Category: Albums

It’s Tuesday Bluesday and We’ve Got Two Great Live Performances and Our Album of The Week On Tap, September 6, 2022

Happy Tuesday Bluesday, Kids! Today we give you two great live performances sandwiched around our Album of The Week by Roberta Flack.

We kick off the programming with Peter Green’s Splinter Group live from Germany!

Here’s your Tuesday Bluesday lineup:

11:00 a.m. Peter Green’s Splinter Group Live From The Capitol Theatre, Mannheim, Germany, sometime in 2003 NEW!

Another great live performance where the date is not readily apparent, but no matter. We have a few of those and we keep looking knowing that we’ll find it…someday. Peter Green was a fine bluesman, and the very first leader of Fleetwood Mac, which was originally a blues band before turning mainstream pop. Today we have Peter Green’s Splinter Group live from Germany for your listening pleasure.

3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: First Take by Roberta Flack

At mid-afternoon we give you the second airing of Roberta Flack’s debut album, and a fine one it is. This album is considered by many to be one of the best R & B releases in popular music history, and for good reason. She doesn’t shy away from issues like racism either.

7:00 p.m. The Jeff Beck Group Live From The Boston Tea Party, Boston, MA, May 6, 1969

We go back in time to a legendary venue in the Boston area with a great blues-rock band for our programming finale tonight. We’ve aired this one before, but it’s been a few minutes, as they say. You’ll love this one!

Another fine Tuesday Bluesday rolls around and we deliver the blues. We’ve got a great collection of blues music and it’s growing as we speak. We’re continually shopping around for artists, music, and live performances as we move into the winter months when music becomes even more important. We’re here 24/7 at no charge to the general public. Come and join your friends from around the globe.

Welcome to Tuesday Bluesday!

Sunday is a Day of Rest, So Spend It In The Lounge With Our ‘Female Species’ EP and Roberta Flack’s AOW, September 4, 2022

Good Morning, Musicologists! Hope all is well. We’ve got a great music day on tap with ‘The Female Species’ EP and Roberta Flack’s First Take album debut.

Today’s EP is ‘The Female Species’, not to be confused with ‘Ladies Day Out”

Here’s your musical lineup:

11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: First Take by Roberta Flack NEW!

This was the debut album by Roberta Flack, released on June 20, 1969, and is considered by many to be one of the top soul and R & B albums of all time. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at no. 451 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. We tend to agree here in The Mermaid Lounge. The album includes First Time Ever I Saw Your Face which was propelled to number one in the U.S. (on the Billboard album chart and the Billboard R & B album chart) with its inclusion in the great Clint Eastwood film, Play Misty For Me. It is our Album of The Week.

3:00 p.m. The Female Species: Various Artists

Yes, not to be confused with Ladies Day Out, which is an all-female EP. This EP focuses on songs about women, ladies, girls like Martha (My Dear), She (who came from the land of the cotton), and Foxey (but remember, she was a lady). You’ll hear Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Jackson Browne, The Boogaloo Swamis, John Mayall, Hot Tuna, The Eagles, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Electric Light Orchestra, Percy Sledge, The Beatles, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, America, Roy Orbison, Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt and more!

Yeah, most people are probably out of town today, but we’re here every day no matter what on a 24/7 basis. No fees. No charge. No surprises. Ever. All you need is a computer, a free tab and a mouse (the electronic kind; not the vermin).

Sunday Funday!

Today We’ve Got Our ‘Music From Laurel Canyon’ EP, the Final Airing of “Ram” by The McCartneys, and LIVE DEAD! Later, Saturday, September 3, 2022

Good Morning, Musicologists! We are looking at a beautiful weather day here in the Boston area, and we’ve got some great programming lined up for you today starting with some sounds from Laurel Canyon.

Today we’ve got those great sounds from Laurel Canyon!

Here’s your Saturday lineup:

11:00 a.m. Music From Laurel Canyon: Various Artists

The Laurel Canyon music scene was a force across two decades, the sixties and seventies. It was one big musical happy family. There was cross-pollination that led to the country-rock revolution. You’re going to hear from The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas, Linda Ronstadt, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Doors, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, The Monkees, CSNY, Manassas, John Mayall, The Eagles, J.D. Souther, Harry Nilsson, Canned Heat, Carole King, James Taylor, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band and more!

7:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney FINAL AIRING!

