The New Basement Tapes "Nothing To It"

Maybe you want to listen with your eyes closed first?  Especially if you don't know anything about this project . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Okay, so if you didn't know the story behind this project, and you just heard it on the radio while driving down the street, would you say that it was a great, radio friendly song?

I don't know that I would.  I mean, it's fine.  Somewhat hummable.  A little ragged.  But is it a standout?

Now imagine that you know all about the back-story. 

These are lyrics written by Bob Dylan in the late 60s.  Never recorded.  Dylan recently gave them to T Bone Burnett, who then assembled Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith (of Dawes), Rihannon Giddens (of Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Jim James (who sings here) to record an album's worth of these songs.

Do you hear the song differently, with that knowledge?

That's what makes a track like this so hard for radio.

If you have the context, then it is a fascinating song.  But on it's own, it's not a great sounding single.

And most people who hear it, are not going to know the story behind it.  There more likely to say, "What the hell?" and move on to the next station.

Or am I wrong?  Does the song captivate you, even without knowing the story behind it?

Elvis Costello "45"

When this song was out in 2002, I wondered if "45" meant 1945. Or 45 RPMs (like a record single).

Today I'll just imagine he's singing for my birthday.


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.

Mudhoney "Pump It Up"

Here's another Weekend Post:

From the same compilation as yesterday: "Freedom Of Choice: Yesterday's New Wave Hits As Performed By Today's Stars" which came out in 1992.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Elvis Costello "Indoor Fireworks"

I think at this point, the truth can be told.

Probably my least favorite gig in radio, is covering fireworks.

I mean, c'mon, is there anything less designed to be broadcast on radio? 

(Go ahead and pause for a moment, because I know you want to top me with answers like: Staring Contest, Mime Olympics, Golf)

And yet, every year the stations I have worked for have been involved in local fireworks.  And that has required a DJ (me), to be on-site broadcasting live.

A fireworks event is a big game of hurry up and wait.

The event holders want to get the fireworks going as soon as possible.

But they have to wait for the sunset.

And they have to make sure the winds are right. 

And the technicians are in position.

And the safety checks have been performed.

And the fire department is ready.

And . . . and . . . and . . . I'm sure load of other important things.

All the while, they keep telling me, "We're almost ready to go.  Make sure they are ready back at the station.  Are you ready?  Really ready to go?  Because we're going in a minute.  As soon as everybody's ready.  Are you ready?"

This goes on for 30 to 45 minutes.

In the meantime, as the DJ in the field, I am speaking by phone with the radio station.

Back at the radio station, someone (often Alison) is playing CD after CD waiting for the event to start.  When they're ready---really ready---she'll play the coordinated "Fireworks Soundtrack" that has been designed by the fireworks company to match the display.  In the meantime, she's playing relevant tracks, picked by me.

Like "Fourth Of July" by Dave Alvin.  Or "Independence Day" by Bruce Springsteen.

"Are you ready to go?"

Yes, I say.

"Really ready?"

Yes, I say.

"Okay.  So are we.  Tell them to start."

Wait!

Alison is playing "Indoor Fireworks."  She's not just going to stop the song in the middle.  Let's wait for it to end.

"How much longer?"

I dunno.  It's almost over, I think.

"Are they ready back at the station?"

Yes.

"Is it almost over now?"

It doesn't seem like it.

"How long IS this song?"

At this moment, it feels like it's about 4 hours long.

"Is it going to end soon?"

I'm sure it will.

"We're waiting on you guys."

Yes, I know.

"We're ready."

Yes, I know.

"'Indoor Fireworks.'  He just keeps saying that."

Almost over.

"Is this it?  Is that the end?"

That's it.

"Are we ready?"

Let do this.

"GIVE ME THE COUNTDOWN!"

And from there, radio listeners can enjoy a half-hour of "The 1812 Overture" with the distant faint popping sounds of what probably are some spectacular fireworks, if you could somehow only see them on an audio system.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Elvis Costello "Good Year For The Roses"

I played this song last week when I heard that George Jones had passed away.

