Nicole Atkins "Cry Cry Cry"

Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.

Hello? Is anyone looking?

Well, this is strange. I feel like I’m sneaking into someone’s room and writing in their diary. Sure, a blog is not private like a diary, but you know what I mean.

Don’t you?

I’m honored that PJ asked me to guest-blog for a week while he and the family take a much-deserved vacation. He didn’t tell me where he was going, but I’m going to assume it has something to either do with a drink with an umbrella in it, or a seven foot tall cartoon character. Either way, my hope here is to keep from doing irreparable damage to his good name.

Part of PJ’s daily existence is taking (and dodging, when needed) an insanely large volume of calls from folks like me each week telling him about all the great songs piled up on his desk and just why, why oh why, each one deserves their place in rotation on WMVY’s airwaves.

Over the next week, I’ll highlight five of these songs, making my case to you, the reader. Perhaps together, we can convince PJ to find a home for them.

So here we go…

When I first heard Nicole Atkins in 2007, radio was awash in a sea of pretty female singer songwriters and their acoustic guitars. Then the album Neptune City hit my desk. A mix of swooning 60’s-girl-group melodies, vocals with attitude, indie cred album tracks and a band that could actually PLAY. Dang.

The first single, “Maybe Tonight,” was like Phil Spector meets the Go Go’s and the second, “The Way It Is” was throat-clearing sexy. When I got the chance to see her perform in a couple different settings at South By Southwest in the spring of 2008, she exuded an air of confidence and killed it every time she took the stage.

Like so many music industry stories go, after the promotional well for the album ran dry, she and the label parted ways. Over the next few years, she wrote the tracks for her new album Mondo Amore, playing anywhere possible to support the recording of it. Long story short, she’s got a new label, a new lease on life, and a killer album to back it all up. She also got a great opportunity to perfect the songs live as she spent last November opening up for The Black Keys.

The first single (ahem – this is where we all team up together to get PJ to play it) is called “Cry Cry Cry.” It comes out of the gate with a driving beat, her trademark soaring vocals and a chorus that is impossible to get out of your head after one listen. Radio has responded kindly, with major airplay nationwide. The album was just released, selling over 2000 copies in its first week, and she capped it off with a performance of the song on Conan. Watch it below. I dare you to not find yourself singing it out loud later in the supermarket.



Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.