We bid farewell to a great album today, the only album credited to Paul & Linda McCartney. It was released during a time of great public feuding between McCartney and his former bandmates and was subject to some criticism. At the end of the day when we all got over the break-up of the greatest band on the planet, Ram became one of Paul McCartney’s most critically acclaimed albums and remains so today.

10:00 p.m. LIVE DEAD! The Grateful Dead Live at The Rainbow Theatre, London, UK, October 6, 1981

We have a repeat performance here from The Dead, but we haven’t aired it since 2020, so it’s effectively brandy new. Tune it in at 10:00 p.m., Deadheads.

Another work day for me, but you are in the best of hands here in The Mermaid Lounge. She’s on duty 24/7. No rest. No retreat. We’re totally free of charge with no surprises. There aren’t any forms to fill out, we don’t require a “subscription” or a credit card. Hell, we don’t even ask for personal information. It’s none of our business. Our business is sharing music. End of story.

Music From Laurel Canyon!

We Kick Off a New Month With Valerie Carter, Our New ’27 and Gone’ Playlist, and Our AOW Later, on Thursday, September 1, 2022

We debut our new multi-artist ’27 and Gone’ Playlist today!

Here’s today’s musical lineup:

11:00 a.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Valerie Carter

One of the greatest singer-songwriters of any generation, Valerie Carter was both a successful solo artist and in demand by her peers as guests on their songs. The girl not only could sing, but she could write. One of our favorites here in The Mermaid Lounge!

3:00 p.m. 27 and Gone: Various Artists NEW!

The 27 Club is one of the most notorious in all of music, the musicians who have lived to just the ripe young age of 27 and then moved on to Rock n’ Roll Heaven. You can read more about it here. Of course, we don’t play everyone here, so we’ll tell you our playlist consists of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison (The Doors), Amy Winehouse,Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (The Grateful Dead), the great bluesman Robert Johnson,Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (Canned Heat), Pete Ham (Badfinger), and Malcolm Hale (Spanky & Our Gang).

7:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney

We are getting to the end of our run with this great album. Our final airing will be on Saturday. By Sunday, we’ll have a brand new selection!

We are having difficulty with the blog this morning. The settings are all messed up, and it’s really annoying when that happens and you can’t solve the problem, I might add. So, we’re cutting short and contacting WordPress. In the meantime, you know the drill: Be here or be square.

27 & Gone Debuts!

We Celebrate Tuesday Bluesday With Paul Butterfield ‘Live’ in Boston and Eva Cassidy ‘Live’ in Georgetown, August 30, 2022

We’ve got some great vintage stuff for you on this fine Tuesday Bluesday with a couple of great ‘live’ performances. Sandwiched in between is our Album of The Week

Join us for Tuesday Bluesday!

Here’s your Tuesday Bluesday lineup:

11:00 a.m. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Live at Unicorn Coffee House, Boston, MA, May 1966

This is one of those mystery date performances. I’ve been looking around for the actual date since we uploaded the music five years ago. Nobody seems to have it. But hell, we know it happened. And we know the Unicorn was real, a little one-room venue in Boston where Butterfield frequently played.

3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney

A fine vinyl release here back in the day. The only album ever credited to the husband and wife team eventually ended up being one of McCartney’s most highly acclaimed albums of his solo career.

7:00 p.m. Eva Cassidy Live at Blues Alley, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., January 2-3, 1996

We have the date of this great performance by Eva Cassidy, a great folk and blues singer who passed on the very same year of this performance.

Our overseas friends make up the bulk of listeners every morning. Some of them have been on all night, depending upon where they live! And the folks from Kansas? They’re either dead or just really like the radio station because they’ve been on for two days solid now. Whatever works.

It’s Tuesday Bluesday!

We’re Keeping It Simple on Sunday With Our Brand New Album of The Week and ‘The Sixties Rotation, Volume Two’ EP, Sunday, August 28, 2022

Good Morning, Musicologists! It’s another keep-it-simple Sunday with Ram as our Album of The Week and Volume Two of our ‘Sixties Rotation.’

Here’s today’s musical lineup:

11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney NEW!

This is the only album ever attributed to the McCartney husband and wife team, and it’s one of my favorites. I remember playing the grooves out of this thing when it first came out. The album generated McCartney’s first number one U.S. single as a former Beatle with Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey. McCartney was in a very public feud with his former mates at the time and was subject to much criticism, but eventually Ram became one of McCartney’s most critically-acclaimed solo albums. It was also recognized as an early indie pop album. While we don’t give you the full 2012 expanded release here, we are including two extra songs that were part of the Ram sessions: Another Day and Oh Woman, Oh Why.

