Lady Lamb The Beekeeper "Aubergine"

Last Saturday, I was sending my wife out for her birthday as a surprise.

She didn't know where she was going or with whom or to do what.  (Answers:  Boston, with 3 girlfriends, to dance).

I just told her to be ready by 5:30.

"What do I wear?"

Something nice.  You know, like you were going out on the town.

I watched her change her outfit, 2 or 3 times.

"Am I going out locally or . . don't tell me . . ." and she disappeared to find another outfit.

A half-hour passed.  I walked into the bedroom.  She still wasn't dressed.

She laughed.  "This is hard!  I don't know how to dress because I don't know where I'm going!"

I laughed too, thinking about what a foreign concept this was for me.

If I'm not sure what to wear, the questions are "jeans or pants?" and "tie or no tie?" and "sneakers or shoes?"  The end.  There aren't really shades or degrees of dressiness in my closet.

But for my wife, there are many, many shades.  Going to a nice restaurant on the Island isn't the same as going to a nice restaurant in Boston.  You don't wear the same kind of shoes if you were going standing at The House Of Blues for a concert that you would wear if you were going to some club to dance for hours.

Depending on where you were going, your criteria for what's appropriate varies significantly.

What seemed like a foreign concept on Saturday night became suddenly familiar last night, as I was putting together the playlist for tonight's "Uncharted Waters."

Barbara Dacey is on vacation, so I'm filling in.  During her new music show, she features several tracks off one particular album.  I was having trouble choosing a record I was interested in from the list of records we'd recently added---either they'd already been done or I just wasn't excited to explore them further.

So I went into the brand new music pile and I picked up "Ripley Pine," the full length debut by Lady Lamb The Beekeeper.

I'd been interested in this album (on a personal level) after hearing some track samples, but hadn't bothered to pick it up because, based on the samples, it was just not the kind of sound we'd play in regular rotation on MVY.  Interesting, but a bit esoteric to fit among the regular programming.

But that is the judgement of someone who's wading in the mainstream-Triple A/mvyradio river with his music listening.

In this case, however, I was swimming in "Uncharted Waters."  I could listen with different ears.

The record is a challenging listen.  Not in a combative way.  Actually, in a delightful way.  In the way that it veers unexpectedly from once place to another, with surprising instruments and twists of arrangement.  At times its like riding in the passenger seat of a car driven by a friend who's pushed past the speed limit on a twisty road---you're not out of control, but the ride demands your attention lest the road banks hard to the left and you're not holding on.

It's not an outfit that looks good or feels appropriate for daytime-mvyradio attire.

But for where I'm going tonight at 9pm ET on Uncharted Waters, it's a perfect fit.


Hear the song on Youtube.