Elastica "Stutter"

Having grown up as the child of a teacher and a coach, it was not uncommon to see young adults come up to my Dad and thank him.  They'd let him know that his guidance in math or sports really made a difference in their lives.  It was something Dad is always quietly, clearly proud of.

While my job isn't as profound or important as a teacher, every now and then I get a taste of what my Dad experiences with each bit of gratitude shown to him.

I got this email on Wednesday:

Hi P.J.,

I found your blog a few months ago by searching for the key words Whats The Alternative, WABN, 92.7, and Abingdon.  My friends and I grew up in Saltville, VA about 20 minutes north of Abingdon.  We loved WTA and listened to it regularly.  To this day I still listen to many of the bands that I heard for the first time on WABN.  The reception in Saltville was pretty bad so me and my skate rat/punk rock friends connected tin foil and unraveled coat hangers to our stereos and hung them from our walls and ceilings in an effort to improve our listening experience and to record better quality tapes.  We had several volumes of tapes that we recorded from Whats The Alternative and traded them with one another.  I was very excited to see your blog and read some stories about WABN.  I had always wondered what happened with the station.  I moved away in 2000 and eventually came back and settled in the Tri-cities.  To this day the area still lacks a station that's like WABN.  WABN was a huge part of my early teenage years as it was always on in our  rooms and on our car stereos.  Again, I enjoy the blog and I hope all is well for you.  Attached are two photos of a tape I recorded from the show.  The tape will not play anymore due to warping from sun exposure.  It is dated 7/28/1995.

Take care,

Jesse Whitt

Mt. Carmel, TN

If you look closely, "Stutter" is one of the tracks on this casette.  And if you search on the blog, you'll find that almost every other track listed on the cassette, has appeared as a fond memory/Weekend Post.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Eve 6 "Inside Out"

As part of the "post-1,500 posts" era, I have scaled back blogging a little bit, and that includes dropping the Weekend Post posts, so I don't have to come up with material 7 days a week.

But in the spirit of "Throwback Thursday" I'm going to post the kind of songs I might put in a Weekend Post.  I'll do it every Thursday.  And maybe Tuesdays too.  Is there a Throwback Tuesday meme?

So, for Throwback Thursday, here's a huge hit from the 90s.  Apparently these guys are still together and touring and such, but this was their only major hit.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Pete Seeger "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"

"Pick out a book and meet me on the bed."

It's what we do every night with the kids.

Pajamas.  Teeth Brushing.  And then pick out a book and climb on to Mom and Dad's bed, where we read a few stories before bed.

Because we'd read it the night before, the Dr. Suess anthology was still on the shelf behind the bed.

"Something from this?" I asked my 6 year old daughter. 

"Yes!"

"Sneetches?  The Sleep Book?  The Lorax?"

"The Lorax!"

And then we sat there.  My 3 year old son was still brushing his teeth, and my wife was trying to move the process along.  Unless you want to deal with a nuclear explosion, you never start a story unless both kids are in the room to hear it.

My brother-in-law got the kids this heavy, heavy anthology, and it's a great go-to source, because in one large book, it contains "The Cat And The Hat," "Green Eggs And Ham" and a dozen more stories.

Each story is prefaced by a short essay from various folks who were influenced by, or appreciate Dr. Suess. 

The Lorax is introduced by Pete Seeger.

"The most important thing you kids can do is ask the right questions."

I read that aloud to my daughter.  I doubt she really understands what he meant.  But I feel like it's these kinds of messages that, if you repeat them often enough eventually they sink in and your kid will become the kind of person who'll have the skills to navigate this big, wide, confusing world.

I was thankful to have such an important message laid out in such a succinct, clear way.

I learn, the next morning, that Pete Seeger has passed away.

Thanks Pete, for always being on message, with clarity and love, with care for children and for the future and for doing it with such beautiful simplicity.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Courtney Barnett "Avant Gardener"

This one is from Australia.  It's new and it's quirky.  Listen for the narrative and the wordplay.  There aren't many songs that start about gardening and end in an ambulance.  The idiosyncratic-ness and the slightly noisy underside have won me over . . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell "Back When We Were Beautiful"

Usually, when we're putting together the Top 25 list for MVY, the very top spots are left intact, straight from the voting.  But when you get down to the last 5 or so slots, only a vote or 3 can separate #20 from #40.  With so many albums so close, some shuffling around will happen, and the last few albums are usually decided not by votes, but by gut.

We take into account how important the album was to the MVY playlist, how well it was critically received, how well it sold, and how much longevity it feels like the record may have.

Admittedly, these characteristics are somewhat subjective.

With only 5 slots left, and 15 to 20 records that are legitimate contenders, there is some hashing out to be done.

Barbara was pretty adamant that "Old Yellow Moon" from Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell make the list.