3:00 p.m. The Sixties Rotation, Volume Two: Various Artists

This is volume two of our sixties collection where we focus mostly on the mid-to-late sixties with The Mamas & The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Sly & The Family Stone, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roy Orbison, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, Chuck Berry, Blind Faith, The Spencer Davis Group, Elvis Presley, The Box Tops, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, The Band, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, The Ronettes, The Kinks, The Zombies, The Velvet Underground, B. B. King, Led Zeppelin, Donovan and more!

Hey, it’s officially a day of rest. If there’s a Supreme Being, he or she is taking the day off today as well. Just remember that. This is the perfect landing spot for your Sunday because we’re not going to cost you a cent. No subscriptions. No credit card. No personal information. And best of all: No bait-and-switch. Just a tab and a mouse is all you need.

The Sixties Rotation!

It’s Saturday and We’ve Got ‘The British Are Coming’ EP, Our AOW, Some ‘Live’ Bonnie Raitt, and This Week’s LIVE DEAD! August 27, 2022

Good Morning, Music Lovers! We’ve got a full slate today, including brand new ‘live’ Bonnie Raitt and a new airing of LIVE DEAD! in addition to our ‘The British Are Coming’ multi-artist EP.

We’ve got The British Invasion and beyond today!

Here’s today’s lineup:

9:00 a.m. The British Are Coming: Various Artists

We’ve got it all from The British Invasion and beyond, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Zombies, Dave Mason, Electric Light Orchestra, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, The Hollies, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Queen, The Dave Clark Five, The Bee Gees, The Moody Blues, Rod Stewart, Them, George Harrison, Herman’s Hermits, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Badfinger, The Yardbirds, Traffic, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Yes, The Animals, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, the Spencer Davis Group and more!

4:00 p.m. Album of The Week: The Union by Elton John and Leon Russell Final Airing!

This is our final airing of this masterful collaboration produced by T. Bone Burnett. Tomorrow when you wake up, we’ll have a brand new selection.

7:00 p.m. Bonnie Raitt Live at The Record Plant, Sausalito, California, December 9, 1973 NEW!

This is a brand new live performance from Bonnie Raitt, vintage 1973, from The Record Plant in Sausalito and broadcast live on Ksan-FM.

10:00 p.m. LIVE DEAD! The Grateful Dead Live at The Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, November 10, 1985 NEW!

We’ve got a brand new soundboard recording of the Dead live at The Meadowlands from 1985. More new music from the ultimate road band.

Saturdays are a great day to tune us in because you can really get the flavor of the station. Give us just one week and you’ll be hooked. We’re totally free 24/7, no strings, no surprises. And we don’t require a credit card or personal information. See for yourself by tuning in today!

The British Are Coming!

Today It’s The Dylan-Petty ‘True Confessions Tour,’ Another Airing of Our AOW, and The All-Girl Revue Later, Thursday, August 25, 2022

Good Morning, Musicologists! No EP today, but there’s no shortage of great programming here in The Mermaid Lounge as we take you on a great musical journey.

Here’s your programming for today:

11:00 a.m. Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Cal Expo Amphitheatre, Sacramento, CA, June 12, 1986

Two masters alone and together on Dylan’s 1986 True Confessions Tour. Truly a wonder to behold.

3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: The Union by Elton John & Leon Russell

This afternoon we give you the next-to-last airing of this great collaboration between Elton John and Leon Russell, released in 2010. The final airing will be sometime on Saturday.

7:00 p.m. The All-Girl Revue, Volume Three: Various Artists

Tonight we put the women of music in charge once again. You’ll hear a shortened version of our ‘Ladies Day Out’ EP with Linda Ronstadt, Valerie Carter, Phoebe Snow, Carole King, Janis Joplin, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Aretha Franklin, Melanie, Norah Jones, Judy Collins, Melissa Etheridge, Dolly Partin, Shawn Colvin, Wendy Waldman, Susan Tedeschi, The Shirelles, The Staple Singers (featuring Mavis Staples), Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Pretenders (featuring Chrissie Hynde), Joni Mitchell and more!

Come on. Blah. Blah. Blah. We say it over and over and over. Just tune us in. We’re totally free 24/7. I know this might be hard to believe, but we make not one cent off this thing. It’s what we here in The Mermaid Lounge call a ‘labor of love.’ We ain’t lying.

Free Music For Everyone!

