GUEST POST: A REVIEW OF PAUL McCARTNEY'S GOOD EVENING NEW YORK CITY

I have been wanting to invite some other bloggers who don't normally write about music to do guest posts on No Expiration, and for my first one, I am honored and fortunate enough to have Melanie Nayer, who taught two blogging classes that I took via Media Bistro. She keeps reminding me that "I am NO music critic." But that's generally who I'd like to hear from the most. I was bummed when I missed Paul McCartney's CitiField shows this summer; Melanie saw one of Sir Paul's concerts in Boston around the same time. So thank you, Melanie, for contributing to No Expiration. And without further intro...

I grew up in a house where Simon & Garfunkel provided sermons and The Supremes sang life's lessons; where Jerry Garcia was ruler of an unknown (but totally far out) universe and Michael Jackson was a way of life. I had a pair of blue suede shoes and memorized the entire dance number for “Jailhouse Rock.” But above all I knew that in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. The Beatles - as far as this Midwestern girl was concerned - were simply the best. I was too young to remember the day John Lennon was shot, but I very vividly remember the first day I heard Paul McCartney sing "Yesterday" on the radio and I haven't been the same since.

Fast forward 25 years and I finally got my chance to see Sir Paul in concert at Fenway Park in Boston. It was a magical night full of inspiration, excitement and some of my favorite songs. To watch your musical idol come to life on stage is an awesome moment - it's a reminder of how powerful music is in our lives. So when McCartney released the CD of his latest tour, Good Evening, New York City, I snatched it up. I popped the two-disc set into my car's CD drive and set off for a three-hour drive to Vermont, just me and Paul.

The CD is a compilation of all his songs from the concert, but it's void of one thing: personality. While the songs were the same, the live concert CD cut out the best part of the live show: Paul talking to the audience between songs. I waited anxiously after track one, then track two, then track three, eager to hear him speak to the crowd. I was disappointed, but trudged on with disc one and sang along as if I were back at Fenway.

I sang my way through "Eleanor Rigby," "Blackbird" and swooned to "My Love." I flipped to disc two and grooved to "Back in the USSR" before holding my own moment of silence for George Harrison during "Something." Paul crooned into "Paperback Writer" and then gracefully lingered into Track 6, "A Day in the Life." I sang along as the riffs changed chords and went into "Give Peace a Chance." I was taken back to my night at Fenway when McCartney, the band and the thousands of fans held up peace signs and symbols and sang effortlessly, yet passionately, to the four words that could save any nation. I was reminded that once there were four young men from Liverpool who had a dream and, not without their battles, set out to rule the world. Despite the struggles and the tragedies, they had a mission not unlike any of us -- to just be at peace. While the concert was, of course, much better than any live CD could ever be, the words and music of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr still give me hope.