WDHV 101.7 is a little FM station in Trenton that plays some great pre-70’s classic country. The other day I caught the tail end of “Talk Back Trembling Lips” from 1963 and the rhythm section and reverb filled the van so nicely–it made my morning. They do slip in later stuff and even up to the awful she-thinks-my-tractor’s-sexy “big hat” country, but it’s in moderation and all played by people who actually seem to remember this stuff.

I mention this because this week I’m helping sabotage statistics by recording my radio listening habits for Arbitron (think Nielsen for radio). Three things are great about this: 1. Per day, I only listen to maybe 45 mins of NPR and 10 minutes (if I’m lucky) of some hodunk out-of-area oldies station. 2. They bribe you with dollar bills in the envelope…$10 so far, and since Arbitron works for the LPFM-hating NAB, I’m happy to take their money. 3. This makes twice that I was randomly selected to do this, first being probably a decade ago.

Tonight I’m going to see Mates of State, Maria Taylor and papercranes at Common Grounds. Maria is/was(?) one half of Azure Ray, who put out a great debut album and some OK follow-ups. It’ll be nice to finally see the Mates outside of Wayward Council, they’re sometimes a little much for casual listening, but a blast live.