Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell "Back When We Were Beautiful"

Usually, when we're putting together the Top 25 list for MVY, the very top spots are left intact, straight from the voting.  But when you get down to the last 5 or so slots, only a vote or 3 can separate #20 from #40.  With so many albums so close, some shuffling around will happen, and the last few albums are usually decided not by votes, but by gut.

We take into account how important the album was to the MVY playlist, how well it was critically received, how well it sold, and how much longevity it feels like the record may have.

Admittedly, these characteristics are somewhat subjective.

With only 5 slots left, and 15 to 20 records that are legitimate contenders, there is some hashing out to be done.

Barbara was pretty adamant that "Old Yellow Moon" from Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell make the list.

I wasn't so sure.

I thought it was a good record, and it was certainly well received by the critics.  But we didn't play it a ton, didn't get a ton of requests for it, and there was no second single to keep it alive on the air throughout 2013, so it had faded into memory a bit.

But she argued so passionately for it, talking about the beauty and the craft, and saying that it was the kind of record that touched the hearts of people who really listened.  She said, decisively, that it HAD to be on the list.

I was smart enough to trust her gut.

Guess who won Best Americana Album at The Grammys last night?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Gary Clark Jr. "Please Come Home"

While the Grammy nomination list is low on MVY artists, there is ONE artist who hit a pretty big milestone.

Gary Clark Jr has the distinction of being the only artist in Grammy history to be nominated for songs in the“Best Traditional R&B Performance” and “Best Rock Song” categories for the same album.

It speaks well of both his genre-stretching abilities, and MVY's acceptance of eclectic, uncategorizable artists.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Regina Spektor "You've Got Time"

This Grammy category used to be called "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television" but in this modern technology day and age, the category is now known as "Best Song Written for Visual Media."

Because this song isn't really in a movie or on television.

This is the theme song to the Netflix original series "Orange Is The New Black."

It seems like a bit of a long shot, since it's up again "Skyfall" and "Atlas" and other big movie themes.

But the fact that it's considered, is a victory unto itself.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lorde "Royals"

The Grammys are this weekend.

One of the many, many (many!) little things I do at MVY, is to copy the whole nomination list, and then go over it with a fine tooth comb, highlighting all of the MVY artists who got nominated.  I print it out and leave it in the studio for the DJs.

Though this year's document is 20 pages long, the list---for MVY listeners---is pretty weak.

No MVY acts for Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year or Best New Artist.

Oh, some of our favorites show up in places you'd expect, like Americana or Alternative.

But this list this year is decidedly Pop heavy.

That's not entirely a bad thing.

Even though they aren't likely to be played on our station, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars, and Daft Punk are all credible artists who made great songs in the genre where they live.

I'd even venture that though this was not a tune we'd play on MVY, Lorde's "Royals" IS one of the best songs of the year, without a doubt.

I'll post about some other interesting Grammy nods throughout the week . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

John Fullbright "Gawd Above"

The Best Americana Album category at the Grammys is usually pretty good to MVY.  Often it is the only category featuring 4 or even 5 nominees that you can hear on the station.

I was not surprised to see The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons in this category this year.  I was pleased (but a little surprised, because I don't think of her as Americana) to see Bonnie Raitt.  And The Lumineers had a big year, so I see how they made the list.

Then there's John Fullbright.

Lindsay Reid, one of the promo folks I regularly talk to, has been evangelizing (in his typically low-key way) about John Fullbright, for much of the last year.

"Gawd Above" has been circling on my iTunes playlist for months on end, but things never reached critical mass for me, where I liked it a lot, AND I saw it succeeding on the national charts AND/or listeners were asking for it, or any of the other things that might push me closer toward adding a song.

But a Grammy nomination does get my attention.

What do you think?  Do you hear this one on MVY?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Mumford & Sons and Birdy "Learn Me Right"

The Grammys are on Sunday, and, as usual, there are a ton of weird-category nominees that might surprise and interest you.

No surprise that Mumford & Sons is up for a number of Grammys, including Album Of The Year, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance and Best Americana Album.

But they snagged a couple other nominations, in places you would not expect.  And if you are not a full-on obsessive Mumford fan, you may not know about these tracks at all.

The band is up for Best Song Written for Visual Media, for a track (featuring vocals by Birdy) that appeared in the excellent Pixar movie "Brave."

And they are up for Best Long Form Music Video, as part of "Big Easy Express," a concert-film/road-trip documentary, also featuring Old Crowe Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See the trailer on Youtube.

Bonnie Raitt "Takin' My Time"

I had a fun time-machine-like experience while on vacation in August.

