The Earthwork Music artist’s latest album, “Mother Lion,” led a reshuffling of chart positions for local and regional albums which previously have appeared in the Top 5 at WYCE-FM.
Chart-Topper: May Erlewine has been crisscrossing the state on tour this fall. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
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When northern Michigan singer-songwriter May Erlewine recorded her latest album, she aimed to reflect the “love, anger, joy, sorrow, dissonance, harmony, compassion, rebellion, grief, healing, togetherness, isolation” of the world today.
May Erlewine and Billy Strings swapped places from the October Hot Top 5.
“We wanted to build a soundtrack to embrace it all,” she told Local Spins, “especially those feelings that don’t have a lot of room to be in our society.”
Clearly, that approach — propelling the Americana, folk, alt-country and pop music she created — has resonated with plenty of listeners: Erlewine’s “Mother Lion” jumped to No. 1 on the Hot Top 5 chart of local and regional albums getting the most airplay in November on community radio station WYCE (88.1 FM).
The album leapfrogged October’s No. 1 album, bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings’ “Turmoil & Tinfoil,” which settled into the second spot for November.
The rest of the Top 5 (which was actually the Top 6 due to a tie for the No. 5 spot) features recordings which have all appeared on the chart previously: Jukejoint Handmedowns’ “Call of the Wild,” plus self-titled, full-length debut albums from Lipstick Jodi, Blushing Monk and Desmond Jones.
Erlewine, for her part, has been touring the state with different sets of musicians this fall. This week — Thursday-Saturday — she is performing several times as part of the “Ebird & Friends 10th Anniversary Holiday Show” at The Ark in Ann Arbor, along with Joe Hertler, Rachael Davis, Mark Lavengood, Abigail Stauffer, Jamie Register and Peter Madcat Ruth. After that, she’ll continue her “Winter Dance Party” tour with The Motivations, including a Dec. 16 show at Rootead in Kalamazoo and a “standing-room only” Dec. 22 show at Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake.
She’ll also play a “Brews and Ballads” concert with Max Lockwood at Creston Brewery in Grand Rapids on Dec. 17. Read more about Erlewine and a review of her new album at Local Spins here.
Fourteen new regional albums were added to WYCE’s airplay rotation in November. Browse the list of those new releases below.
NEW LOCAL MUSIC ADDITIONS TO WYCE: NOVEMBER 2017
The Zannies, “Espejos”
Out of Favor Boys, “Out of Favor Boys”
Venson Dix, “Venson Dix”
Claudia Schmidt, “Hark The Dark”
Marvin The Robot, “Commercially Viable Jump Music”
Nordlund, “Ghosts”
Martin & Lamm, “Too Little Time”
Ned Rouse, “Today is Yesterday Tomorrow”
Dopapod, “Megagem”
Tired Blood, “Tired Blood”
Footage, “I’ve Seen”
Brian Mulder, “Holotropic”
Parlor Voice, “At Night The Trains Sound Like Music”
The Hat Madders, “Rotting On The Vine”
VIDEO: May Erlewine, “Never One Thing”
VIDEO: Billy Strings Live for Local Spins on WYCE (11/24/17)
Video by Paul Sinkevics
VIDEO: Lipstick Jodi, “That’s So Great (She Likes Boys)”
VIDEO: Blushing Monk, “Frankenstein” (Local Spins on WYCE)
Video by David Specht
VIDEO: Desmond Jones, “Good Song”
Copyright 2017, Spins on Music LLC
