We’re at Midweek With Our Great ‘Folk Music From A-To-Z’ EP, Karla Bonoff and a New Playlist Tonight, Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Good morning, music lovers! We’ve hit midweek once again and we’ve got a full slate lined up for you today, including a new playlist to wrap up the day about the rain.

Here’s today’s lineup:

9:00 a.m. Folk Music From A-To-Z: Various Artists

Folk brought us the music of both social justice and social unrest. In this EP you’ll hear from John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary, Odetta, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Beatles, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, The Band, Eric Andersen, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith, Jesse Winchester, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Lead Belly, Tim Hardin, The Kingston Trio, Simon & Garfunkel, Richie Havens, Jackson Browne, Guy Clark, James Taylor, The Carter Family, Harry Chapin, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Townes Van Zandt, Phil Ochs and more!

4:00 p.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of Karla Bonoff

The second airing of Karla Bonoff as our featured singer-songwriter for this week.

8:00 p.m. Looks Like Rain: Various Artists NEW!

Not quite an EP, but with a great selection of artists. You’ll hear The Temptations, James Taylor, America, Willie Nelson, The Rascals, Linda Ronstadt, The Lovin’ Spoonful, the James Gang, Joni Mitchell, J.D. Souther, Gordon Lightfoot, Poco, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Carole King, Melanie, Maria Muldaur, The Beatles, The Eurythmics, Tom Waits, Fats Domino, Valerie Carter, Electric Light Orchestra, Creedence Clearwater Revival and more!

We’re halfway to the weekend again. They call this “hump day” for a reason. Great day to tune us in. No cost. No advertising. Just music.

Monday Brings Our ‘Are You Ready for the Country’ EP and Ry Cooder & David Lindley ‘Live’ in Austria, April 17, 2023

Good morning, marathoners! Yes, it’s the Boston Marathon today and the 10th Anniversary of the bombing. We’re staying right here in The Mermaid Lounge all day where the living is easy peasy. We’ve got a great lineup in store for you.

Here’s your Monday, Monday lineup:

10:00 a.m. Are You Ready for The Country: Various Artists

Today it’s the best of real country combined with the innovation of those who melded country with rock. You’ll hear Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Pure Prairie League, Asleep At The Wheel, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, The Marshall Tucker Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mudcrutch, The Band, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Glen Campbell, Rosanne Cash, Dan Fogelberg, New Riders of The Purple Sage, John Prine, The Desert Rose Band and more!

7:00 p.m. Ry Cooder & David Lindley Live at The Vienna Opera House, Vienna, Austria, July 6, 1995 NEW!

This is a brand new live recording to The Lounge with two greats on the road together. You probably all know Ry Cooder. If you don’t know David Lindley, he’s one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation who supported some of the best, including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, Warren Zevon, Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton. He also founded the rock band El Rayo-X. He left this world on March 3 of this year. This one is for Mr. Lindley.

Hell, it’s Monday. We all need a boost as we start a new work week and try to make our way back to the weekend. We’re on 24/7 and we’re totally free of charge. Give us a listen.

We Keep It Simple on Sunday With Our New AOW From Mavis Staples and Leon Helm, and After That We’re ‘Under The Influence’ on April 16, 2023

Good morning, weekenders. It’s another keep-it-simple Sunday today with just our latest Album of The Week and our ‘Under The Influence’ multi-artist EP, followed by our wide Open Stream with The Music Mermaid.

Here’s Sunday’s musical landscape:

11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: Carry Me Home by Mavis Staples & Levon Helm NEW!

This masterpiece of an album was born out of the friendship developed during their work together while making The Big Waltz, the final hurrah for The Band. (For those who may not know, Levon Helm was The Band’s drummer.) The album was made from sessions recorded at Helms’ studio in Woodstock, New York, in 2011, shortly before his death. The album explores both political and religious themes as the two cover songs written by Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and The Band’s own Robbie Robertson. I have seen Mavis Staples live and she is a force of nature. As for Levon Helm, he was one of the creative driving forces (along with Robertson) of The Band, one of my all-time favorite musical acts.

