Thursday, May 15: Mason Jennings (pictured right) is a Hawaiian-born resident of Minnesota -- and seriously, how many people can you say THAT about? -- and his brand new CD is called "In The Ever," which gets a couple of tracks played from it on tonight's show, including the opener. Sara doesn't play anything released before 2008 until the latter half of the show when she pulls out "Clothes of Sand" from the 2002 Solas CD, "The Edge of Silence," and closes the show with music from Jerry Douglas, known as both an accomplished solo artist as well as the dobro player with Union Station, the band that backs Alison Krauss) and his 1998 CD, "Restless on the Farm."  New music on tonight's show includes fresh material from Van Morrison, Aimee Mann, Melody Gardot, Ben Sollee and many more.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 18: It's two hours of mostly new music in the expanded Sunday morning edition of the show, although Sara - ever the Beatles fan - sneaks in a version of "Two of Us" from "Let it Be...Naked" (pictured left), an updated version of the Beatles' classic remixed in 2003 to undo producer Phil Spector's heavy-handed arrangements and overdubs and to restore the mix to the Fab Four's original vision. Another Beatles tune, "I Will," gets a reworking by Alison Krauss and Tony Furtado. There's brand new material from Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Daniel Lanois and She and Him, a mini-set of Maine music including The Boneheads' contribution to Volume 7 of the "Greetings from Area Code 207" series, and Sara closes the show with guitarist extraordinaire Leo Kottke and former Phish bassist Mike Gordon from their 2002 release, "Clone."

 

Monday, May 19: "Momofuku" (pictured right) is not only the name of the inventor of the cup noodle, it's also the new CD from Elvis Costello and the Imposters, which was available only on vinyl LP -- that's a 12-inch grooved black disc for all you young people out there -- until a couple of weeks ago.  Sara spotlights this new release by playing a couple of songs from it on tonight's show, which also features brand new music from China Forbes, Dawn Landes, Duffy, Fink and from Nick Lowe and his interestingly-titled release, "Jesus of Cool." The show closes with a 2005 cut from Bruce Cockburn, who will be performing later this month at First Parish Church in Portland.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 20: Tonight's program will be pre-empted in order that MPBN may broadcast NPR's coverage of results of presidential primaries in Kentucky and Oregon.

 

Wednesday, May 21: Solomon Burke's new CD is called "Like a Fire" (pictured right) and Sara highlights this new release by spinning a couple of tunes from it tonight, including the show's opener. Burke, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is a former preacher from Philadelphia who started out as a gospel singer and whose soulful voice and country stylings make for an interesting listen. Lots of brand new music on tonight's show, like the latest from Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Mando Saenz, Eliza Gilkyson and Daniel Lanois, among others, and Sara closes the show with a 1999 cut from Bill Frisell's "Nashville" album.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 22: The new CD from Alejandro Escovedo is called "Real Animal" (pictured left) and you can hear a couple of cuts from it on tonight's program (interesting trivia: Escovedo's neice is former Prince collaborator Shiela E). Aimee Mann, Portishead, Whiskeytown and Robert Forster all have new music played on the program, and Sara closes out the show with Liz Carroll and John Doyle's "Long Cold Night on a Misty Moor" from 2005.