We were at my Mother-In-Law's getaway place in Maine.  It's not a cabin.  It's not roughing-it by any means.

But it IS out of cell phone range and internet range and cable and broadcast television range.  So you can be pretty disconnected.

There are a ton of books floating around, so in the quiet moments (when we send the kids outside, that is) there are plenty of things to idly flip though.

When my Mother-In-Law bought the place a couple of years ago, it came as-is.  So we inherited a huge collection of VHS movies and books and such.  Many of them had been there for decades.

And that was my experience when I picked up The Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock & Roll.

It was---as advertised---a comprehensive history of Rock & Roll, published in 1980.  Each section was an essay on either a single important musician/band, a particular movement or a full genre.

Hilariously, it touts that this is the updated edition (the original came out in 1976), so it's more complete than ever.

So it's a view of Rock & Roll that predates Nirvana.  It predates the internet.  It predates Rap music.

Those are obvious.

It also describes a world that has never seen a CD.  A world where all four of The Beatles are still alive and could potentially reunite.  A world where MTV did not yet exist.

Most interestingly, it had really interesting summations of artists who---from today's perspective---were perhaps being analyzed too soon.

Talking Heads had put out a few promising albums, but the piece on them doesn't/couldn't predict their breakthough commercial success or their lasting influence.

Elvis Costello had put out his blistering triptych debut and follow-ups, but gave the reviewer no hint of the many genre exercises and tributaries that he would so ably traverse in the coming years.

My favorite review was on Bonnie Raitt.  In 1980, she was critically beloved, and was an impressive live act.  But she hadn't had a commercial breakthrough yet.  And the reviewer thought her own material was weak, and, more damningly, that her ability to select material was weak (like this track written by Little Feat's Bill Payne).  And thus she'd probably never realize her potential.

Which is hilarious to read here in the future, where Bonnie has won many Grammys, sold millions of records and is widely regarded as important and influential.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Taylor Swift "Mean"

My favorite two moments of last night's Grammy telecast were not performances (though I enjoyed many of them), nor speeches (though the radio gods answered my prayer and gave Bon Iver a Prime Time speech).

No, my favorite moments had to do with artist/audience reaction.

I can't say that I've ever spent any time listening to Taylor Swift. But I'm not a hater, either (on good advice from a friend).

And while she is frequently teased for her "What? Me?! You're applauding for ME?" thing, it still doesn't ring false to me.

I wasn't familiar with her song "Mean" (yeah, a portion of you think I must live under a rock), but I couldn't help but be struck by her sincerity delivering the song, the audience's full embrace of her at its conclusion, and (what seemed to be) her genuine surprise by the level of reaction.

As I watched the audience give her a thunderous standing ovation, it became immediately apparent that her story (of a hometown/school loud-mouth, demeaning her dreams of being a singer) was one that was most likely very real, to every performer in that room. You don't reach the level of success that it takes to get in that room, without slogging your way though dozens, if not hundreds (and if you count the internet, thousands and thousands) of loudmouths who sit on their barstool and shout that you're not good enough.

That's true whether you're a Beatle in your 7th decade of making music, on down to that singer-songwriter in the back row who's album hasn't come out yet.

The reaction was so personal.

In a different way, I was just bowled over by the reaction to Adele's performance.

I mean, she was awesome. But watch the audience just shower her with affection, and see her be genuinely moved by it.

Her record is well made, and her songs are strong, but I think what people reacted to about "21" and about that specific Grammy performance, was just how much Adele gives of herself.

You can invest a song with a lot of emotion, but there is a certain amount of acting involved to convey those emotions.

With Adele, she just seems to have much more direct access to her emotions, and less of a filter when she tries to project them outwardly.

I don't know if the average non-performer understands the talent involved in that level of expression, or understands that no amount of talent completely accounts of the ability---the ability is simply a function of how that person is made.

And that's what was striking about the applause. It was from a group of people who understand that Adele has a technical proficiency on a level above most people in that room, but who also understood that they were not just applauding for her ability, they were applauding for her.

It was a good night, for sincerity.


Watch the videos to the end for the audience reactions to see what I mean.


See the video on Youtube.


Hear a better quality, studio version on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.

OK Go "All Is Not Lost"

A short Weekend Post to share another Grammy nominee that you may have missed . . .

Best Short Form Music Video nominee

OK Go continues to Wow with amazing videos. And if you have Google Chrome (I don't, so I haven't tried), I understand that you can customize this video, so that the words that appear at the end, are words chosen by you! Cool!

mvyradio will cover the Grammys live on our Twitter feed, Sunday at 8pm.


See the video on Youtube.