Bill O Writes

1. “Landing on a Hundred” by Cody Chesnutt – If Marvin Gaye was still around, his latest CD might sound a lot like this. Chesnutt shows why early ’70s R&B is timeless.

2. “Channel Orange” by Frank Ocean – A sprawling and sensational R&B debut from a member of the Odd Future hip-hop crew.

3. “Sun Midnight Sun” by Sara Watkins – Former Nickel Creek fiddler Watkins made the Americana disc of the year.

4. “Sorry to Bother You” by the Coup – An entertaining mix of hip-hop, funk and politics.

5. “Stranger” by Balmorhea – This collection of minimalist but spacey instrumentals puts Balmorhea up with Spoon, Explosions in the Sky and Okkervil River as one of Austin’s finest bands.

6. “Kaleidoscope Dream” by Miguel – In a strong year for R&B, Miguel offered a “Sexual Healing” alternative to Cody Chesnutt’s grittier Marvin Gaye vibe.

7. “Voyageur” by Kathleen Edwards – Not her best work, but Edwards has a knack for combining hooks and storytelling.

8. “The Idler Wheel …” by Fiona Apple – Not her best work, but Apple’s stripped-down approach works at conveying her romantic angst.

9. “Psychedelic Pill” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Not their best work, but Young & Crazy Horse roll out some trippy, extended jams that make great highway music.

10. “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan” by various artists – Plenty of filler on this four-CD set, but plenty of great tracks, too, by Flogging Molly, Mariachi el Bronx, Miley Cyrus and others.

Honorable mention: “The Seer” by Swans; “Country. God or the Girl” by K’Naan; “Lawless” soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis and various artists; “Next Time Around” by Darryl Purpose; “King Tuff” by King Tuff; “Searching for Sugar Man” by Rodriguez; “Little Spark” by Jesse Baylin; “The Truth About Love” by P!nk; “Signs & Signifiers” by J.D. McPherson; and “These United States” by These United States

1. “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit – A country-folk gem by a pair of Swedish sisters.

2. “Wasted Days” by Cloud Nothings – A heavy rock epic.

3. “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen – Irresistible pop. Hard to pick a favorite video among the orginal, the Harvard baseball team tribute and the U.S. swim team tribute.

4. “After It’s Gone” by Patterson Hood & the Downtown 13 – One of the Drive-By Truckers makes a plea to save small-town downtowns.

5. “Revolution” by Saidah Baba Talibah – A sexy cry for change.

6. “100” by Brandi Carlile – One of the highlights of the Melody Tent season was Carlile’s August show.

7. “The Magic Clap” by the Coup – The catchiest rap song since “Hey Ya.”

8. “Putin Lights Up the Fires” by Pussy Riot – The Russian band’s fight for free speech didn’t stop at the jailhouse doors. This version has an English translation of the lyrics.

9. “Pyramids” by Frank Ocean – An R&B epic.

10. “Sugar Man” by Rodriguez – The lead song from his 1970 debut finally got some attention, thanks to a documentary about the great, long-lost folksinger.

“Hey, Ronnie. What do you want to do today?”

In any group of young kids, there’s usually one whom the others look to for leadership. In my Centerville neighborhood, it was Ronnie Ouellette.

When we were in kindergarten or first grade, our running around was unstructured. By the time we were 7 and the Red Sox were in their “Impossible Dream” season in 1967, baseball was the focus.

Most mornings I’d go out my backdoor, cut through the woods that connected Five Corners Road and Bent Tree Drive, and go up the little rise to Autumn Drive to Ronnie’s house. His house was near the top of a hill. In a valley below that hill was an undeveloped area we called the sandpit. It was like an oceanless beach surrounded by woods – the perfect spot for touch football, hide-and-seek, tree forts and winter sledding.

