Lyle Lovett "She's Already Made Up Her Mind"

Back in 1992, the format we know as Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) was really still in its formative stage.  Oh, there were stations like WMVY and WRNX and others, who played an eclectic mix of intelligent and critically-acclaimed artists, aimed at the discerning adult listener.

But there was no such thing in South Florida, where I was living.

Which made life difficult for artists that didn't fit inside a traditional box.

In 1992, I was working at a small cable operation in there production department.

I was the guy who made those low, low, low budget tv commercials.  The kind that feature the car dealer who's pitch on-location at his lot is drown out by the windy conditions.  The kind that feature shots of food that look beige and unappetizing because they are under-lit, not dressed by a professional food stylist and look terrible on grainy, low-grade video.

The kind of local cable commercial that features a final shot with the entire staff of the business, standing in front of the company sign, waving roboticly.

I was the guy who did that.

On occasion, my job would be a little easier, in that, the client would provide us with some high quality video and I'd just have to edit the pieces together and add a voice-over.

This would frequently happen when an artist like Lyle Lovett was coming to town. 

Ahead of his Fort Lauderdale area appearance, Lyle's promoter sent a couple of music videos from his new album, and we were left to our own devices.

First, I tried to put together a concert spot featuring the video for "She's Already Made Up Her Mind."  But after the first couple of tries, I found that trying to make a dynamic, exciting show promotion over the sounds of a slow ballad, was not working.

So I started cutting things together over the strains of this song called "Church."

My boss came and stood over my shoulder, to see what I was working on.  After listening for minute, he questioned my choice of song.  Why didn't I use the more traditional sounding, country-ish ballad?

I explained that I chose the other song for reasons of pacing.

"But if you use this, people will think this is the kind of music he plays."

Admittedly, neither of us knew much about Lyle Lovett at the time.

To us, he was just a "Country Music" artist.  At the time, there was no context for him to be anything else, outside of the clearly drawn genre lines.

In the end, I cut the promo to include a little bit of both songs.  It probably wasn't as cohesive as it could have been with just "Church," but it did give a broader explanation of who Lyle Lovett was.

Of course, 20-plus years later, more people do understand what kind of music Lyle Lovett plays.  They understand that he's not strictly a Country artist.  They understand that Lovett might throw in Texas Swing and Gospel and Folk and R&B and whatever makes his song work the best.

And there is a home for artists like Lyle Lovett and Elvis Costello and Neko Case and others that don't fit neatly into one box.

Thankfully, I found a home here too.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lyle Lovett "Here I Am"

Do you ever have the experience of hearing a song many, many times, but suddenly, it jogs a memory?

We play Lyle Lovett's "Here I Am" on a semi-frequent basis.  And have, for many, many years.

But I heard it yesterday, and for whatever reason it shook loose a little sketch of a memory from a good 15 years ago.

My roommate Mandy had a computer.

Why is this significant?  This was the first time I'd ever lived with someone who actually owned a computer.

I know, I know.  It seems unfathomable now, to live in a house without computer-access.

But in the mid-to-late 90s, it was pretty unusual for a 20-something like myself and my roommates, to actually own a computer.

But Mandy had one.  And she was even savvy enough to create her own sounds.

She'd edited pieces of "Here I Am" so they played at key moments---when you might normally hear a beep or ding.

When you logged on, you'd hear Lyle's "Hello?"

And if you Escaped out of something, it would say, "That wouldn't make you a shallow person, would it?"

If you tried to log out, Lyle would say, "Please, if it's not too late . . ."

Funny that this memory would suddenly dislodge here in 2013. 

That's my brain.  As reliable as a computer from 1997.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Lyle Lovett "That's Right (You're Not From Texas)"

I'd had my leg pulled before.

Several years ago, I had met the director, Harold Ramis in a social situation on the Vineyard.  A day later, I got an email from him asking if I'd read a script he'd written about life on the Island.

I hesitated.  Something smelled fishy.  I didn't respond.

Later, I found out it was Craig Sherman, pranking me.

So you can imagine that I was suspicious when I got an email from Lyle Lovett.

It was nice enough.  He'd had a show in New Bedford that night, and was writing to thank us for playing his music and supporting his shows over the years.

I hesitated.  I didn't write back.

Then the other messages started coming in, from mvy listeners who'd been to the New Bedford show.

"Lyle Lovett talked about you from the stage last night!"

"He said he called the station but no one answered the phone!"

"When he said 'WMVY' the whole crowd cheered!"

Well, maybe it really WAS Lyle Lovett.

I wrote him back and we exchanged a couple of emails.  We said we were big fans and happy to support him and appreciated that an artist of his caliber always remembered to put the Cape and Southcoast on his touring map.  He in turn thanked the station for always supporting his records, saying that support makes it possible for him to come back to the area year after year.

