Ohio State Upsets Michigan State, Heads to Big Ten Finals
March 14, 2009Sunday Open Forum Basketball – Buckeyes at 3:30, Cavs at 6
March 15, 2009Here at WFNY we have some weird audience members. Knowing the sports history of Cleveland I guess I don’t expect much different. Well, now I want to introduce you to one of these audience members. Alex Battles is a one man musical anomaly. Alex is responsible for bringing music that can usually be characterized by cowboy hats and big buckles to the unlikely borough of Brooklyn New York. Alex has a musical experience that he calls the Whiskey Rebellion and his music pretty much worships Johnny Cash and Hank Williams at all times.
So Alex took all his old-school country chops and wrote a song about Lenny Barker’s perfect game. Enjoy.
10 Comments
Battles, FTW.
Great sports day today. Cavs, OSU, Selection Sunday. I may not get to leave the house…
Alex is too humble or addled to correct this (and since his own website has it both ways addled is most likely), but he spells it “Whisky” in the great Scotch tradition, not the Irish “whiskey”. At least this is what he says now, I think it was just a typo when he was registering his domain.
I always thought it was whisky but checked the website today and it was both ways. So I picked the one that I thought would look the most familiar to the readers.
I love it.
A fine song. It comes a few years late, no? Still enjoyable, as it brings back the memory of watching that game.
Concerning the name of Mr. Battles’s “musical experience,” the historical Whiskey Rebellion tested Federal power under Washington and Hamilton’s ability to create a tax that was harsher on smaller distillers of whiskey that it was on larger ones (including Washington himself). The nation is currently in need of a few more such rebellions, in my opinion, but that’s another story.
One resonance with Cleveland sports that the name has is the fact that the rebels had threatened to take over Pittsburgh. Sometimes, it seems, that’s the only recourse left for Cleveland football fans in hope of a victory against the Steelers.
I wrote the song about 2 months ago after a visit to Cleveland. It just hit me that Lenny’s perfect game had come in the middle of such a depressing time. (Long winter, Red Right 88, etc.) And with the economy in the crapper, I wanted to write something about how good things can happen in the darkest of times.
I produced this version for the Cleveland Rocks ’09 songwriting competition, but it wasn’t until 4 days before the deadline that I carefully re-read the rules and realized that it was a competition for local bands only. Oh well.
Glad you guys like it and thanks for listening.
Alex, that was great!
Alex, it was a great effort, even if it couldn’t be included in the contest. I particularly liked how you put the acoustic ‘in between the ears’ and let the two electrics ‘talk to one another’ from left and right, respectively. I assume you used Mac’s GarageBand or some such software. The mix is stellar.
My only critique- why no WFNY shirt in the video?
Nice job, man… now I want to hear a Soundgarden version.