Milton Music

Milton came to the Vineyard last week from his home in New York to spend Thanksgiving with his family and he stopped by mvy to sit down for a conversation and a couple of songs. We became aware of Milton in 2008 and played songs from his third album "Grande Hotel" which was released that year. Friend of mvyradio, Buffy McCleery is a fan, too and she was the matchmaker for this interview. She knew that Milton was going to be on-island for the holiday and we took it from there. Thanks, Buffy!

Listen to the interview here.

Check out clips from "Grand Hotel":

Kim Richey | Wreck Your Wheels

I read on Kim Richey's facebook page that she is in London and it was her first Thanksgiving Day there. "Turkey, mash, chestnut dressing..." Sounds like she brought a great American meal to her friends across the pond!

Over the last several years Kim has split her time between London and Nashville and her new CD "Wreck Your Wheels" was recorded in "Music City" with her touring band. It's her sixth record, and her collaborative spirit is strong. Every song is co-written by songwriters like Mando Saenz, The Jayhawks Mark Olsen, Beth Rowley and long time friend and collaborator Neilson Hubbard.

Kim has many strengths - an absolutely pristine voice and a songwriting skill that rivals the best in the business -and they are all on display here. But the key to her appeal is the subtlety that underlies it all.

Kim's fans contributed to this video for "Wreck Your Wheels"




Listen to clips from the CD...

Belle and Sebastian | Write About Love

The Scottish band that formed in the mid 90's has just released an album "Write About Love", and after years of appreciating what they do from a far, I have been captured, pulled in, won over. The vulnerability and sweetness in their indie sound is emboldened with a pop certainty on this record that lines up with what I have heard between the lines in some of their other work. Seems like a natural, inevitable and wonderful evolution.

Watch...is that Simon and Garfunkel's "A Hazy Shade Of Winter" coming through?



Listen to it...pop...

What's New... today

I'm putting together a set of new music for The Lunch Hour on mvyradio ...The new tunes will roll out at about 12:20 PM.

Paul Simon has a new album, done and due for release in the spring of next year. Just so happens there is a song on it called "Getting Ready For Christmas Day". What to do? Release it! Play it!

I found another track to play from The Autumn Defense's new CD "Once Around". "The Swallows of London Town" is one of the stand out tracks from John Stirratt and Pat Sansone on their fourth CD.

Louisville's Cheyenne Marie Misez has a new CD "Before Lately". "Friend" got me on the first note.

Ryan Montbleau's "Lonesome Serenade" is track # 13 on "Heavy On The Vine", some sweet stuff as the new album is coming to a close. His fans are going to want to hear this song when he plays with J.J. Grey and Mofro next Wednesday (11/24) at The Paradise in Boston!

AND FINALLY! Adele! We just got "Rolling In The Deep" from "21" her second CD due for release in February. I learned a new word from Adele -"chuffed". That's what she is after completing the new record. Quite pleased. You will be, too, when you hear it today on www,mvyradio.com

Dan Zanes | Family Man

Dan Zanes and his band will play at The Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford this Sunday, November 21st. The music Dan has been focusing on for the last thirteen years or so is, by his own description, "handmade music". He has revisited songs of Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and many others and put his own particular spin on them.

The birth of his daughter, who is now 16 years old, lead him to this "parallel universe". After she was born, as he was wondering what would be the very first song he would play for her, it never occurred to him that it could be one that HE sang to her. Shortly after that, he started to make family music.

There's one thing that runs through all of his music making, from his time with Boston's The Del Fuegos in the '80s, his solo records of the '90s and his family music of the past decade and it's the element of participation. The Del Fuegos never felt like they had played a gig, unless people danced. In 2010, as he celebrates ten years of his Festival Five Records, the idea behind Dan's records and his shows is not only to inspire people to dance and to participate in HIS music but also to encourage them to make their own.

Listen to my interview with Dan Zanes here



Get on Dan's train:

Bruce Springsteen | The Promise

The previously un-released tracks from the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" sessions will be released today as "The Promise". The whole package includes 2 CDs and 3 DVDs. Springsteen says it's "a new/old record, the lost sessions of music that could have/should have been released after "Born To Run" and before the collection of songs that became 'Darkness on the Edge of Town'". Springsteen went back to the music that the had abandoned thirty years ago and selected twenty-one tracks from the '77,'78 sessions. He left many of the tracks just as they were recorded, and worked on some, doing "what I would've done to them at the time and no more."

These songs were recorded at transitional time in Springsteen's career, a time when he was emerging from the tremendous success of "Born To Run" and a time that was marked by intense legal battles. "Darkness on the Edge of Town" is one of Springsteen's most beloved albums. His return to music that was recorded during this period material feels like a necessary journey of discovery and reconciliation.

Listen to www.mvyradio.com today at 12:30 to hear some of the songs.

Check out songs clips from the CD here:

NEeMA | Escape

I just saw the video of a new song by Montreal based singer NEeMA, and I want to share it. "Escape" is from a new album called Watching You Think and the song makes a lasting impression, due in great part to the sweet innocence of the video, which was shot at Ecole St-Ambroise in Little Italy in Montreal. NEaMA (pronounced "Nee-mah") has had a lot experience with working with children in a pre-school in Montreal and also with street kids in Egypt. Mentor's Leonard Cohen and Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan, Ron Sexsmith) helped produce the new record. NEeMA is on tour with The Chapin Sisters.

Check out the video:



Listen to song clips from the album: