Toad The Wet Sprocket "The Moment"

People asked us for months, "What is going to be the first song you play on your new FM signal?"

And everyone had an opinion.

You may be a little surprised to know that even just a couple of hours before we were to go live, we hadn't picked a song yet.

A few weeks back, Barbara Dacey and I had agreed that we should air the "ocean waves" sound effect that comprised the last 20 minutes of our final broadcast on 92.7, fifteen months ago.

My first idea was that we would play "Riviera Paradise," which was the last song on 92.7.  It seemed to suggest that we were picking up right where we left off.  But then it didn't seem original enough.

While brainstorming, Barbara suggested Carly Simon's "Never Been Gone," which is perfect on a number of levels, since it is specifically about the Vineyard, and the joke that "mvyradio feels like it never was away" was pretty funny. 

But we set that idea aside, because we really wanted the first song to be something upbeat.  (Hilariously, the 2 comments I saw online about "Never Been Gone," which ended up being the 3rd or 4th song we played were along the lines of, "I can't believe you didn't play that one first!" and "Ugh, I can't believe they played Carly Simon!?!"  So I guess we did strike the appropriate middle ground)

It was Barbara who came up with the unconventional choice of playing James Brown's "I Got You."

Though it's not a tune we would regularly play, the spirit and vibe matched the moment.

But that wasn't the first song on the new 88.7.

What I knew all along was that we were going to have to turn on the new transmitter and be certain that everything was working properly, before it was safe to announce to the world that we were going to "launch" 88.7.

And we had no idea when that was going to happen.

We were scheduled to have the antenna hung on the tower, last week.  But rain prevented the contractors from doing the work.

They were supposed to start Monday, but they couldn't get a ferry reservation.

They got to the station early Wednesday, but by mid-morning, they realized that a couple of necessary cables had not arrived via UPS.  We tracked the package and found that it was on-Island, so I furiously started texting a couple of guys I know who work for UPS, to see if we could pull some strings and get it there.  It came shortly after lunch.

I kept wandering down to the engineer, who was hooking things up in the basement.

"Now?  How about now?  Are we close?"  I was like a 4 year old.

The plan, once the thing was live, was to put the ocean wave on, send out a press release to the media and send an eblast to our listeners giving them a 45 minute heads up.  Craig, the engineer, just had to finish his work to set this all in motion.

Finally, he came running upstairs, and simply gave me the thumbs up.

Craig, Barbara and I ran out to the parking lot, and put on the car radios.

88.7FM was on the air.

"Does it sound good?  It is a go?"

It was "The Moment."  Completely random that the Toad The Wet Sprocket song was the one on the air when the switch was flipped.  But there it was, coming out of our speakers.

We all smiled.  And yes, a tear or two was shed.

Toad The Wet Sprocket was on 88.7FM, which probably only had 3 listeners, Craig, Barbara and me.

I ran back inside and put the waves on the air.

The moment had arrived.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Burl Ives "Holly Jolly Christmas"

I asked Barbara this week, “When did the Stocking Stuffer start?”

She looked up and ahead, searching through the years . . .

“I don’t know.  The 80s, probably?  It may have started before I got here.”

So for maybe 27+ holiday seasons, we’ve had the mvyradio Holiday Stocking Stuffer.

When I first started at MVY, we had the Singing Elves.

The Singing Elves were a number of MVY DJs (Barbara included), singing a 15 second snippet of a Christmas carol, with their voices altered up to high-pitched, elf-speed.

By the time I arrived on the scene at MVY, the staff haaaaaaaated those f-n elves.

There were 4 songs, and they rotated heavily, annoyingly.

But we couldn’t get rid of them.  People were obsessed with them.

Calls would start coming in, mid-November:  “When are the elves going to start!?!?!”

Every year, we’d entertain the subject of ditching the elves.  But inevitably, the question of “What will we replace them with?” stumped us.

Finally one December, in the middle of playing those annoying little bastards for the one-too-many-th time, we committed to it.  The elves were going to go, and we were going to decide NOW, what we’d do next year.

After much discussion, involving new Elf jingles, or the voice of Santa, or other talking bits, we decided that the only way we were going to survive the repetition that would continue each year, ad infinitum, was do not do a voice.  Just do a jingle.

I set about finding a short, distinct holiday jingle.

