Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard “These Roads Don’t Move”

. . . and Son Volt “No Turning Back” and Death Cab For Cutie "Meet Me At The Equinox” . . .

There are many strange stories in the record promotion world, about artists competing against themselves. There is the famous story about John Fogerty being sued for plagiarizing a song, because it sounded too much like . . . John Fogerty.

And there can be strange conflicts for and between record labels, and the promotion folks who work to get radio stations to play the songs they’re promoting.

Johnatha Brooke and Davey Knowles recorded the duet “Taste Of Danger.” It appears on Jonatha’s album “The Works” and on “Coming Up For Air” by Davey’s band Back Door Slam. Representatives from each label were encouraging mvyradio to play “their” version of the song (it’s the same recording on both CDs).

Earlier this year, Pete Yorn recorded an album for his regular label, Epic, but also recorded a quickie album with Scarlett Johanssen for Rhino Records, who chose to put that CD out at the same time as the Epic Record. So promo folks were calling, asking if we were going to play the “right” Pete Yorn record.

And we’re in a similar situation right now. Son Volt has a new single out called “No Turning Back.” And Death Cab For Cutie has a song on the “New Moon” movie Soundtrack. And the lead singers of each band have collaborated on a new project called “On Fast Move Or I’m Gone.”

Is there any reason NOT to play two new songs by the same artist? No. We do it regularly. For instance, we’re playing several new tracks off Carly Simon’s latest release. But with a finite number of spaces on our playlist, we tend to do one new song at a time, even if it rankles the Record Company Promotion people.

So we went for the strongest, most interesting song. “These Roads Don’t Move” by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard has found its way into rotation on mvyradio.

What about the other two. Good song, both. But are they essential?

Hear samples of each:


Get a free MP3 of “These Roads Don’t Move”

Buy the Farrar/Gibbard album “One Fast Move Or I'm Gone Music From Kerouac's Big Sur” which includes a DVD of the Jack Kerouac documentary that spurred the musical collaboration, the Son Volt CD “American Central Dust” and the “New Moon” movie soundtrack featuring the DCFC song.

See the Farrar and Gibbard perform "These Roads Don't Move" live, see the movie trailer for "One Fast Move Or I'm Gone," see Son Volt perform "No Turning Back" Live and see the official music video for "Meet Me On The Equinox."

See this previous post, for details on how a song gets into rotation on mvyradio, then let me know what you think.

Steven Stills “Treetop Flyer”

Radio stations always play songs for Christmas and Halloween, but (perhaps in keeping with an all-too-pervasive social attitude) Veterans and Veterans Day can be forgotten.

Of course, songs about Veterans are not as cheery as “Holly Jolly Christmas” or “The Monster Mash.” And it’s not like people are looking for tunes to play while decorating their home for Veterans Day.

But there are a lot of great songs for and about veterans, so let me point you to a couple, in case you wanted to put together a playlist. Maybe even make a compilation for your favorite Vet as a way to say Thanks.

One of the most requested Library (i.e. not new) songs we have at mvyradio, is Stephen Stills “Treetop Flyer,” about a Vietnam Pilot, who still flies dangerous missions, with the skills picked up at war.

Perhaps the best, angriest, starkest Veterans song, was originally recorded as an upbeat, kick-ass anthem, which obscured the despair of the narrator. Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." probably SHOULD have been part of his "Nebraska" album, alongside the story of another veteran, the errant brother in "Highway Patrolman." (Check out a neat graphic essay on the Legacy of "Born In The U.S.A" and listen to the clips below for a live version of the song, who's tone matches the lyrics)

You can click through the player below, for more songs about Veterans and Soldiers. Listen to these songs, and their lyrics, and maybe have a moment of thoughtful reflection today.



See Stephen Stills do "Treetop Flyer" with Neil Young, see Bruce do his tune with bombast and angst.

The original version of "Treetop Flyer" is out of print, but you can get it here if you're feeling flush. If not, you can buy a newly released live version.

Bell X1 “Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella”

I'm looking for your opinion on this one . . .

We had a great run this past summer with the Bell X1 song "The Great Defector." It's a song that's a little to the left of center of mvyradio's traditional sound, but we always try to include some good, modern tracks in our mix.

The song did well for us, and it did well across the country too, getting airplay on stations similar to mvyradio.

The follow-up single is "Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella." What do you think of this one?

I'm kind of on the fence about it, and it seems like much of America is too. Very few radio stations have put it into their rotation---listeners aren't responding to it, in the way that they did "The Great Defector."