In one corner of the sandpit, there was a steep dropoff from the woods to the dirt, which formed an ideal backstop for a catcherless game of baseball. We used red rubber balls that would land in the street when Ronnie connected with one of my pitches. When I was at bat, let’s just say, the balls were a lot easier for the fielders to grab, especially if they moved in a little.

Mostly the days were filled with baseball, but sometimes Ronnie, Scott, Mark, Eugene and I would spend some time playing other games. My dad installed a pole at the edge of our driveway that had a basketball hoop at the regulation 10-foot height and another below it for the younger kids to aim at. Ronnie was the master at shooting the ball with a high arc, so it would swish through both nets.

He was one of those natural athletes who makes everything look easy. He could run faster, jump higher and throw farther than anyone else on the playground. Looking back I can see that his skills were refined though hours of practice, as casual as much of it was.

Ronnie was a star of the sixth-grade soccer and basketball teams. He played quarterback for the Barnstable Middle School team. In high school, Ronnie didn’t sprout up or bulk up the way some of our friends did, so he was too small to play football. But he stuck with basketball and was the shortest starter on the Barnstable High varsity team.

I can’t think of my childhood without thinking about Ronnie. He was my first friend, but eventually we stumbled into new interests and found other friends. In high school, we’d always end up in the same homeroom, but there was an O’Reilly and an O’Toole between us, so Ronnie and I weren’t within whispering distance.

Then we graduated and went our separate ways. Even though we both ended up living in the town of Barnstable, we didn’t see each other often.

Thursday night I found out that Ronnie had passed away after a battle with cancer. Once upon a time, I thought Ronnie could do anything, but here was one struggle that was too big for him.

There are pictures on Facebook that show Ronnie looking pale and frail, next to Carol, his wife for 33 years. That’s not how I’ll remember him. Instead I’ll think of the smile on his face as we dashed down the hill to the sandpit, he always a few strides ahead of me, when he’d look over his shoulder at me and I’d shout, “Hey, Ronnie. What do you want to do today?”

photo by Frank Ockenfels

Some musicians basically have two songs – a fast one and a slow one – and everything they do is a variation on them.

Brandi Carlile is not like that.

She opened her Friday night show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent with “Raise Hell,” a new song with a KT Tunstall feel. “Pride and Joy,” a song from a few years back, sounds like it was inspired in part by “High and Dry” and a couple other Radiohead songs. Her best-known song, “The Story,” is a country-rocker with the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic perfected by the Pixies and Nirvana. Her vocals can make you think of Patsy Cline, Amy Ray or Adele.

In lesser hands, that might be too many musical personalities, but Carlile is a rising star with the ability to hop genres. Named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of 10 “artists to watch” when her self-titled debut CD came out in 2005, Carlile continues to merit that attention.

The set fell into four segments: a bunch of country-rockers, a batch of rootsy songs (including one of the night’s highlights “Caroline”), two covers (a snippet of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and a fun no-holds-barred version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”) and then a half-dozen songs that displayed her full range of talents, from the pretty ballad “Turpentine” to the rocking “Dying Day.”

Her richly talented five-man band joined her for the first encore song, “Pride and Joy.” Carlile switched to piano for “That Wasn’t Me,” joined by twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth on vocals, and finished the show alone on acoustic guitar with the forceful ballad “That Year.”

Carlile can be a bit restrained on her CDs, but there was no such problem at the Melody Tent. She can easily switch moods and styles, doing it with plenty of charm and stage presence.

Opening the show was Andy Hull, taking a break from his duties as lead singer of the Manchester Orchestra, an Atlanta-based rock quintet. Playing alone with an acoustic guitar, he came across as a less-engaging version of Damien Rice. His set included songs from a CD trilogy that a press release says is about “a sailor who, upon discovering his wife cheating on him with his brother, runs away to sea and gradually descends into a vengeful rage,” which sounds like it would be better served by the full-band treatment.