3:00 p.m. Under The Influence: Various Artists

I keep on saying this,but it’s true. Whether your substance of choice is legal or illegal, we’ve all been here. And it is certainly a popular subject in the music world. During this EP you will hear Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Arlo Guthrie, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Donovan, Glen Frey, John Lee Hooker, Jonathan Edwards, Linda Ronstadt, Little Feat, The Traveling Wilburys, The Temptations, Small Faces, Steely Dan, Talking Heads,The Beatles, Neil Young, New Riders of The Purple Sage, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Dave Van Ronk, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Jackson Browne, Steve Winwood, Led Zeppelin, Harry Chapin, The Band, The Fraternity of Man and more!

Kick off your shoes. Then tune in, turn on, and drop out. Some sage advice from Timothy Leary. It’s Sunday. If there’s a big guy up there, he even took the day off.

Midweek Brings the ‘Ode To Morning’ EP, Steve Winwood, and Volume Two of ‘Repeat After Me’ on Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Good morning, music lovers! We are at the midweek portion of the program here in what we call the ‘real world’ and we’ve got some great music on tap today! Read on for details!

Here’s your midweek lineup:

9:00 a.m. Ode To Morning: Various Artists

We’ve paid homage to evening, now it’s time for the morning light to receive its due. You’ll hear Cat Stevens, Hoyt Axton, The Beatles, Neil Young, The Rascals, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Gram Parsons, Simon & Garfunkel, Taj Mahal, Dan Fogelberg, Harry Chapin, Three Dog Night, Ry Cooder, Tim Buckley, Muddy Waters, Linda Ronstadt, Jonathan Edwards, Townes Van Zandt, Pure Prairie League, Bob Dylan, Chris Hillman, Badfinger Joni Mitchell, The Move, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Nina Simone and more!

4:00 p.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood returns for his second airing today as our featured singer-songwriter.

8:00 p.m. Repeat After Me, Volume Two: Various Artists

You heard the first volume earlier in the week and now we’ve got volume two on tap with The Mamas & The Papas covering the Shirelles, Tom Petty covering Fats Domino, Joe Cocker covering The Box Tops, The Eagles covering Jackson Browne, The Traveling Wilburys covering Del Shannon, Linda Ronstadt covering Kate & Anna McGarrigle, The Beatles covering The Isley Brothers and you should get the picture here.

After today, we get closer to the weekend (yeah, I know, not quite close enough yet), right? So it gets better from here. We’ll help you get there with less pain if you tune us in. We’re on 24/7 and we’re totally free. No lie. Try us.

We’ve Got Mudcrutch Monday Madness, Maria Muldaur, and Volume One of ‘Repeat After Me’ on April 10, 2023

Good morning, Mudcrutch maniacs! Today we’ve got the full Mudcrutch slate of music (we’ll tell you why below) along with Maria Muldaur In the Spotlight and volume one of ‘Repeat After Me’ a playlist of covers by our favorite bands.

Here are today’s musical details:

10:00 a.m. Mudcrutch Monday Madness!

Tom Leadon, who was Tom Petty’s childhood friend and founding member and lead guitarist of Mudcrutch, passed away on March 22 from natural causes at the age of 70. He was also, at various times the bass player in Linda Ronstadt’s band. He was brother to Bernie Leadon, a founding member of The Eagles. This seems like a good time to break out the entire Mudcrutch catalogue in memory of Tom.

3:00 p.m. In the Spotlight: The Music of Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur began her illustrious career as part of the great folk revival of the sixties, playing the Greenwich Village clubs with Bob Dylan and John Sebastian. She then joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. When they disbanded, she embarked on her solo career recording albums in the folk, blues, early jazz, gospel, country, and R&B traditions. She also provided backup and harmony vocals on several Linda Ronstadt albums. We love Maria here in The Mermaid Lounge and today we put her in the spotlight.

7:00 p.m. Repeat After Me: Various Artists

We haven’t heard this one in a while. We have two volumes of this one. You’ll hear the second one later in the week. We are also working on volume three for later this month. These are great fun because we get to hear different versions of the same song by different artists. In this one, we have The Heartbreakers covering The Byrds, Tracy Nelson covering Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris covering Simon & Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt covering Little Feat, Three Dog Night covering Laura Nyro, The Beatles covering Barrett Strong, Joan Baez covering The Band…you get the idea.

