Some good vibes from a Vermont vacation radio stint

Writing about music is like tap dancing about architecture, a wag once wrote. And this is a frustration I feel sometimes as a writer, not being able to press your ears to the newspaper or computer monitor to hear the new discs I'm enthralled about.

But while on vacation in Vermont recently, I made peace with myself. At the goading of my better half, Abbe, I hooked up to do a radio show on the Warren, Vt., community station, WMRW (95.1 FM, the Voice of the Valley), focused on the new CD releases I'd brought along to audition.

The process proved so much fun that I wound up doing two free-form "Sounds of Summer 2007" shows during my busman's holiday. Here's some of the stuff I featured, and that I wish (sigh) you could be hearing right now.

A STATE OF GRACE: The biggest band that's ever come out of Vermont's Mad River Valley is Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, so it was a special thrill to introduce their new major-label album, "This Is Somewhere" (Hollywood, A-), to the hometown crowd. I've been kind of iffy about the group's crunchy granola hippie vibe (think Janis Joplin meets Edie Brickell) in the past.

While Grace and her guitar player were always great, the rhythm section didn't kill me. But they've really nailed it down on this set, both in chops and in material. Three of the strongest songs have a subtle political edge - the doing-us-wrong "Ah Mary," the falling-off-the-edge-of-the-world "Mr. Columbus" and the ominous (but cheerfully rocking) "Mastermind."

They show their twangy Stones-lovin' side on "Here's to the Meantime" and harking back to Potter's earlier incarnation as a countrypolitan piano balladeer on "Apologies." This isn't just the best rock album that's come out of Vermont this year, it's one of the best, period.

NEED MORE ROCK FOR THE PILE? The New Pornographers are up to the mission on their most organic set yet, "Challengers (Matador, B+). Fronted by Vancouver, British Columbia-based A.C. Newman and the usual all-star cast (including the fab Neko Case),

they're nodding to the likes of Roxy Music and Sparks on "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and pondering the wretched decay of the world on "The Spirit of Giving" and "Mutiny I Promise You."

I'm happily surprised at the semi-triumphant return of the Pretty Things with "Balboa Island" (Zohoroots, B). These guys were once considered strong rivals to the Rolling Stones - guitarist Dick Taylor was in the original Stones lineup (on bass) but left to join the Prettys.

Now, 43 years later, they're cranking their first new album in eons. Think thick (or occasionally acoustic thin), bluesy rock a la the Animals, Stones and Doors.

RECONSTRUCTING THE WHEEL: My early radio mentor at WMMR, Jerry Stevens, used to say "you can play anything on the airwaves, as long as you set it up properly." For classical rock crossover segues in Summer 2007, I was going with the Section Quartet and the album "Fuzzbox" (Decca, B+), wherein they deliver sophisticated string quartet interpretations of songs originally done by the likes of Queens of a Stone Age ("No One Knows"), David Bowie ("The Man Who Sold the World") and my special favorite, "Black Hole Sun" (Soundgarden's biggest hit).

Jazz and classical make happy bedmates in the artful pursuits of pianist/composer Bill Mays on "The Inventions Trio" (Palmetto, A-), in which he works out with trumpet and flugelhorn player Marvin Stamm and cellist Alisa Horn. The lovely, lyrical three-part "Fantasy" is the centerpiece, but you'll also feel swept away on magic carpet rides like "Invention #8/A-Leu-Cha," their merging of Bach and Bird (Charlie Parker, that is).

On "The New Bossa Nova" (Verve, B+), Brazilian singer Luciana Souza successfully applies a breezy samba feel to a bunch of American singer-songwriter tunes. Her delicate duet with James Taylor on his "Never Die Young" and achingly pretty version of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" especially got to me. Tenor saxophonist Chris Potter is prominently featured, working in a Stan Getz vein.

While once the enfant terrible of the classical world, nobody blinks anymore when Nigel Kennedy ventures into populist waters. "The Blue Note Sessions" (Blue Note, B) finds the fiddler sawing away with some conviction and pluck (closer to Jean-Luc Ponty than to Stephane Grappelli) on jazz tunes like Horace Silver's "Song For My Father," accompanied by an all-star crew.

CRY ME A RIVER: If tremulous, confessional, artfully ambitious singer/songwriters are your thing, check out the newbie from Okkervil River, "The Stage Names" (Jagjaguwar, B+). Spawned in New Hampshire and now Austin, Texas-based, front man Will Sheff is master of an elliptical, reflective, outsider-looking-in writing style that sometimes leaves me scratching my head but grabs the ears, nonetheless.

Another meritorious provocateur, philosopher king Peter Himmelman, offers up wry, subtly spiritual folk-rock ruminations on "The Pigeons Couldn't Sleep" (Himmasongs, B+).

Stripped down to a finger picking guitar and gritty vocal essence, Peter Case proves that less really is more on "Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John" (Yep Roc, B+). It's his homage to the old-school musical stylings of bluesman Sleepy John Estes, with a contemporary lyrical bite.

SNEAKY STUFF: To fill programming slots with something new and yet familiar, I also salted my summer 2007 radio shows with fresh reissues like the revamped version of sweet-soul-singer/composer Arthur Alexander's final album, "Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter" (Hacktone, B+). It adds live radio performances (and chat) that Alexander did here on "Fresh Air" and at the Bottom Line.

A bit dusty-sounding but interesting are belated first-time releases of the Doors' "Live in Boston 1970" (Rhino, B+), in which Mr. Morrison is very drunk and loose, and the "Just Roll Tape - April 26, 1968" solo session (Rhino, B) by Stephen Stills.

Bless Concord Records for buying the Prestige jazz catalog and commissioning the label's longtime chief engineer Rudy Van Gelder to remaster its gems. Among the glories newly out and surprisingly fresh sounding are "Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet" (A), featuring John Coltrane on sax, originally out in 1956, and Coltrane fronting his own session (largely with Davis sidemen) on "Stardust" (A-) from 1958. Both are perfect "cool school" cocktails for a warm summer night. *