Carlile’s set list

1. “Raise Hell”  (from the “Bear Creek” CD)

2. “Dreams”  (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

3. “What Can I Say”  (“Brandi Carlile”)

4. “Hard Way Home”  (“Bear Creek”)

5. “Before It Breaks”  (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

6. “100” (“Bear Creek”)

7. “Caroline”  (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

8. “Keep Your Heart Young”  (“Bear Creek”)

9. “Save Part of Yourself”  (“Bear Creek”)

10. “Josephine”  (“The Story”)

11. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Bonnie Tyler cover)

12. “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen cover)

13. “Turpentine” (“The Story”)

14. “Dying Day” (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

15. “The Story”  (“The Story”)

Encore:

16. “Pride and Joy” (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

17. “That Wasn’t Me”  (“Bear Creek”)

18. “That Year” (“Giving Up the Ghost”)

The King of Pop. The Queen of Soul. The Duchess of Coolsville.

OK, Rickie Lee Jones doesn’t have quite the international acclaim of Michael Jackson or Aretha Franklin, but Jones, who won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1980 (beating out the Blues Brothers, Dire Straits, the Knack and Robin Williams), has her own devoted following, including the folks who filled the tent for her July 29 show at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro.

Jones performs without a predetermined set list. Good thing, as she had to adapt right from the start. A bit of feedback came from her acoustic guitar when she took the stage, so she switched to the piano for her opening song, a cover of the Band’s “The Weight.”

Mavis Staples also covered that song when she opened for Bonnie Raitt at the Cape Cod Melody Tent last month. Staples performed with a full band; Jones did a more stripped-down version with Ed Willett on cello. But more striking was the different vocal styles of Staples and Jones. Staples comes from a gospel background, while Jones’s pop music is rooted in jazz. Staples sings with force and clarity, letting you hear the words and react to their meaning. Jones stretches out notes and slurs words, playing with the sounds and interpreting the emotions for you. Different techniques, equally powerful.

Jones’s technique also made for an interesting comparison on “Reason to Believe,” a song composed by Tim Hardin that’s best known for a cover on Rod Stewart’s smash 1971 album “Every Picture Tells a Story.” Stewart’s version is bitter and punchy, while Jones slowed it down to make it somber and teary. Again, two different approaches, both of which work.

“The Weight” and “Reason to Believe” were among six songs Jones played from a CD of cover songs, “The Devil You Know,” coming out Sept. 18. Sunday’s show was about looking ahead, to that album, and looking way back, with eight songs from Jones’s first two albums, which are filled with quirky characters, sort of a West Coast answer to Bruce Springsteen’s Asbury Park oddballs. Just four songs came from the studio albums between those early years and the new one.

Most of the songs on the new CD, including the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” were very familiar to the AARP-eligible hipsters in the audience Sunday night, but one of the highlights of the show was a lesser-known song. “Masterpiece” by Ben Harper, who produced Jones’s new CD and supplied guest vocals on her last one, is a gorgeous love ballad. Jones’s rendition was slow and bluesy and perfect for cuddling.

Other highlights included early Jones songs “We Belong Together” and the show-closing “Last Chance Texaco,” on which Jeff Pevar played slide guitar. Pevar, who has performed with Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and Crosby, Stills & Nash, was an essential part of the trio, playing guitar, mandolin and organ. Willett on the cello, meanwhile, provided dramatic flourishes on “Living It Up,” struck some discordant notes on “Sympathy for the Devil” to convey Satan’s dirty work and plucked strings for a heartbeat rhythm on “It Must Be Love.”

Jones introduced her next-to-last song by saying, “I do this song, it’s a nice song, but I still haven’t reconciled the journey it’s taken me on.” That would be “Chuck E’s in Love,” the 1979 Top 10 hit that introduced her to the world and is still by far her biggest hit. It must be odd to have an early song overshadow the rest of a rich and sometimes daring career, but Jones seemed to have fun performing it.

Counting Crows calls their latest tour the Outlaw Roadshow.

