable as a Thompson album — to anyone who has heard any of his career starting with English folk-rock groundbreakers Fairport Convention in the ‘60s through his remarkably dynamic 2013 album Electric — Tweedy’s input brings some new twists and nuances to the sounds, both the folkier numbers and the all-out rockers.
Thompson’s estimable talents as a writer and guitarist and the combo of grace and power of his Electric Trio cohorts, bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome, are always at the core, though. Tweedy plays a variety of instruments as well, but never imposes himself on the music. "Still" as such fits nicely alongside such Thompson classic as 1974’s I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and 1982’s Shoot Out the Lights (both from his partnership with former wife Linda Thompson), without ever sounding like it’s looking back to past work.
In that light, there’s perhaps irony in the title’s two meanings — still as in a winking "still here" and as in "without movement." Even in the most subdued moments, there’s rarely stillness in Thompson’s songs, a trait Tweedy shares. That’s reflected throughout the album, with many shades of seekers and dreamers parading by.
One new thing here is an explicitly autobiographical element. Thompson, often cagey about such things, on "Beatnik Walking" recounts a trek in Europe when his son Jack, now a twentysomething and a musician himself, was just a baby in a papoose on dad’s back. It’s a lovely, touching scene. And on the closing "Guitar Heroes," Thompson — who’s guitar prowess is even greater than his songwriting talents — tells the tale of his own evolution on the instrument, working in licks by key role models Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Chuck Berry, James Burton and English hotshot Hank Marvin (of the Shadows), each dexterously recreated down to the most subtle characteristics. It’s the song likely to get the most attention, but it’s his own, distinct playing that routinely makes jaws drop. Check out the solos and fills on "Long John Silver" and the intense "No Peace, No End." He can imitate all those great pickers, but not sure anyone could truly imitate him.
Parents look out for each others' kids online, spark important conversations
What to do when a friend's teenage son posts a song online called "All I Want 2 Do Is Die"?
In author Annabelle Gurwitch's case, it was her son Ezra Kahn — an aspiring singer/songwriter — who'd written the song and posted it online.
Soon after, Gurwitch got a call from a friend, who was calling on behalf of another friend who'd seen the song on SoundCloud. She was concerned about Ezra's mental health, and whether he could be suicidal, but was reluctant to reach out to Gurwitch directly.
At first, Gurwitch says, she was a little taken aback.
"I had heard the song before Ezra put it on SoundCloud and I really liked the song," Gurwitch says, "but I didn't really think about how people would perceive it."
She also didn't want to stifle her son's creativity, but as she thought about it more, Gurwitch says she realized, "Oh wow, this is like the 'net' in the Internet."
In an age when technology can keep us isolated from one another, this was one case where it allowed for one parent to look out for someone else's child. Even someone she didn't know all that well.
"And I thought this mother's looking out for my kid and isn't that a great thing?"
For Ezra, he says he wrote the song at a time when he was very sad, but not suicidal.
"Writing that song was a good cathartic experience, I guess. And after you make a song like that, you sort of feel like 'Well I feel a little better' and then you sort of like what came out of all those negative experiences."
After Gurwitch got the call from her friend, she talked with Ezra, and they both had a laugh about it.
"We just talked about it and I understand that other parents are looking out for me and I like that I guess," Ezra says.
Gurwitch says she hopes their story will encourage other parents to reach out when they feel they need to say something.
“Reach out, even if it’s hard to say ‘Hey do you know about that ridiculous video? Do you know about that song? Have you seen what your kid posted on Facebook?’ I think it’s important.”
To hear the full interview with Annabelle Gurwitch and Ezra Kahn, click the link above.
And to take a listen to some of Ezra's other songs, click here.
Many expected to voice concerns at high-speed rail meeting in LA
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is meeting today in downtown Los Angeles, and big crowds are expected as the rail authority board considers different route options through Southern California.
covers California's high-speed rail project for the Fresno Bee and joined Take Two for a preview of the meeting.
The science behind finding the origin of beach tar balls
Scientists are on a hunt to find the origins of mysterious tar balls that have washed ashore on Southern California beaches in recent weeks – and they think they're getting close to an answer.
"I think the answers are starting to come in," said David Valentine, one of the scientists testing tar ball samples, and a professor of Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He said he's hopefully that within "several days" the team could start finding at least some of the answers.
But it's a complex and labor-intensive process, he said.
One of the big questions is whether the tar balls are related to the oil spill in Santa Barbara last month.
The legacy of Mervin Field, trailblazing pollster, who died at 94
Mervin Field, founder of the the Field Poll which has been tracking California politics for decades, died yesterday. He was 94-years-old. His poll has served as the standard of opinion research and analysis.
Mark DiCamillo, Director of the Field Poll, joined the show to talk about his legacy and impact on California politics.
Future of Scripps Kellogg cottage in Altadena uncertain
A local Japanese family with a historic past is working to preserve the Altadena property they've called home since the early 1900s.
The Yuge family story began in 1927, when Takeo Yuge took over for his uncle as caretaker of the Scripps Kellogg family estate.
The Kelloggs allowed the Yuge family to live in a small cottage, and Takeo Yuge planted a torrey pine tree out front, which has since sprouted to 120 feet.
But then, World War II came, and the family was sent away to several internment camps. Upon their release, the Yuges felt that they would bring shame to the family amid a post-war anti-Japanese sentiment. So, they decided to set up their own Chrysanthemum shop in Harbor City.
But the Kelloggs sought them out, and invited them to return to the home.
"The Kellogg family took a considerable amount of effort, I believe, to find them in Harbor City, and told them that they had to come back, that they saved the house for them," said daughter Cindy Yuge.
The Yuges have stayed in the cottage from 1948, to now.
An agreement with the Kelloggs would have allowed the family to stay indefinitely, and Cindy Yuge still lives there.
But the current property owners, the private Pasadena Waldorf School, put a different deal in place when they took over in the 1980s. That agreement allowed the family to live at the house until the last parent died. Takeo Yuge died in 1989, and his wife died in November.
Cindy Yuge shared her family's story with Take Two.
Meantime, Bill Birney, who is the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Waldorf School, says that as of two weeks ago, they have committed to preserving the Torrey pine tree. However, a plan for the rest of the property can't be determined until the school can gain access for inspection. He said he also feels that the media is contributing to unnecessary tension.
"We talk about it with our children, our children know the ancestry of the Yuges and the Scripps and the Kelloggs and how this site came to be," he said, adding that the Yuges have been present at past school functions honoring them. "So, it's unfortunate that in the press and in the viral world, there is this contention that doesn't need to be there."
A petition has been started to preserve the property. Both parties were expected to meet Tuesday to begin finding a resolution.
Listen to the full story by clicking the blue audio player above.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story's headline stated that the future of the Scripps Kellogg property is uncertain. The headline has been updated to clarify that future of the cottage on the property is unclear.