What other radio stations do, isn't how we choose what to play at mvy. But sometimes the broad (national) consensus does confirm something we are already feeling.

What about your feelings? Do you think we should be playing this one in regular rotation?

See this previous post, for details on how a song gets into rotation on mvyradio, then let me know what you think.

Listen to clips of both "Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella" and "The Great Defector."


Hear the WHOLE song and see the very cool, low-budget video for "Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella" and a Live On Letterman performance of "The Great Defector".

Buy the album "Blue Lights On The Runway" on CD.

Ingrid Michaelson “Far Away”

Hitting Random on the iTunes list . . .

Geography can have everything to do with how a song hits you. I’m sure “Born On The Bayou” means something particular to you if you we actually, you know, born on a bayou. “Rocky Mountain High” might bring more of a tear to your eye, if you have a personal relationship with the Rocky Mountains.

Songs like “Back To The Island” and “Never Been Gone” and “Into The Mystic” mean more to us, here on Martha’s Vineyard, than they probably do to folks who live in Iowa or some other land-locked place.

And when we discover a new song, with a Sea-theme, we eat it right up.

When we met Ingrid Michaelson for the first time, she did “Far Away” (which was originally “Untitled”) during the interview. And even though we were in Louisville, Kentucky to record the performance, far away from the ocean, it still gave me a little tingle, to discover a song that starts:

I will live my life
As a lobsterman's wife
On an island in the blue bay
He will take care of me
He will smell like the sea
And close to my heart he'll always stay

Hear the mvyradio interview with Ingrid here and hear a whole concert recorded by mvyradio at Cape Cinema.

See the Ingrid sing “Far Away” on a Nantucket Beach, courtesy of our friends at Plum TV.

Buy the album "Girls And Boys," here

Derek Trucks Band with Susan Tedeschi "Back Where I Started"

We've been playing this songs a whole lot on mvyradio. I always worry about songs with a slow tempo---does it drag the radio station down? Make us sound sleepy? Boring?

There ARE slow tracks that we just don't play, because it feels like the station is grinding to a halt.

But this isn't one of them.

This one is like a slow flowing stream. Languid and beautiful, but always moving forward.

You can find this track on the Derek Trucks Band album, but it is possible that Susan Tedeschi will do it live, with her own band.

Find out for yourself, as we carry Susan Tedeschi, live from The Narrows Center For The Arts in Fall River, this Saturday night, 11/7. Go to mvyradio's main page, at around 8pm, and click on the Susan Tedeschi link, to hear this SOLD OUT show as it happens, thanks to Friends of mvyradio.



Buy The Derek Trucks Band "Already Free".

See the Susan and Derek performing live, together, here

Violent Femmes “Add It Up”

Hitting Random on the iTunes list . . .

I was recently back in my hometown, to attend a dinner thrown in honor of, among other folks, my Dad.

He was being inducted in the Newburyport High School Sports Wall Of Fame, for his over 30 years of coaching basketball and baseball. And in the course of the days leading up to this event, I had lots of funny flashbacks to those many, many years of high school sports.

I started going to my Dad’s practices when I was in the third grade. I’d run the sprints and shoot the free throws and collected the baseballs. By 6th grade, I was running drills with the team, and even taking batting practice against High School players.

I entered High School as not necessarily the best athlete, but certainly one of the best trained players in the school. So I found my place on teams, and though socially awkward, comfortably knew the rhythms of the gym and the locker room and the nomadic, tribal nature of a traveling team.

I remember being on a bus, going somewhere, to some game, in some time, on some dark winter evening. We always had the cheerleaders with us in those days. And while I was deadly serious about basketball, there were those who (gasp!) found the whole adventure to be more of a social outing.

The girls always brought a boom box, and would bring the latest “cool” record on a home-taped cassette. And do I clearly remember hearing The Violent Femmes “Add It Up.”

My Dad is an old Rock N Roll guy. He loves Elvis and The Beatles. We had Dave Clark Five records and Buddy Holly on 45. So I know when that famous shuffle kicked in, he might have actually even tuned in to the groove the Femmes laid down.

But did he whip around from the front of the bus, when the song hit its famous refrain:

Why can’t I get, just one Fuck?
Why can’t I get, just one Fuck?

No need to explain the details---boom boxes were not welcome on the bus for the rest of the season.

Up until that point, all the music that I listened to, I listened to because that’s what my Dad liked. I didn’t have an older sibling who was bringing home the latest cool thing. We had Elvis and The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five and Buddy Holly, and up until that point, that was good enough for me.

