Orel Family

A soft snare drum part, coming in like a rail car going down the tracks, then a bass line, a rhythm guitar. Then the lyrics: "Had enough of heartbreak and pain," and we know we have a Bruce Springsteen song. The lyrics and melody call back many references. I hear Glen Campbell (take your pick, I'll go with "Gentle on My Mind" ), I hear Danny O'Keefe ( "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" ), I hear Harry Nilsson ( "Everybody's Talkin'" ). "Hello Sunshine" is the first song off Bruce's album Western Stars, due out in mid-June. A couple years ago, Bruce told "Variety" magazine that the "album is influenced by Southern California pop music of the ’70s: Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, those kinds of records." So it's not especially surprising to hear those elements coming through in the first released track. Ron Aniello , who produced "Western Stars," told "Ro...

We went down to the courthouse Wednesday morning, and the judge issued the order: As of this day, which is also our second child's 18th birthday, our child shall be known as Ezra Stanley. We filed the order with the clerk, ordered the new birth certificates, and save for some administrative details, it's done. Name Day! The old name is sealed. It's still in the records, it's in this blog . This is the same person who once had a bat mitzvah, the same person who sang and danced with Bruce Springsteen , the same person who swore that unicorns are real and that they eat unicorn food. I will leave those bits of history untouched. This is also the same person who has made art under the old name and new, and the same person who made a mess of our kitchen while we were away on Tuesday, leaving us to discover the concealed chocolate disaster zone. The shift between what was and what is... in some ways that was very slow, and in some ways it was sudden. There were behavio...