Not growing up with country music here in the Northeast, I had no awareness of Jones’ music.  This Elvis cover was my introduction.

The song was part of a story of mine.

Back when I fancied the idea of writing short stories as a way to understand and explore my life, I wrote this story about how I had split with a girlfriend, had moved out, but was having trouble moving on.

In the story (as it happened in real life), as I’m moving out, she gives me a set of 5 coffee cups.  She had mail ordered a set of 6 cups but when one of the cups arrived broken, they sent her a full set as a replacement.  She gave me the incomplete set, and that’s all I really took from the relationship as I left.

In the story, I’ve left behind “The Best Of Elvis Costello.”  But I like to listen to "Good Year For The Roses" on her birthday/when feeling melodramatic:

“Or the lip print on the half filled cup of coffee that you bought but didn’t drink.  But at least you thought you wanted it, but that’s so much more than I can say for me.”

The story goes jumps forward in time to vignettes with various new girlfriends where, in each scene, a coffee cup breaks.  The story ends with me contemplating the fate of the last coffee cup, hopeful that when it does break, it will mean I am finally over the original girl.

So last week I played Elvis Costello’s version of “Good Year For The Roses,” and I thought about the girl and the story and young love and how sad I was in those years.  And I thought about the story, and something struck me funny.

In the story, I left behind “The Best Of Elvis Costello.”  I wrote that into the story, because I loved “Good Year For The Roses,” and because the lyric worked with the coffee cup plot device.

But in reality, I didn’t lose that record in the relationship.

No, in reality, I was always bummed that I had left behind my copy of “A Decade Of Steely Dan.”

So why the wistfulness at hearing Elvis Costello, if that part of the story was complete fiction?

I’d spent a long time writing this story.  Worked on it for months on end.  Told it and retold it and revised it and reshaped it.  To the point that the story was how I explained my feelings, with more clarity than the facts could have.

The story became the reality.

It's not what happened, but it best explained what happened to me.

And for a moment, I felt kind of like a songwriter.

The narrator of "Good Year For The Roses" (made famous by George Jones, but written by Jerry Chestnut) probably did get his heart broken by a woman.  But did he really see a lip print on a half-filled cup of coffee?  Probably not.  But that's what it felt like, to have his heart broken.  And maybe, forever more, if he saw a half-filled cup of coffee, discarded, he thought of his heart-ache, whether the original image was real or not.

So it makes some sense that I would listen to "Good Year For The Roses" and feel what I felt, even if it isn't attached to my actual story.

It makes more sense than feeling sad about "Peg."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Elvis Costello "Every Day I Write The Book"

I started this blog nearly 4 years ago now.

As I was developing the idea, I ran through a list of potential blog names.

While using "Finn" had potential (or maybe not; "Hi-Finn-delity" anyone?), it seemed like a better fit to use a song or album title to convey what the blog was about.

I poured over albums and artists and song titles, trying to find the right tone and the right message.

You very nearly happened upon a blog named after a song that Lucinda Williams wrote to celebrate Paul Westerberg.

Real Live Bleeding Blog.

I thought it was a great title.  But maybe a little to graphic.  Maybe a little too Emo.  Especially if you didn't know the reference.

So instead I named it after an Elvis Costello song.

The intention was to write regularly.  But by naming it Every Day I Write The Blog, the title actually goaded me into writing, every day.

Story after story.  Memory after memory.  Day after day.

Tonight, I'm trying something new.  As host of The Hot Seat, I'll be doing an audio version of Every Day I Write The Blog, telling some recent stories and playing the songs.

Let me know what you think!

Tonight, at 9pm on mvyradio, or we'll post it later in The Hot Seat Archives.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Elvis Costello "Mystery Dance"

For the next couple of days, I thought it would be fun to write about a few tunes for a game I'd like to call:

"This is what it means if you hear that song on mvyradio."

There are a handful of songs, that, if I hear them on the station, I can tell you exactly what is going on behind the scenes . . .

