Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Snowing again. Little flakes spin pinlike, creep through windows left open to air out the cigarette smoke. They're talking about as much as a foot, though with final exams in the air we're looking at some sort of creative delay, not a fullblown cancellation. And of course, that assumes a heck of a lot more to come overnight than the thin frozen mist that falls past the window of this basement studio as I type.

A night of non-local music tonight on Tributary, your ten to midnight Monday night radio show. In honor of our web listeners, because Dad just handed me some duplicates of a few great old Oxford American Southern Music Samplers, and because I never realized how rich the local scene is until I tried counting the locals on the playlists for the past few weeks.

Tonight, and tonight only, we did not play any They Might Be Giants, Guster, Dar Williams, Mark Erelli, Juliana Hatfield, Evan Dando, Rani Arbo or Salamander Crossing, Phish, or other music from within a hundred mile radius of the good old basement soundboard. Nope. Nothing local at all. No Boston, no Northampton.

With one exception. Can you spot it? None of my listeners could. Shame, really -- they could have won a week's worth of free drinks for the call.

Playlist follows, as always. In addition to a holy host of great and diverse southern fried genre-busting, look, especially, for short sets of music from down under and from the frozen north, and a few hidden gems from other parts, too.

Tributary 2/28/05: Anywhere But Here

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- Billy The Kid
Badly Drawn Boy -- Once Around The Block
Barenaked Ladies -- Life, In A Nutshell
Ani Difranco -- Recoil
Ben Folds Five -- Tom & Mary
The Late Greats -- Wilco

Poem: Drum, by Philip Levine

Eels -- Blinking Lights (for me)
Ramblin' Jack Elliot -- Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
Olu Dara -- Your Lips
Fiona Apple -- Extraordinary Machine
Crowded House -- It's Only Natural
The Bats -- Trouble In This Town
The Waifs -- London Still

Poem: Gospel, by Philip Levine

The Mavericks -- Dance The Night Away
The Del McCoury Band -- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
The Gourds -- El Paso
Sonic Youth -- Unmade Bed
Gilberto Gil -- Waiting In Vain

Poem: On 52nd Street, by Philip Levine

Keller Williams -- Freaker By The Sepaker
String Cheese Incident -- Drifting
Ryan Adams -- You Will Always Be The Same
Sarah McLachlan -- Ice Cream
The Be Good Tanyas -- Rain And Snow
The Duhks -- Giuliano's Tune, Something, Eleanor Day's #2
Will Kimbrough -- Goodnight Moon

You've been listening to Tributary, your ten to midnight Monday night show here on WNMH, where the music never stops.

What never?

Well, hardly ever.