James Dolan's "Reign of Error"
While my city burns, I can at least enjoy a podcast about the worst owner in the NBA.
Every summer, the town of Grand Falls-Windsor in central Newfoundland, located near the mighty Exploits River, holds its annual salmon festival. And said festival includes a major outdoor concert which has attracted some extremely popular, acclaimed, beloved rock bands and also Maroon 5.
The Eagles headlined the 2013 festival, which featured as an opening act the blues-rock group JD & The Straight Shot.
Never heard of them, despite their hundreds of albums sold? Despite their music being featured on major movie soundtracks and regular appearances at Madison Square Garden in New York City?
That’s probably because the band is a vanity project for James Dolan, the infamous owner of the MSG empire, including the New York Knicks and Rangers and the stadium in which they play. And subject of a new, wildly entertaining podcast, Reign of Error, about his career of cringe:
Dolan made his millions the old-fashioned way: he inherited it from his father, who pioneered cable television and even had a hand in founding HBO. And after all that hard work, he doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t give him the respect he deserves.
Which is why he had MSG security physically remove Knicks legend Charles Oakley from a game after he’d criticized his ownership of the team. And used facial recognition technology to ban unwanted people from his venues, like a lawyer who worked for a firm involved in legal action against one of his businesses. Even though the person had nothing to do with the lawsuit in question. And was attending the show with her daughter’s girl scout troop.
And then there’s the band, subject of what might be the funniest Wikipedia page I’ve ever read:
JD & The Straight Shot (also promoted as JD and the Straight Shot) is the country blues and roots rock vanity project of its frontman and guitarist, Cablevision Systems Corporation CEO and Madison Square Garden Company Executive Chairman James L. Dolan.
Because of his corporate status and his friendship and business relationship with entertainment executive Irving Azoff, Dolan has been able to leverage JD & The Straight Shot onto shows by The Eagles, The Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Jewel, Keith Urban, the Dixie Chicks, Joe Walsh and Robert Randolph. Attendance by Madison Square Garden staff employees "is expected and noted" when the group plays at New York clubs. The group's song "Can't Make Tears" was on the soundtrack for the TV show Hell on Wheels on the cable channel AMC, which is controlled by Dolan and his family. The group's music has also been featured in films including Hurricane Season, August: Osage County, and Butter, all of which were produced by The Weinstein Company, a corporate business partner of Dolan's Madison Square Garden Company. The group's fifth album Ballyhoo! sold only 113 copies in the first four months after its January 2016 release. The group's sixth album, Good Luck and Good Night, was released on September 15, 2017.
The New York Times has described the band as a group of "well-known sidemen backing a karaoke grade singer," and noted that Dolan's "musical talents are unlikely to endanger his day job." After the group's performance opening for ZZ Top, one reviewer wrote that Dolan's "enthusiasm for playing mediocre American rock did little to make their forgettable performance entertaining." After a 2017 show in New York City, another reviewer observed that Dolan "sings like he's trying not to cough, and it's possible he can't play the guitar. Worse, his songs belie his status as a cosplaying bluesman; most of his lyrics simply summarize current events or books that he's read as if he were presenting a 10th grade English class project."
Hence, opening for The Eagles at the Salmon Festival. And now I’m lamenting the fact that no one in my beloved home province had the foresight to create a gigantic “SELL THE TEAM” banner and wave it around during his set. I can only imagine the look on Dolan’s face, realizing he can’t escape such richly deserved disdain thousands of miles from NYC, in freaking Newfoundland.
Here’s a video from the band’s official YouTube account (subscriber count: 979, not much more than the account I set up to post old TV commercials and stuff). Honestly, it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but it’s kind of makes me uncomfortable seeing some obviously talented musicians feigning enthusiasm for the mediocre, much older, vocalist paying them to pretend they’re in a real band.
Reign of Error has already released four episodes to the public, and the finale is available to Wondery+ subscribers and should be out to the rest of us soon. My rave review might mean I can never see the Rockettes at Dolan’s Radio City Music Hall, but the silver lining is that I won’t be there if he decides to lead the house band that night.
Hopefully this is the start of new series about bad sports-team owners.1 If there’s a season two in the works, boy, do I have a suggestion for them.
Meanwhile, here in my current home province, this has been happening:
I knew it was bad - the constant stream of emergency notifications on my cell phone told me as such, as did the smell of smoke all over the metro area today - but I didn’t know it was “American TV news actually noticing something happening in Canada” bad.
Thankfully, the fires are pretty far from my home and office for the time being, and rain is predicted for this weekend.
But many people have lost their homes, and thousands more have been displaced. United Way Halifax is raising money for those affected, and they’d appreciate any support you can give.
ESPN’s 30 For 30 podcast already did a series about Don Sterling, the previous standard-bearer for NBA ownership incompetence, and a man who makes Dolan seem downright lovable.