Middleboro Review and so on

A Musical Genius A Reason To Smile Dan Rather and Team Steady Mar 16 Credit: Getty Images Ever since the Super Bowl, I have been thinking about Jon Batiste, the Louisiana native who wowed us with his version of the national anthem. There was something infectious about Batiste’s demeanor. He exuded joy, almost like he couldn’t believe he got to do what he did. What he did was  perform the heck out of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  In his hometown. On the biggest stage imaginable. I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about Batiste, so I did a little digging, and what a story! The multi-hyphenate musical phenom is the easy choice to be this week’s reason to smile. A singer-songwriter-musician-composer-bandleader, he plays drums, acoustic and electric guitar, saxophone, and melodica, but on the piano he is a virtuoso. He started taking classical piano lessons at age 11 and learned to meld classical with the jazz, blues, and gospel of his native Louisiana. Batiste grew up in a no...