Sat, Jun 03, 2006 page20

• Silver-spoon fed James Dolan sings the blues

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  The man who rarely speaks publicly was singing in Manhattan on Thursday night, singing the blues. James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks and the Rangers and the chairman of Cablevision, put on a gray fedora, grabbed a guitar and morphed into JD, the lead singer of JD and the Straight Shot.

  A few blocks from Madison Square Garden, the place where the overpriced Knicks and their fractured hierarchy have made dysfunctional too lenient a description of them, Dolan ascended the stage at Coda. There were no frustrated New York fans to heckle him and no Larry Brown sightings, either.

  The notion of the multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire businessman singing about the gritty side of life, about trying to pick yourself up when you get knocked down, was jarring. No matter how good or bad Dolan performed, he went to sleep a very rich man, not as a man who should be singing the blues.

  Of course, Dolan could argue that he is the perfect man to sing the blues. Who else may have to pay a basketball coach perhaps US$50 million for one brutal season? That is what Dolan is trying to avoid doing. He would rather negotiate a buyout of the four years and US$40 million left on Brown's contract and make Isiah Thomas, who is the general manager, the coach.

  In promotional material on Coda's Web site, Dolan, 50, described himself as someone who has always been involved in music. Dolan, the singer and rhythm guitarist, said he was "just like thousands of guys who picked up a guitar when they were 15, except that I never put it down." He added "one of his biggest thrills" occurred when the band played before a paying crowd for the first time and won their approval.

  About 150 people, a few dozen of them Garden employees, jammed inside Coda to watch JD and the Straight Shot. They listened as Dolan emitted the raspy voice of a blues man. But Dolan's voice, which sounds like a less-polished Randy Newman, did not overwhelm the audience. As Dolan and some of his bandmates sang, the fans who paid US$15 to get in often continued their conversations over the music.

  But that apathy did not squelch Dolan's enthusiasm. JD did not sing vocals on the opening song, but he did on the second song called, Didn't Wanna Do It. Dolan accentuated his words with facial expressions like narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips. Between songs, he rested his fedora atop the mike stand.

  Like any shrewd singer and businessman, Dolan mentioned Nothing to Hide, the 2005 debut album by JD and the Straight Shot to the audience early on. When Dolan arrived at Coda, walked across the club and climbed onto the stage, he was the only musician who was accompanied by a bodyguard.

  Loren Harriet, who produced albums with the Yankees' Bernie Williams and the Cincinnati Reds' Bronson Arroyo, listened to Nothing to Hide and offered a tepid review. Harriet called the singing and songwriting repetitive.

  "It's not a trained voice," Harriet said. "You can tell the voice doesn't have a lot of experience. I'm glad to see that he's having a good time with his buddies, though."

  If Brown purchased the album, he might be intrigued by some of the lyrics. The best song on the album is probably The Ghost, and Brown, who said that he felt like a "dead man walking" because the Knicks have not told him about his future, might feel haunted by the ghost that is Dolan.

  In the song, Dolan sings, "You keep praying for someone to set you free. But you've made your decision. You remain imprisoned by someone that even you can't see."

  Does Brown want to be set free? No. Brown said that he still wanted to coach the Knicks, although he might not get the chance. Did Brown decide to come and coach the Knicks? Definitely? Is he imprisoned? Well, that is a strong word, but he is in limbo. Can Brown see the person imprisoning him? Not really. Brown has not spoken with Dolan since reports last month that the Knicks might make a change.

  The lyrics to Wish I Had a Life are also notable in light of the Brown situation. Dolan almost speaks them, rather than sings them, and muses that he wishes he had a job with no boss. "If someone say, `Why'd you do that?' I'd say, `Because,"' Dolan sings.

  Dolan hired Brown because he wanted a big-name coach to revive the Knicks. Now Dolan might dismiss him because he is tired of Brown's criticizing the players Thomas assembled. If that happens and Dolan is asked why, he can imitate JD and say, "Because."
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