Any excuse to run a picture of Grace Potter. This from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest last week.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals will kick off the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention for early arrivals Wednesday night, May 16 at 10pm. The band last week hit Jazz and Heritage fest…

Willie Nelson will perform Friday at Noon, along with Norah Jones and Brandi Carlile. Here’s what looks like iPhone footage from backstage as he records with Kris Kristofferson…

Norah Jones hit Good Morning America to perform Happy Pills and the title track to her new CD Little Broken Hearts…

John Mayer is still in voice-rest mode, but he’ll speak with David Dye for World Cafe Friday afternoon. Here’s the clip for Shadow Days…

JD McPherson

JD McPherson’s throwback sound is gonna be a crowdpleaser. Check out North Side Gal…

Veterans Nada Surf shot a mini movie for the semi-autobiographical When I Was Young…

Nada Surf – When I Was Young (official video) from City Slang on Vimeo.

And Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs stopped by Letterman to perform a song that, to our ears, owes a lot to U2’s Bad…

With a smokey voice and inspired delivery, Rebecca Ferguson gives an immediate nod to the greats that she admires — soul greats like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles; and newcomers like Florence and the Machine and labelmate Adele.

The Liverpool native’s road to the making of her debut album was an unlikely one. She had vocal training as a teen, and went on to performing arts college. But by the age of 19 she was the mother of two, and the musical career took a back seat to an apparently more realistic path as a legal secretary.

She then took another shot – a long shot – by auditioning for the British television show The X Factor. A self-conscious performance (she looked at the floor while singing) was just good enough to be asked back.

Ultimately, she lasted 10 weeks and become runner-up to the winner.

Her debut album Heaven is led in the U.S. by the single Nothing’s Real But Love, of which she says,

“People used to say to me ‘Being rich doesn’t make you happy.’ And I’d think, I’ve got no electricity, nothing—tell that to my empty fridge. But now I’m doing okay, I realize, they were right. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got, as long as you’ve got love. I know that sounds cheesy, but that’s everything.”

Rebecca is currently in the States and will play the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention May 18.

Watch the video for Nothing’ Real But Love…

Ryan Adams covering Bob Mould, a Jack White liquid-filled 12″ disc, The Knack Live in Los Angeles 1978 — hell yeah, it’s Record Store Day once again!

This brilliant awareness stunt returns this Saturday, making those of us without a local record store incredibly jealous as the event continues to attract more and more participants from the artist and label world.

Let’s cut right to the chase, with the annual walk-through from Chris Brown of Bull Moose in Maine. BTW, this is just PART ONE…

Chris Brown Record Store Day 2012 Preview Pt.1 from Record Store Day on Vimeo.

And here’s a great related clip about how a record gets made — literally. The Band Preteen Zenith is made up of Tim DeLaughter of Polyphonic Spree and Philip E. Karnats of Secret Machines. They’ll make their debut with a Record Store Day limited release of 500 vinyl copies of Rubble Guts b/w BB Eye…

Download the complete list of offerings (not everything will be at all stores!) here.

Click the Record Store Day icon above to learn more about where you can shop.

TNT Commercial

We’ll start with the funny. Remember that VW spot with kid in the Darth Vader costume? In terms of going viral, “The Force” was the most shared commercial ever. Here’s the second. In less than a week, this commercial for the European version of TNT has become the second most-shared.

With good reason…

Joan Osborne – Shake Your Hips

Joan is back with a Slim Harpo cover that’s doing quite nicely at radio. She stopped by WXPK “The Peak” in White Plains to perform in a local recording studio. The video of the impressive performance is worth watching…

Bruce Springsteen – Death to My Hometown

Tom Morello joins Bruce in this live performance of Death to My Hometown…

Paul McCartney – My Valentine

Paul McCartney directs Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp in a couple of different versions of his My Valentine…

And here’s a version with Johnny…

We’ve mentioned before how much we love Kickstarter, the crowd-sourced funding engine that’s helping artists, writers, film-makers, designers, and others bring their projects to life through small donations.

Now, one of our long-time faves, Marshall Crenshaw, has listed a project.

Crenshaw wants to release on 10″ 45 RPM vinyl (and MP3), six EPs over the next two years. Each EP will contain a new song, a cover, and a re-imagining of a Crenshaw classic. He’s positioned it as a subscription series.

