Mat Kearney "Hey Mama"

There's a line that some record promotion folks will use to prod me (or, in some cases, tease me).

They say: "Don't be afraid to play a Hit!"

It's kind of a funny situation to be in, but sometimes I'll turn down a song because it's too much of a "Hit."

Take this new Mat Kearney song. It's insanely catchy, well-crafted and fun.

But because of those seemingly positive attributes, it would sound pretty out of place on our station.

"Single Ladies" this song is not. But on a continuum, "Hey Mama" is too far down the line away from Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," and the earthy, singer-songwriter-strummer roots of the station.

People sometimes think if we don't play a certain song, or a certain artist, it's a judgment against that song/artist. We're somehow saying that they're not good enough.

And yeah, I suppose that's sometimes true.

But Mat Kearney is a talented songwriter, a legitimate artist. If he were making slightly different music, with a slightly different production spin, he'd sound great on our station.

Instead, he's going to have to suffer the cruel fate of having his song become a big, successful hit via the hundreds of radio stations across the country who make their home on a more populist place on the musical continuum.


See the video on Youtube.

Imagine what it might've sounded like with acoustic instrumentation.

See the video on Youtube.