Free music from artists you've heard on The Sound!

Vanguard Records is offering a free summer sampler featuring such folks as Robert Cray and the Indigo Girls. You can download the sampler by clicking here.  Suzi Ragsdale has been a recent featured artist on The Sound... you can get a free track by her by clicking here. You've heard the Watson Twins on The Sound... both on their own and with Jenny Lewis. Get a free download by the Twins here. Chapel Hill's very own Southern Culture on the Skids has a new CD coming out shortly. You can get an advance track from that CD by clicking here. You can get a free download from Darrell Scott's new CD A Crooked Road by clicking here. Signature Sounds is offering a download of a sampler of that label's artists, including Crooked Still, Joy Kills Sorrow, Patty Larkin, Caroline Herring and Chris Smither. You can access the sampler by clicking here. The retro-soul of John Nemeth has been featured on The Sound. Get a track from his latest by clicking here. You've heard the music of Serena Ryder on The Sound. She's offering a free download of her cover of the Neil Young classic "Heart of Gold." You can get more info here.  You've heard Siler City-based bluegrass outfit Nu Blu as well as Lila Nelson on The Sound. You can download a track from Lila's latest EP as well as from Nu Blu's latest by clicking here. Bluegrass favorites Cadillac Sky are offering a free track download from their new release Letters in the Deep currently featured on The Sound. Click here for more information. Erin McKeown has also been a past favorite on The Sound. You can find two free downloads by her by clicking here and here.  And finally, you can still  download a track from the Lovell Sisters' new CD Time to Grow right here at publicradioeast.org. 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.  George Olsen 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 July 16, 2010) 1)Mr. Sad Clown - Bodeans (429) 2)The Day After Everything Changed - Ellis Paul (Black Wolf) 3)Animal Boy - Matt the Electrician 4)Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons (Glassnote) 5)Darkness Sure Becomes this City - Joy Kills Sorrow (Signature) 6)The Open Road - John Hiatt (New West) 7)Freedom Creek - Mudcat (Music Maker) 8)Love and Circumstance - Carrie Rodriguez (Ninth Street Opus) 9)The Meantime - Randall Bramblett (Blue Ceiling) 10)Orchid - K.C. Clifford (Skipper) 11)The Things We Left Behind - Blue Rodeo (TeleSoul) 12)Downtown Church - Patty Griffin (Credential) 13)The Devil is an Angel Too - Janiva Magness (Alligator) 14)Sing SOS... Songs from the Spectrum - Various Artists (SOS) 15)Winter of Mixed Drinks - Frightened Rabbit (Fatcat) 16)Halcyon Times - Jason & the Scorchers (Courageous Chicken) 17)See You on the Moon - Tift Merritt (Fantasy) 18)Man from Another Time - Seasick Steve (Ryko) 19)Little Moon - Grant-Lee Phillips (YepRoc) 20)Del Castillo (Smilin' Castle) 21)The Age of Miracles - Mary-Chapin Carpenter (Zoe) 22)Heaven & Earth - Blue Mother Tupelo (Diggin') 23)Women & Country - Jakob Dylan (Columbia) 24)Court Yard Hounds (Columbia) 25)The Pursuit - Jamie Cullum (Verve Forecast) 26)So Dark You See - John Gorka (Red House) 27)Shake For Me - The Mannish Boys (EclectoGroove) 28)One Man Show - 30db (SciFidelity) 29)Cheap Seats - The Trapps 30)Nowhere Nights - Kasey Anderson (Red River) 31)Live in Louisville - Carrie Rodriguez 32)Live and Mo - Keb Mo (Yolabelle) 33)Old Man Dreamin' - John Batdorf 34)American Horizon - Los Cenzontles (Cenzontles) 35)Salt of the Earth - Harlem Parlour Music Club (HPR) 36)Midnight Souvenirs - Peter Wolf (Verve) 37)God Don't Never Change - Ashley Cleveland (E1) 38)El Turista - Josh Rouse (Yep Roc) 39)All Together Now - Billy Manzik (Rawlco) 40)What to Say - Daphne Willis (Vanguard)

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... Letters in the Deep by Cadillac Sky, Man from Another Time by Seasick Steve, The Meantime by Randall Bramblett, Love and Circumstance by Carrie Rodriguez, 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. Man from Another Time - Seasick Steve Letters in the Deep - Cadillac Sky Love & Circumstance - Carrie Rodriguez The Meantime - Randall Bramblett 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)