The Waifs on NPR

This morning on Morning Edition on NPR, they interviewed The Waifs, and I learned the group is now opening for Bob Dylan. How fantastic!

The first time I heard The Waifs' music. I was standing in a CD store in Sydney, Australia, during the first week of the Olympics, looking for some didgeridoo music to take home. The store clerks had "Sink or Swim" playing -- The Waifs' new release. I was liking it, nodding to the rhythm, and then this crazy Mexican tune burst out like a rude interruption -- the cut is "The Waitress" -- and I thought the clerk had switched a channel. A second later when I realized the Mexican interlude was part of the song, I was hooked. I thought: This band is fun!

By the end of the second song, I was at the counter asking for the CD. One clerk thought maybe they didn't have any more copies, but the other clerk dug one out and announced it was the last one. I felt so lucky to get it. I listened to it several times on the long, long flight home to Florida a week later.

I went online to find out more about The Waifs and discovered they had two earlier CDs, available from their own Web site. I bought those, and when they recently released their fourth disc, I snapped it up too.

I'm not quite as engaged by "Up All Night" as I am by the earlier discs, but I'm expecting it to grow on me. They all did. I think "Sink or Swim" is still my favorite. "The Waitress" always makes me remember Sydney and those fabulous two weeks in the sunny Australian spring when everyone in the entire world seemed to be there and having the greatest possible time.

Opening for Bob Dylan! The NPR story was wonderful.