Forty-year-old women and fifty-year-old women alike should enjoy the Sheryl Crow/Josh Groban performance. I'm not clear on whether anyone likes 3 Doors Down, since they've been superseded by other, nearly identical bands over the last decade.

Wow, that's really horrible.

I understand that the reason you get acts like these are to draw people who wouldn't normally watch the ASG to watch the ASG, but sometimes it seems like baseball doesn't give a #### about baseball fans.

Josh Groban was my best friend for 3.5 weeks at a summer camp in Maine when we were both 11 years old. Never spoke to him after that.

We performed on stage together. An "air band" cover of the Guns n Roses version of "Knocking on Heavens Door." He lip synched, I air drummed.

Considering the attendance figures they are getting anymore, they probably think marketing has room to play a little. Ignore the already paid masses to grab for every last dollar possible.

I recommend that you show up at the All-Star game and rush the stage asking "HEY JOSH! DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!?!? PRESERVED FISH, CAMP LACKAWANNA, 1991!!!!"

I've considered it.

I was Josh Groban's best friend for one day when I was out in Los Angeles reporting this story on him. He was an extraordinarily nice guy, but I got the feeling he hated the article.

I ddn't ask him about his interest in baseball, since it was January, but we did talk a bit about USC football.

Crow was chosen a year ahead of schedule. She's from St. Louis and should have done the '09 game.

Ok, I've at least heard of Sheryl Crow, don't know anything about Groban at all, and have to agree with post 1 about three doors down and identical sounding out there.

funny thing is that there is an mlb is calling these groups "all stars"... not sure that I would call them that outside of Crow I'm not sure any of the others have had a career of note.

I understand that the reason you get acts like these are to draw people who wouldn't normally watch the ASG to watch the ASG, but sometimes it seems like baseball doesn't give a #### about baseball fans.

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans? Just because a ton of Primer types would like to see, I don't know, My Morning Jacket or whatever indie act is the darling right now doesn't mean that's a wise choice for most serious fans, never mind the rest of the people they're trying to draw.

I don't think there would have been any good choices, really. But these are two acts who appeal almost exclusively to women, which is a bit odd.

3 Doors Down are a guilty pleasure of mine.

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans?

Stick Figure, Pulley, Sandfrog. The raptastic stylings of one Lastings Milledge.

I don't care for Sheryl Crow. Groban is an abomination. Didn't he perform before the Super Bowl or something a few years ago? That's about my only exposure to him. I didn't know whether to laugh or slit my throat. A truly terrible joke.

don't know anything about Groban at all

He sells more records than just about anyone.

Of course, this isn't the 70s, 80s, or 90s; that means most people still don't know who the hell he is or have never heard any of his music.

Amusingly, BACK IN BLACK still sells enough per year to go gold every year or two, but catalog titles haven't been eligible for the regular album charts for years. DARK SIDE OF THE MOON would probably STILL be on the charts, if that were the case.

As it happens, I like Sheryl Crow well enough (mostly her first 3 albums). Appeals almost exclusively to women? Really? Based on what, attendance at her concerts? I'm not disputing it, I just didn't really know that was the perception. I mean it's not like we're talking about Tori Amos.

don't know anything about Groban at all

The only thing I know about him is that he's f###ing Ben Affleck.

Considering that when I read the headline I thought it referred to The Counting Crows, Sheryl Crow seems quite decent.

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans?

Bernie Williams on his sax or clarinet or whatever the #### he plays.

I loved Josh Groban in Mask. Why hasn't he starred in anything since?

As it happens, I like Sheryl Crow well enough (mostly her first 3 albums). Appeals almost exclusively to women? Really? Based on what, attendance at her concerts? I'm not disputing it, I just didn't really know that was the perception. I mean it's not like we're talking about Tori Amos.

When's the last time (or the first time or ANY time) you heard a guy who wasn't a music critic say "You know what I've been listening to a lot lately? The new Sheryl Crow"?

Where’s the token Canadian?

No Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Loverboy or Barenaked Ladies.

No Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Loverboy or Barenaked Ladies.

Harveys was really hoping Corey Hart would get the nod.

When's the last time (or the first time or ANY time) you heard a guy who wasn't a music critic say "You know what I've been listening to a lot lately? The new Sheryl Crow"?

1996, at the latest.

10 Women Worth Listening To:
Aretha Franklin
Linda Jones
MC Lyte
Queen Latifah
Sharon Jones
Sarah Vaughan
Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
old girl from Portishead
Nina Simone

5 Women Who Should Shut Up:
Janis Joplin
Celine Dion
Gwen Stefani
Macy Gray
your mother

Sheryl Crow is kinda whatever

Hear, hear! It's well past time that Macy Gray got her comeuppance.

