My Funny Valentine (Chet Baker)

Chet Baker is the progenitor of heroin chic. A distinctive - though consistently low-key - trumpeter, Chet left his most lasting impact with his paper-thin, but always compelling, vocals. This is his take on one of the greatest songs of the American songbook. Let's get lost.

Columbus Stockade Blues (Doc Watson)

Old Guy Clark sang, "I have seen The David and the Mona Lisa too, and I have heard Doc Watson play the Columbus Stockade Blues." Born on this day in 1923, the great Doc Watson.

There's a Wall in Washington (Iris DeMent)

Somehow I missed Memorial Day - or Decoration Day as it was known in the old South - even though I posted about my grandfather and World War I. Here is my favorite - respectful and bitter - song about those who gave their lives for our nation. This song betrays my youth and the sense of futility we all felt about "America's longest war."

Tired of Being Alone (The Reverend Al Green)

I thought of my friend, Hope Kurtz, today. In 1985, I was a neighbor of her and her husband Steve Kurtz while we were all in graduate school in Tallahassee. We were all very different people from very different backgrounds - but in spite of it all, we found a way to become great friends. Steve taught me about punk and post-punk music - a decade I had missed altogether. Hope loved soul music and would come over mid-morning and we would listen to her favorite artist, the Reverend Al Green. Our visits were purely platonic and were only about the music. Hope died much too young in 2004. I do not know how many times since then that I have stopped mid-morning and played Al Green and thought fondly of Hope. I love you Hope - and Steve. RIP.

Dublin Blues (Guy Clark)

The Late Guy Clark was - and is - one of the great American treasures. If you don't think the greatest music comes from Texas, then you need to reconsider your position. There are so many great songs to pick from - but I pick this one because of Jerry Douglas' great dobro interlude. "Well, I wish I was in Austin, in the Chili Parlor Bar, drinking Mad Dog Margaritas. not caring where you are."

Angry All The Time (Bruce Robison)

Bruce Robison, the writer of this great song, once said, "There are two kinds of songs: sad songs and slightly faster sad songs." How true. (Of course, his greatest accomplishment was marrying the outstanding vocalist, Kelly Willis, who joins him in this performance.)

At Seventeen (Janis Ian)

This is the most bitter song I have ever heard. I dated a woman once - a professor - who shared a lot of the emotional baggage behind this song. When we parted, a lot of invective followed - you know, generational curses and that sort of thing. I don't think those of us on the other side of these relationships ever understand the depth of hurt that we witnessed - and I am not convinced we caused.

Love Like a Man (Ten Years After)

Ten Years After was one of the hardest-rocking of the British blues bands in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lead by an amphetamine-driven (figuratively I think) virtuoso guitarist, Alvin Lee, the band is best known for its Woodstock performance of the classic "I'm Going Home." But the band's numerous albums also held many gems well worth mining. I always felt their best was the "Cricklewood Green" album - although a case could be made for "Ssssh" and "A Space in Time."

Summer of the Drugs (Victoria Williams)

"We were too young to be hippies, missed out on the love. We turned to a teen in the late 70's in the summer of the drugs." If you think this is not the anthem of a generation, then you were not there. Miss Victoria, we all need to take time to listen to your wonderful work again. (This version is performed by Soul Asylum on the "Sweet Relief - Victoria Williams Benefit" album.)

This City (Won't Wash Away) (Steve Earle)

The great Steve Earle's paean to New Orleans offers a declaration of survival amidst the music of desperation and loss. "Ain't the river or the wind to blame. Every around here knows nothin' holdin' back Ponchartrain except for a prayer and a promise's ghost." The metaphor of New Orleans as America - at least, an America we once knew - permeates this sad song of hope and defiance.

It's a Shame About Ray (Lemonheads)

The later songs of the Lemonheads - on albums like "It's a Shame about Ray," "Come On Feel the Lemonheads," and "Car Button Cloth" - were an excellent middle ground between post-punk and jangle rock. Simple infectious melodies about simple suburban American topics never sounded better. Sadly, Evan Dando, the band's singer and lead guitarist, faded into a haze of heavy drug use in the mid 1990s.