After many underwhelming ideas, I found the piece of music that we use today.

Burl Ives famously sang “Holly Jolly Christmas.”  But he reprised his version of the song in the stop-motion animated classic “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.”

And in this version of “Holly Jolly Christmas” there is a prologue/intro to the song that is easily clipped from the more familiar beginning of the tune.

Maybe in the year 2025, some Program Director at MVY will be insanely sick of the Stocking Stuffer jingle.  But for now, it rules the (holi)day.

(The Stocking Stuffer jingle is the first 6 seconds of this clip, right up until the singing starts)


Hear the song on Youtube.

Amos Lee "The Man Who Wants You"

On Monday I was filling in for Barbara Dacey during The Lunch Hour.  I'd decided to use her Essential MVY feature---where she delves more deeply into a particular artist or theme---to explore the Wilco album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."

At the end of the hour, as I was recapping and switching gears back to regular programming, I had a little revelation as to why I'd been making a mistake over and over.

All fall long, as I've introduced the new Amos Lee track, I'm stumbled over the title.  But saying the two titles back to back explained the reason . . .

I'd played Wilco's "I'm The Man You LOVES You," in the Wilco set, and came out of the Wilco set and into "The Man Who WANTS You" by Amos Lee.

All fall long when I've introduced the Amos Lee song, I've stumbled over "Loves," because my brain wants to say "Wants."

I'm not sure I'll get any better at not mixing the titles up.  But at least I understand why.


Hear Amos Lee on Youtube.


Hear Wilco on Youtube.

Jason Isbell "Stockholm"

You know what a good sign is, when it comes to me liking a song?  When I can't choose a lyric.

One of Barbara Dacey's behind the scenes jobs at MVY, is to post the Lyric Of The Day.  You can see it at the top of the main page of our website.

While she's on vacation, I am doing the lyric posting.  I'd had "Stockholm" stuck in my head for a couple of days, and thought I'd grab a lyric from there.

I literally spent 15 minutes trying to narrow it down.  It's a 4 minute song!

But there are so many great lines, and turns of phrases, and descriptions here.  It was hard to pick.

I never disliked Jason Isbell, but I had never had one of his songs grab me and show me his genius until now.

You can see the lyrics here.

And watch the video below to the end?  Letterman is clearly a HUGE fan.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See Isbell on Letterman on Youtube.

Livingston Taylor "Grandma's Hands"

I'd kinda forgotten that I even knew this song, but as soon as I heard the new Willie Nelson single, "Grandma's Hands" I was immediately whisked back to seeing Livingston Taylor.

Barbara Dacey had put together a concert at Nectars (formerly The Hot Tin Roof) to celebrate her 25 years at MVY, and Livingston was on the bill.

Jess Phaneuf and I were standing near the entrance helping greet late-comers as Livingston's set was underway, when the power went out.  For a moment, I thought it might just be a brown-out, but no, the power went out and stayed out.

This might be the kind of thing that would fluster or flummox another artist and derail a whole night of music.

But I turned to Jess and said, "If there's anyone you would want stage when the power goes out, it's Livingston."

The consummate and unflappable performer, he took just a moment to assess the situation.  Then he put down his guitar, stepped in front of the microphones to the edge of the stage, and began singing and clapping.

In a moment where you could have lost the audience, lost the flow, lost the night, Livingston grabbed the room with his own two palms and led the crowd through "Grandma's Hands."

Within a few minutes, the power blipped back on, but the night, thanks to Livingston, felt nary a flicker.


Hear Livingston Taylor's version on Youtube.


Hear Willie Nelson's version on Youtube.

Mike Doughty "Song For The 10th Anniversary Of iTunes"

Here's a "I Looked At The Internet Today So You Don't Have To" feature (subtitled: "I Looked At Jesse Barnett's Facebook Feed Today So You Don't Have To").

It's hard to believe iTunes as been around for 10 years.

Why it seems like just yesterday that I was helping Barbara set up iTunes on her laptop.

She brings the moment up frequently.

I was talking about how easy it was to use, and how the 99 cent threshold made it really attractive to just go ahead and buy something.

She was excited, because during the Lunch Hour, she'd often have a very specific thought ("So-and-So just passed away?  I want to play this certain track"), but would realize that the song was something from her CD collection back at her house.  Or that she didn't know if she or the station owned it at all.

