Online radio sampler highlights CCCIII

Today's standout tunes:

KHEN (Salida, CO)

• 8000 Days-West Texas Exiles (I was on the fence about this track initially, but its chorus and fit-for-a-road-trip feel won me over.)

KKJZ (Long Beach, CA)

• Maintenance Phase-Audrey Ochoa (There's considerable pep in this trombone-led combo-with-a-big-band-feel March release. Speaking of a big band feel...)  
• Moon River-Alexis Cole (...This cover has an appealingly assured swing in its vocals and instrumentation.) 

KRNN (Juneau, AK)

• Meeting Is Over-Moira Smiley (I can easily imagine Sarah Jarosz covering this.)

WNJR (Washington, PA)

• My Sunshine-The Rosie Varela Project (This guitar-heavy indie rock track with compelling vocals builds tension effectively. "Mont Blanc Massif" by We Met In Paris would sound right before this.)

WOMR (Provincetown, MA)

• We The People-Ben Sidran (A nice jazzy reminder of our common humanity.)
• Funky Fanfare-Keith Mansfield (It has to be gratifying to play a horn part or the piano on this track, knowing that you're part of a melody with a cool late '60s strut.)

WOOL (Bellows Falls, VT)

• American Tune-Allen Toussaint (Sadly, the lyrics of this excellent Paul Simon tune are disturbingly appropriate now.  There can't be too many sincerely sung covers of it, as far as I'm concerned. The piano adds appealing gravitas to this rendition.) 

WYXR (Memphis, TN)

• Banana Juice-The Mar-Keys (A hip-for-its-time, i.e. 1965, instrumental.)

Unlikely grocery store background music II

I know I'm not the only person who has heard "Trouble Me" by 10,000 Maniacs.  There's a good chance, however, that I was the only one singing along softly with it as it played over a grocery store's speakers today.

I'd add "Trouble Me" to the list of songs I've heard in grocery stores that I wasn't expecting.  Jesse Colin Young's "Song For Juli," "Since You Asked" by Judy Collins, and Fleetwood Mac's "Sunny Side Of Heaven" have been some of the other biggest surprises.

I'd like to think that whoever programmed "Trouble Me" is a gentle soul.  You'd have to be to choose a softly sung, sensitively written non-hit track with lyrics about helping people in need while you're still relatively young and strong.  "Trouble Me" was the first song I heard by 10,000 Maniacs, and back in 1989, I thought, "If this is typical of Natalie Merchant and company's efforts, this group must have a respectable following among introverts and kind people."

I'd never have guessed that I'd hear "Trouble Me" 37 years later while grocery shopping, but apparently, at least one other kind soul in the world hears what I hear in it.