Category: Heartland Rock

On Sunday, We are Dissenting, Then It’s Live Badfinger, and a Paul Simon ‘Spotlight’ Feature to Close, October 5, 2025

Good morning, music lovers. In this day and age, dissent is essential and we feature our ‘We Dissent’ playlist, a history of protest music, for the first five hours of the day.

Here’s your Sunday Funday lineup:

9:00 a.m. We Dissent: Various Artists

We’ve had plenty of dissent over the years from musical artists like Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, The Temptations, Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Doors, Sam Cooke, Tim Hardin, CSNY, Jesse Colin Young, The Beatles, The Band, Edwin Starr, The Byrds, Bob Marley & The Wailers, and more!

4:00 p.m. Badfinger Live at The Cowtown Auditorium, Kansas City, MO, April 7, 1972

Certainly the biggest and most successful act signed by Apple Records, and we’ve got them live this afternoon.

8:00 p.m. In the Spotlight: The Music of Paul Simon

We close with a legend, half of a dynamic duo that broke onto the music scene in the fifties, and stuck around for decades. Tonight we close with Paul Simon as half of Simon & Garfunkel and with music from his successful solo career.

We’re here. We’re free. There’s no commercial interruption. There’s no “subscription” required. What could be better? Oh, yeah, the best music on the planet. I nearly forgot that. Just hit the button below!

The Button.

On Independence Day, ‘We Dissent’ Mightily For Several Hours, Then It’s The Grateful Dead Live in Boston, July 4, 2025

Good morning, music lovers! We have little to celebrate today, so we are playing the best protests songs for more than four hours. The list has been culled from hours of research and organization, and it is our newest EP. We follow that with Live Dead!

Here’s your Independence Day lineup:

10:00 a.m. We Dissent: Various Artists

We kick it off with our newest EP as we dissent where we are in history for more than four hours, and the playlist will be growing soon. You will hear the music of The Who, The Beatles, Tracy Chapman, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Billie Holiday, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Peter, Paul & Mary, Pete Seeger, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, The Temptations, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley & The Wailers, and more!

6:00 p.m. LIVE DEAD: The Grateful Dead Live at The Music Hall, Boston, MA, June 9, 1976

We’ll close out the programming this evening with a great episode of LIVE DEAD as we give you the band live from Boston’s Music Hall.

Before, in between, and after we give you our big, wide Open Stream. We’re anti-capitalist, and we’re serious about keeping it that way. We run no commercial advertising, we don’t require a ‘subscription’ and we don’t ask for your personal information. See for yourselves. The button is below.

We Dissent!

As We Prepare for ‘Festival Week’ Starting May 5, We Give You Our Big, Wide Open Stream Today, May 2, 2025

Good morning, musicologists! On Monday, May 5, ‘Festival Week’ begins here in The Mermaid Lounge and runs through Sunday, May 11. During that time we will give you performances from Woodstock ’69, Monterey Pop in 1967, The Isle of Wight ’70, and a few of the Newport Folk Festivals of the sixties.

We hope that you will enjoy the next 24 hours of totally uninterrupted music from our vast and eclectic collection of music files. You never know what The Music Mermaid will do, but I can guarantee you will enjoy yourselves. The button is below.

Open Stream Friday!

Friday Is A Day For Our Big, Wide Open Stream With The Music Mermaid Fully In Charge, On April 4, 2025

We’ve got an Open Stream day today, giving you hours of our extensively eclectic musical collection with absolutely no commercial interruption. The Music Mermaid is fully in charge and who knows what she’ll do. She could actually even chose a playlist, or a trifecta, or she could just choose to let our file of 30,000 songs run free and wild. You won’t know unless you tune us in!

The button is, of course, below.

Big, Wide Open Stream!

We Ring in The New Year With The Grateful Dead at Midnight, Then It’s Tom Petty’s Top 100 Songs and Bruce Springsteen ‘In the Spotlight’, Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Happy New Year, music lovers! We post this early because we have a special midnight airing of The Grateful Dead live from Winterland on New Year’s Eve 1970, then we give you Tom Petty’s Top 100 songs and a Bruce Springsteen ‘Spotlight’ feature.

Here’s your New Year’s lineup:

12:00 a.m. LIVE DEAD: The Grateful Dead Live at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, December 31, 1970

We ring in the new year at midnight with a live performance by The Grateful Dead from the iconic Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

10:00 a.m. Tom Petty’s Top 100 Songs

We gave you The Beatles in chronological order over the Christmas holidays; now we give you Tom Petty’s Top 100 songs on New Year’s Day as we celebrate his work with The Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch, The Traveling Wilburys and as a solo artist.

8:00 p.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Bruce Springsteen

We close out the programming this evening with The Boss ‘In the Spotlight’.

Before, in between and after our scheduled programming, we give you our big, wide Open Stream uninterrupted by commercial advertising and overly-chatty DJ’s. The button is below!

Happy New Year!

We Celebrate Tom Petty’s Birthday Today and Give You Our Big Reggae Playlist in Between, Sunday, October 20, 2024

Good morning, Petty lovers! Today we give you a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Sandwich with some great reggae in between!

