Todd Snider "Just Like Overnight"

Leap Day! Our good buddy Abbey Road of Coupland and Devil’s Backbone venue fame shared little-known facts about leap year, including that women can ask men to marry and they can’t say no. Since it takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes to orbit each year, we have to re-sync or we would wind up off by about 24 days every century. It’s not precise, but then, what is?

Todd Snider is a folk singer, truth teller, bon vivant, and raconteur. His music speaks to the conditions of life and that is ever so relatable. Go see him on the road for the full Todd effect. Music Fog pulled out one of the songs off his recent Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 to feature today. By the way, Volumes 1 & 2 have not seen light of day as yet, so don’t go looking for them! Filmed in a private session last year, in Nashville, here is the Music Fog recording of “Just Like Overnight.” Something to ponder this leap year. We go day after day, until it dawns on us that something has to change.

- Jessie Scott

Becky Warren "Valentine"

Becky Warren and Jeff Malinowski perform "Valentine," from Becky's recent album, Undesirable. Filmed during a Nashville Music Fog session on 2/8/19.

Valentine’s Day makes people feel bad. If you are in love, isn’t that enough? Does it necessitate a show of chocolate and flowers to prove it? If you are not in love, does it make you feel like you are missing something? I think not, but that’s just me. Love is a wonderful thing, and it can manifest in many ways, be it with friends, family, pets, and of course with significant others. Show some love today, pay it forward by doing something nice for someone. And smile, it’s contagious.

Today’s video “Valentine” is an ode to a broken heart from Becky Warren, with lovely guitar licks from Jeff Malinowski. It comes from her 2018 album Undesirable, an album written with and for street people, in an effort to allow their stories to see light of day. Here is the sparse and haunting Music Fog version, filmed last year during a private recording session in Nashville.

- Jessie Scott

Photo Credit: Anna Haas

Heidi Newfield "Wrong Side Of The Bottle"

Music heals.  No really it does -- there is a new study just posted from the British Academy of Sound Therapy . Music takes 13 minutes to “release sadness’ and 9 minutes to “make you happy.’ Thank goodness for something so simple, one that we can control ourselves. I feel blessed that I get to play music on the radio, and that others can hear it and here's hoping it will make them feel good, too. Check out WMOT.org to hear the genre that we shine a light on at Music Fog.

Today’s video is from Heidi Newfield. I first met her in the band Trick Pony when they were getting signed to their major label deal. Heidi is a pistol. You gotta love a woman who blows harp, has a whiskey-soaked voice, and who swaggers on stage.

She has been working on new music, and her album. The Barfly Sessions, is forthcoming. From it, today’s Music Fog entry is “Wrong Side of the Bottle” filmed in a private session in Nashville.

-- Jessie Scott