Susan Tedeschi "Lord Protect My Child"

Do you know what an Apgar score is?

Thankfully, three years ago today, I did not.

If you are someone who doesn't yet have kids, but are planning on it, maybe you just want to skip clicking through.  I found the ignorance to be quite helpful on the day my boy was born.

I don't want to over-dramatize the story of his birth---I know many, many folks who have gone through much, much worse.  But suffice it to say that his first Apgar score was "1."

Today he is 3 years old.

He is a happy, healthy, feisty thing, that gives no hint of the very narrow line he walked in his first 30 minutes of life.

I'm not religious.  I don't pray.  But I hear this song in my head and I thank whatever fate or good fortune or God that smiled upon him, upon me, upon us to make today possible.

Happy Day, little thing.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lyrics by Bob Dylan

For his age he's wise
He's got his mother's eyes
There's gladness in his heart
He's young and he's wild
My only prayer is if I can't be there
Lord protect my child

As his youth now unfolds
He is centuries old
Just to see him at play makes me smile
No matter what happens to me
No matter what my destiny
Lord protect my child

While the world is asleep
You can look at it and weep
Few things you find are worthwhile
And though I don't ask for much
No material things to touch
Lord protect my child

He's young and on fire
Full of hope and desire
In a world that's been raped raped and defiled
If I fall along the way
And can't see another day
Lord protect my child

There'll be a time I hear tell
When all will be well
When God and man will be reconciled
But until men lose their chains
And righteousness reigns
Lord protect my child

Tedeschi Trucks Band "Bound For Glory"

Nothing can screw up the best laid plans for an artist . . . like an artist.

Here's how the process works for a Major Label Artist:

An artist records an album and turns it in to their record label. While the artist takes a breather, maybe plans a summer tour, the label folks gear up.

A marketing plan is crafted. Interviews with major magazines are booked. Copies of the new album are sent to taste-makers and reviewers. And the folks who'll be promoting the record to radio, listen to the album and choose a single.

The radio folks have promotional singles printed up and shipped to stations. Ads are taken out in the trades. Phone calls are made to Program Directors ("Be on the lookout for that new single!"). Videos shot for that song. An "Add Date" picked as a target date that will be suggested to the stations to put the song into rotation.

The date is marked on the calendar, and the radio folks work with an eye toward that date. And then . . .

The artist posts a free MP3 of a completely different song.

Oops.

I have sympathy for the folks who were preparing to make the new Tedeschi Trucks Band CD a strong selling and widely listened-to record. They had a single all picked out and were preparing to release it at the end of April. But the band---clearly excited about the record---wanted to share with the fans. So they made an MP3 of the song "Bound For Glory"---not the single---available to folks who signed up for their newsletter.

You know who's a fan of The Tedeschi Trucks Band? Just about every Program Director in our music format.

So, despite the best laid plans of mice and major labels, radio stations started downloading and adding a song the label wasn't prepare to promote.

It's not the worst problem to have---radio stations playing your song without you asking---but now gears have to be shifted, if you want everybody on the same page.

Next label marketing meeting? Awkward!


See the video on Youtube.

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

Edie Brickell “Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"

Oh, it’s happened to you before. You hear a song. You know it. You can hum it. But you don’t know what it is.

One of the great joys of being a DJ, is being the search engine for listeners who are looking for “That Song!” Maybe I love it so much because it connects me to my heritage---my Grandfather was a Private Investigator, believe it or not.

People who call the station looking for “That Song” are often so apologetic. “Sorry to bother you . . .“ but I look forward to these calls. So if you are stuck on finding a tune, give me a call or shoot me an email.

I’ve got a bunch of questions for you, so, like searching for a missing person, the sooner you get to me, the more likely it is we’ll find “That Song.”

If you heard it on mvyradio, what time was it? Often, I can go back and simply look at a log of what has played. But the log is not comprehensive, so . . .

Can you give me any lyrics? The more words the better. I can often recognize it by ear, but I can do a word search to. Can’t remember a lyric?

Male or Female singer? Fast or slow? Folk or Blues or Reggae? The more details, the better.

I spent a couple of hours last week, helping a listener find a particular song. He wasn’t exactly sure what day he heard it, but he knew it had to have played between 10 and 2. He knew it was a female, with a depressed-sounding intonation. And he remembered the lyric “It’s Hard.”

At first I thought it might be Nanci Griffiths’ “It’s A Hard Life,” but I couldn’t find any evidence that it actually played during any of the times the listener had been tuned in.

So I landed upon Edie Brickell’s version of the Bob Dylan song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

This kind of thing happens with Dylan tunes quite a bit.

There are certainly folks who aren’t crazy about Dylan’s voice, and are likely to tune him out as soon as he comes on. And his catalogue is voluminous. So there are lots of Dylan tunes that maybe you’ve heard once or twice or three times, so they are just familiar enough that when Edie Brickell or Susan Tedeschi or Cassandra Wilson or Jeff Tweedy covers it, you can hum along, but your not sure how you even know the tune.

I’m not sure I got this one right, but it was my best guess. So check out this one, from the “Born On The 4th Of July” movie soundtrack, and see if it sounds familiar.

Hear Edie Brickell “Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"

See Dylan sing it, if you don't mind the voice, here