Here’s your Sunday Funday lineup:

10:00 a.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Houston Music Hall, Houston, TX, December 6, 1979 NEW!

We start out by airing a new-to-the-station concert from The Heartbreakers’ Damn The Torpedoes tour. This one was broadcast on the legendary King Biscuit Flower Hour.

2:00 p.m. The Best of Reggae & Ska: Various Artists

This afternoon, we give voice to the Reggae music genre with Bob Marley & The Wailers, Bunny Wailter, Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker & The Aces, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Judy Mowatt, Laurel Aitken, Marsha Griffiths, Rita Marley, Toots & The Maytals, The Jiving Juniors, Derrick Morgan and more!

8:00 p.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Under The Covers

The same qualities that make The Heartbreakers a great original rock and roll band make them the world’s best cover band, bar none. Today we give you some of their best covers.

It’s a beautiful day here today and I hope it is where you are as well. Just add a little music and it gets even better. Come celebrate the birthday boy with us. The button is below.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Petty!

On Monday, We Close Out Tom Petty Weekend With The Fillmore ’97 Shows in Three Parts, October 7, 2024

Good morning, Petty lovers! Today we close out Tom Petty Weekend with all Fillmore ’97 programming and plenty of big, wide Open Stream! We keep it simple today.

Your musical lineup is simple:

10:00 a.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco, Volume 1, January 31-February 7, 1997

3:00 p.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco, Volume 2, January 31-February 7, 1997

8:00 p.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco, Volume 3, January 31-February 7, 1997

We have two concerts from the famed 1997 Fillmore concerts, which every member of The Heartbreakers considers the best of times on stage.Today’s collection is the one from the boxed set released a couple of years ago. Tom himself felt the band was at its most creative, and it is apparent as this collection covers 20 magnificent nights of shows where the playlist changed every single time out. That is unheard of. Of particular note are the number of “covers” from their rock and roll heroes that the band performs. We here in The Mermaid Lounge not only reveres The Heartbreakers as the best rock n’ roll band on the planet, but also the best cover band.

Enjoy the trip. The Music Mermaid will be here manning the controls all day and, as usual, at no cost and with absolutely no commercial interruption. The big ass button is below.

The Heartbreakers at The Fillmore, 1997

Sunday Funday Brings Warren Zevon, Our ‘Under The Influence’ EP and Live Brandi Carlile, September 8, 2024

Good morning, musicologists! It’s Sunday in The Lounge and we’ve got a great lineup for you that includes our first ‘live’ performance from Brandi Carlile!

Here’s your Sunday Funday lineup:

10:00 a.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Warren Zevon

We lost one of the greatest singer-songwriters in music on September 7, 2003. Warren Zevon was not only a great performer in his own right, but he was a man whose music was recorded by many other artists. Today we pay him tribute by putting him In The Spotlight.

2:00 p.m. Brandi Carlile Live at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA, November 19, 2010 NEW!

Today we feature our first live performance by singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile. She appears in concert here with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

5:00 p.m. Under The Influence: Various Artists

We take a trip through the evening with five hours of music that is about being under the influence of various stimulants, some legal and some not. You’ll hear Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Byrds, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Little Feat, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix, Steely Dan, New Riders of The Purple Sage, Talking Heads, Neil Young, The Beatles, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Foreigner, Jonathan Edwards, John Lee Hooker, Donovan and more!

It’s a day of rest, and the weather is beautiful here in the Boston area. The sun is shining and it’s actually just a bit chilly this morning. A great day to kick back and listen to some great music! The button is below.

Welcome to Sunday Funday!

It’s The Sixties at Midweek Along With The Boss and a Very Consequential Joni Mitchell Concert, Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Good morning, musicologists! We’ve got a great lineup today and once again it’s all begins with the sixties. We’ve also got Springsteen and the concert that launched Greenpeace.

Here’s your midweek musical lineup:

9:00 a.m. The Sixties Rotation, Volume Two: Various Artists

We’ve got volume two of our big sixties rotation today with The Mamas & The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Buffalo Springfield, Sly & The Family Stone, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roy Orbison, The Yardbirds, The Animals, Wilson Pickett, The Band, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, The Kinks, The Ronettes, Velvet Underground, Jimmy Cliff, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Byrds, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Blind Faith, The Four Tops, CSNY, Marvin Gaye, The Doors, The Box Tops, The Beatles and more!

4:00 p.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Bruce Springsteen

This afternoon we put The Boss squarely In the Spotlight, the man who pioneered working-class heartland rock.

8:00 p.m. Joni Mitchell with James Taylor and Phil Ochs, Live at The Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, October 10, 1970

This is the concert that launched Greenpeace. The concert featured Joni Mitchell with her boyfriend at the time, James Taylor, and folk legend Phil Ochs in a performance that funded the organization’s protests of the 1971 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at Amchitka Island, Alaska.

It’s a good day to be here, people. We have what we hope to be one final summer gasp today as the temps have finally begun to moderate back into the seventies. Inside, however, we bring the heat from a musical perspective. The button’s below.

The Concert for Amchitka