Timing is everything.

Especially in a business that runs on a clock.

I mean, I know we're on Island Time on the Vineyard, but you can't start the 9am News at Ten-Past.

But sometimes your hour gets away from you. You're concentrating on other things (preparing the news, answering the Listener Line, getting your next set of songs lined up), and you look up and realize that it's five minutes before the top of the hour, and you have 4 minutes of commercials to play.

Every DJ at the station has a mental file of the shortest songs in the library. And at 1 minute and 38 seconds, "Mystery Dance" is the shortest.

Some people pick The Beatles "I Will" at 1:43, or, if they have an extra few seconds Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" or The Byrds' "Ballad Of Easy Rider" which each clock in at just about 2 minutes.

But I like "Mystery Dance" because it's a frenetically paced paean to under-performance. It seems like the perfect song to play as your rushing around to get the News ready for the top of the hour.

So if you hear this one, know that whoever is on the air was moving too slowly for the last 55 minutes, and has been racing for the last 5.


Hear it live from 1978 (with 2 other songs) on Youtube.

Paul Kelly "How To Make Gravy"

There's a certain segment of the listening audience, that wants to hear new music, but wants to hear it from old artists.

Yes, that's a complete paradox. But these people exist.

They aren't quite up for the challenge presented by new artist. They tune into mvyradio because they are into Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen or Elvis Costello and they aren't willing to go down the road with Death Cab For Cutie or The Decemberists or some other young band that one day (in my opinion) will engender the same quality of feeling to this music listening generation, as those previously mentioned venerable artists do.

But in the meantime, I'm a little bit stuck, since there are no "new" old Bob Dylan songs. There are no new, never-before-discovered tracks on "This Year's Model."

For better or worse, the musically lazy aren't likely to look beyond the U.S. borders for that sound they're missing.

So that's what I recommend.

Paul Kelly is a legend in his native Austrailia. Depending on what review you read, he's Down Under's answer to Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello or Bruce Springsteen or Ray Davies.

And he's got a new Best Of double disc out now, in the States, featuring this song (which, though it's about Christmas, has a title that seems to better suit Thanksgiving).

So if you're looking for something new that feels like something old (or know someone old who wants to hear something new that is actually something old), this is a good place to start.


Hear the song on Youtube.


PS. Doesn't this sound just a little like last week's Belle Brigade tune?

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.

Dire Straits "Money For Nothing"

We're all familiar with The Grandfather Clause Of Language, right?

A regular, legal, Grandfather Clause, you know, allows the continued practice of a recently banned act, if the practitioner has been engaging in said practice for a really long time.

The Grandfather Clause Of Language basically means that you are willing to give an elderly person a pass on the offensive (or racist or politically incorrect) things they say, if said remark was not considered offensive in "their day," even if it is inappropriate now.

And there is an equivalent phenomenon in music.

Certain songs we play, going back 20, 30, 40 years, may contain a word that was allowed to be broadcast when it first came out. If a song featuring that same word came out today, the word would most certainly be censored.

How else to explain that no station that I've ever heard, ever censors the word "Nigger" in Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army"? Cee-Lo Green certainly couldn't use that word (or several others) in his Radio Edit of "Fuck You."

And strangely, most Classic Rock stations have always kept the "do goody-good Bullshit" line intact, in Pink Floyd's "Money." But any current radio song with the same lyric, would have to arrive at the station, "Bullshit"-free.

At Christmastime, you never hear the word "faggot" edited out of The Pogues song "Fairytale Of New York." Yet, when KT Tunstall and Ed Harcourt covered it recently, they were requested to alter that line.

Weirdly, if a song has gotten by the censors all these years, it seems to get left alone.

Until now.

What to make of The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council's decision to ban play of "Money For Nothing" unless the word "faggot" is edited out . . . 25 years after the song came out?

Bizarre, eh?

Randy Newman “Rednecks”

Yesterday I was writing about this Randy Newman song in relation to a Bruce Hornsby tune, and I thought I’d continue on some of the thoughts started in that last post.

