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?

Sam Phillips "Baby I Can't Please You"

A Throwback Thursday post:

Jess did a Hot Seat on T Bone Burnett last week, and that jogged the memory of this tune.

Burnett was married to Sam Phillips and produced her "Martinis And Bikinis" album, one of my early 90s favorites.

Fun fact!  The album cover picture led to her being cast as Jeremy Irons' mute terrorist girlfriend in "Die Hard With A Vengeance."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Justin Timberlake & Carey Mulligan "500 Miles"

Well, I don't want to give too much away about the mvyradio Top 25 of 2013, but I WILL do a couple of posts, leading up the countdown which will start on Monday.

Every year there are a few surprises on the voting list.  Some more surprising than others.

We did have an internal discussion here at mvyradio about whether or not we should include the "Inside Llewyn Davis" soundtrack on the list.

On the "pro" side, it is a really excellent album.  Typical T Bone Burnett brilliance.

On the "con" side, the album consists mainly of covers and previously released songs.  In the past, we have excluded "covers" albums from the Top 25.

But in this case, the question was moot:  "Inside Llewyn Davis" received ZERO votes from MVY listeners for the Top 25 of 2013.

I find this a bit perplexing, and I don't really have an explanation for it.

We offered "Inside Llewyn Davis" as a gift for a donation to Friends of mvyradio, and it went quickly.  The album---and the movie---are getting rave reviews.  Folks are calling in about the single "Fare Thee Well."  Clearly, people do like this record out there in listener-land.

Zero votes?

I can't explain it.  But you won't hear it on the countdown next week.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Oscar Isaac & Marcus Mumford "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)"

I nearly just posted this as my Facebook status:

I Googled "Dink."

It sounds positively dirty, doesn't it?  Or at least, completely incomprehensible.

The soundtrack to the forthcoming Coen Brothers' film "Inside Llewyn Davis" includes a version of a tune entitled "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)."  The soundtrack has both a newly recorded version by Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford, as well as an older version by Dave Van Ronk, who's memoirs apparently form a loose basis for the film.

Once again, I was faced with the "Joseph Arthur" dilemma, of trying to decide if I should put it on the playlist that the MVY DJs use as "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" or just "Fare Thee Well."

Growing up, the ONLY use of the work "dink" in my neighborhood, was as a slightly toned down synonym of "dick" that was okay to use as a 4th Grader.

I did learn later in life that "Dink" has some other connotations, including being a military acronym for"Desperately In Need of Knowledge" and the census/statistician acronym for "Double Income, No Kids."

But I realized that despite knowing that "Fare Thee Well" was known as "Dink's Song," (via Jeff Buckley's version), I had no idea why it was called "Dink's Song."

And that's when I Googled "dink" just praying that I didn't get a computer porn virus the way I did the day I Googled "Edith Head."

Though the song has been around for a couple hundred years, the first recording of it was by John Lomax in 1908.  He was doing field recordings of African American levee-builders in Texas, and made the first known recording of this song, as sung by a woman know as "Dink."

Hence, "Dink's Song."

So, is it more likely that a DJ is going to play the song and discuss turn-of-the-century ethnomusicologist's recordings?  Or that they'll play the song and be tempted to release their inner 4th-Grader by saying "Dink dink dink dink dink dink dink . . ." on the air?

Yeah, you know it, I left "Dink" out of the track listing.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Alabama Shakes "I Ain't The Same"

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Alabama Shakes at this weekend's Newport Folk Festival.

That's based largely on the rave reviews of anyone I know who has seen them.

And it's partially based on the record.

Barbara asked me my thoughts on the record, and I had a surprisingly thorough answer.  I hadn't even realized I had formulated a coherent thought.

"Wait for their 3rd record," was my answer.  "The 3rd record is where they'll really hit it."

I like "Boys And Girls."  I think there are plenty of strong songs on there.  I seems to be a really great first record.  But I don't think they've hit their full potential yet.  Based on what I know of their live show, they are soooo much more than what is on that record.

They're not going to get it on record #2, most likely.

One year ago, they were playing little clubs.  But the buzz has been so fast and so fierce, that they're playing on National TV and at major festivals and have jumped to a level of success that must be mind-boggling to them.

So the second record is likely to be either a) a product of frenzy, or b) a product of too many meddlesome outsiders.

I think of Robert Randolph And The Family Band.

Their first record (I'm not counting the live EP), "Unclassified" only scratched the surface of the amazing dynamic of their live show.  But it catapulted them onto some very large stages.

The 2nd record . . . "Colorblind" was very popular (and, in doing research for this entry, seems to have received mostly positive-to-glowing reviews), but something about it rang false for me.  It was full of co-writers and guest stars and smacked of producer-intervention.

It was the third record where I felt like I was really hearing the band that I had seen in concert.

Some of the credit, no doubt, comes from the band learning how to make records.  And some of the credit, for sure, goes to T Bone Burnett, who seems to make records by removing all the extraneous BS, to leave only the most organic, natural beauty of the talent.

So hopefully, Alabama Shakes can take some of what they have (like the Stonesy-"Emotional Rescue" feel of I Ain't The Same), and pair it with the Road Dog/Veteran status they will acquire, and bring it to a producer who can get their record closer to the electricity of the live performances.

It's likely that T Bone Burnett's Bat-phone is already ringing.

Ryan Bingham “The Weary Kind”

While I have some pretty mixed personal feelings about Award Shows (too much emphatic attention paid to something so trifling), professionally, I do feel some need to pay attention. I mean, my job as a DJ, is to live between the songs on the air, and provide some context, to make the radio listening experience a level above that of just listening to your iTunes list.

So I do make an effort to watch the Award Shows that have a music category featuring mvy-related artists. And this year’s Golden Globe nominees had a few favorite faces involved, including Paul McCartney and U2.

When I watch the shows, I’m watching them both as a fan, and as a professional.

As a fan, I was very happy to see young Ryan Bingham win the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. He is a great up-and-coming talent. The song was produced by T Bone Burnett, who’s work I love and respect enormously. And it features the underappreciated guitarist Stephen Bruton, who was dying of cancer as he worked on this song and the Soundtrack on which it appears.

But professionally, I felt a deep pain for my good friends at Lost Highway Records.

Lost Highway Records is a really wonderful label that features (mostly) Americana artists of the highest caliber---folks like Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett, and even Van Morrison. All of whom are enormously talented, but also famously difficult, known for being either for being picky, particular or prickly.

And the folks at Lost Highway are fully aware of who they are working with. I’d had a bad experience (minor) with one of their artists and was relaying my dismay. Assuring me he understood how I felt, my label friend joked, “Believe me, no one hates our artists as much as we do.”

So Ryan Bingham’s name is called as the winner at the Golden Globes. This is exactly the kind of spontaneous “who’s that kid who bested Paul McCartney and Bono” TV moment that can catapult an artist to a whole new audience.

T Bone Burnett ambles to the stage, looking lost. He stalls. He says a few words. He looks into the lights.

No Ryan Bingham.

I don’t know if Ryan was in the bathroom, or smoking a cigarette, or running scared, but I know that he was not on that stage, and that millions and millions of people were not watching this young talent.

And my professional self thought of my poor friends at Lost Highway, who, I’m sure, had gone from a tremendous high to a crushing low, in a matter of seconds.

Opportunity, blown.