Get a free download from The Sound!

Bluegrass favorites Cadillac Sky are offering a free track download from their upcoming release Letters in the Deep. Click here for more information. Also, you've heard the music of Hoots and Hellmouth on The Sound... download the track "Known for Possession" which has been featured on The Sound by clicking here. And Serena Ryder... also heard on The Sound... is offering a free download of her cover of the Neil Young classic "Heart of Gold." You can get more info here. And finally, you can still  download a track from the Lovell Sisters' new CD Time to Grow right here... you've heard music from that CD on The Sound. Two ways to get at the Lovell Sisters track, all starting with clicking on the Heard on PRE tab just above what you're reading. Method #1... click on Free Music from The Sound... the Lovell Sisters. Click on the MP3 icon. You'll go to another page and then (again) click on the MP3 icon. The track will play back in your browser, whereupon you can  click on File, then Save Page as, at which point save on your computer to the folder of your choice. And for those of you podcasting-savvy, go to the podcast page, go to the Free Music from The Sound page, and download to the application of your choice. Thank you for listening to The Sound.

The Sound

What is The Sound? Our ten-words-or-less description is "Five hours of Americana, roots rock and contemporary folk," but it's more than that... a host of styles, from acoustic blues to rockabilly to bluegrass to, well, whatever catches our fancy that day. It's artists you've known for decades like Bruce Cochburn, Shawn Colvin, Marshall Crenshaw and the Bodeans plus artists you'll hear for the first time who you'll listen to for decades to come, including the Greencards, Arlington Priest and Crooked Still.  AND its musicians homegrown here in North Carolina whose work stands up to all the performers just mentioned...  bluegrass from Clayton's the Wells Family, singer/songwriters from an area thick with them ... Asheville, including Christine Kane, Chris Rosser and David Lamotte, and blues from Chatham County's Dmitri Resnick ... just to name a few. So, again, what is The Sound? Here's another ten-words-or-less description - great music that needs a place to be heard.  Scott Robertson is your host for The Sound Monday thru Friday from 7-12 midnight on PRE Public Radio East... News & Ideas... at 88.5, 90.3, 91.5 and 88.1.

The Best of The Sound (so far...)

The Top 40 CDs on The Sound for 2010 (thru March 5, 2010) 1)Live in Louisville - Carrie Rodriguez 2)Little Moon - Grant-Lee Phillips (YepRoc) 3)God Don't Never Change - Ashley Cleveland (E1) 4)Blues for You - Jeff Golub (E1) 5)Heaven & Earth - Blue Mother Tupelo (Diggin’) 6)North Hills - Dawes (ATO) 7)American Horizon - Los Cenzontles (Cenzontles) 8)Serpentine - Gillian Grassie (Harp Power) 9)Cheap Seats - The Trapps 10)Yatra (Nomadic Soul) - Kailash Kher & Kailasa (Cumbancha) 11)Battle Studies - John Mayer (Columbia) 12)So Dark You See - John Gorka (Red House) 13)Live in Europe - James McMurtry (Lightning Rod) 14)One Fast Move or I'm Gone - Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard (Atlantic) 15)Pizza Box - Danny Barnes (ATO) 16)Good Evening New York City - Paul McCartney (Hear) 17)Songs from Lonely Avenue - Brian Setzer (Surfdog) 18)Welcome Home - Shelley King (Lemonade) 19)Nowhere Nights - Kasey Anderson (Red River) 20)Orchid - K.C. Clifford (Skipper) 21)Crows - Allison Moorer (Ryko) 22)One Foot in the Ether - Band of Heathens (BOH) 23)Balm in Gilead - Rickie Lee Jones (Fantasy) 24)Animal Boy - Matt the Electrician 25)Golden Apples of the Sun - Caroline Herring (Signature) 26)Sunny Side Up - Paolo Nutini (Atlantic) 27)What to Say - Daphne Willis (Vanguard) 28)Darkness Sure Becomes this City - Joy Kills Sorrow (Signature) 29)Jill Andrews (Liam) 30)Salt of the Earth - Harlem Parlour Music Club (HPR) 31)The Day After Everything Changed - Ellis Paul (Black Wolf) 32)The Fall - Norah Jones (Blue Note) 33)Things About Comin' My Way (Black Hen) 34)Downtown Church - Patty Griffin (Credential) 35)Sugar Sweet - Grandpa Elliott (Concord) 36)The Things We Left Behind - Blue Rodeo (TeleSoul) 37)Flood - Moreland & Arbuckle (Telarc) 38)Had Enough - Tom Gillam (Smith) 39)Joy - Phish (Jemp) 40)Este Mundo - Rupa and the April Fishes (Cumbancha)

What keeps The Sound on the air?

The one word answer is "you." If you'e been listening to The Sound for any length of time, you may have noticed the lack of commercials. That's what keeps the typical radio station running... they sell advertisers air time, then you pay for your usage of that station by, in essence, donating your time to listen to those commercials, and then (they hope) rushing out and buying that product... which has the cost of the advertising tucked into the price. We don't have that option. We're licensed as a non-commercial station, meaning if we air commercials, we're in violation of our FCC license, which isn't a good thing. So how do we pay for the 1001 incidentals that are involved in getting The Sound into your home, office or car? We're back to the one word answer... "you." The Federal Communications Commission won't let us sell commercial time BUT they will allow us to ask for donations from those folks with the good taste to listen to this station. The majority of the funds we use to present The Sound are listener dollars. Without those listener dollars, no Sound... literally. We believe what you hear on Public Radio East on its own is enough to pledge your financial support... but a little incentive never hurt, so make a $40-or-more pledge and we'll send you your choice of CDs. Among the choices...One Foot in the Ether by the Band of Heathens, The Day After Everything Changed by Ellis Paul, or The Pursuit by Jamie Cullum...or check out the full list of possibilities in the next section just below. When you go to our pledge form by clicking here, just type in the comments box the name of the CD you'd like and we'll get it out to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your pledge. You're making The Sound possible. George Olsen Host/producer "The Sound"

Because Great Music Needs a Place to Be Heard

Love The Sound?   Get The Tee Shirt!                                             For information about The Sound Tee Shirt click here.  ...or if you'd like to own some of the music you've enjoyed on The Sound make a $40-or-more pledge and any of the CDs listed below can be sent to you as our way of saying thanks for becoming a Public Radio East member. Just type the name of the CD (or DVD) you'd like in the Comments box on the pledge form you can access by clicking the Pledge Now button above. Pizza Box - Danny Barnes The Pursuit - Jamie Cullum The Day After Everything Changed - Ellis Paul The Stars are Out - Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles The Wreckage - Will Hoge One Foot in the Ether - Band of Heathens Works Progress Administration - WPA Everything You Love will be Taken Away - Slaid Cleaves Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm Fascination - The Greencards Ready for the Flood - Mark Olson and Gary Louris Oktibbeha County - WSNB Back to the River - Susan Tedeschi Recovery - Louden Wainwright III Same Old Man - John Hiatt Alligator Purse - Beausoleil Life Death Love & Freedom - John Mellencamp Bucket - Mando Saenz Lay It Down - Al Green So I Begin - Rachel Van Slyke Nine Lucid Dreams - Two Loons for Tea On the Way - Abra Moore Secret Heart - Lauren Adams Vagabonds - Gary Louris Live from Austin, TX - Tift Merritt (DVD) Live from Bearsville Theatre - Dar Williams (DVD)