Discovering Gene McDaniels

After expressing my intense dislike of  Frank Sinatra over a pre-Christmas dinner, I was asked who my favorite "Crooner" was. Was it Mel Torme? "No," I said while thinking Mel was more obnoxious than Frank.  "Tony Bennett?" I shook my head and added, "Only if it's Alec Baldwin doing Bennett." "Well…who then?"  I thought for a moment and finally blurted, "Harry Nilsson." My dinner companions feigned an ersatz, "Hmmm, interesting…" and returned to their Welsh Rarebit appetizer.

If I had only seen Gene McDaniels.

Hidden away in the white watusi world of Dixieland Jazz and Brit Pop that is, "It's Trad Dad," which I do love, is the elegant performance of Gene McDaniels lending soul to an equally white watusi Bacharach and David standard, "Another Tear Falls." It's timeless, smokey and sadly too short -- McDaniel's creamy but blasting vocal gives me goosebumps.

My cynicism was not at all surprised when I discovered Gene McDaniel's singing career never took off the way it should have.  But Gene wrote the hit, "Compared to What" for Les McCann and in this video shortly before his death in 2011, he goes into fascinating detail about his struggles and his eventual success as songwriter and music producer.

I'm just beginning to discover Gene and have no business writing about his career or music.  But if you, like me, never heard of Gene and are as moved by "Another Tear" as I am, then you'll have an answer when asked who your favorite crooner is.

Eugene McDaniels Website

Stout for Summer

Dry Irish Stout

The Light Stout
 
A fanatic of Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout -- I was pretty skeptical about their Dry Irish Stout.  As good as Chocolate Stout is, and it's amazingly good,  the alcohol clocks in at 10% a bottle while adding 300 calories.  Fat and drunk is no way to go through life... or dinner.

Dry Irish is a very dry stout.  Bone-like, and if you like dry white Burgundy, Manzanilla Sherry or dry Scotch, you'll connect to this in a big way. I've never been a dry beer guy but this stout manages to deliver some decent mouth feel with each sip.  Granted, it's not Chocolate Stout, but at 117 calories, that's seven more than Natty Light, it's a great compromise. At 4.2% alcohol it's considered a "session" beer.  That's where you sit around with a bunch of guys, drink beer and tell lies for hours while staying sober enough to remember what you lied about.

I've mentioned my friend in Florida who only buys beer on sale. It usually works out to porter and stout in Summer -- Pilsner and weiss during Winter.   For the same reason, I'm hoping Dry Irish will go on sale this Summer.  It's light enough for a basket of steamed Old Bay shrimp or a nice piece of grilled Salmon.  Stout enough for pulled pork BBQ or marinated flank steak.

Here's where I usually tell you that, by being a contrarian, you can score this stuff for spit. Sorry.  It's $12 a six pack.  I can get a 30 pack of Natty Light in New Jersey for $15.  Maybe someone's trying to tell me to drink less but better.  Or, if you're coming over to my place...now you know what to bring.  Beer enthusiast details found here.