Neko Case "Thrice All American"

I got a big kick out of this Neko Case/Kelly Hogan goof on Sci-Fi and Fanboys and such.

And because I was sitting at the kitchen table on a late afternoon, I decided to go to the basement and pull out some of my older Neko Case records, like "Furnace Room Lullaby."

It's been a while since I'd gone back to the Neko Case of the 90s.  The think that struck me was that on top of loving the record as much as ever, I just couldn't get over how little-of-a-clue that record offered, as to what Neko Case would sound like in 2014.

I mean, the voice is still there.  The mystery.  The confidence.  The sly humor amid the darkness.

I guess I'm mostly talking about the country references, which are pretty much gone without a trace now.

In the late 90s, Neko Case seemed like she was going to be an enigmatic Patsy Cline for the modern age, crafting timeless, country-tinged dark ruminations.

And while the music of 2014 still feels timeless and dark, there is a complete absence of twang.

The strangest part about it is that it happened slowly and quietly, subtly.  I mean, there's still a bit of twang in Case's voice in current songs like "City Swans."  Just not in the instrumentation.

I was trying to think of another artist who so quietly, easily slipped out of country, without calling attention to it---so much so that you kinda forgot that's where they came from.

Wilco came to mind at first.  But I do recall an interview with Jeff Tweedy, pre-"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," where he was contemplating a future "zero Country reference" record.

Maybe Joe Henry?  He was alt-country before alt-country was alt-country.  Now he makes records as timeless and dark and somewhat-uncategorizable as Case.

Anyway, just an observation.  It's nice to still be surprised by an artist.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Neko Case "The Tigers Have Spoken"

This week our guest blogger is Scott Lajoie, who has substituted for me before as editor of Cape Cod Magazine. Now a writer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth Port, Scott is writing about songs addressing animal welfare issues of today.

They shot the tiger on his chain
In a field behind the cages
He walked in circles 'til he was crazy
And he lived that way forever
And he lived that way beside them,
Separate from the other tigers
He did not know another tiger.

We know them as one of the magnificent big cats. Ferocious. Powerful. Royal. With probably the most recognizable markings on the planet.

But tigers are facing enormous threats. Their natural habitat is diminishing. Poachers pursue them for the beautiful coats. There is a market for tiger bone wine, a tonic used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Perhaps you don’t know that one major issue in the welfare of tigers is a domestic one. There are more tigers in private ownership here in America than there are in their natural wild habitat in China and Russia.

While some living quarters are fitting, others are woefully inadequate, the “trophy” cats living in squalid conditions. What’s more, when these cats break free, they present a horrible safety risk in the surrounding community. Remember the breakout in Ohio?

Each year, some of these tigers are given up and relocated to a number of sanctuaries across the country. Others are not so lucky.

Neko Case tackled this issue back in 2004 with her song, The Tigers Have Spoken. It is haunting ode with cool guitar effects to the isolated life and tragic death of one such tiger.



Hear the song on Youtube.

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.

Garland Jeffreys "Any Rain"

Have you ever had this experience at one of those buffet restaurants?

You start filling your plate with things that really look good.  And when you get back to your table, you realize that your meal consists of a slice of prime rib, lasagna, a crab leg and some Brunswick stew?

You were just thinking about what looked good.  You weren't thinking about balance.

That happens from time to time, while programming the station.

I think most people who don't do this job just assume . . . you pick the best couple of song each week and that becomes your playlist.

But if you do that, without consideration of the bigger picture, you can end up with an unbalanced and awkward plate.

Coming out of the summer rush into some clearer-headed fall consideration, I felt that the station's list of new songs had started leaning toward the modern/alternative a little too heavily.

The playlist is full of Avett Brothers and Vampire Weekend and Neko Case and Elvis Costello & The Roots.

But the MVY tradition is rooted in singers and songwriters.  And I realized that the plate was really lacking in artists the huat more closely to the folk roots that are the baseline of MVY.

And that's when, as a programmer, you worry less about the best song, and more about the right song.

It was great to see Garland Jeffreys new record come in, because I knew it was the first step in speaking to the missing part of the current playlist.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Laura Veirs "Sun Song"

Add this one to the list of dorky reactions to meeting famous people.

We got the word a week or so before Newport Folk, that Laura Veirs was going to be on the scene.

She wasn't on the Festival bill, but our Record Promotion friend Jen Daunt, who's working Viers new record, let us know that Laura had a nearby gig the day before, and she wanted to come down to the festival to see some of her Portland friends like Colin Meloy and Black Prairie.

Barbara was pretty excited to interview Laura, and talk about her new record "Warp And Weft" which features Jim James, KD Lang and Neko Case.  And it's produced by her husband Tucker Martine, who has made a slew of great records for artists like The Decemberists and Tift Merritt.

I was headed back to the mvyradio backstage tent at some point during the Festival weekend, and just coming out of the tent was Barbara and Laura.  They'd just finished recording the interview, and Laura had suggested that they go over to the beer tent to get a drink and meet up with Tucker and their new baby.  They invited me along.

I'm not one to say no to free beer.  Plus, I had a camera so I could take a picture of Barbara with Laura and Tucker.

After getting a beer and locating Tucker, and some chit chat (Tucker and I talked about these particular muslin baby blankets that they had for their baby, that my wife and I also used for our kids), someone suggested taking that picture.

I pulled out my camera, and motioned for the 3 of them to get together.

"Do you want to get in the picture?" Laura asked.

I looked from side to side to see if there was someone I could ask to take our picture.  There was . . .

"I can ask Jim to take it," Laura said, motioning toward Jim.