Now she had most any song she could imagine, right at her fingertips.

I said, "Pretty soon though, you'll find yourself saying, 'Oh, that CD is out in my car?  I'll just by the track I need on iTunes rather than walk out to the parking lot.'"

At the time, she laughed at the utter absurdity of the idea.

But it wasn't too much later that she admitted to the reality---that often it was easier to spend 99 cents, then search for the needle in the haystack that is our messy station.  And every time she buys something that she probably already has somewhere, she reminds me of that first conversation.

Who among us has not grabbed a song on iTunes as an impulse purchase?

For its 10th anniversary, Mike Doughty wrote this really fun song about drunken iTunes splurging . . .

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.

Ryan Adams "To Be Young Is To Be Sad Is To Be High"

I saw this picture of Dave Kish digging through stacks in a record store, and I thought about how infrequently I do the same thing.

Not because I don't like to, or because I don't have time, or because record stores are fewer and farther between these days.

It's simply because I don't have to go to a record store to dig through stacks.

It's true that, more and more, instead of getting CDs sent to the station, we receive MP3s.  But still, mostly, music comes to us via the mailbox.

Every day Mike-from-the-front-desk comes back from our PO Box with a plastic mail carton full of envelopes.  Barbara or Jess or I will tear through envelopes and pile up the bounty, sampling as much as we can, setting aside what might go to What's New For Lunch or to Bill for The Blues or to Alison for the Local Music Cafe, etc.

A tiny fraction of what comes in makes it's way to regular rotation.  The rest can pile up.  And pile up.  And pile up.

When there's time, it's good to go for a second look.  Or in the old days, a first look.

I first arrived at WMVY in 2000, after 6 years at a small, independent station in a fairly rural part of the South.  Being small, we didn't get much service from the record companies.  We were never awash in CDs, on the level that I discovered when I got to MVY.  Barbara Dacey was Program Director at the time, and it was she who sorted through the mail that came in.

In the short period it took me to find my feet and get comfortable at the station, I asked if I could dig through the piles to see if there were any treasures in there I might like to check out.

When I found something I was interested in, I asked Barbara if I could take it home.

"Who is this?"

I told her what I knew about Ryan Adams, about his previous band Whiskeytown and about the good reviews for his solo debut "Heartbreaker."

"Let me hang onto that one."

So, the bad news was that I didn't get to snatch that disc.  The good news was that we added his first solo single, and for the last 13 years his subsequent releases have been a regular part of mvyradio.

A little extra digging can make a difference.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Neil Young "The Loner"

Especially if you are not familiar with it but even if you are, it would be good to listen to this song before reading the post about it.


Hear the song on Youtube.


I've heard this song for years on mvyradio.  Played it as a DJ, heard it when I was just listening.

I don't think I really knew it, before coming to work at mvyradio.  The song came out when I was still in diapers.  But I always like the simple crunchiness of a good Neil Young tune.  But didn't have any particular feeling beyond that.

Last week a I walked into the studio at 1pm, as I do every day.  Barbara Dacey was finishing up her shift and clearing out to turn things over to me.  She had "The Loner" cranked on the studio speakers, and was really into it.

She started talking about what it felt like to her, when the song came out.  That she remembers it so clearly.  That it seemed a step beyond anything that had come before it.

She marveled at the amazing diversity within the songs structure.  The acoustic guitar that starts the track that sounds like a typical acoustic tune, followed immediately by the clear-but-fuzzy lead guitar riff.  At :40 seconds strings suddenly appear, and come and go throughout the song.  At :55 seconds everything stops as Neil sings "The Loner . . ." and everything halts for a moment, followed by a short bridge, then back into the main riff.  At 1:50 it goes into a piece of music entirely different from the rest of the song, before the lead coaxes the tune back.  The long outro is a dance between the delicate acoustic and strings, coupled with the pointed, noisy-but-direct electric guitar.

Barbara talked at length about the complexity of the tune, of how it was such a composition on a level about what the others in Neil Young's cohort group were doing a the time.

I have to admit, I had never heard the tune like that before.

While I am familiar enough with the song that I guess I could have identified the various parts, if you had just asked me about the tune without me hearing it, I probably would have only heard the crunchy riff in my head, not recognizing the complexity.

The other thing that is evident about Barbara's reaction versus mine, is context.