To raise the money, Crenshaw will give those who pledge goodies that range from signed versions of the EP to a private concert via Skype to an actual performance in your living room. Pledge levels run from $1 to $5000.

His ask is a rather significant $32,000. And he needs it by April 28. As of this writing, Crenshaw has raised $8348, or just better than 25%.

According to Kickstarters rules, it’s all or nothing. If he doesn’t hit the 32k goal, nobody pays and the project goes away.

As can be expected, more than half of the pledges are coming in between $25 and $100. If that keeps up, he’ll need anywhere from 300 to 500 more people to get on board.

For an artist like Crenshaw, that’s certainly achievable — if he can get the word out.

That’s really the key to Kickstarter — getting those superfans engaged. For a web-savvy, social media friendly digi-native, that might be easier than for an artist with a fanbase that might not exactly be full of early adopters.

Someone like Marshall Crenshaw is going to need some help from old friends — perhaps in AAA radio who can tell the story on the air and online. Kickstarter is a great story to begin with, and this project would make for a great morning show bit at the least.

New York area stations should consider getting on board in a bigger way — it’s a story they can talk about (and take credit for) literally for two years if the project comes through. Kickstarter-like projects will become more and more common, so here’s an opportunity to hip your audience to the concept with an artist they know.

Check out his pitch, which can be embedded on any site…

By the way, we’re in for $200.

The members of UK blues/psychedelic rockers Pearl Handled Revolver would often joke, “someday we might even do a gig.”

That has definitely changed. The band that self-produced three EPs, has finally taken the act out of the garage for a spin. And they’re winning over new fans, including nods from rockers such as Deep Purple’s Jon Lord, and BBC Cambridshire’s Sue Marchant.

Their new CD, and first full-length, Colossus, features more of the band’s signature sound – a very present Hammond organ that gives the guitar-driven blues rock a decidedly throwback sound.

That sound caught the ear of long-time Capricorn and Atlantic Records promo man turned indie label entrepreneur Dick Wooley to sign them to his King Mojo Records.

The track they’re chasing at radio is Maybe in Time…

Pearl Handled Revolver – Maybe In Time by TheTop22

And here’s a recently released clip for the very psychedelic Today was the Day:

Learn more about Pearl Handled Revolver on their site.

Artist Spotlight is sponsored content in association with A Taste of Triple A.

Justin Townes Earle says that album number five, Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, is his most personal.

The son of Steve Earle started off the promotion for his last album, Harlem River Blues, in unfortunate fashion by getting arrested for a post-performance fight with a club promoter.  It wasn’t the first time Earle has found trouble, famously struggling with drugs since the age of twelve.

The good news is, the episodes are increasingly rare.

He finished up Harlem strong, nabbing song of the year honors for the title track at the Americana Music Awards. He immediately headed back into the studio to work on Nothing’s Gonna Change…

On writing, Earle told Australia’s Rolling Stone, “I’ve always been a very cocktail napkin kind of writer. I write in hotel rooms and airports and truck stops — end up with little pads full of shorthand that nobody can decipher if they wanted to.”

Get more of a feel for the making of the new album in this trailer…

And here’s the title track from Harlem River Blues as performed at last year’s NON-COMMvention…

Earle plays dates in Iowa and Illinois this weekend before heading to Australia. Details on his site.

Sharon Van Etten and WFUV's Rita Houston at SXSW, courtesy WFUV.org

There were some great strides in the reporting from SXSW this year, a festival so cool that the name has been shortened to just SX.

Gone are the days of the complete boondoggle that left listeners back home wondering why they were footing the bill for sending station employees to a party in Texas. But there is still a ways to go.

There was more reporting this year, but too little journalism.

Station management needs to realize that, without actual coaching and some journalism training, they’re very likely to get the kind of disconnected-from-the-audience, stream-of-consciousness, inside-baseball talk-a-thons we’ve become used to from music announcers given free reign to describe the party that is SX — the kind of reporting that WXPN discovered was actually driving down ratings during their coverage of the event a few years back.

Before sending the troops out next year, a good day-long session covering J-school 101 and a discussion of deliverables would go a long way.

KCRW's Jason Bentley working SX. Courtesy KCRW.org.

But let’s stop there, because this article is called Worth Watching. Improved station websites offer big opportunities for content of all stripes, and many are starting to exploit those opportunities. Here are some of the winning moments…

KCRW smartly tossed up an off-the-shelf Tumblr page (read: Free!) to showcase its work, which consisted primarily of photos, picks, and previews via Soundcloud. But KCRW’s Avishay Artsy created one of the best pieces of music journalism we found — a well -produced radio piece covering Bruce Springsteen’s keynote.

WFUV had a strong performance this year, with some excellent video of JD McPherson and Alabama Shakes among others. And Rita Houston got her interview on and gets a lot out of Brendan Benson in a piece that works on-air and online as a two-camera shoot…

And here’s a clip from Alabama Shakes that really gives one a feel for the event — not slick — but a street party…

But the winners of the music journalism crown are the folks at hometown KUT. Music journalism is a discipline there, and it shows. Five full pages of videos and reports from their stage at the Four Seasons — a controlled environment that lent itself to strong, but basic shoots and good sound. Clips include James Mercer, Trampled by Turtles, Sons of Fathers, Justin Townes Earle, and many more.

Check out the Punch Brothers…

Lastly, in case you hadn’t yet thought that SXSW had jumped the shark, some douche thought that an Angry Birds flash mob dance was a good idea. Oy…

Wes Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites started playing music together in and around New York partly as a way to cope with the loss of Josh Fraites, Jeremiah’s brother and Wes’ best friend from childhood.

But they failed to break through. Time for a new plan: Pack up and move to Denver to start anew.

Once there, they placed an ad for a cellist on Craigslist, and the first to respond was Neyla Pekarek, who smoothed out their sound and added mandolin and piano as well.

Fast forward to 2011. With a self-recorded EP and self-booked tour, things started to fall into place for The Lumineers.

The first track from their self-titled debut (out April 3rd) is called Ho Hey and it’s finding its way onto Public Radio and an instrumental portion is featured in a commercial for Blue Moon Ale.

Check the video for Ho Hey…

Upcoming Tour Dates

Learn more on TheLumineers.com.

Purple-panted Yuna performing at S.O.B.'s in NYC

Things are looking up for the 25-year old Yunalis Zarai.

The multi-talented native of Malaysia has wrapped up her law studies and opened a clothing boutique.

Spotted outside New York’s Lincoln Center by fashion site Refinery29 , they gushed about her amazing look.

We agree. If all else fails, Yuna could make a fortune in fashion and design.

And then there’s her music career. After a rise to Malaysian pop stardom with an indie EP, an award nomination from MTV Iggy (the global channel), and now play on MTV’s 120 Minutes, Yuna’s stateside debut with the Fader label is a self-titled effort, which arrives April 24.

Just something she threw together, as photographed by Refinery29

This was the first time Yuna had the full attention of producers, after producing, recording and releasing singles on her own in Malaysia — something in our interview she sheepishly, and incorrectly, called “amateurish.”

For the debut album, she set up shop in Los Angeles and ultimately found herself lucky enough to collaborate with Pharrell Williams (The Neptunes, N.E.R.D.) for a song that would become the lead single, Live Your Life.

We caught up with Yuna after a performance at Manhattan’s S.O.B.’s and talked with her about her fast-rising career, working with Pharrell, and her impressions as a Muslim artist working in the United States.

Check out our exclusive videos from the evening…

Here’s a performance clip of a song called Decorate from S.O.B.’s in Manhattan…

And another for a song called Island…

And finally, the official clip for the Pharrell-produced Live Your Life…

Media Mechanics, the publisher of TheTop22.com and TheBluesMobile.com is proud to announce the headliners for the 2nd Annual Boulder Roots and Blues Summit.

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ will headline two nights of roots and blues May 18 and 19 at the Boulder Theater and Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado.

Taj Mahal, who will perform on the 18th, will be playing in celebration of his 70th birthday, which occurs on May 17.

Canadian vocalist Treasa Levasseur, American roots artist Anders Osborne, bluesman Bob Margolin, and many yet-to-be-announced performers will join the various lineups.

The 2012 Summit follows last year’s successful debut, which drew more than 4000 concert-goers with an eclectic lineup that featured Lucinda Williams, Leon Russell, Sheryl Crow, Davy Knowles, Vieux Farka Toure and many more.