Standing next to me, chatting with someone, was Jim James of My Morning Jacket.  His set on the main stage had ended not long before, and now he was just hanging out in the hospitality tent.

I looked at Barbara.  I looked at Laura.  I looked at Jim.  I thought about it for a second.

When I'm backstage at a concert/festival, I'm pretty conscious of the artists' space.  The whole reason they have a backstage area, is to give the artists somewhere where they can just hang out without fan-boys interrupting their meals or their conversations with friends or their quiet moments.

I won't say I never engage an artist backstage, but I try be respect the space and gauge whether they are up for an interruption or a picture or not.

But I wasn't actually going to ask Jim James if I could get a picture with him.  I was going to ask Jim James if he could take a picture of me and Barbara with his friends Laura and Tucker.

Somehow that seemed like an even weirder, more intrusive thing to do.

Really, would Jim James have minded?  He's just a regular guy.  Any time I have seen him around the grounds of Newport, he has giving off nothing but a pleasant, generous air.  He's friends with Laura and Tucker.  I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal.

But all these thoughts are flying through my mind in the split second between Laura saying "I can ask Jim to take it," and the time I should unfreeze my body and do something.

So I just said "Nah, that's alright."  And I snapped the photo.

Here is the picture that Jim James did not take.

Hear "Sun Song" on Youtube.

Bob Dylan "Ring Them Bells"

The problem with an artist as prolific as Bob Dylan, is that it is easy to be dismissive of his lesser work, and in the process, miss out.

If you were going to go out and buy one Bob Dylan album, no doubt you'd be counseled by friends in the know, to buy a classic album from the 60s and 70s.

In fact, if you were going to go out and buy TEN Bob Dylan albums, you'd still likely be counseled by friends in the know, to buy at least 9 albums from his 60s and 70s output, and maaaayyybe one of his albums from the late 90s or the 2000s, for some perspective.

Yeah, there were some marginal albums over the course of Dylan's 40-something releases. And yes, much of the late 70s through 90s work was nowhere near as strong as his classic output, or his recent renaissance.

But Good Gravy, the man didn't completely forget how to write a song, either.

So if you're counseled by someone who's really in the know about Dylan, they should at least point you to some individual tracks from that period.

And if you were asking me, I'd tell you to go listen to "Ring Them Bells."

I missed this track the first time around, but Barbara Dacey introduced me to in a few years back.

For me, it has all these amazing, mysterious elements that I like in a song in general, and a Dylan song in specific.

I have no idea what the lyrics mean exactly, and yet they evoke a very specific feeling within me. Touching, spiritual, Grace-ful. It's religious without feeling preachy. It's simply a beautiful tune.

And the covers . . . well that can often tell you about the quality of a song. A different vocalist can lift a song, and in the case of "Ring Them Bells" Joe Cocker, Sarah Jarosz, Sufjan Stevens and others do.

If someone tells you an album or a period of an artist sucks, well, don't believe them. You might be missing out.

Check out mvyradio's Dylan Channels.


See the video on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.

Neko Case "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis"

Gasp! . . . Neko! . . . gaa! . . . covering . . . uhhh! . . . Waits! . . . . . . dying! . . . ascending to heaven! . . . ahhhhhhh!





The existence of this cut motivated me to do tomorrow night's Hot Seat (Monday at 9pm on mvyradio), focusing on downbeat Christmas songs. Enjoy!

Neko Case “This Tornado Loves You”

I’ve always found it counter-intuitive, from a Darwinian perspective, that so many people are attracted to danger, to things that are clearly unsafe, to trouble.

I have managed with a fair amount of success, to steer clear of relationships with volatile, unstable people. The ones my mother warned me about.

But we certainly all have friends who have dated the wrong person. Or perhaps who constantly date the wrong person.

From the friends who become entangled by Drama Debbie girlfriends, to the very serious situations involving domestic violence, too many nice, sane people get caught up with someone who is just not stable.

And, even more terrifyingly so, too many of these nice folks find the danger attractive.

I have never been one of those people. Until now.

There is no logical reason for the below video to heighten my attraction to Neko Case. And yet, inexplicably, it does.

Case is quite forthcoming, in her art, about being a bit dangerous, like in the song, “This Tornado Love You.”

But the “I will Fuck You Up” posture of this in-concert scene has some strange magnetism.

The laws of attraction just don’t seem to play by the same rules as the laws of nature.

The New Pornographers “The Crash Years”

Remember when you were in school and you had a huge crush on someone, you’d seem to see them everywhere?

You’d spy them in the lunch room. Single their face out of the crowd in the football stadium. See them going into their house as you happened to be riding your bike down their street which, yeah, is across town, but you were in the neighborhood, and you’re not actually stalking them . . . are you?

Okay, so sometimes your crushes can get a little obsessive. And it’s good to recognize that.

I mean, I recognize that I’m slightly obsessed with Neko Case.

And I’m okay with it, because my crush is on her voice. And the only place I’m stalking her is in the record bin.

But the spring has been an embarrassment of Neko riches.

In the best news, The New Pornographers have a new record, and the first single has Neko, who’s part of the NP cast of characters, on lead vocals.

And she’s popping up on other people’s records, too.

Jakob Dylan has her on 8 tracks of his new “Women + Country” album, including the duet “Everybody’s Hurting.”

Peter Wolf brought her in for “The Green Fields Of Summer” on his new record.

And Rosanne Cash has released a bonus track from her sessions from “The List,” featuring, yes, Neko Case, on “Satisfied Mind.” It’s available only as an iTunes exclusive.

Yeah, I’m slightly obsessed.


The Crash Years


“Everybody’s Hurting”


“The Green Fields Of Summer”