Social media offered hopeful hints about Joe Dady’s condition over the last few days. Well-meaning friends, reporting that stem-cell donations from Joe’s brother John might be holding off the rare form of leukemia Joe had been diagnosed with in October.

Perhaps we all just wanted to believe it was so.

A key figure in Rochester’s Irish and American Roots Music scene has died. Joe Dady, one-half of the Dady Brothers, died Saturday at the age of 61.

The Democrat and Chronicle quotes family members as saying that Dady was surrounded by family just before his passing.

This year, I was blown away by the Tiny Desk Contest entries I saw. We received over 6,000 entries from all across the country. We saw tiny desks up on rooftops and down on a subway platform; tucked into treetops, pickup trucks and laundromats. We heard songs about the situations that make life difficult and the people that make life worth living.

Choosing different mics to capture a variety of instruments is an art form. There are countless options at different price points and there are no right answers. EQ adjustments to treble, bass and midrange frequencies can make an inexpensive mic sound good. Mic placement can change the sound dramatically. Whenever I'm not sure how to record an instrument, I move my head around until it sounds nice, then I replace my head with a mic. (Trade secret!) Also, what does the room sound like where you're recording?

As winter departs and springtime begins, Heavy Rotation returns to spotlight a collection of songs by fresh artists, selected by public radio DJs across the country.

This month on Heavy Rotation, hear SOAK's disco-ball beat that won't quit, Faye Webster's vacation breeze of a song that explores the many facets of feeling alone, a raspy battle cry from Mavis Staples and a live SXSW session from BAILEN, best heard down by the creekside and out in the awakened sun.