The Summit is presented by TheBluesMobile.com – the online home of the syndicated House of Blues Radio Hour with Elwood Blues. Boulder’s Z2 Entertainment facilitates the event.

More information as it develops is available on TheBluesMobile.com’s Summit home page.

The Summit is modeled after the long-running AAA Radio Conference, now in its 20th year, and presented by Friday Morning Quarterback.

Media Mechanics is led by radio veterans Paul Marszalek, Mike Henry, and Ben Manilla, and has corporate offices in Denver.

Here’s a video postcard of last year’s event…

Share This

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band earlier this week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

As the Wrecking Ball listening tour comes to a close, we’re honored to have been chosen to host the stream for We Are Alive, the song that closes out the album.

After being introduced to various characters throughout the first ten songs on the album, We Are Alive introduces us to past victims. To our ears, Bruce seems to be reminding us that many different times and in many different ways, we have been here before — that countless others have also been tripped up in their pursuit of the elusive American Dream.

Yet the ghosts tell us “We Are Alive” — we are not a nation of fatalists — and the Dream lives on. The song isn’t so much closure as it is a beginning…

The stream will be live for just 24 hours, going dark at 11:59 pm EST March 2.

However, fans will be able to stream the entire album starting Monday, March 5 at 12:01 am EST until Tuesday, March 6 at 11:59 pm EST at BruceSpringsteen.net.

The album is released Tuesday, March 6.

And while we’re at it, if you missed the band’s appearance to kick off Bruce Springsteen week on Fallon, make sure you take a look. We’ve mentioned before that the sound quality on Fallon is possibly the best on television, and this performance is just another example.

We Take Care of Our Own

Wrecking Ball

With Gotye breaking through in a big way with Somebody That I Used to Know, you had to wonder if there was another one up Wally De Backer’s sleeve. Apparently, there is. Check the Beck-meets-Eels trackEasy Way Out…

Gotye – Easy Way Out – official film clip from Gotye on Vimeo.

We thought West Coast directors “Daniels” (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan) were the future of music video ever since they released Dogboarding, a short film set to the tune of Foster the People’s Helena Beat. Columbia goes back to them again for Simple Song from The Shins, and the nail it again…

The Shins – “Simple Song” from DANIELS on Vimeo.

Bon Iver last week released a clip for Towers…

Bon Iver – Towers (Official Music Video) from Bon Iver on Vimeo.

…and Cults have put together another dark video – this time for You Know What I Mean…

CULTS “You Know What I Mean” from Isaiah Seret on Vimeo.

Buddy Guy - suit and tie.

The White House held a salute to The Blues last Tuesday, as part of a Black History Month celebration and ongoing music series.

It was a who’s who of legends as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, and Booker T. Jones were joined by newer names such as Keb’ Mo’, Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Trombone Shorty, Warren Haynes, and Gary Clark, Jr. to perform for President Obama, the First Lady, and others.

The result was a special evening of superstar collaborations, including at one point, Buddy Guy goading The President into singing a few lines of Sweet Home Chicago.

The performances will air on PBS tonight (Monday, February 27), billed as In Performance at the White House: Red White and Blues. Many stations will repeat the broadcast later in the week. Check local listings.

In the meantime, here are a few highlights. A teaser from PBS featuring Buddy Guy…

Buddy Guy, Booker T., Jeff Beck, and Gary Clark, Jr., and Mick Jagger perform Five Long Years…

And the All-Stars goad The President into singing a line from Sweet Home Chicago…

Photo courtesy BruceSpringsteen.net

As part of a campaign leading up to the March 6 release of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball, Columbia Records has arranged something of a listening tour of the album — making a different album track available via stream to a different partner every day through March 2.

Friday, it’s radio’s turn.

Stations can embed This Depression on their websites starting at 12:01 EST, 9:01 PST — for 24 hours.

The embed will come as a very reliable Soundcloud player (we were an early adopter and love those guys!).

The player will look like the following:

Cut and paste the following embed code into a WYSIWYG portion of your site:

<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder=
"no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.
soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F36867202%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-2COFb&amp;
auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;color=ff7700;
sharing=false&amp"></iframe>

And while you’re at it, embed this video of Bruce talking about Wrecking Ball for a group of European journalists…