But at age 14, on a bus crossing Cape Ann, I can pinpoint the moment where I realized that I wasn’t always going to like what my Dad liked, and he wasn’t always going to get what I Got.



See a live version of “Add It Up”

Buy the self-titled Violent Femmes album.

Carly Simon "Never Been Gone"

Somewhere approaching statistical perfection of 100 percent of the time . . . if I tell someone I haven’t met before that I work for the radio station on Martha’s Vineyard, the words “Carly Simon” will pass their lips within the next 20 seconds.

Carly is so closely associated in people’s minds with the Island. And mvyradio is so closely associated in people’s minds with the Island. It’s only makes sense that Carly and mvy go hand in hand.

We were excited to hear that she was going to delve into some of her old favorites, and re-record them. It’s pretty neat to hear these songs re-approached and re-imagined---some not too radically different, and some hardly recognizable from their original form.

It is totally worth your while to track through the samples below, and get a flavor for what she, and her cadre of collaborators, have done.



See the Carly on The Today Show

Buy it on CD, here, and get other special Carly packages, here.

Joss Stone “Free Me”

Should mvyradio be playing this song ? . . .

There has always been a component of Soul on mvyradio. We always try to have one or two new songs that keep us linked to that genre, which, in pure form, links directly to our fondness for Blues.

The problem with Soul, can be that it doesn’t share some of the most important properties that make something an “mvy song.” SOME Soul songs just don’t have that organic, rootsy feel, that we love in our blues, and folk, and americana. Even some great modern Soul tracks can have that overly-slick, overly processed feel---which works for the song, but doesn’t necessarily make the song fit comfortably on the station.

Joss Stone is right on the line, to my ears. Some of her past tracks have had that very authentic, straight back to Otis Redding and Al Green feel. And some songs have been produced for pop radio shininess, and disposability.

To Joss’ credit, this new album was made without the aid or permission of her record company, who had been pushing her in a more pop direction, while she wanted to make more of a classic Soul record.

But did she go far enough? Is it something that mvy should be playing? Or is it too slick for the station?



See Joss on Jimmy Kimmel.

Buy Joss Stone’s ”Colour Me Free” on CD.

See this previous post, for details on how a song gets into rotation on mvyradio, then let me know what you think.

Nanci Griffith “The Loving Kind”

I know Nanci Griffith has a passionate political point of view on a number of topics. But for better or worse, when I think about Nanci Griffith, only one image springs to mind.

I saw her in the late 90s, on the short-lived, but really well thought-out Newport Folk Festival traveling show. The folks from Newport Folk tried to package Newport-like artists, and send them on a Lollapalooza like journey across the country. It only lasted one year, and I’m not sure how a line-up like Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Wilco and many more, failed to bring folks through the gate, but it was the only year the show happened.

Anyway, at some point in the show, Nanci launched into an angry rant, aimed at Bob Barr and other Republicans, who, at the time, were pressing the Monica Lewinsky case, comparing those Senators, to Joe McCarthy’s shouting, “I have these names on a list!!!”

Nanci Griffith has done tremendous work with organizations like Adopt-A-Minefield, Journey Of Hope and the Vietnam Veterans Of America Foundation. She deserves a spot in my mind closer to those worth groups, instead of Clintonian silliness and partisan hoo-hah.

Let me start today, with this song.

The title track from Nanci’s latest album, The Loving Kind, refers to Loving v.Virgina, the 1967 landmark civil rights case that ended the ban on interracial marriage. Richard and Mildred Loving were an interracial couple who were forced to leave their home state of Virginia because of the local Jim Crow laws preventing marriage between the races.

A couple of weeks ago, a Louisana Court Judge refused to marry a couple, allegedly because the man and woman were of difference races.

In response, Nanci has made her song “The Loving Kind” available for free download on her website. Get it here.

And see sing eloquently on another social issue, here.

Buy "The Loving Kind”

Led Zeppelin “Dazed And Confused”

All Time Top Five Movies That Cribbed Their Name From A Good Song, And Managed To Be Pretty Good Themselves . . .

Thing that never get old to me . . . Led Zeppelin I and “Dazed And Confused.” I’m not saying I watch/listen every single day. But every couple of months when it comes around on cable/iTunes, I can find something new about it to enjoy. Textures, layers, nooks and crannies. Even after all these years, it still makes an impact.

Hear a sample of Led Zeppelin “Dazed And Confused”


See the a rare live Zeppelin clip, and a movie scene that sums up High School awkwardness.

Buy Led Zeppelin I, the movie on DVD and the movie Soundtrack.