In the end, it came down to a shoe box full of microcassettes, 75 interviews, two years of research and a lifetime of listening to Let It Be, Déjà Vu, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Sweet Baby James.

Whether playing to a boisterous crowd of hundreds in New York or to a more intimate crowd here on the Vineyard, deejay Josh Tucker knows how to show people a good time.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School boasts one of the most robust arts department seen outside of a college or graduate arts program. Paul Brissette, chairman of the art, design and technology department, is proud that, at this school, “arts are on an equal par to sports.”

By NICK MOORHEAD

Originally designed to be accommodated in a palace chamber, music under the heading of chamber music has over the years moved out of the palaces and into the hearts and minds of the masses. Well, masses may be a slight exaggeration when comparing chamber music lovers to the throngs flocking to Lady Gaga. But gather all the fans and all the audiences of the past few hundred years or so and this specialized art form rises to the top of the music charts.

By NICK MOORHEAD

Imagine Tom Petty crossed with Carly Simon and a dash of Jack Johnson and you have Erich Luening, rock artist and well-known Islander. And this weekend he will release Red Flags, his debut solo album. A decade in the making, the CD has a stellar guest list that includes Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, who is also Mr. Luening’s childhood Island friend.

When jazz goes on vacation, it goes to Martha’s Vineyard. So trumpets the tag line of the inaugural 2011 Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, which officially takes place August 6-13, but enjoyed an unofficial kickoff at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs this past weekend. Throughout the summer, you can find jazz all over the Island leading to the weeklong festival in August.

By NINA TARNAWSKY

Welcome robot overlords. The Island’s own Tim Laursen, known on Friday night as Robot Drummer, took the stage at Nectar’s in a giant pink owl’s head with bright, lit-up yellow eyes, and four metal, retractable arms all connected to various instruments.

The smoke combined with the stage lights created a surreal atmosphere, though it was less take-me-to-your-leader and more I-come-in-peace.

Fresh from their triumphal concert tours of Paris and Prague, you might almost expect the Minnesingers back on Island to be busy calling their agents from moviestudio trailers. But no, they’re still the great, glowing, unprepossessing kids they’ve always been, and they put all their talent, all their joy into this past weekend’s performances on their home stage at the performing arts center at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens....Whether you sang the song in high school chorus, learned Do Re Mi from Julie Andrews or were introduced to the musical via a Gwen Stefani remix, the Sound of Music is fixed in the collective memory.

If the walls at Nectar’s could talk, or sing for that matter, they would share an intricate story of rock and roll, blues, folk, hip-hop, reggae and pop, but more than that, the story of the soulful music community on the Vineyard. Now, as the only remaining music club on the Island prepares to open for its third season, one thing remains true about the venue: No matter who’s in charge, the music continues to challenge a Vineyard audience.