Walk On By (Isaac Hayes)

One of the defining moments of my life came in the fall of 1987. During one of my regular visits to Vinyl Fever - Tallahassee's finest record store (does anyone remember record stores?) - I picked up copies of "The Best of Isaac Hayes" (a double album on Stax) and the Smith's compilation album "Louder Than Bombs." But I only had enough money to buy one. I left the store with Isaac Hayes in hand. As the poet said, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

Joan Jett of Arc (Clem Snide)

Clem Snide is the painfully melancholic pop band formed by singer/songwriter, Eef Barzelay, during his days at Boston College in the early 1990s. While the earliest edition of the band wallowed in post punk noise, Clem Snide eventually found an original voice on albums like "Your Favorite Music" and "The Ghost of Fashion" in the early 2000s. Best known for "Moment in the Sun," the theme song for the short-lived television show "Ed," Clem Snide regularly produced tuneful songs of everyday passions, simple triumphs, and lingering regrets.

Thank You For Talking To Me Africa (Sly & the Family Stone)

"Lookin' at the devil. Grinnin' at his gun. Fingers start shakin'. I begin to run." This is an angry song for an angry time. Critic Greil Marcus declared of the album - There's a Riot Going On (1971) - on which this song is central, "There is an enormous reality to the music: a slow, level sense of getting by. It is Muzak with its finger on the trigger." This music is a long way from the original, upbeat 1969 version of the song, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)."

Jackson Station (Band of Heathens)

The Band of Heathens is a "folk-hearted" Austin, Texas band in the great Americana tradition of "The Band." Each member of the band shines vocally and instrumentally - with their best moments coming when they all join their voices and instruments. Their discography includes outstanding albums like "The Band of Heathens," "One Foot in the Ether," and "Duende." Take some time and savor their always excellent live performances.

I Feel Fine (Beatles)

The Beatles were a fine little power pop band from Liverpool, England that exploded on the scene with two jewels of strong melody, clear vocals, and ringing (but surprisingly simple) guitar riffs: "I Feel Fine" and "Ticket to Ride." Regrettably, the band changed direction in the mid-1960s, got lost in endless musical experimentation, faded from public view, and was never heard from again. Well, at least, never again heard with such energy and excitement.

Season of the Witch (Super Session)

The Super Session (1968) brought together Al Kooper (keyboards, vocals) formerly of the Blues Project and founding member of Blood, Sweat and Tears, Mike Bloomfield (guitars) of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Stephen Stills (guitars) late of Buffalo Springfield and on his way to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, for a one-off jam session of epic proportions. Back by a tight Chicago blues rhythm section and horns, each of these players shined individually, but when they interacted with one another, something very special happened.

Just Someone I Used to Know (Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton)

"Cowboy" Jack Clement, one of Nashville's finest songwriters, penned the 1969 Top Ten hit, "Just Someone I Used to Know" for Porter Wagoner and his early duet partner, a young Dolly Parton. Wagoner is his Nudie suit and Parton in her one-size-too-small blouse epitomized the "country chic" of the 1960s - before country music became the homogenized, mega-hyped monster business it is today. This is real country. To misquote another song: "I was country, when country wasn't pop."

Down By The Water (Decemberists)

A melancholy memory of youthful loss and regret. Some have speculated that the songwriter remembers Portland, Oregon - the hometown of the band - from a few decades removed. While framed in sadness, the writer recognizes that all he is arises from these bygone experiences. "I would bear it all broken just to fill my cup," the adult writer now realizes. This song is featured on the consistently delightful "The King is Dead" (2011).

Mother of God (Patty Griffin)

“I thought I was very open minded because I wasn’t religious at all,” Patty Griffin once said. But she can never escape the long-reaching influences of growing up Catholic in America. Her songs are full of biblical and religious imagery - often delightfully run together, maintaining the reference while, at the same time, losing the detail. This is especially clear in her homage to her grandmother, "Mary," that taps into the contrasting images of the holy mother and the sister of Lazarus both at once. Everything by Patty Griffin is well-written and superbly performed.

