Cross Training Monday: Dinah '62

Whether you're in need of some rousing getting-ready music, the soundtrack for a party or a balm for an aching head and heart, you can't do much better than the melancholy elegance and serious swing of 'Dinah '62.  Dinah Washington sang sad songs angry and and sang rocking songs sweetly, expressing the tension between action and regret that drinkers know only too well. "Drinking Again" is an established anthem for all who take refuge in smoky bars, but "Me and My Gin" might be an even more essential theme to a post-mortem after a night of cocktail-fueled missteps. The 14 tracks on the album radiate between the sad and the swinging with a sauntering ease, embracing both extremes, unrepentant and always ready for a drink.  World weary and battle-bruised but still in the game, the soulfulness of Washington's voice anchors the strings and horns in some serious grit. This is complex elegance that is never simply pretty.

Pour a stiff one drink and listen to the album in its entirety on lala.com here; listen to "Me And My Gin" and "Little Coquette" below.

Me And My Gin - Dinah Washingt...

Coquette - Dinah Washington, C...