Mumford And Sons "I Will Wait"

In this day and age, Mumford And Sons' trajectory is pretty unheard of . . .

Their first record, "Sigh No More" was originally released in 2009.  It didn't catch on in the USA until 2010, and it didn't become a smash until 2011.

That's a loooonng time in the Record Industry's version of Dog Years.

Bands don't get that kind of time to ramp up these days.  If you aren't charted within the first few months of your first single release, there is little hope that your label is going to stick with you.

Even more unheard of . . . a band has a smash success, and takes its time with a follow up record.

The Record Industries credo is "strike while the iron is hot," and "the public has a very short memory."

If a band has smashing success, get them in a studio and get the follow up record out there ASAP!

One of the true advantages to this, is to avoid the pit of unwieldy expectations.

If I were a label person with Mumford And Sons, I might have been worried.

The new record has been talked about, and waiting for, and theorized about, and anticipated in the press, all year long.  This leaves plenty of room for people's idea of how good this record might be, to become untethered from reality . . .

Fortunately, the band leads with this single, "I Will Wait."  And smartly, it doesn't do anything to defy, subvert or torpedo expectations.  It sounds like a good Mumford And Sons song.  One that isn't a departure from what people loved about the first record.  It's satisfying.

And that's good news, because it sucks when a record is dismissed on the merits of what people want it to be, instead of what it is.

I'm looking forward to finding out what the rest of "Babel," is . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Avett Brothers "Live And Die"

I remember when Mumford And Sons broke through a couple of years ago, with their banjo-led rock-and-roots approach, I heard more than a few people say:

If I were The Avett Brothers, I'd be pretty irritated.

So here we are, over 2 years since "Sigh No More" and nearly 3 years since "I And Love And You," and The Avetts are on the verge of releasing a new album, and Mumford And Sons has a new one due in the September.

Both records stand to garner a lot of attention, press, airplay and ear-time.

I just can't think of a time when the banjo had the chance to move to the fore-front of music in such a way . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Mumford And Sons "Little Lion Man"

I remember hearing David Letterman talk about some city that he had only limited experience with. Maybe it was Cleveland. For the sake of the larger point, let's just say, Cleveland.

He was asking his guest about their home town, Cleveland, and he prefaced the question by saying that the only time he'd ever been to Cleveland, was as part of a flight with a lay-over, and for the hour or so he was there, the skies were very overcast.

Now, whenever he thought about Cleveland, he pictured it as a grey, overcast place. Of course, he knew that Cleveland isn't always grey and miserable, but that's what he saw in his head, because that was the full breadth of his experience.

If you only have one experience with something, it can lead you to extrapolate, incorrectly.

Back in the summer of 2010, we got a copy of the Mumford And Sons single "Little Lion Man." I hadn't really heard anything about them, other than they were gaining popularity and commercial radio was starting to pay attention to them.

I listened to the track a bunch of times, but we didn't have a full length record to check out, so my experience with Mumford And Sons started and ended with this track.

Okay, if they were an "It" band, that released a Rockin' track that drops and F-bomb in the chorus, well, I don't know. Good song. But is this just another generic "We rock" rock band that churns out generic rock songs that generic radio stations play so that non-discriminating rock fans can chant inane, "edgy" choruses while they drive to the office? I don't think I need to go out of my way to play that song . . .

I kept hearing about Mumford And Sons, and when the label sent out a second single, at the end of 2010, I listened. And listened. And listened again. And I pulled out the album.

These were not generic rock tracks. Hell, they weren't really rock tracks at all. Rockin' for sure. But Mumford And Sons was more about taking Folk in new directions. Songs featured the banjo for f's sake!

When I only knew "Little Lion Man," I was only able to imagine the album at 12 tracks just like that. I extrapolated, incorrectly.

I loved the second single, "The Cave." And the third single, "Roll Away Your Stone." And the full album. And when I heard the acoustic version of "Little Lion Man" I loved that.

And it turns out, the mvyradio listeners did too.

A record that we nearly passed over, turned out to be our #2 album of 2011.

Cleveland Rocks!


Hear the original version on Youtube.


Hear the acoustic version on Youtube.