At the time this song came out, Barbara was already an avid music listener and consumer.  She was also a musician.  She heard the song in the context of the time it came out, and could compare it to other things she'd been listening to.  And compared to other songs out at the time, Barbara felt it was a big innovation, and her reaction to the song, even today, is colored by that excitement.

At the time this song came out, I was working on chewing solid foods.  So I never heard the song in the context of its day.

For me, this song is neither before nor after "Times They Are A' Changing" or "London Calling" or "Born To Run" or "Let It Be."  They ALL fall under the category of "before I started listening to music."  So the song could never really hit me in the same way as it hits Barbara.

You listen to the radio day after day, and it's simply not possible to dive into every single song and react to every single song and pick apart every single song.

But it really lifts the listening experience when you can grab ahold of just one tune, and shake it for all it's worth.

Tallest Man On Earth "These Days"

"Who are you most excited to see today?" I just asked Barbara and Jess.

Both of them said (perhaps a little dreamily):  Tallest Man On Earth.

After yesterday, where I saw Jackson Browne standing side stage to watch Patty Griffin, Dawes, My Morning Jacket and others, perhaps Mr. Browne (who is today's main stage headliner) is also looking forward to seeing Kristian Matsson.

At least, he should be flattered by the lovely cover of  Jackson Browne classic.


For live audio and video from Newport Folk, go to www.mvyradio.com.  We are expecting to bring you The Punch Brothers, Conor Oberst, The Head And The Heart and Trampled By Turtles.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Delta Rae "Bottom Of The River"

My office is directly below the studio (trolls and Program Directors live in basements), and there's nothing more entertaining than when the DJ above is really rocking out to a song.

I can hear if they are tapping their feet, or hand-drumming on the console, or if they are jumping up and down to the rocking beat.  And if their singing or whooping is loud enough, I can hear that too.

I'm especially curious to hear these sounds, when I know that the DJ is experiencing the song for the first time.

I'm usually in my office during Barbara's "What's New For Lunch" segment.  And though she invariably previews the track, we know that you don't really experience the track until it's on the air, going out to the world, and you have the speakers up to listen.

So many times, I've checked out a song, not because I was listening to the radio.  Heck, I might have even had the radio off.  Sometimes I'm moved to go hear a band, because I heard the sound of someone first reacted to the song.

A week or so back, I needed some last minute coverage for Barbara who was not feeling well, so Laurel stepped in.  It's not common for Laurel to fill in for Barbara, but it happens once in a blue moon.

Barbara had already picked out the songs she was planning to play that day, so Laurel was able to jump right in.

I could hear some wild yelps of "YEAH!!! WOOOO!!!" coming from the studio, and at the end of the shift, Laurel emerged from the studio to tell me that she'd been moved by the spirit of Delta Rae's "Bottom Of The River."

I can see why she was moved.  I'm surprised she didn't stomp through the floor on this one . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

R.E.M. "I Remember California"

Here's another Weekend Post:

What with Memorial Day happening this weekend, I went looking for some "Memory" songs.  Funny enough, I'd pulled this one out last week for Barbara, who was putting together a set of California songs.

Here's a cool live version . . .



Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Brandi Carlile "That Wasn't Me"

Do you ever have the nagging feeling that you're just wrong?

I feel that way about Brandi Carlile.

Despite having had her on the station for interviews, and for live-streamed concerts, we've never added a song of hers into rotation.

I always felt like there was something missing.

And I do hear about it from listeners.  AND staff members.  "Why doesn't mvy play her?  It seems like a perfect fit."

And no doubt, Carlile is, in so many ways, right up our alley.  A great writer with a strong voice, who has underplayed her image in favor of her musical strengths.  She gets good reviews, she sells records and concert tickets, and she charts on radio stations with playlists nearly identical to mvyradio.

But I always felt like there was something missing.

Sometimes, having a powerful voice is actually a drawback.  Sometimes, really going for it with your voice, doing vocal runs, messing about in the upper register, trying to nail the drama, is a drawback.  Going from acoustic quiet to high vocal yodeling is a technical vocal achievement---but it gets under my skin, for some reason.

Just because you CAN hit those notes, doesn't mean that you need to.

Maybe that's why "That Wasn't Me" is the first song by Carlile, that I can imagine mvyradio adding.  There's vocal prowess, but restraint.  There's dynamics, but not histrionics.  There's something subtler in the delivery here.  She's not firing all her guns, and the song is more effective for it.