A great rock and roll pioneer once sang that he hated blue Monday. Why not make yours better by tuning us in? We’re on 24/7 totally free and without commercial advertising. It’s nothing but wall-to-wall music here.

We Keep It Simple Today With Badfinger’s “No Dice” as Our AOW and ‘The Female Species’ EP, Sunday, April 9, 2023

Good morning, and if you’re celebrating, Happy Easter, Happy Passover and Happy Ramadan one and all! We’re keeping it simple as usual on this fine, sunny Sunday.

Here’s your holiday lineup:

10:00 a.m. Album of The Week: No Dice by Badfinger NEW!

I fell in love with Badfinger early on, and I supposed that’s because I could hear the influence of The Beatles. However, Badfinger was its own juggernaut, helping to create what is known as the power pop genre. It was the one band Apple Records signed that became a big time entity, in spite of the fact that their future held nothing but tragedy. Our album of the week, however, No Dice, was their third studio album released by Apple on November 9, 1970, and helped to expand the group’s popularity, particularly abroad. It was the first to feature lead guitarist Joey Molland. It also gave us the hit No Matter What, and the first recording of the song Without You, which would later become a huge hit for Harry Nilsson.

1:00 p.m. The Female Species: Various Artists

Nope. It’s not music by women, but it is music about women, girls, ladies, and chicks by artists like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Jackson Browne, The Boogaloo Swamis, John Mayall, Hot Tuna, The Eatles, Elvis Presley, Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Percy Sledge, The Beatles, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, America, Roy Orbison, Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The Beach Boys, The Temptations, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Rolling Stones, Peter & Gordon, The Rascals and more!

Before, in between and after it’s our great wide Open Stream courtesy of The Music Mermaid. She’s always on duty and has impeccable taste in music, as you well know by now. In between your celebrations, tune us in. We’re on 24/7, no matter what day it is.

We Head for the Weekened with The Band’s Final Concert, Our AOW, The Rascals, and a Replay of Petty Live at The Vic, on Thursday, April 6, 2023

Good morning, musicologists! We are heading for the weekend and we’ve got a busy Thursday for you, including a by request replay of a Petty favorite and The Band’s final show ever, also known as ‘The Last Waltz.’

Here’s your musical lineup:

9:00 a.m. The Band Live at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, November 26, 1976

A fine Thansgiving it was as The Band played their last show ever with some of their friends, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, The Staples, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Bobby Charles, and more!

4:00 p.m. Album of The Week: The Prodigal Son by Ry Cooder

We’ve got one more airing of this great gospel-inspired album after today, and that will be sometime on Saturday! Get it while you can!

7:00 p.m. In the Spotlight: The Rascals

One of the finest bands ever was formed in 1965 in Garfield, New Jersey. Between 1966 and 1968 they owned the top twenty of The Billboard Hot 100 with nine hits. Tonight they are In the Spotlight.

11:00 p.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live at The Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL, April 19, 2003 By Request

We just aired this one in late March, but we had a few requests from people both here and abroad requesting a repeat performance because they missed it. We’re giving it to you tonight. One of Petty’s best.

We’re on the run this morning for another opening shift, but we’re leaving you in the capable hands of The Music Mermaid. She has impeccable taste in music and will make you happy until I return.

Monday Rolls Around & It’s Time for Mudcrutch and Some Tunes About the Color Blue, April 3, 2023

Good morning and welcome back to the work week. If you’ve got those work-a-day blues, we can help you out today. Nothing like a little Mudcrutch music to solve that problem.

Mudcrutch at Humprey’s By The Bay (photo courtesy of Alex Matthews)

Here’s your Monday, Monday lineup:

11:00 a.m. All About Blue: Various Artists

The color blue just happens to be my favorite color, so I’m indulging myself on Monday. In the first set, you’ll hear from Linda Ronstadt, Foreigner, The Allman Brothers Band, Taj Mahal, Electric Light Orchestra, The Beach Boys, Paul McCartney & Wings, The Beatles, The Band, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Badfinger, Joni Mitchell, Jonathan Edwards, Mudcrutch, Fats Domino and more!