It’s Tuesday Bluesday With Our Big, Bad Blues EP and ‘Live’ Stevie Ray Vaughan Later; In Between, It’s Our AOW, August 23, 2022

Happy Tuesday Bluesday, people! We’ve got a great musical lineup today here in The Mermaid Lounge that begins with our ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blues’ EP!

Here’s today’s musical lineup:

10:00 a.m. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blues: Various Artists

Here we have our all-encompassing blues extravaganza where you will hear B. B. King, Little Walter, Delbert McClinton, Slim Harpo, Ry Cooder, Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, The Animals, Albert King, Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, The Yardbirds, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, Bobby “Blue” Bland, The Allman Brothers Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elmore James, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Robert Cray Band, J. J. Cale, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, James Cotton, Koko Taylor, The Butterfield Blues Band, Susan Tedeschi, Duane Allman, Marcia Ball, Roomful of Blues, Howlin’ Wolf, Linda Ronstadt, Tracy Nelson, Buddy Guy and more!

4:30 p.m. Album of The Week: The Union by Elton John & Leon Russell

In between our blues features today, we squeeze in our second airing of our Album of The Week by Elton John and Leon Russell, released in 2010.

7:00 p.m. Stevie Ray Vaughan Live at the Mann Music Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 30, 1987

We close out our musical programming tonight with a live outing from Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the greatest blues guitarists in musical history. Even B. B. King and Lucille agree with that assessment, I might add.

Before, in between, and after we have that great wide Open Stream courtesy of The Music Mermaid. As you well know, she has impeccable taste in music. We’re totally free, 24-7, no strings and absolutely no surprises. And we never ask for your personal information. This is a labor of love inspired by my many summer days sitting around in Medford, Massachusetts with my friends listening to WMEX-AM on my transistor radio. Tune us in.

It’s Tuesday Bluesday!

It’s Sunday and We Have Our ‘Original Sixties Rotation’ EP, a Great Collaboration for Our AOW, and Peter Tosh In the Spotlight, August 21, 2022

Good Morning, Musicologists! We’ve got an eclectic programming day planned for you today, starting with our great Album of The Week, then moving into our very first Sixties Rotation. We close out later with our Reggae selection.

Here’s today’s lineup:

10:00 a.m. Album of The Week: The Union by Elton John and Leon Russell NEW!

Any album with these two guys in collaboration can only be called a tour de force. Released in 2010, the album was produced by the great T. Bone Burnett (who also contributes on electric guitar). Others who helped out include Booker T. Jones (Hammond B-3), Neil Young (vocals), Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar), and Brian Wilson (vocal harmonies). It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and was listed at No. 3 on Rolling Stone’s 30 Best Albums of 2010.

1:00 p.m. The Original Sixties Rotation: Various Artists

We’ve got just over five hours of uninterrupted sixties music coming your way in the early afternoon. This particular rotation focuses on the early-to-mid years of the decade, although I can’t guarantee we don’t slip some stuff in from later in the decade. I may have been stoned when I made it. You will hear Del Shannon, Little Eva, The Drifters, The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Hollies, The Walker Brothers, Mary Wells, Dusty Springfield, The Searchers, The Monkees, Sonny & Cher, Petula Clark, Glen Campbell, Johnny Rivers, The Dave Clark Five, The Supremes, Harry Nilsson, The Band, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Simon & Garfunkel, Blind Faith, Janis Joplin, Tony Joe White, Barry McGuire, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Fats Domino and more.

8:00 p.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Peter Tosh NEW!

Peter Tosh has a long, storied musical history. Abandoned by his parents and shuffled among his relatives, he eventually became a self-taught singer, songwriter and musician who was a critical part of The Wailers. He eventually met Robert Nesta Marley (THE Bob Marley) and Neville O’Reilly Livingston (Bunny Wailer). They started singing together in 1962 and the rest is history. He wrote several of the Wailers hit songs including Get Up, Stand Up, 400 Years, and No Sympathy. After the Wailers, Peter Tosh went on to a successful solo career starting with his album, Legalize It. Today, we put Reggae legend Peter Tosh In the Spotlight.

Here we are again. Another Sunday in The Mermaid Lounge, and a perfect day to acquaint yourselves with our special brand of radio. Yep. It’s true. You can’t create “custom” playlists here. That’s not what we’re about. We’re about real radio. I remember the days of summer laying around in my yard with my friends tuned into our transistor radios listening to WMEX. We waited in anticipation for every song.

Sunday Funday!