Better Get Hit in Your Soul (Charles Mingus)

Charles Mingus - along with Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk - was one of the greatest composers in the jazz tradition. His earliest and most lasting musical influence was the lively worship - the shouts, the deep moans, the call-and-response - of the holiness church he attended with his mother in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s. These formative sounds of his youth are recapitulated on most every cut of his memorable 1959 album, Mingus Ah Hum.

Invitation to the Blues (Tom Waits)

Barney Hoskyns, the biographer of Tom Waits, explains: "The graveyard croak of Mr. Waits' gravelly, bellowing baritone is righteous, paint-scraping, unmistakable; it scatters small animals and slaps your synapses to startled attention." Rarely has such hyperbole been such an accurate description. But there is - and there only ever will be - one Tom Waits. This selection is from his 1976 album, "Small Change" - one among many high points in Mr. Waits' early career.

What Are They Doing in Heaven Today (Washington Phillips)

The Reverend Washington Phillips was among the earliest recorded gospel singers. He recorded less than 20 songs - among them the haunting "What are They Doing in Heaven Today" - that help lay the foundation for future generations of African American gospel artists. Details of his later life are questionable: two narratives - one ending in a mental hospital and the other in a long life in his native Texas - compete. Whatever his end, the good Reverend left an unforgettable legacy of spiritual performance.

If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time (Tyrone Davis)

Chicago is not the first town you think of when you think of soul music. But here the Mississippi-born Tyrone Davis produced a string of sophisticated singles that lingered at the top of the R & B charts in the early 1970s. His voice had a bit of the heartache of Bobby "Blue" Bland. Starting his career as a blues "shouter," Davis grew into the rich, mellow, mature voice of his pleading ballads. "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" always makes me want to do just that - look back to a simpler, more innocent time.

Cry Like A Baby (Box Tops)

The Box Tops epitomized blue-eyed soul in the late 1960's and introduced the world to one of the true geniuses of rock, Alex Chilton. Alex sang with a Memphis grittiness that belongs to one far older than his teenage years. (Some have compared him with the young Steve Winwood in the Spencer Davis Group.) Chilton went on to form Big Star and become something of a cult hero to later, maturing generations of rockers. But the 2-minute blasts of the Box Tops - best heard on AM radio - remain as fresh and inspiring today as they were in 1967 and 1968. In the throwaway world of sixties pop culture, these singles were simply perfect.

Do You Believe In Rapture? (Sonic Youth)

The notion that "it can't be good if it's not on MTV" deafened the ears of too many American listeners in the 1980's and early 1990's. These years were filled with independent, creative rock voices - none more important, influential, and enduring than Sonic Youth. Finding a path between punk, post-punk, and new wave, Sonic Youth harnessed the power of feedback and wed it to melody and great songwriting. Don't miss their greatest albums: "Evol", "Sister," "Daydream Nation", "Goo", and "Dirty." "Rapture" from "Rather Ripped" (2006) captures the thrill of Sonic Youth's start-stop dynamics, melodic lyrics, and integration of feedback as an essential element of music making.

Hey Jude (Wilson Pickett)

"Hey Jude" is one of several "culmination" songs in the too short career of the Beatles. This song - along with "A Day in the Life," "A Long and Winding Road," and "Let It Be" - bears witness to the closing of that era of pop music creativity. As astounded as I was to watch the broadcast of the Beatles' "Hey Jude" promotional video in September 1968, when I first heard Wilson Pickett cover this song I could never go back to Paul McCartney's fey "na-na-na's". Listen closely and you will hear a young Duane Allman on guitar--joined by the great session musicians of the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama--in support of that singular soulful voice of wicked Wilson Pickett.

When I Paint My Masterpiece (The Band)

Bob Dylan is the greatest American songwriter. His lyrics explore, expound, confuse, and confound - but also always liberate. His is a generation's greatest poet, philosopher, jokester, and sometimes delinquent. In the hands of the Band - at one time Bob's backing band - his lyrics find their greatest interpreters (if we do not count Roger McGuinn and the Byrds). The Band is neither the beginning nor the end of Americana - especially considering they were mostly Canadian - but they certainly were a notable mile marker on that long highway.
 

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