Amy Rigby

Riding down from Riverdale in the Bronx after a hospice visit, under-dressed for the coming night and cold, by the Irish bars, by the Dominican bodegas, through the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods and lol nearly all the way to the sublime and comic Amy Rigby on repeat play on the iPod.

"What ever happened to Babe and Stud/Too much KFC and Bud"

Or, "Come here baby and scratch my itch/Or I'll show you one mean ass bitch"

Or, "Not now, hon, the eggs are fryin'/But you get extra points for tryin'"

In a just music world, Ms. Rigby would get everything she wanted, starting with the subject song of those lyrics.

And then, further on, just about to the Riverside Drive building where Ralph Ellison lived for years, on comes a song high up in the Personal Lifetime Top Ten, the Wicked Pickett and The Midnight Hour. One of those rare songs, like Time after Time, that's bulletproof against any cover versions; they all sound good, but none approaches Wilson.