Sharon Little "Follow That Sound"

Does celebrity endorsement mean something to you? I'd like to say it doesn't mean anything to me, but I've got evidence against me.

Sharon Little's first single off her record "Perfect Time For A Breakdown" rotated on my "Songs mvy is thinking about adding to rotation" playlist for a few weeks, and it's not that I didn't like it, but it didn't move me either, and there were lots of other songs that did, so I passed.

Sharon hit the road with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and when her few select dates were up, they asked her to keep touring with them. Folks from the station, and listeners too, reported back from the tour to say that she was stellar.

So when the second single came, I took a harder look at Sharon Little. Did I LOVE "Follow That Sound"? I liked it. I thought we could be friends. But I wasn't going to marry it.

But Robert Plant liked it. And Alison Krauss liked it. Who am I to contradict their judgement?

So mvy played it. And damn, they were right. I hear that song on the air and think, What was my problem? Why didn't I hear this?

Hear Sharon Little’s “Follow That Sound”

Soul Coughing "Uh, Zoom Zip"

When people talk about the Landmark sample-based records that middle America latched on to, where is Soul Coughing in that discussion?

The Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique," the first 3 Public Enemy albums and De La Soul's "Three Feet High And Rising" are all seminal, in terms of ridding the prejudice against samples and beats. They met with varying levels of commercial success, but they are all records that people returned to years later for ideas and examples.

"Ruby Vroom" should be part of that canon, and I can't figure out why it isn't. It's such a smart record and it one-ups the others mentioned above, with lots of live playing---real drumming, a heavy bottom stand-up bass groove, and dense, imaginative lyrics that you could spend hours and hours parsing out.

It's an under-appreciated classic, to my mind.

Hear "Uh Zoom Zip"