Patty Larkin "I'm Fine"

I'm back to work this week, but taking a vacation from the blog.  Scott Lajoie fills in . . . 

Two years ago this time of year, a photographer for the magazine and a dear friend of mine passed away unexpectedly. It’s a memorial site on Facebook where a lot of us post messages and remembrances of our friend Jay throughout the year, but when mid-August hits, there is a flurry of activity. I have noticed that a lot of people post music clips. A friend posted Lucinda Williams’ “Sweet Old World;” another woman posted Patti Smith’s “Paths That Cross.” I posted Joss Stone’s “Take Care.” They weren’t songs my friend necessarily liked; he was more of a PJ Harvey and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fan. It is music that we associate with him and his passing; for me, it is what I happened to be listening to when I heard of his death. It is as if music is the preferred method through which some of us process loss.

Renowned Wellfleet singer-songwriter Patty Larkin is releasing a new album called “Still Green”  next month. She retreated to a Truro dune shack to write songs for this latest endeavor, saying that she needed to get back to nature and a solitude that only such a shack provides. (Remember this woman lives in Wellfleet with her partner and two children; one might assume an Outer Cape off-season would be quiet enough.) She says this album was written in part to deal with the recent loss of her parents.

We received an advance copy as we were preparing to write a profile on her for the October issue. It’s not a dark album in the least. The songs don’t dwell on death. But it is evident from her lyrics and the care she put into crafting each song that she is very thoughtful of the most important aspects of her life that she was afraid were being overshadowed.


Barbara Dacey did an interview with Patty Larkin, where several songs from the yet-to-be-released "Still Green" are previewed, here.


Hear "I'm Fine" on Youtube.

Elvis Costello "Every Day I Write The Book"

I started this blog nearly 4 years ago now.

As I was developing the idea, I ran through a list of potential blog names.

While using "Finn" had potential (or maybe not; "Hi-Finn-delity" anyone?), it seemed like a better fit to use a song or album title to convey what the blog was about.

I poured over albums and artists and song titles, trying to find the right tone and the right message.

You very nearly happened upon a blog named after a song that Lucinda Williams wrote to celebrate Paul Westerberg.

Real Live Bleeding Blog.

I thought it was a great title.  But maybe a little to graphic.  Maybe a little too Emo.  Especially if you didn't know the reference.

So instead I named it after an Elvis Costello song.

The intention was to write regularly.  But by naming it Every Day I Write The Blog, the title actually goaded me into writing, every day.

Story after story.  Memory after memory.  Day after day.

Tonight, I'm trying something new.  As host of The Hot Seat, I'll be doing an audio version of Every Day I Write The Blog, telling some recent stories and playing the songs.

Let me know what you think!

Tonight, at 9pm on mvyradio, or we'll post it later in The Hot Seat Archives.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Slim Dunlap "Ballad Of The Opening Band"

Here's another "I Looked At The Internet Today So You Don't Have To" feature.

Guitarist Slim Dunlap has found himself in a position that too many Americans, and particularly, too many musicians, find themselves in.

He had a debilitating stroke last year and his insurance doesn't cover enough of what he will need going forward just to survive.  So not only is the medical condition delibitating, so is the financial condition.

Fortunately, he has friends.

In February, a limited edition new recording by his old band mates, The Replacements, went at auction for $10,000.  The songs will be available digitally later in March, but Pitchfork as a previous of the Gordon Lightfoot cover.

And there are more songs to come.  If you are, or you know, a fan of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Jacob Dylan or a long list of others, check out the Songs For Slim site.  There you'll find out more about Slim and his needs, and more about the songs to come.

If nothing else, check out the song below.  It's Slim's funny, somewhat heartbreaking and very accurate "Ballad Of An Opening Band."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Alison Krauss "Paper Airplane"

Maybe it's a function of having a baby.

Or maybe this happens every year (and I have just forgotten, because I'm so damn tired, due to having a baby).

I was putting together a list of all the albums we put into rotation on mvyradio in 2011, for our annual Top 25 poll, and I couldn't get over the number of records---BIG records---that feel like they've been around for years, but have actually only been out for 12 or fewer months.

Lucinda Williams "Blessed"?

R.E.M. "Collapse Into Now"?

Bright Eyes "The People's Key"?

All released this year.

The Grammy-winningest woman in history puts out her first record in 7 years, and it's so far in the rearview mirror that I didn't remember that I came out in April?

That's the sign of a good year. That's the sign of a year so full of great releases, that even great records get pushed to the back burner.