There's a phrase that Barbara Dacey uses a lot.  "Leave room for the audience."  If the performer is spraying you with a firehose, it's hard to do anything but put up your hands and attempt to push back.  But if there is more open space, there is room for the listener to step inside and feel part of the conversation.

I feel like I can get inside "That Wasn't Me."

So maybe what I was missing in Brandi Carlile all along wasn't her, it was actually me.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Leonard Cohen "Bird On A Wire"

Not all the notes I get at my mvyradio email box are as lovely as the one I wrote about yesterday.

We certainly receive a good portion of criticism and complaints too. And it's my job to answer them.

Last week I got a note from a listener who wondered why we don't play Leonard Cohen in regular rotation. Or, to more accurately reflect the tone of the note, a listener who wondered Why Do You Hate Leonard Cohen?

We definitely don't hate Leonard Cohen. In fact, Barbara Dacey's blog is named after one of his songs. And the day I got the note, she was featuring music from Leonard's son Adam!

But here's the thing . . . a great artist and a great song, doesn't necessarily translate to a great RADIO artist and a great RADIO song.

Jeff Buckley is one of my favorite artists. But most of his songs don't really fit comfortably outside of the confines of his album, instead sandwiched between two other songs.

Gram Parsons is an artist we've tried to put into regular rotation. His music is hugely influential and his songs are timeless, but on the air, they don't seem to fit into the mix of the radio station.

And Tom Waits has fit into this category too. His vocal style is off-putting to some, and often the atmospherics of his music are a little to avant garde for mass consumption.

Then again, a few years ago we scoured Waits' catalog and DID find a handful of songs where he had scaled back his full blown Waits-yness. "Shiver Me Timbers" fits beautifully into the mvyradio mix.

So I wrote back to our Leonard lover, saying that we could do the same scouring of Cohen's catalog.

She gave me a few suggestions, as did Barbara.

What do you think?

Check out the songs below. Don't judge them as stand-alone pieces of art. Ask yourself, would they sound good, or weird, when played in a mix between two typical mvyradio songs, like, say, "Girlfriend Is Better" and "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"?


Hear "Bird On A Wire" on Youtube.


Hear "Dance Me To The End Of Love" on Youtube.


Hear "I'm Your Man" on Youtube.


Hear "Suzanne" on Youtube.


Hear "Girlfriend Is Better" on Youtube.


Hear "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" on Youtube.

Ben Kweller "Jealous Girl"

"But what kind of music do you like?"

I get asked that question a lot. From folks who understand that the station's playlist is for listeners, that it is not just me playing songs I like.

I always make that restaurant analogy---I am your chef and server. I bring you the food that you ask for, food that I think you'll enjoy. I like most of the items on the menu (though not necessarily all). And I also, personally, like to eat things that aren't on the menu, stuff that I might have to go to another restaurant to eat.

So what kind of music do I like?

The first time I heard Barbara play Ben Kweller's "Jealous Girl" on "What's New For Lunch?" I told her, "If you ever wanted to know what a perfect songs sounds like to me . . . that was it."

Fuzzed out guitars, great energy, insanely-catchy-Ramones-worthy-vocal-hook ("Oh, oh, oh-oh!"), straight out of the same Zip Code as Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub and The Posies.

"Jealous Girl" is like someone serving me a plate with chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked by my Mom.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Shins "Simple Song"

It's funny to hear yourself described through someone else's eyes.

Barbara had just come back from lunch with friends, and she was telling me, about how she was telling her lunchmates about a music listening session.

The day before, Barbara and I had been sitting in the studio, putting an ear to some of the strong contenders for addition to the mvyradio Playlist.

Though we've never added The Shins in the past, there was something about "Simple Song" that seemed to push The Shins closer to mvy-Land.

Barbara started talking about how there was this trend of modern, beautiful music, that really aimed to touch the heart. Songs that are both big and tender and emotional, from the likes of Fleet Foxes and The Low Anthem and such.

"Simple Song" had reached about the 40 second mark, moving toward the hook and the chorus of "Ahhhs" and I responded . . .

Barbara was describing back to me how she had describe my reaction to her lunchmates, as "PJ's Sound Of Music Moment."