Although I think we all cheered when she was slammed by Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 3.

I was under the impression that Macy Gray had succeeded in shutting up about 8 years ago.

Not to mention the person on your list who has been dead for 37 years. Contemporize, man!

I recommend that you show up at the All-Star game and rush the stage asking "HEY JOSH! DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!?!? PRESERVED FISH, CAMP LACKAWANNA, 1991!!!!"

And it would be nice if you brought him a gift. A good gift would be a chocolate revolver. Make sure you run up to him real quick and give it to him.

Not to mention the person on your list who has been dead for 37 years. Contemporize, man!

Then why the #### do I still hear her wailing all the time?

Best I could do w/ 2 minutes of thought and several drinks down the gullet. All apologies.

And it would be nice if you brought him a gift. A good gift would be a chocolate revolver. Make sure you run up to him real quick and give it to him.

That's deep.

10 Women Worth Listening To:
Sandy Denny
Kate Bush
Dusty Springfield
Emma Pollock
Kirsty MacColl
Aimee Mann
Neko Case
Kathleen Edwards
Kamila Thompson
Corin Tucker

10 Women Worth Listening To:
Sandy Denny
Kate Bush
Dusty Springfield
Emma Pollock
Kirsty MacColl
Aimee Mann
Neko Case
Kathleen Edwards
Kamila Thompson
Corin Tucker

And Mavis Staples...

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans?

Next year in St. Louis, if he's in any sort of shape to do it, it would be a crime if Stan Musial didn't perform on his harmonica.

And Mavis Staples...

Agree.

I'm not sure how iconic she's considered these days (probably quite a bit) but when I got my first CD player and high-end speakers in 1990, the first CD I bought to upgrade vinyl to digital was not Prince, not the Cure, not the Clash, not Jane's Addiction, not Rat Music for Rat People, but..... Mahalia Jackson. That woman's voice could stop a speeding 18-ton backhoe.

5 Women Who Should Shut Up:
Janis Joplin

Uh, I think that's already been taken care of.

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans?

I don't think the point here is that they didn't pick the cool indie acts lots of Primates like (myself included), but that almost no regular fans would go for Crow or Groban. It really is middle-aged woman music. And shitty at that.

I think 3 Doors Down is actually a good choice to appeal to most baseball fans.
They are inconsistent and can be bland but at least it is fairly no-frills straightforward rock music. The KIND of the thing you should try to book for a baseball game.
Actually, I'll side with Biff a little here. I think 3 Doors Down's better songs are much better than typical 2000s crap radio rock. When they are on their game they can make a nice melody and some good, muscular rock choruses.

I'll try to think of some acts that would be good fits for the ASG off the top of my head in a sec here.
The first few that come to mind are almost certainly too huge to do the ASG.
-Tom Petty, good all-American roots rock with a southern edge.
-Bruce, no explanation needed
-Kenny Chesney, I don't like him 99% of the time but I often hear "Another Beer in Mexico" and "Summertime" at baseball games and they (esp. Summertime) fit the atmosphere really well when you are just sitting down and enjoying a game on a nice, sunny day.

There are lots of people worth listening to, to many to count. I hope some bar in whatever city that game's in gets The Baseball Project guys to do a set. It's too much to expect to hear a song about Curt Flood or Teddy F'in Ballgame or the failed perfect at the ballpark, but as Wooderson said, "It sure would be cool if (it) did."

"The voice of Mahalia Jackson came through the ether..."

Tim McGraw, who I generally don't like or dislike (though a couple of his songs are neat), would be a super choice considering that he is Tug McGraw's son and mentions his Braves fandom in a couple songs.

I forgot that the ASG this year is in NY. Makes the Crow and 3 Doors selections a little odd. Aren't there some good nationally known NYC bands that aren't obnoxiously hipster that would have done a good job?

Let's keep in mind that the middle aged woman demographic's performers are taking care of the anthem and 'God Bless America'. Who cares?

42,
Oops. Thats my reward for not RTFAing I guess. I thought this was going to be some pre or post game concert.

Mahalia Jackson. That woman's voice could stop a speeding 18-ton backhoe.

True that. I need to investigate her further.

There are lots of people worth listening to, to many to count.

True that.

True that.

And non-grammatical to boot!

I knew a male Josh Groban fan. He was middle-aged and sat next to me on a flight. He urged me to borrow and play one of his Groban concert DVDs on my laptop. Not knowing who Groban was (I'm not a middle-aged woman, and I don't watch PBS), I went ahead and gave it a shot.

For what it's worth, it killed the battery in two hours flat.