You can check out the list of all albums we played in rotation, and vote for your top five. Voting automatically enters you to win CD copies of The Top 25 Of 2011.

Thanks for your help!


See the video on Youtube.

Lucinda Williams "Buttercup"

Bands with two songwriters often have a split fan base.

Whether it's The Beatles or Uncle Tupelo or The Indigo Girls, there is frequently a vocal contingent of fans who have a preference for John or for Paul, Farrar or Tweedy, Emily or Amy.

In the Indigo Girls case, Emily usually writes the gorgeous, touching love songs, and Amy, punk rocker at heart, pens rough and tumble poetry.

Indigo Girls fans usually favor one over the other. I, myself, am an Amy fan.

And in the case of Lucinda Williams, I am a fan of Lucinda Williams. But not so much a fan of Lucinda Williams.

Yes, there is only one Lucinda Williams, but often it seems like she's two different songwriters.

Lucinda has laid bare her love live in good times and bad, with both wrenching portraits of her break-ups, and intimate, often openly carnal descriptions on Love on the upswing. In good times and bad, these songs are usually plainspoken and direct, like "Essence":

Baby, sweet baby, you're my drug
Come on and let me taste your stuff
Baby, sweet baby, bring me your gift
What surprise you gonna hit me with?

I am waiting here for more
I am waiting by your door
I am waiting on your back steps
I am waiting in my car
I am waiting at this bar
I am waiting for your essence

When she steps away from herself and first person adventures in love, she will write these devastating, poetic snapshots of times and places and people. Like this look at another singer she admires, in "Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings":

I climbed all the way inside
Your tragedy
I got behind
The majesty
Of the different shapes
In every note
the endless tapes
of every word you wrote

Even if you don't know the songs, just reading the lyrics, dry, doesn't the 2nd set seem deeper, more complex, and more like something that would come from the pen of a woman who's been described as America's best songwriter?

Descriptive flashes like the scenes in "2 Cool 2 B Forgotten" and "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" are much more interesting to me than "Real Love"'s repetitive line: "I found the love that I've been looking for, it's a real love, it's a real love."

My theory on the 2 Lucinda's is that the closer the lyrics are to her real life, the more she relies on the emotion behind the words (not the words themselves) for their punch. She can repeat "it's a real love, it's a real love" over and over with exuberance and that conveys the joyous feeling she's trying to conjure.

As she gets away from herself in her writing, she turns more to the details to tell the story, and the phrases and descriptions carry the weight of the message.

How much of a Lucinda album is love/guy songs, verses the other type of tune, seems to depend largely on Lucinda's love life. If she's newly in or out of love, you get a lot of those songs. If she's in a stable relationship, or in a stretch of being single, the focus turns away from romance gone good, or bad.

So when we got "Buttercup," the first single from her new record, last week, I thought, "Okay, the new record is more love songs." And that's what I was going to write about.

Searching on Youtube for a version of the song, I happened upon this fan-shot video, where Lucinda let's us know that "Buttercup" is actually the only Bad Boy song on the new record. After the last record, she just had to get one more of them out, before turning to other lyrical matter.

Hear Lucinda explain it herself, and enjoy the charming way she messes up the song, and starts over.

John Mellencamp "Small Town"

On Tuesday I wrote about Josh Ritter's "The Curse" and on the mvyradio Facebook page, I was asking for feedback. One of my concerns is that the song was too long.

mvy listeners Michele commented:

I say run it. I think MVY listeners are appreciative of good song writing. It's sad to think it wouldn't air b/c it's too long. What does that say about us as music lovers.

I thought about the phrase "too long" and I realized that I wasn't asking if the song WAS too long. I was asking if it FELT too long.

While DJ's live and die by the length of a song---I can make it to the bathroom and back during John Mayer's "Why Georgia" but not his "Who Says"---actual song length doesn't probably register to most radio listeners.

But time is elastic. Songs can FEEL long.

Sometimes it has to do with tempo. Sometimes it has to do with a repeated vocal or musical phrase.

When we played Lucinda Williams' song "Are You Alright?", while the song was popular with some listeners, it seemed to get under the skin of others. It's no longer than, say, "The Weight" by The Band. But it felt longer to those listeners who complained, because of the repeated refrain.

And going way back, people used to make fun of John Mellencamp's "Small Town" because it seemed to endlessly say those two words. The song is only 3 minutes and 41 seconds long---which is pretty much dead average for a song on the radio---but it drove listeners nuts.

So nuts, that irritated folks would call up, just to let me know just how many times he says the phrase "Small Town." Care to count for yourself?