Now bear in mind that The All Music Guide described Counting Crows’ debut CD as “modern music for people who don’t like modern music” – and that was almost 20 years ago. So “outlaw” is maybe overstating things a bit. The Crows mostly play it safe, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

The July 19 show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent featured three opening acts, which is definitely a bit out of the norm.

Brooklyn-based We Are Augustines, the trio that opened the show, sounds like an Americana-version of “Joshua Tree”-era U2 with a huskier-voiced singer. On a ballad, lead singer Billy McCarthy’s vocals were in the general neighborhood of early Tom Waits. The band’s CD, “Rise Ye Sunken Ships” is worth a listen.

Next up: Kasey Anderson and the Honkies, who come across as a grungy version of the Wallflowers, with a bit of a cowpunk/garage vibe on one song. When they slowed it down on “Your Side of Town,” the song could have passed for a Drive-By Truckers ballad. The band’s “Like Teenage Gravity” is one of the tunes that Counting Crows recorded for a recent CD of cover songs, but the Honkies drew the biggest response with set-closer “Two More Bottles” (chorus: “It’s alright / It’s midnight / And I have two more bottles of wine”).

Out of the three strong opening acts, it is Field Report that has the most potential. In concert, they sound like Jackson Browne fronting an ultra-mellow Wilco (on recordings, singer Chris Porterfield’s vocals are more like David Gray’s, but again, a lot more mellow). The six members create a captivating groove. Porterfied used to be the pedal steel player in a band that also included Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), but I won’t hold that against him. Field Report got major buzz at this year’s South By Southwest, and I’m eager to hear the band’s debut CD, coming out Sept. 11.

The Counting Crows’ 85-minute set covered most of the group’s career, with the odd exception of the band’s most recent CD of original material (“Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings,” which came out in 2008).

Four songs came from the band’s latest disc, “Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation), a collection of cover songs. One of them was a lively version of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.” Head Crow Adam Duritz had brought out the guys in all three opening acts for “hanginaround,” the closing song of the main set and they all came back out for Dylan song, the first of two encore songs, which had about a dozen people crowded around the microphones.

The other three covers were “Start Again” by Teenage Fanclub, “Hospital” by Coby Brown and “Untitled (Love Song)” by the Romany Rye – and you’re really keeping up with things if you’re familiar with all three of those performers. All in all, Counting Crows did a good job on “Underwater Sunshine” (and in concert) of putting their own sound on a wide-range of covers, but for the most part, the covers were less satisfying than the band’s originals.

And what is the Crows’ sound? The band’s debut came out when Nirvana and Pearl Jam were in their prime. For people who preferred the Band and Buffalo Springfield, the Crows’ debut was “modern music for people who don’t like modern music.” That quote sounds like it could be an insult, but it’s really just a clever description. Counting Crows’ debut was a bit of a throwback, but it was a throwback to some classic stuff.

Lyrically, the Crows can be a little too focused on waiting and traveling, and sunlight and rain. But their vibe on the upbeat songs is spirit-lifting; their vibe on the downbeat songs is perfect for repeat plays on dismal days (whether it’s the weather or your mood that’s bleak).

Musically, the Crows draw back on some classic folk-rock sounds, but they were also a little ahead of the their time, or maybe right on time, with an alt-country sound that’s not too far from Uncle Tupelo or the Jayhawks, bands that had more of a hip factor. They might not have the most original sound, but two decades later Counting Crows are still putting together a mighty good roadshow.

Counting Crows set list:

Intro (“Lean on Me” by Bill Withers)

“Round Here”

“Untitled (Love Song)” (The Romany Rye cover)

“High Life”

“St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream”

“Hospital” (Coby Brown cover)

“Black and Blue”

“Catapult”

“Start Again” (Teenage Fanclub cover)

“Omaha”

“If I Could Give All My Love -or- Richard Manuel Is Dead”

“Children in Bloom”

“Goodnight L.A.”