Technically, Josh is a very fine singer. I believe the strictures of the PBS-rock genre limit his appeal to the middle-aged set.

The first few that come to mind are almost certainly too huge to do the ASG.


Why not? It's not like baseball doesn't have the money. Baseball's marketing department is just run by middle-aged suburbanites who are five years behind the times. I'm sure there are bands that are popular right now (like 3 Doors Down aren't) that like baseball. You can see this in the partnership with Linkin Park.

I'm sure there are bands that are popular right now (like 3 Doors Down aren't)

I'm not sure what your definition of popularity is, but their latest album did debut at #1, for what that's worth.

So, in other words, just another seven minutes to fast forward on the TIVO.

I'm not sure what your definition of popularity is, but their latest album did debut at #1, for what that's worth.

Really? I thought they were a one-hit wonder. Funny.

old girl from Portishead

Funny. I had to go look her up to figure out her age because my stock mental image of her is about 30-ish, which she was when their first two records came out in the mid-late 90s. Beth Gibbons is now 43. "Glory Box" remains, 14 years later, one of my favorite songs of all time. I was in a sort of atmospheric blues band in college that covered the song, and it just lends itself so well to tearing up the dirtiest blues lines you can manage over the improv sections.

Emma Pollock

Abso-fricking-lutely. Awesome voice and an unbelievably nice person. And a pretty darn good songwriter too.

Well, courtesy of my granddaughters and their friends I know that the pop song of the summer is "I Kissed A Song", a song about women kissing.

That act would draw a different type of viewing audience.

"I Kissed a Girl".

Getting old. Sigh

I'll third the recommendation for Emma Pollock.

I bet Bud Selig has every one of Josh Groban's albums. Jackass. I mean, geez, Josh Groban? Really?

I remember reading an interview with Jack Wilson, who apparently is a big Groban fan.

What the all-star game really needs is a Richie Hawtin techno set or possibly some dutch hardstyle or gabba, just for a laugh.

"I Kissed a Girl".

I recently saw that listed somewhere -- I guess it's on a soundtrack or something? -- as a current hit & find myself curious as to whether it's a cover of the Jill Sobule song of the same name from around a decade ago. Probably not.

Another female singer always worth listening to --

Sally Timms (of the Mekons). The fact that "I Love a Millionaire" didn't somehow propel this band to mainstream success 15 years ago is as much reason as anyone needs to hate America.

Also --

Amy Rigby

Just out of curiosity, exactly which acts would show that baseball cares about baseball fans? Just because a ton of Primer types would like to see, I don't know, My Morning Jacket or whatever indie act is the darling right now doesn't mean that's a wise choice for most serious fans, never mind the rest of the people they're trying to draw.

I wasn't referring to getting whatever flavor of the month indie band "cool people" like, just acts that aren't for 45 year old women. How about an actual rock band such as, for example Foo Fighters? I don't even own one of their albums, but I'd watch that. There's no way in hell I'm watching Josh Groban.

Let's keep in mind that the middle aged woman demographic's performers are taking care of the anthem and 'God Bless America'. Who cares?

I'll have to change my stance then. This is a good thing: no Ronan Tynan.

Forty-year-old women and fifty-year-old women alike should enjoy the Sheryl Crow/Josh Groban performance.

This made me laugh.

I'd like to see a return engagement from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

"I Kissed a Girl".

The really funny thing about it is that the singer used to be a Christian pop star. This is the big re-launch of her career.

Hooray for packaging!

I wasn't referring to getting whatever flavor of the month indie band "cool people" like, just acts that aren't for 45 year old women.

So you're saying that Enya is out too, huh? ;)

For what its worth, I like Sheryl Crow, and I'm neither 45 nor a woman. I know other people who like Sheryl Crow who are neither 45 nor a woman. There are other acts who I would describe as appealling mostly to 45 year old women, but Sheryl Crow is definitely not one of them.

I'd rather see her than some rock band comprised mostly of senior citizens, even if their music is pretty good. Its just depressing looking at these guys. And I hate Tim McGraw.

Sheryl Crow is a big star. Josh Groban is a big star. People pay attention when their names are on press releases, and I gather that from MLB's point of view, getting newspapers to run their press releases is at least as important as providing an entertaining or meaningful version of the National Anthem.

Didn't Sheryl Crow sing at one of the World Series games in St. Louis a couple of years back? She's even a baseball fan, I think.

Besides, it's not like they were going to have Death Cab for Cutie sing "God Bless America."

I wish they'd trot out Al Green. I know he's a homophobe and all that, but Al Green's the best. He's the extreme opposite of Josh Groban which is the highest praise I know how to give.