3:00 p.m. All About Blue Too: Various Artists

In our second set this afternoon, you’ll hear Phoebe Snow, The Rolling Stones, Robert Johnson, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, Shawn Colvin, Marvin Gaye, Boz Scaggs, Van Morrison, The Doors, Buddy Guy, The Association, The Beatles, The Kinks, Canned Heat, The Smithereens, Janis Joplin, George Harrison and more!

7:00 p.m. Mudcrutch Live at The Fonda Theatre, W. Hollywood, CA June 26, 2016

The band that left Gainesville, Florida, and that would morph into Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers came back with a bang in 2008 with the original cast. This is from their 2016 tour across America (which I still kick myself for missing when it passed through the House of Blues in Boston).

What could be better to help you through a Monday than great music? Not much, I’d venture. We’re on 24/7 (not just when we have programming) and we’re totally free of charge and we’re also totally free of commercial advertising. Give us a spin.

Sunday in The Lounge Brings Ry Cooder and Our AOW and the ‘Color My World’ EP, April 2, 2023

Good morning, music lovers! As you know, we keep it simple here on Sundays. It’s our album of the week selection and an extended playlist as a rule. Read on to find out what’s on tap today!

Here’s Sunday’s lineup:

12:00 p.m. Album of The Week: The Prodigal Son by Ry Cooder NEW!

Released in 2018, this was Ry Cooder’s first studio album in six years and his sixteenth release overall. Although he has never lost his activist voice, this album returns him to the gospel-infused spirit of his early years. Without a doubt, this singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is a Mermaid Lounge favorite. It should also be noted that Linda Ronstadt considers Ry Cooder to be the finest guitarist she has ever heard or worked with. We here in the lounge respect Linda’s impeccable musical taste.

4:00 p.m. Color My World: Various Artists

Today’s multi-artist EP is about colors with music from Linda Ronstadt, Valerie Carter, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Traveling Wilburys, Jonathan Edwards, George Harrison, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, John Hiatt, Joni Mitchell, Badfinger, Donovan, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Elton John, Procol Harum, Electric Light Orchestra, Amy Winehouse, The Who, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Sam & Dave, Jefferson Airplane, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, The Hollies, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Booker T & The MG’s, Lucinda Williams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Creedence Clearwater Revival and more!

It’s a day of rest. Consider this: If there is a big guy in the sky, they tell us he took the day off too. So my not you? Put your feet up, pull up a tab and tune us in. It won’t cost you a penny to give us a try, and you will not regret it!

We’re at Midweek With Volume Two of ‘The Sixties Rotation’ EP, James Taylor, and Some ‘Live’ Ry Cooder, Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Good morning, musicologists! We’re at midweek. We’ve made it this far and we’ve got some great stuff on tap for you today. I’ll be heading out to Truck Day, but The Music Mermaid is in the house and in control.

Here’s today’s lineup:

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

This one covers mostly mid-to-late sixties with The Beatles, The Mamas & The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Sly & The Family Stone, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roy Orbison, The Yardbirds, The Animals, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Blind Faith, Spencer Davis Group, Elvis Presley, The Box Tops, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, The Band, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, The Kinks, Jimmy Cliff, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Zombies, The Velvet Underground, Donovan, B. B. King, Led Zeppelin and more!

4:00 p.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of James Taylor

JT returns for his second spin as our featured singer-songwriter for this week.

7:00 p.m. Ry Cooder Live at The Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, July 7, 1974

Ry Cooder is a musical legend, whether you know it or not. To this day, Linda Ronstadt calls him the greatest guitarist she’s ever heard. (Hint: Eric Claption is not god.) What’s great about Cooder? He refuses to be defined by musical styles. Tonight we have him live from The Record Plant, and we’re about to bolster his presence in our standard rotation!

Repeat after me: We’re totally free 24/7. I know. You can’t build play lists on our station. If you could, we’d have to charge you because we accept no commercial advertising. We’ll leave that to other venues. We are a non-profit enterprise without non-profit status. We’re all about the music.