It was a really nice exchange.  And unusual too.  It's pretty rare for an artist of Lyle Lovett's caliber to pick up the phone and say thank you.  Very classy.  Very thoughtful.  Someone raised that man right (or maybe they're all like that in Texas!).

And, even though I was already a fan, this really cemented my appreciation for the Lyle Lovett. 


When the Save mvyradio campaign started, we immediately started thinking about artists who could speak on our behalf as we tried to get the press to write stories about us. 

Not surprisingly, friends like Carly Simon jumped to our defense, and appeared in some of the first news stories.

When we got wind of an opportunity to appear in the New York Times, we were thankful that Lyle Lovett had reached out just a month earlier.  He was kind enough to speak to a reporter on our behalf.

Pretty awesome.  Thanks Lyle!



Hear the song on Youtube.

Esperanza Spalding "Radio Song"

Let's start with 4 sentences of history.

The format mvyradio plays is called Triple AAA, which coalesced as a format in the early nineties. There was a wide swath of great artists who didn't fit in with your local Adult Contemporary station, but weren't hard enough or hip enough or ironic enough or whatever, for your local Alternative station. Adult Album Alternative flourished because it gave a home to harder-to-categorize artists who---like Susan Tedeschi and Lyle Lovett, Jeff Buckley and Chris Isaak---might bridge a couple of genres or be deemed eclectic. It's hard to imagine, but those artists I just named were hard to find on the radio, circa 1994.

Since the early 90s, Triple A has evolved into a home for singer-songwriters and for alternative acts that a hip 40 year old can enjoy.

But it still can be a home for those uncategorizable artists, who are great, but don't really fit in anywhere.

How about Esperanza Spalding?

She is getting rave critical reviews, won a Grammy last year for Best New Artist and was a stunning presence when she performed at the Oscars this year.

But have you heard her on the radio? Anywhere?

Is it incumbent on a station like mvyradio, to give her a platform?

Theoretically, yes.

Check out "Radio Song." If you heard this on the station, would you say "What the hell?" or "Right on!"

(Note that this is the full 6-plus minute version. We would probably play the 3:30 radio edit, which is more concise and to the point.)


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear Esperanza at The Oscars on Youtube.

Lyle Lovett & Kat Edmunson "Baby It's Cold Outside"

One of the problems with Christmas tunes, is that there are only a handful (maybe TWO handfuls) of good titles, and they've been done to death.

It's hard to breathe life into these battered old tunes.

So it's refreshing when someone can pull it off.

Maybe it's Kat Edmunson's clear, fresh voice. Or maybe it's Lyle's endless, effortless charisma. But a song I'm pretty bored with, sounds really great.

Find it on Lyle's new Christmas EP.


Hear it on Youtube.

Lyle Lovett "Here I Am"

I like songs that have a good joke in them. But they're not very fun to hear live.

Have you ever heard a live Adam Sandler song? The audience is always singing the punch line. Totally annoying.

I went to see Lyle Lovett at the Cape Cod Melody Tent a bunch of years ago, and when he started to play "Here I Am" I was kind of excited, because I like the song.

But every time he'd get to the end of a verse, ready to drop his perfectly placed pregnant pause and zinger, the audience, in unison, would yell it out.

Totally ruined the song for me.

How do you get around this, if you're the artist?

Lyle is a smart man. He did save the song, by adding a whole new verse at the end, so no one knew the joke, set up or punch line, and he was able to get the audience to listen, rather than mimic.

The other way? Sing it in a foreign country . . .


See the video on Youtube.

The origial

See the video on Youtube.

Frank Black "Headache"

There are only so many ways you can introduce a song on the radio, but you do have to be careful.

You could say, "Here's Ben Harper, 'Burn One Down'" and there's no problem.

But use that same format (Artists, Song Title) for another song, and it just won't work:

"Here's Lyle Lovett. 'Why, I don't know.'"

"Why, I don't know" sounds like a blase commentary on what you're doing, when it's really the song title.

And this can be confusing for the listener.

Back when "Headache" came out (when I was hosting a Modern Rock show at my former radio gig), I would introduce this song with a Album Title, Artist, Song Title Format.

Which would work fine if I were saying:

"From 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town,' here's Bruce Springsteen with 'Candy's Room.'"

But it didn't work for the former-Pixies leader's new solo song, when I said:

"From 'The Teenager Of The Year' here's Frank Black with 'Headache.'"

I had more than a couple of listeners ask me how old Frank Black was, and how he could have possibly won such a title, even though he would have to be in his 30s.


Frank Black plays at the Wellfleet Beachcomber tonight.