And it's true, I had said that the song felt like it should be sung from a grassy hilltop, and as I said this I raised my arms, as if singing to the sun.

So yeah, hearing this tune at full volume may cause you to feel that the Hills Are Alive . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

New Radicals "You Get What You Give"

For the next couple of days, I thought it would be fun to write about a few tunes for a game I'd like to call:

"This is what it means if you hear that song on mvyradio."

There are a handful of songs, that, if I hear them on the station, I can tell you exactly what is going on behind the scenes. In the posts that follow, you'll look behind the curtain with me . . .

Over the weekend, I was posting about songs that mvyradio used to play, but doesn't have in regular rotation any more, because they don't seem to fit the sound anymore.

Barbara often points out, that back in the day, mvy used to play Anita Baker. Can you imagine? Anita Baker next to Death Cab For Cutie? It wouldn't work.

So, while a song might work in its day, some songs don't age with the station.

But if it was in rotation in the last 10 years, its probably accessible in the studio. And, as I often point out, just because we don't play it, doesn't make it a bad song and it doesn't mean we don't (or at least one of us doesn't) like it.

If I'm driving around and I hear the One Hit Wonder song "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals in the middle of the day, I can tell you a few things.

Barbara is on vacation.

Alison is filling in for Barbara on The Lunch Hour.

Nobody sent in an eQuest that day.

Occasionally, Alison, while filling in for Barbara, will get to the end of The Lunch Hour (which is supposed to end by playing an emailed-in request from one of our online listeners) without anything to play. So she'll pick a song herself.

She loves this song, and because it's not in rotation anymore, she doesn't really hear it.

So if you hear this one, know that it's probably Alison playing an eQuest to herself!

Tom Waits "New Year's Eve"

Back in the fall, I wrote about my concerns over the idea of adding the new Tom Waits track "Back In The Crowd."

But as we got to the end of the year, it became apparent that "Bad As Me" was going to top many a critics Best Of 2012 list. With the music biz going quiet in December, it gave me time to reconsider records I'd passed over earlier in the year.

And hey, despite my hesitancy as a programmer, as a music lover, I am a full on fan of Tom Waits.

So (will a little prodding from Barbara Dacey, who had fallen head over heels for the record), I got past my programming self, and added "Back In The Crowd."

Just in time for New Years.

So let's celebrate, with another song from the record.

And, if you're one of those folks who is still unsure about Waits, I'll mention that my old friend Dan just recently posted on Facebook, that he wanted to apologize for all the years he had ignored friends who'd tried to turn him on to Tom. But after seeing a certain PBS special, we was totally won over.

Try it! You might like it . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Watch Tom Waits on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Robbie Robertson "When The Night Was Young"

It's an office holiday Monday, so I'm staying at home with family today, but on Tuesday it's Nose To The Grindstone time, with only 4 days to go in the year.

I'm filling in for Barbara on The Lunch Hour this week, which means I've been thinking of some themes for "Essential mvy." And since we start our Top 25 Of 2011 countdown, I've got Year End thoughts on the mind.

So tomorrow during The Lunch Hour, I think I'm going to do a set of Welcome Comebacks.

There were a number of artists who returned, after long absences, with really strong efforts. I'll remind you of some of those on the show, Tuesday.

But perhaps topping the list of Welcome Returns is Robbie Robertson, who hadn't put out a solo record in over a decade.

I had an interesting conversation with Jess about this album, in relation to the Top 25 list.

I had said that originally, I loved the record, but my passion for it had cooled after multiple listens. I expected it to make the Top 25, but be on the lower end.

Jess said that she did not love the record on first inspection. But after subsequent listens, she was quite won over by it, and she expected it to be high on the list.

The difference between Jess and me? I'm a HUGE fan of Robbie Robertson and The Band. Jess is only a casual fan.

So our expectations, going into the record, are very different.

Which makes me wonder how the voters handled this record.

Were they more like Jess, or more like me?

We'll find out on Wednesday, when the countdown starts on mvyradio.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Michael Franti "Hey Hey Hey"

I had a quick conversation with Barbara on Tuesday, where we listened to the latest Michael Franti. She likes it, and I like it too---but as usual, I asked, "Is it right for mvy?"

I watched the videos below, remembered I'd had this conversation with myself before and let my hesitation drop.

Any ship that Michael Franti is sailing, I want to be a passenger on.