Mavis Staples "Far Celestial Shore"

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this.

As I write this, it's Saturday morning and I'm sitting in the waiting room while my car gets an oil change.

And I am crying.

I was gathering some videos for the mvy Bloggers Page.  Our Album Of The Week is the new Mavis Staples record, and I figured I'd post her cover of the Nick Lowe tune "Far Celestial Shore," when I came across this video.

Yeah, it's basically an advertisement put together by her label.  It's marketing and it's manipulative.

But I can't deny that it just filled me with emotion.  Not sad.  Just . . . emotion.

I dunno, maybe it won't have that effect on you.

But when I see hear, when I hear her, I just can't help but be overwhelmed by how lucky I feel to have these recent records, both the ones she's done with Jeff Tweedy, which has been a lovely, lovely surprise, and also the excellent records she put out in the 2000s ("Have A Little Faith," "We'll Never Turn Back").

I feel lucky to have seen her live.  To see her sing "The Weight" right in front of me.  To watch her pound her chest as she sang the line "Put the load right on me" and totally believe she could psychologically, spiritually and hell, even physically carry us.

I feel lucky that music still moves me this deeply, and that Mavis is out there making it.


See the Marketing video on Youtube.


Hear "Far Celestial Shore" on Youtube.

Schtum "Skydiver"

I was at an event last night and got to chat with Les Sampou, the real rock n roller next door to my wife's cousin.

Even with today's super-interconnected society, social media, Googling abilities and such, you sometimes never know who's right in your midst.

Tonight, for the mvyradio Album Of The Week, we're playing Christian McNeill & The Seamonsters' record, "Everything's Up For Grabs."

I had seen McNeill a bunch of years ago at Johnny D's, opening for Sarah Borges.  And last year, I was happy to hear that he had relocated to The Vineyard and was playing regular gigs around the Island.  He even joined us for our "Thank You For Saving mvyradio" Party.

Earlier this week, I was scheduling some posts on the mvyradio Bloggers page, including one about the Album Of The Week.  I was trolling Youtube for interesting McNeill items when I came across a video of Christian being interviewed while standing outside of Johnny D's.  Cool!

I took notice of the suggested videos that appear on the right side of the screen on Youtube.

Hey! Schtum!

Schtum is this band that had crossed my brain a number of times, to use as a weekend post.  On the weekends, instead of writing a full blog entry, I like to just post some great, obscure tune that I would have been playing during my 90s Alternative show when I lived in Virginia.

Schtum, an Irish, hard-rocking outfit, fit into that category really well, because they had a minor Alternative hit with "Skydiver."  But it wasn't a tune that seemed to survive beyond the era.  I can't say that I've heard the song since the 90s, but I have good memories of absolutely cranking this song in the WABN studios.

I went back to watching the McNeill interview.

Then I noticed that there were actually several Schtum videos.  And I scrolled down to see even more.

Wait a minute.  Why did so many Schtum videos come up when I had searched for Christian McNeill?

Well, it turns out that McNeill was the lead singer of Schtum.  He relocated to Boston and started a solo career, and is now part of the Vineyard music community.

How cool is that?  Another real rock n roller next door?!?





Hear "Skydiver" on Grooveshark.

Hear Christian McNeill on Youtube.

Patty Griffin "Ohio"

I was watching the new Patty Griffin video for "Ohio" which features Robert Plant, and was thinking back to seeing Plant two years ago.

It was the first time I had noticed how dang sexy Patty Griffin can be.

Now that we know they're a couple, it's funny to think back on that and realize that Robert Plant was probably thinking the same thing . . .

Hear more from Patty Griffin tonight, as we play "American Kid" as the mvyradio Album Of The Week.


Hear the song on Youtube.