Talking About Trios
Montana Trilogy, Brentwood Grille, Graham Nash, Remarkable Runners, Scatological Storytime
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This week’s issue includes favorite pop/rock trios, a Montana trilogy, a restaurant offering a tasting of three soups, the British member of a trio of harmony singers, three distance runners who won multiple medals in Paris, and a trio of readers on the poop deck. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Last Thursday I saw The Rebel Eves at Sonic Lunch in Ann Arbor. This trio includes our June house concert performer, Katie Pederson, along with Grace Theisen and Jilian Linklater. I added them to my list of favorite female folk/country trios. Anna Smyrk, fresh off her performance in our living room the night before, was able to catch this set before driving back to Chicago.
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Fave Five 98: Talking About Trios
McCaskills of Montana (Montana Trilogy: English Creek; Dancing at the Rascal Fair; Ride With Me, Mariah Montana), Tasting Trio (Brentwood Grille), Hollies Harmonizer (Graham Nash), Multiple Medalists (Beatrice Chebet, Grant Fisher, Sifan Hassan), and Scatological Storytime.
Fave Five List: Favorite Pop/Rock Trios
Graham Nash is this week’s Marvelous Musician. He is one third of one of my favorite pop/rock trios, three of which I have featured in previous issues.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
America
Honorable Mention:
Three Dog Night
Aliotta Haynes Jermiah
Book Best Bets
Montana Trilogy by Ivan Doig
English Creek
Dancing at the Rascal Fair
Ride With Me, Mariah Montana
I have featured two of Ivan Doig’s books in previous issues, including the first novel in what I call the Morrie Morgan trilogy (The Whistling Season, Work Song, and Sweet Thunder). This is an actual boxed trilogy about the McCaskill family set in the fictional Two Medicine country of Montana. I highly recommend all three books, as well as all other books written by the late Ivan Doig.
From Amazon: From the celebrated and uniquely American author Ivan Doig, an unforgettable portrait of the western United States—his stunning Montana Trilogy: English Creek; Dancing at the Rascal Fair; and Ride With Me, Mariah Montana, now available in a boxed set.
Here is the real Montana, the real West, through the eyes of a real writer. — Wallace Stegner
Covering the first century of Montana’s statehood from 1889 to 1989, Ivan Doig’s Montana Trilogy follows the McCaskill family and their alluring Two Medicine country along the hem of the northern Rockies.
Doig first recounts the events of a Two Medicine country summer in English Creek, as fourteen-year-old Jick McCaskill comes of age. Through Jick’s eyes we see his friends and family at turning points and discover Jick’s own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one’s kin and one’s self.
The central volume in Doig’s acclaimed trilogy, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, explores the American experience at the turn of the century, a passionate portrayal of the immigrants who dared to try new lives in the imposing Rocky Mountains.
Finally, Jick McCaskill returns in Ride With Me, Mariah Montana as the clever and moving voice in this classic encounter with the American road and all the rewards and travails it can bring. Jick faces his family’s—and his state’s—legacy of loss and perseverance from the vantage point of Montana’s centennial in 1989.
Doig created one of the most captivating families in American fiction in these prizewinning portraits of time and place—Montana at three pivotal points in the twentieth century. Ivan Doig is “a presiding figure in the literature of the American West” (The New York Times Book Review) and will be canonized as such.
Restaurant Recommendation
Brentwood Grille 43150 Grand River Ave, Novi, MI 48375
I previously featured their excellent happy hour. We returned for dinner with our friends Ann and George Kruszewski and Janelle and Bob Burke. Everyone was very pleased with the food, drinks, and service. The dessert special was delicious.
Tasting of Three Soups: Gazpacho, Chef Milos’s Mushroom, Soup of the Day (vegetable)
Crispy Chicken Sandwich: Napa slaw, Swiss, fries, sliced pickles, siracha mayo
Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Marvelous Musician
Barb and I just returned from seeing Graham perform a sold-out concert at the Royal Oak Music Theatre. It was an incredible evening of listening to and singing along with 22 favorite songs from Graham’s solo albums, CSN, CSNY, Crosby & Nash, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young. The band added perfect harmonies and a wide variety of virtuoso instrumental accompaniment. The final five songs were a splendid conclusion: “Our House,” “Teach Your Children,” “Chicago,” “Find the Cost of Freedom,” and “Ohio.” Our friends Jeri and Kyle Johnson were with us, and we were all blown away by an evening to remember.
I previously featured David Crosby, Crosby & Nash, and CSNY and a book that included Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The Hollies are one of my five favorite British Invasion bands and this issue includes CSN as one of my five favorite pop/rock trios. I also bought Graham’s first solo album and the first two Crosby & Nash albums.
From Wikipedia: Graham William Nash OBE (born February 2, 1942 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England) is an English-American musician, singer and songwriter. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997 and as a member of the Hollies in 2010. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours List for services to music and to charity.
Nash holds four honorary doctorates, including one from the New York Institute of Technology, one in music from the University of Salford in 2011 and one in fine arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In the early 1960s, Nash co-founded the Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop groups, with school friend Allan Clarke, and was credited as the group's leader on their first album. Nash encouraged the Hollies to write their own songs, initially with Clarke, then with Clarke and guitarist Tony Hicks. Nash was pivotal in the forging of a sound and lyrics, often writing the verses on Clarke, Hicks & Nash songs. However, Nash also composed songs by himself under the 'team banner' (like Lennon & McCartney).
Chicago
Military Madness
I Used to be a King
My Playlist
Sports Stars
Remarkable Runners
Three long-distance runners won multiple medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Beatrice Chebet won the women’s 5K and 10K gold medals, Grant Fisher won bronze in the men’s 5K and 10K, and Sifan Hassan won bronze in the women’s 5K and 10K and gold in the marathon. In 2021 in Tokyo, Sifan won gold in the 5K and 10K and bronze in the 1,500 meters, which, combined with her 2024 triple win, is astounding.
Beatrice Chebet (born March 5, 2000) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who is the world record holder in the 10,000 meters and the gold medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters races, becoming the third woman in history to win both events at the same Olympic games.
Grant Jackson Fisher (born April 22, 1997) is an American middle- and long-distance runner. Fisher holds American records in the 3,000 meters, two mile, 5,000 meters, and 10,000 meters events. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Fisher won bronze medals in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, becoming the first American to medal in both events at an Olympic Games.
Two-sport approach pays off for Olympic double-medalist Grant Fisher by Mick McCabe in the Detroit Free Press
Grant Fisher set the track and field world on its collective ear in Paris. Long before Fisher began running, he was a soccer player — and a good one at that.
He was much more than just the best runner in Michigan high school history. He graduated from Grand Blanc High School with a 4.05 grade point average and scored a phenomenal 34 on the ACT. (A 36 is perfect.) He would have been admitted to Stanford had never run a step.
Sifan Hassan (born January 1993) is a Dutch middle- and long-distance runner.[10] She is most recognized for her versatility in running championship and world-leading performances in widely disparate distances. She completed an unprecedented triple at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning gold medals in both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters and a bronze medal for the 1,500 meters. Hassan is the only athlete in Olympic history to win medals across a middle-distance event and both long-distance races in a single Games. She is only the second of three women to complete an Olympic distance double. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Hassan secured a bronze medal in both the women's 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters and gold in the women's marathon, becoming the only woman to win the Olympic gold medal in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and Marathon races
Picture Pun
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