Comments on: A Long and Winding Road

By: Ronnie Ruff

Ronnie Ruff — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:26:01 +0000

Just to set the record straight I care little about how many hit songs an artist has. On Friday night I went to see a local blues singer here in Austin for the second time in two weeks. She is soulful, great stage presence, fabulous weather worn voice and she has a wonderful band backing her. I will see her many more times. She is not one of the best blues stylists! I reserve that for BB King, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Bonnie Raitt and dozens of others I will not name here. My comments were not about Ms McGovern’s talent but instead about placing her in the upper echelon of pop music stylists. This will be my last comment on this because in my mind it is silly to even even consider that. Happy Sunday DC and just as a side note.. is DC Theatre Scene not the coolest theatre site ever?

By: Barbara B

Barbara B — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:52:32 +0000

I saw Maureen McGovern yesterday at Arena Stage at Crystal City. She has an absolutely beautiful voice. I really don’t care if she ever had a ‘hit’ song – her style and delivery was great. Barbara Cook has found a ‘new’ life in cabaret performing – and I enjoyed Maureen every bit as much as I did Barbara Cook. It was a wonderful show and her music director was also great…I recommend seeing her show before it closes on Apr 12th.

By: Ronnie Ruff

Ronnie Ruff — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:43:06 +0000

If you do research she was a “part time” folk singer just out of high school before she was signed to sing movie themes. She left folk singing and never looked back. Her singing career has been made up of one top ten song and one that made it to 18. She is far from “one of the nation’s best vocal stylists” by any measure, to say that is ignoring hundreds artists from Tony Bennett and Sinatra to Streisand and Aretha Franklin and that is just pop music. As I said, I am glad she resurrected herself from relative obscurity after those two hits but selling out cabaret houses does not put her in the best vocal stylists category. Her “hit” album is ranked on Amazon.com at #257,518 in Music. I am not saying she is not talented but I just disagree with some of the statements in the review.

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:41:11 +0000

If you listen to Joel’s podcast Ronnie, Maureen talks about her folksinging years before she became the “Disaster Movie Queen”. I attended the show last night and she talked about her folk singing years before The Poseidon Adventure’s theme made her a star. She must be doing something right to sing as well as she does, selling out cabaret houses all over the country, and having a 37 year career (and more to come).

By: Ronnie Ruff

Ronnie Ruff — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:30:56 +0000

Best vocal stylists? Folk singer? The Disaster Theme Queen has never been a folk singer much less the best at anything having to do with music. While I admire her for reinventing her show business career she was never more than a one or two hit wonder in the “pop” music world.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:14:39 +0000

Actually, the Broadway song Maureen McGovern does in this show is “Pirate Jenny”, not “My Ship”.