Besides, it's not like they were going to have Death Cab for Cutie sing "God Bless America."

I might hurl.

Oh for gawd's sake, they should just get the Hendrix recording of "Star Spangled Banner," a video of Harry Caray leading "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," and scrap the g-d "God Bless America."

Other women worth listening to:

Brianna Corrigan
Beth Orton
Your Mother
don't know her name from Catatonia

Tim McGraw is Tug McGraw's son?! I just blew a fuse.

Who gives a f*ck which singer butchers the SSB or GBA, anyway? Most of the crowd will probably be listening to their iPods, and most of the TV audience will be stocking up on the munchies.

10 Women Worth Listening To:
Linda Jones
Sarah Vaughan
Billie Holiday
Nina Simone

My man, you are going straight to heaven when you die. Though you should have added Dinah Washington, the queen of them all.

5 Women Who Should Shut Up:
Janis Joplin

And you'll be pleased to know that even though Janis probably made it to heaven, too (she was a good ol gal), only Erma Franklin's version of Piece of My Heart is allowed to be played Up There.

you should have added Dinah Washington, the queen of them all.

She doesn't quite get me like the others usually do, but Dinah Jams is a gem.

Try her version of Embraceable You for starters. One of the best things about Dinah (and Sarah, too) is that so much of her best work is available on budget CDs that give you the original versions rather than the later remakes.

EDIT: Screwed once again by YouTube's saboteurs, but it's on there if you just google "Dinah Washington Embraceable You" and click on their videos tab.

71, Tim evidently played college baseball too.
From Wiki:
"Tim McGraw was born Samuel Timothy Smith in Delhi, Louisiana, a town in Richland Parish, the son of a waitress, Elizabeth D'Agostino Trimble, and a relief pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, Frank Edwin McGraw Jr. also known as Tug McGraw....

Raised by his mother in Start, Louisiana east of Monroe, McGraw grew up believing his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his birth father. At age eleven McGraw discovered his birth certificate while searching his mother's closet to find pictures for a school project. After his discovery, his mother revealed that his biological father was Tug McGraw, and took Tim to meet him for the first time.[2] At first, Tug denied being Tim's father. Tim was 18 years old when Tug first realized how much Tim looked like him at that age, and the two remained close until Tug's death in 2004.

As a child, Tim McGraw loved to play competitive sports, including baseball, even though he did not know Tug McGraw was his father.[2] He studied sports medicine at Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, and roomed with former NFL quarterback Doug Pederson[3] where he became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.[4] While in college he sang in a band that was known as the Electones.[citation needed] During this period, he learned to play guitar and would frequently perform and sing for tips, although he claims that his roommates often hid the guitar because he was so bad. In 1989, on the day his hero Keith Whitley died,[3] McGraw dropped out of college to head to Nashville and pursue a musical career."

So I was driving around and thought of a perfect band to do a pre-All Star game concert, though maybe not for a NYC ASG... Alabama.

There are plenty of acts that would make Primates happy, too. The Super Bowl got Tom Petty to do the halftime show, and that was actually pretty awesome. Tom Petty rules. Why can't the ASG get guys like that? Prince would be good. Bruce Springsteen, maybe. Those guys seem about as relevant as Sheryl Crow.

She doesn't quite get me like the others usually do, but Dinah Jams is a gem.

I had heard of her but never heard her, but bought this CD because Maynard Ferguson is on it.

Wow. She good.

There are plenty of acts that would make Primates happy, too. The Super Bowl got Tom Petty to do the halftime show, and that was actually pretty awesome. Tom Petty rules. Why can't the ASG get guys like that? Prince would be good. Bruce Springsteen, maybe. Those guys seem about as relevant as Sheryl Crow.

Notice you're mentioning the ones who performed at halftime, not the ones who sang the SSB.

Super Bowl XLII: Jordin Sparks
XLI: Billy Joel
XL: Aaron Neville, Aretha Franklin, Dr. John
XXXIX: military choirs
XXXVIII: Beyonce
XXXVII: Dixie Chicks
XXXVI: Mariah Carey
XXXV: Backstreet Boys
XXXIV: Faith Hill
XXXIII: Cher

You don't want me to continue beyond the last 10 years. Trust me.

My favorite female vocalist is Anneke van Giersbergen, formerly of The Gathering.

The Super Bowl got Tom Petty to do the halftime show, and that was actually pretty awesome. Tom Petty rules.

Personally, I vote no, no, no, a thousand times no on Tom Petty.

"Hot Fun In the Summertime"

81,
why not?

I've never met anyone that actively dislikes Tom Petty. Some might not be a fan, but I've never heard someone say they really disliked him