It Might Get Loud | A New Power Trio

The Edge uttered the words that became the title of director Davis Guggenheim's new documentary "It Might Get Loud". U2's guitar player was about to demonstrate an element of his technique when he gave the warning, and this subsequent demonstration was just one of the many that revealed the unique artisty of three of rock's most legendary guitar players.

Guggenheim, the Oscar wining director of "An Inconvenient Truth" arranged a summit, where the guitarists would come together on a sound stage without ever meeting each other. When asked what he expected of the meeting, Jack White of The White Stripes and Raconteurs says "There will probably be a fist fight." The fact that the players not only didn't know each other but, also, had all in their own way and time rebelled against each other's music, provides a compelling story line that unfolds over the course of the movie. In the end they do come together, still at somewhat of a distance, and along the way we are all treated to insights into the music that these three created that will now, forever, be part of the experience of listening to their music.

Davis, a longtime Vineyard visitor and fan of mvyradio stopped by the station this week to talk about the film.

Hear my interview with Davis Guggenheim

Kate Taylor | Home On The Vineyard

In the new documentary about her life and music, Kate Taylor says that of all the places that she and her family have lived in, the Vineyard is "home". The Vineyard fits Kate like a glove and many of the songs on her new album "Fair Time" are about her experience as an Island girl. Kate is in fine voice and this is a total band record --a wonderful collaboration with guitarist, songwriter, producer and engineer Billy Derby, plus drummer Sam Zucchini and bass player Dave Anderson. The connectivity between all the players is ultimately what makes this album so sweet and vibrant. Check out information on Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth's documentary about Kate at www.docutunes.com

Hear Kate Taylor "Soap Opera Life"

A New Friend- Peter Mulvey

I have a new friend and his name is Uncle Peter. I never expected to make such an acquaintance on a record but that's exactly what happened. I met Uncle Peter while listening to Peter Mulvey's most enjoyable and engaging new CD "Letters from A Flying Machine". Uncle Peter is Peter Mulvey himself, appearing on the record as a character, a narrator of sorts, offering his worldly wisdom and stories to his actual (I think) nieces and nephews. He does this from his seat on an airplane in the form of several spoken word pieces that serve as the connective tissue between songs on the album. Mulvey's done this in his performances for years, but it's the first time he has presented such pieces on record. The effect is progressive; step by step you are granted wider entrance into a very personal and rich world made all the more substantive and compelling by Mulvey's folksy delivery and language. The songs are fantastic, too, and you forget just how good they are because of the strength of the spoken segments.

A good friend is hard to find --thanks Peter.

Hear Peter Mulvey "Letter From A Flying Machine" & "Windshield"

New Music Today and Tonight on mvyradio

The new music is flowing in and I'll be sending it out today during mvyradio's The Lunch Hour (12:20-12:50 pm) and Uncharted Waters (9-10 pm). Fridays have been new-music centric for awhile now and it's a chance for you to get a strong hit of the newest music on our radar. I'll be playing Bob Schneider, These United States, Imogen Heap, and Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers. Vineyarder Nancy Jephcote will be in for a chat about her new cd "Garland Of Rain" at 12:20. Stop on by for lunch and/or take a ride on the water with me tonight!

Bettye LaVette | Uncharted Waters

Any of Bettye LaVette's talents would be enough for one entertainer -her soulful, smoldering vocals, her all-at-once commanding AND playful on-stage presence, her honesty about her hard luck past -but as it is all together in one extraordinary singer, it's a mighty powerful experience to be on the receiving end of one of her performances, whether it's live or on record. For the last nine years of her over-50- year career, she has been working her way into the lives of many who never knew her and some who had forgotten about her, with outstanding recent albums like I've Got My Own Hell To Raise and The Scene Of the Crime. Now, the A Change Is Gonna Come EP has been released exclusively on iTunes, and she re-visits her 1970's stage and nightclub repetoire for a 6-song run through some soul and jazz classics. Check out a few of her songs, plus new tunes by Delbert McClinton, Kate Taylor and David Gray on the latest mvyradio Uncharted Waters.

Remembering Maynard Silva

I can still hear Maynard's voice, his raspy, booming speaking voice in my head --"Baaahhrbra, how r' ya?" I can still feel his presence. He sat in this very room, the production room at mvy many times and we talked about his music, other people's music, his life, Buddhism, art, the Vineyard, whatever. He was never at a loss for words. Maynard passed away on July 16th, 2008, and all who knew him are thinking back over the moments that we shared with him.

Maynard introduced me to the I Ching, the classic Chinese text used over the centuries for divination. One of his many gifts to me. That would have been about 1992. At the same time, I was in a band with Maynard for a short while and we had some fun.

One cold day in December of 2007 I was in Boston to do some Christmas shopping and called Maynard on my cell phone because we hadn't talked in a while. I was parked on Newbury St. and he and I spoke for a couple of hours, me on my cell phone in the car and Maynard back home on the Vineyard, comparing notes about our bouts with cancer.