I wasn't so sure.

I thought it was a good record, and it was certainly well received by the critics.  But we didn't play it a ton, didn't get a ton of requests for it, and there was no second single to keep it alive on the air throughout 2013, so it had faded into memory a bit.

But she argued so passionately for it, talking about the beauty and the craft, and saying that it was the kind of record that touched the hearts of people who really listened.  She said, decisively, that it HAD to be on the list.

I was smart enough to trust her gut.

Guess who won Best Americana Album at The Grammys last night?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Stephen Colbert "America Again"

While I love looking at the Grammy nominee list for all the musical delights, I must confess that when the list comes out I quickly scan down to see who is nominated in the "Best Spoken Word" category.  Bill Clinton, Betty White, Al Franken, Orson Welles and many other folks who, conceivably should not have a Grammy, do, because of this category.

Stephen Colbert already has an Emmy.  If he gets a Grammy, he's halfway to his EGOT!


Hear the clip on Soundcloud.

Gary Clark Jr. "Please Come Home"

While the Grammy nomination list is low on MVY artists, there is ONE artist who hit a pretty big milestone.

Gary Clark Jr has the distinction of being the only artist in Grammy history to be nominated for songs in the“Best Traditional R&B Performance” and “Best Rock Song” categories for the same album.

It speaks well of both his genre-stretching abilities, and MVY's acceptance of eclectic, uncategorizable artists.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Regina Spektor "You've Got Time"

This Grammy category used to be called "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television" but in this modern technology day and age, the category is now known as "Best Song Written for Visual Media."

Because this song isn't really in a movie or on television.

This is the theme song to the Netflix original series "Orange Is The New Black."

It seems like a bit of a long shot, since it's up again "Skyfall" and "Atlas" and other big movie themes.

But the fact that it's considered, is a victory unto itself.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lorde "Royals"

The Grammys are this weekend.

One of the many, many (many!) little things I do at MVY, is to copy the whole nomination list, and then go over it with a fine tooth comb, highlighting all of the MVY artists who got nominated.  I print it out and leave it in the studio for the DJs.

Though this year's document is 20 pages long, the list---for MVY listeners---is pretty weak.

No MVY acts for Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year or Best New Artist.

Oh, some of our favorites show up in places you'd expect, like Americana or Alternative.

But this list this year is decidedly Pop heavy.

That's not entirely a bad thing.

Even though they aren't likely to be played on our station, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars, and Daft Punk are all credible artists who made great songs in the genre where they live.

I'd even venture that though this was not a tune we'd play on MVY, Lorde's "Royals" IS one of the best songs of the year, without a doubt.

I'll post about some other interesting Grammy nods throughout the week . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Harry Chapin "Cat's In The Cradle"

With "Cat's In The Cradle," either you tear up a bit at the story, or you find it to be a huge pile of schmatlz.

For me, it's neither.

Instead it brings back a bit of warm nostalgia for 70s Pop culture. 

No, "Cat's In The Cradle" makes me fondly recall the days of K-Tel Records.

For those of you too young to remember, TV in the 1970s (especially those UHF channels) had an endless parade of commercials for K-Tel and their "20 Original Hits!  20 Original Stars!" slogan.

In the 90s and 2000s, the "That's What I Call Music" compilations did the same kind of thing---collect the big hits of that year on one album.

But it was the commercials of the 70s that grabbed you, by stringing together the hooks of a dozen-plus earworms.

Dad must've got sucked in by one of these spots (or, he just couldn't wait a full week until the next episode to hear the theme songs of "The Rockford Files"), because we had the 1975 compilation called "Music Express."

I knew "Cat's In The Cradle" from the radio, but it was on Dad's LP that I was able to listen through again and again to suss out the sorry tale of parental karma.

Looking back at the track list (which you can see here), I must've only listened to Side One, because I can still sing all those songs by heart, while I have been unable to even hum a bit of the melody of most tracks on Side Two.**

I can say with certainty that my love of both the album (which was really my first exposure to the idea of a mixed tape) and the commercials (which was an early introduction to the power of editing) predicted the career I'd end up in, where I have spent a life creating playlists and crafting music beds, for broadcast and commercials, and for fun.


**The exception of course, is "The Rockford Files" theme, which I still know.  One of the highlights of childhood, was being allowed to stay up an extra 5 minutes past bedtime, so that I could sit with Dad and watch the opening credits to "The Rockford Files" which contained a different "Answering Machine" gag every week.  Dad would roar.  I'd laugh too, though I'm sure the humor sailed over my head 90% of the time.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See some vintage K-Tel commercials on Youtube.


Hear "The Rockford Files" intro on Youtube.


Hear a whole bunch of answering machine messages on Youtube.


Hear ALL the songs on the "Music Express" album on Youtube.