In spring if a young man’s fancy turns to baseball, his iPod may follow right along.
There’s been a rash of new music celebrating America’s Pastime -- not quite enough to match your Christmas music playlist, but a respectable catalog.
Match that with some baseball-themed performances coming up and you’ve got enough chin music to satisfy the hardiest bleacher bum.
-- This summer the Boston Pops will tour minor-league ballparks, including Lawrenceville’s Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Braves, for performances of music dedicated to movies, rock ‘n’ roll and baseball.
-- A supergroup of sorts called the Baseball Project, featuring Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Steve Wynn, formerly of the Dream Syndicate, has just released its second album of baseball songs, “Volume Two: High and Inside,” with tunes such as “Buckner’s Bolero,” which imagines a world in which the Red Sox player didn’t boot that critical World Series ground ball.
-- And Wednesday, at Eddie's Attic, two baseball troubadours will meet for nine innings of ballpark songs in a sort of musical/athletic competition that has become an annual tradition in honor of opening day, which is Thursday.
Avondale Estates' John McCutcheon, noted folkie and multi-instrumentalist, will represent the home team at Eddie's, and Philadelphia native Chuck Brodsky, relocated to Asheville, N.C., is the visitor. Both will be aided and abetted by Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminsky, who will also play Wednesday at a Braves afternoon exhibition game against the Minnesota Twins, which it is hoped will not be delayed by rain.
Brodsky and McCutcheon are friends and prolific writers of songs about baseball, enough for a full album each. "We always have somebody throw out the first pitch," said Brodsky, 50, calling from the Clearwater Fla., ballpark where he was just settling down for a spring training game between the Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays. "You need to be very careful, given that there are guitars on stage."
Among the tunes in Brodsky's lineup are "Death Row All Stars," about a team from the Wyoming state penitentiary playing for their lives, and “Dock Ellis’s No-No," a ballad about the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher who threw a no-hitter while under the influence of psychedelics.
McCutcheon, 58, a Wisconsin native, will dress out in an old Milwaukee Braves uniform and might deliver his "Talking Yogi Talk" or "Doing My Job," the latter a tuneful account of Cal Ripken's memorable speech after he broke Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive games played.
McCutcheon bats last. Eddie Owen, founder and general manager of Eddie's Attic, keeps score, in an inscrutable fashion, despite Brodsky's protest that music cannot be scored. "Chuck is coming into enemy territory," McCutcheon said, "but its all in good fun."
Music preview
John McCutcheon, Chuck Brodsky and Matthew Kaminsky, 8 p.m., March 30, Eddie's Attic, 515-B N. McDonough St., Decatur; tickets, $20-$35. 877-548-3237; www.eddiesattic.com/.