“A Long December”

“Hanginaround”

Encore:

“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Bob Dylan cover)

“Holiday in Spain”

What happens when a blues singer falls in love? In the case of Bonnie Raitt, she dedicates the closing song of her concert, a cover of Elvis Presley’s “A Big Hunk o’ Love,” to her new boyfriend.

The rest of her June 24 show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent included familiar Raitt songs in a range of styles: feisty pop (“Thing Called Love”), flirty soul (“Come to Me”) and forlorn blues (“I Can’t Make You Love Me”).

Among the highlights were songs that showed off Raitt’s gift as an interpreter. Not only can she pick out some great songs, she manages to make them her own, whether it’s John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” Bob Dylan’s “Million Miles” or Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line.” The last two were among five songs she played from her new CD, “Slipstream.” Raitt’s version of “Million Miles” is sexy and bluesy. Her reggae-blues take on “Right Down the Line” is a clever reinvention of a ’70s classic-rock song.

Raitt is among the few women inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame for both instrumental and singing ability. Her slide guitar work on “Love Sneaking Up on You” and “Thing Called Love” showed why she made it onto Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 greatest guitarists.

Raitt kept things moving but still managed some between-song chatter, including several reminiscences about the days when her father, Broadway singer John Raitt, performed at the Melody Tent. Her set list stuck closely to recent shows on the East Coast.

In response to requests, she said, “I see a couple signs up there for really obscure songs. I wish I still knew them.” But the 16 songs she delivered in a 105-minute show included plenty of crowd pleasers, among them “Something to Talk About” and “Have a Heart.”

As happy as she may be, Raitt was at her best when singing about heartbreak and heartache. She delivered the first verse of “Angel From Montgomery” a cappella before the band kicked in. Her vocals on “I Can’t Make You Love Me” got more than a few eyes teared up. That’s why they call it the blues, right?

Mavis Staples, making her Melody Tent debut, opened the show. She got her start in her family’s gospel group, the Staple Singers, when she was 10; 62 years later she performs with inspiring energy and passion. Like Raitt, she crosses genres. Sunday’s show included a funky version of the traditional gospel song “Wade in the Water” and a soulful cover of the Band’s “The Weight,” which drew the first of the evening’s many standing ovations.

Raitt joined Staples for a rousing cover of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Staples closed her eight-song set with a blast from her family’s past, a rendition of the Staple Singers’ 1972 No. 1 hit, “I’ll Take You There.”

1. “Stone Rollin’ “ by Raphael Saadiq (Columbia Records). The title of his 2002 solo debut (following hits with the family trio Tony! Toni! Tone!) was “Instant Vintage” and that’s an apt description of Saadiq’s sound: modernized Motown with a bit of Philly soul and Sly Stone thrown in.

2. “The King of In Between” by Garland Jeffreys (Luna Park Records), who has been making fine albums for 40 years (reaching peaks with “Ghost Writer” in 1977 and “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat” in 1992). With lyrics focusing primarily on his love of New York City and rock & roll, Jeffreys serves up a mix of sounds, including John Lee Hooker blues, late-’70s Stones rock, reggae and ska.

3. The bonus disc on the “Some Girls” reissue by the Rolling Stones (Universal Republic Records). Sure, these songs date back to the original recording sessions for “Some Girls,” which was released in 1978, or even earlier, but they’ve never been readily available until now (some are demos that were updated with new vocal and guitar tracks). Anyway, the “b-disc” is as good as anything the Stones have released since “Some Girls,” and it’s better than the bonus disc on last year’s resissue of “Exile on Main Street.”

4. “The Whole Love” by Wilco (DBpm Records). A strong comeback by one of my favorite bands, after the disppapointing “Wilco (The Album)” in 2009.