You may not have ever heard this song before if you don’t own a Randy Newman album, because it’s certainly never going to get played on the radio.

If I tell you that the song is a scathing indictment of hypocritical Northerners’ racism, from the perspective of a Southerner, you might think, “Hey, that’s something I’d be interested in hearing.”

But if I tell you that the song features, prominently and frequently, the word “Nigger,” are you less likely to want to cozy up to it?

Volumes have been written about the word and its uses and abuses, but in the musical world I live it, I don’t have to deal with it too much. It just doesn’t appear too often in the songs of artists we love at mvyradio.

But occasionally, I have to confront it. And, honestly, I find it hard to be consistent.

A few years ago, I received a withering rebuke from a listener who had heard me play Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane.” Someone had requested the tune that day, and I was happy to play it, but unsure of how to handle the Dylan lyric “he was just a crazy nigger.” When the line clicked by, I flipped the volume off and on, as a hand-made “bleeping” out of the offensive word.

The listener was extremely offended that I would a) edit Dylan and b) think that the use of "Nigger” in the context of Dylan’s narrative, was offensive.

I have to admit, I have made the “Context” argument before.

A friend of mine told me he was protesting a movie because he’d heard that it contained multiple uses of a slur he (and I, and probably you) found offensive. I asked him if context mattered, or if the word was never appropriate to use. He said Never. I asked if, in the movie, it was Hitler who said, “I hate those damn (slur)s!” Would it then be okay to use an offensive word, because it showed the character to be an offensive person? My friend thought about it, but held his position. Even in that context, he felt it was a word that no one should use. I disagreed, but do concede that there are lots of folks out there who hold his position.

I wrote the “Hurricane” complainant an email that explained that while the use of “Nigger” in the context of the Dylan’s story was entirely appropriate, he had to realize that most people are not immersed in a song and its story, when they’re listening to the radio. It was a hot summer day, and as I was spinning the track, I was imagining how that line, out of context, would sound coming through the speakers of say, The Black Dog Bakery, where they, like many, many other businesses, pipe mvyradio through the store speakers.

Context does matter. Not only within the lyrics of the song, but the context in which the song is heard, or only partially heard. There’s a great exchange in an interview with comedian Artie Lange, where he talks about someone who was offended by his act, but only because the person only heard part of the comedy bit.

My argument absolutely did not win over my critic, and he let me know it, one more time, with a disgusted follow up email.

I had another harsh critic that day. Myself.

If I feel the need to edit “Hurricane,” how have I allowed Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army” to air all these years, unedited? Why is the line “One more widow, one less white nigger” any less offensive? Inconsistency undercuts any moral authority I might try to project.

So back to Randy Newman. Viewing it as a Program Director, there’s just no way mvyradio could play this. In any context, if I play it on the air it’s going to read as offensive.

It’s offensive in the simple use of the word “Nigger.” It’s offensive to Northerners, for calling them all racists. It’s offensive to Southerners, for portraying them as racists. It’s offensive in context and out of context. It’s hard to find an angle where it’s NOT offensive.

However, viewing it as a lover of art, that’s the beauty of this song. Randy Newman has crafted something that is viewed as offensive from all angles, an incredible feat unto itself. But most importantly, it’s offensive from the most important angle of all---his ultimate point rings incredibly true.

Hear clips from all three songs mentioned in this post:

Elvis Costello “High Fidelity”

All Time Top Five . . .

When my friend Martin gave me the book “High Fidelity” back in the last 90s, he said, “This is your kind of book.”

The protagonist, is a 30-something record store owner, music-obsessed, commitment-phobe, who is going through dating drama trauma. Switch record store owner, to radio DJ, and the story and the sentiment were pretty much my life (at that time), on the page.

Rob, the main character, had a lot of very familiar philosophies and concerns, and even his transformation at the end of the book was strikingly familiar.

