The Old 97s "I'm A Train Wreck"

There are many great songs written about the Cape and the Islands, evoking the Spirit of this place. Great tunes like “Never Been Gone” or “Vineyard” or “Cape Cod Girls.”

But for every song that was inspired by a location and is written about that place, there are 100 songs that were inspired by a location that, well, really don’t exact evoke the location whatsoever.

A year ago, my wife was dragged, practically kicking and screaming, to The Wellfleet Beachcomber by her sister-in-law to see an artist she’d never heard of.

“If you don’t want to go with her, I will,” I told my wife. “I love Rhett Miller.”

By the time the show was over, so did my wife.

Something about the songs, and the setting really won her over.

Something about the setting must’ve won Rhett Miller over, too. Because on that night a year ago, he vowed to return with his band, The Old 97s. And the day after that show, a year ago, he wrote a song.

True to Rhett’s word, The Old 97s played the Beachcomber this past weekend. And my wife, and her brother and my wife’s sister-in-law and my sister and I all made the trek to see them.

Miller introduced new song by the band, saying that he’d written this particular tune one year before, on the sands of Wellfleet Beach.

I’m guessing the local Chamber Of Commerce will not be using this song to promote tourism on Cape Cod. Especially not with Miller’s introduction that says his day on the beach inspired him to write a song about being a “total fucking disaster.”


Hear the song on Youtube.

Carly Simon "Never Been Gone"

Somewhere approaching statistical perfection of 100 percent of the time . . . if I tell someone I haven’t met before that I work for the radio station on Martha’s Vineyard, the words “Carly Simon” will pass their lips within the next 20 seconds.

Carly is so closely associated in people’s minds with the Island. And mvyradio is so closely associated in people’s minds with the Island. It’s only makes sense that Carly and mvy go hand in hand.

We were excited to hear that she was going to delve into some of her old favorites, and re-record them. It’s pretty neat to hear these songs re-approached and re-imagined---some not too radically different, and some hardly recognizable from their original form.

It is totally worth your while to track through the samples below, and get a flavor for what she, and her cadre of collaborators, have done.



See the Carly on The Today Show

Buy it on CD, here, and get other special Carly packages, here.