5. “Eleven  Eleven” by Dave Alvin (Yep Roc Records). A roots-rock legend, Dave Alvin made a new CD that stands with the best of his work with the Blasters and as a solo artist, which is saying something.

6. “Weather” by Me’shell Ndegeocello (Naive Records). Back in 1993, it might have been easy to think of her funk-rap hit “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)” as a novelty song, just a funny little diss. But over the course of 8 CDs, Ndegeocello has carved out a niche as one of the most creative voices in contemporary R&B.

7. “Go-Go Boots” by the Drive-by Truckers (RED Records). Hyper-productive and excellent storytellers, the DBTs are the Elmore Leonards of Southern rock.

8. “Blessed” by Lucinda Williams (Lost Highway Records). On a first listen, I didn’t think this stood among her better efforts, but it’s grown on me. Not up there with “Sweet Old World,” but still a great combination of folk, country and rock.

9. “Yuck” by Yuck (Fat Possum Records). — My pick for the year’s best debut. A nice mix of shoegaze drone, skronky feedback and jangle pop … a weird recipe, but it works.

10.  “Last Summer” by Eleanor Friedberger (Merge Records). — Much more poppy than her work with the Fiery Furnaces.

Honorable mentions: “Nine Types of Light” by TV on the Radio, “The Less You Know, the Better” by DJ Shadow, “David Comes to Life” by Fucked Up, “undun” by the Roots, “21” by Adele, “Watch the Throne” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Ritual Union” by Little Dragon, “Wild Flag” By Wild Flag, “Timez Are Weird These Days” by Theophilus London and “Want More” by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound

The best show I saw all year was the Cape Cod Christmas Cavalcade. As usual, Chandler Travis collected an impressive assortment of local talent. Highlights included the Swains Sisters and the Blood Siblings on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reinder,” Christine Rathbun’s monologues, Greg Greenway’s “Psycho Santa” (done to the tune of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”), Polka Dan’s Beetbox Band’s “Here Comes Santa Claus” and Chandler and Zoe Lewis’ duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Some other great ones:
— Garland Jeffreys at the Narrows Center for Arts in Fall River
— the Drive-by Truckers at the House of Blues in Boston
— Elvis Costello at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis
— Tinariwen at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston
— Wilco at the Wang Theater in Boston
— Eddie Vedder at the Providence Performing Arts Center
— Alison Krauss at the Cape Cod Melody Tent
— the Lemonheads at the Wellfleet Beachcomber
— the Ticks, the Greenheads and Earth Junior at opening night at the Beachcomber
— the Flakes at the Woodshed in Brewster
— Daddy-O at the House of Bud’s in Hyannis
— Tripping Lily at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis
— Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium

And then there were the nighly campfire sessions by Darryl Purpose, Trace Wiren and others at the 25th anniversary reunion for the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament (in Ventura, Calif.).

1. “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele — When Adele’s first album came out, I thought she was a weak imitation of Amy Winehouse, but she knocked it out of the park with this song.

2. “Art of Almost” by Wilco — Knocks me out every time I hear it. Almost any other year this would be No. 1.

3. “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z and Kanye West (feat. Frank Ocean) — The highlight from a collaboration that didn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts.

4. “Black Doll” by Siobhan Magnus — Not because she’s Cape Cod’s “American Idol,” but because the song is just that good.

5. “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)” by Charles Bradley — No denying the music or the message.

6. “Heart Attack” by Raphael Saadiq — Just try not to dance!

7. “Copenhagen” by Lucinda Willams — Another gem from one of my favorite songwriters.

8. “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry — Yeah, I know the CD came out last year, but the single and video made their impact in 2011. “Is this a hicky or a bruise?” is one of my favorite lyrics of the year.

9. “First of the Year” by Skrillex– Pretty good song … great video.

10. “Ninety-Nine Percent” by Young Circles — Occupy the playlists!

Honorable mentions: “Born Alone” by Wilco and “We Found Love” by Rihanna