Throughout the book, and the movie version starring John Cusack, Rob and his friends compile “All Time Top Five” lists, including his “Top Five Side One Track Ones” and “Top Five Floor Fillers At The Groucho” (where he was a DJ).

So in the spirit of “High Fidelilty,” Every Day I Write The Blog brings you occasional All Time Top Five lists.

A couple of rules: These are MY All Time Top Fives. Despite the title, I don’t mean for the lists to be universal or definitive. I’m sure your Top Fives will be radically different. And honestly, I don’t even mean for these lists to be definitive for ME. My Top Five today, is probably going to be different if you give me the same category next week. And I’ve got a pretty strong memory, but I know that as soon as I post a list, I’m likely to think of something else I wish I’d included.

All this to say that I hope my lists spark a little discussion, some suggestions and a bit of exploring on your part. Don’t get hung up on the results. It’s the process.

This week’s All Time Top Five . . . All Time Top Five Movies That Cribbed Their Name From A Good Song, And Managed To Be Pretty Good Themselves.

Number Five is, of course, “High Fidelity.”

Yes, it was a book before it was a movie, but before it was a book, it was an Elvis Costello song.

Elvis had come out of a trilogy of tight, strong album, and expectations were high, by the time a newly devoted fan base got ahold of 1980’s “Get Happy,” which featured the song “High Fidelity.”

Nick Hornby had written a couple of strong, beloved books, and expectations were high by the time a film version of “High Fidelity” was making its way to theaters.

Maybe the expectations were too high for the fan base.

Neither the album nor the movie was a smashing success upon first release—modest, but not smashing. The R&B style of the Elvis record was a bit of a curveball for those fans hoping that Elvis would keep churning out “This Year’s Model.” And the movie was cute, but edited out much of Rob’s internal monologues, the heart and heft of the book.

But critics were kind. And in fact, time has been kinder. The reviews of the “Get Happy” reissue are among the best of Elvis’ back catalogue. The movie has become a staple of weekend TV, leading to adaptations of two other Nick Hornby books. And most tellingly, after being a song, a book and a movie, “High Fidelity” became a successful Broadway musical.

Check back here all week long, as I count down the rest of this All Time Top Five list.

Hear a sample of Elvis Costello’s “High Fidelity,” here

See a rare music video for Elvis’ “High Fidelity,” complete with some horrific dancing, get the full R&B, horns feel, in a really great live version, featuring Allen Toussaint.

From the movie, see Rob give his Top Fives, and see a special, not-in-the-movie Top Five List.

Get “Get Happy” here, get The Book here, get The Movie here, get The Soundtrack here, and get The Broadway Cast Album here

W.P.A. "Always Have My Love"

One of the cool things about doing an interview with an artist, is that even though you are recording it, or broadcasting it for all to hear, there is a part of you that is just a fan, who's getting a little concert-for-one.

Glen Phillips was on the road a couple of years ago, with his old band Toad The Wet Sprocket. But he also had a solo album out at the time, so I headed over to The Cape Cod Melody Tent to chat with him. They gave us some space in a "dressing room" which was basically a large walk-in closet with a mirror. And there we sat. He played some songs, and talked brightly about his new record.

As often happens, the conversation continued after the tape stopped rolling. We talked current events for a few minutes, and some trouble in the Middle East prompted him to offer to cover Randy Newman's "Political Science."

And we talked about Pete Thomas.

Pete Thomas has been part of Elvis Costello's Attractions and Imposters. And Pete had worked on a side project with Glen a few years previous. I'd been to the Melody Tent a few weeks earlier, and had seen Pete play with Elvis. And just the mention of how good he was, sparked Glen's excitement. We talked with great enthusiasm about how incredible Pete is.

So it wasn't a huge surprise to get the W.P.A. record in, and find out that it's Glen, and Pete Thomas, and some other folks Glen talks about in the interview, Sean and Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek.

Hear a sample of W.P.A. "Always Have My Love"

Hear the interview, here

See Glen Phillips perform the song solo, here

Buy the album, here