To honor the centennial of Fenway Park in Boston, home to the Boston Red Sox, the house that Babe Ruth did not build, ABKCO Records released this curio in 2012, a collection of songs played frequently at Fenway during baseball games, many of which have connections to Boston rock bands. So that's the premise, and the result is interesting, but doubtful to change any New York Yankees or Detroit Tigers fans into being any fonder of the Red Sox or Fenway. It's a commemorative artifact that will please Boston fans, certainly, but most of the world hardly needs to hear
Kevin Millar, Boston's first baseman from 2003 to 2005 (and author of the phrase "cowboy up"), sing. There are a couple of small secular bright spots here, though, like
Nuno Bettencourt's (he was the singer and guitarist for Boston rock band
Extreme) version of
the Cars' "Let the Good Times Roll" and
Dick Dodd's (former Disney Mouseketeer, drummer for
the Bell-Airs, and then singer and drummer for
the Standells) redo of
the Standells' "Dirty Water." With a crack session band of
Kenny Aronoff,
Gregg Bissonette,
Leland Sklar,
Tim Pierce, and
Matt Rollings, both of these tracks are professionally recorded and executed. Then there's baseball writer
Peter Gammons singing
Sam Cooke's "Meet Me at Mary's Place," which somehow manages to work although it has no right to. In the end, it's baseball fans, and in particular, Boston Red Sox baseball fans, who'll treasure this release. The rest of the league probably won't much care. ~ Steve Leggett