Laurel Redington and I went out for dinner in March of 2008, just four months before Maynard would succumb to cancer, and with tears in her eyes, Laurel told me that Maynard was not doing well. We were both so sad and tried to cheer each other up. After dinner, I went home and did the only thing that I thought I could do to help Maynard, and wrote a song, which included three Buddhist mantras that I hoped would eventually reach his ears and stay with him when the time came for him to leave this world. I wanted to ease and somehow bless the passage in whatever small way that I could. I recorded the song in April in Florida and Maynard heard it in June. A gift to a friend who we all love so much. Here's Maynard's song.

Laurel did a wonderful tribute to Maynard with Maynard's wife Basia on the air today and shares it and her love for Maynard on her blog Positive Underground.

Uncharted Waters | Piers Faccini

From the very first sounds of gentle guitar finger picking, the tone is set and the heart is won. Peaceful, folky, bluesy soul is the answer. Piers Faccini stole away in Cevennes in the south of France to make Two Grains of Sand, his third solo album. The quiet and determined pace of this record is so easy to step to. The sound washes over you and takes you to a place that sounds old and new at the same time. Listen to Peirs, Moby, The Avett Brothers and more new music on the latest mvyradio Uncharted Waters .

Amy Speace Speaks

With just seconds to spare, singer-songwriter Amy Speace and guitarist and producer Jim Mastro made the boat from Woods Hole to the Vineyard and found their way to mvyradio to sit in with me during The Lunch Hour on Tuesday. It takes lots of effort to journey to this island, and good luck to make the boat you're aiming for, but as Jim said "Riding the boat sure beats sitting in a taxi going to a radio interview in New York!" Amy's new album "The Killer in Me" has been playing in my car cd player for the past few weeks and it was great to hear first hand about the making of the album. With a great storytelling gift and a clear-as-a-bell voice that can quickly become husky-as-a-big-summer-wind, Amy Speace speaks to the music lover in me. Listen to Amy's mvyradio inteview/performance!

Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars at Nectars

Martha's Vineyard loves music and loves to dance! And for over 30 years we have all done a lot of listening and shakin' inside a building with a tin roof at the airport in Edgartown. On Monday, the club (originally The Hot Tin Roof, then Outerland) officially opened, this time around as Nectars, with the absolutely mesmerizing Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars and the dance floor was alive once again! Their music is the "positive response" to horrific civil war that took place from 1991-2002 and forced them from their homes in Sierra Leone to live as refugees in The Republic of Guinea. Knowing the story of their struggle makes the experience of their music one for the heart as well as the ears and the feet. Watch the documentary trailer:

Carly Simon | A new album, a new fashion statement and a happy birthday

Carly celebrated her birthday on the air with us at mvy last Thursday. Dressed to the nines and thrilled about her new recording project, the stop at the station was her only planned activity for the day. Carly is wrapping up the recording of some of her classic songs, all in new settings and arrangements. Ben Taylor - "my son!"- she said as if still suprised at the fact, is the producer. She had three watches on her wrist, down from the seven she wore the night before, and thus introduced the world to the latest fashion statement. Listen to Carly, a new song, and a "Happy Birthday" duet with Carly and me in the mvyradio Archives.

Diane Birch | "She's Got The Juice"

Soul and R&B legend Betty Wright, one of the producers of Diane Birch's debut album Bible Belt, is the one who's talking about "the juice" here as she describes the young singer from New York City. This is the best album to be released so far this year! And lot's of people are going to jump right on right on in because of Birch's superb songwriting and musical vision. Effortlessly drawing from doo-wop, singer-songwriter, blues, r&b and a life lived all over the world, Birch wants to connect and she does so, instantly, like an old friend. Hear Diane Birch's new music on our latest Uncharted Waters!

Uncharted Waters | New Music Musing

When I first met Ingrid Michaelson, she loaded into our hotel room-turned recording studio at The Brown Hotel in May 2007 in Louisville, KY to chat and play some of the music from her newly released cd Girls and Boys. Just that day she was on the cover of The Wall Street Journal and seemed pleased, amused and perplexed all at the same time. She was on her way and she was trying to make sense of it all. Her new album entitled Everybody is due out in July and "Maybe" came to us this week. Engaging as ever, and the sound, at least on this song, is bigger, bolder, really hooky - love it! Ingrid's music is featured in our latest Uncharted Waters.

Among The Oak and Ash is the new project from Garrison Starr and Josh Joplin. Man! How long has this been going on? It sounds like they have been playing together forever. They seem united in a singular purpose to get these traditional songs out there and let them tell their story. "Peggy-O", Shady Grove", "The Housewife's Lament". Delivered true to form, but with a long leash, the songs open up and go beyond themselves, just like all songs with lasting influence naturally do. Garrison & Josh's music can be heard in our latest Uncharted Waters.