Washington City Paper: Contents for Feb. 13

Radio Baby
The big time passed them by, but Skip Mahoaney and the Casuals are D.C.'s sweetest soul survivors.

Cover Story

It's Sunday night, and the faithful have gathered from all over the metropolitan area, crowding the close rows of white-clothed tables that fill the NCO club at Bolling Air Force Base. Willie Bennet, unofficial manager of United Performing Artists of the Metropolitan Area (UPAMA), anxiously paces the dimly lit room. The audience of about 300 includes middle-aged couples holding hands, unattached dapper men, well-groomed single mothers out on the town, one or two elderly ladies with canes, and one blue-jeaned young man who must have grooved on his parent's albums and never forgotten the feeling. The challenge for the evening's performers—all local soul survivors—is to re-create the neon magic of a city street corner most baby boomers abandoned years ago.

The first half of the "D.C. Review" spotlights six competent acts whose circumstances never produced a major recording contract; while they perform, the tour-savvy veterans who have serenaded thousands briefly huddle in a side room. Once-familiar rivals embrace, tease, and admire, none with more authority than Skip Mahoaney of the Casuals; Mahoaney is arguably the best remembered of Washington's classic soul balladeers.

The original Casuals—Skip Mahoaney, George Norris, Billy Jones, and Roger Chapman—are here, as is George Spann, the last original member of the Dynamic Superiors, whose 1974 hit "Shoe Shoe Shine" became part of Motown history. The Choice Four, who scored for RCA in 1975 with their remake of the Marvelettes' "When You're Young and in Love," are in the house as well, along with Al Johnson, lead singer and driving force behind the Unifics.... Continued

Issue of Feb. 13 - 19, 1998

News and Features

Radio Baby
The big time passed them by, but Skip Mahoaney and the Casuals are D.C.'s sweetest soul survivors.
Cover Story By Mark E.P. Roberts
Rubbing Out Nine Lives
Is Washington Humane Society needle-happy?
The City By Jake Tapper
Holocaust Benefit Analysis
The Mail By MJ Rosenberg
Hit the Books
The Mail By Lugman Kolade
Love Thy Neighbor
The Mail By Leslie Miles

Columns

A Conspiracy in Every Backfield
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Loving the Alien
The freaks and fantasies of the Winter Olympics
Demimonde By Arion Berger
The Barry Factor
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins

Eats

Movies

Little League
Film Review By Arion Berger
Liberations
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel
I Go to Rio
Talking Pictures By Mark Jenkins
Paltry in Pink
Film Review By Mark Jenkins

Music

Karma and Dregs
Music Review By Rickey Wright
Sue Garner
Music Review By Christopher Porter
Bigmouth
Music Review By Glenn Dixon
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
Music Review By Matt Watson
ultiphonic Ensemble
Music Review By Christopher Porter

Theater

Memories Can't Wait
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
The Wrong Man
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Writing Irish
Artifacts By Sean Daly
Workman's Burden
Artifacts By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Go-Go on Ice
Artifacts By Jason Cherkis
Mean to an End
Books By William Jelani Cobb
Immigrant Song
The DJs of Upsetters International spin sounds of home.
Arts By Jason Cherkis

City Lights

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The Japan of Shohei Imamura
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The First Americans: A New Perspective
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