Playlist #282

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It is still technically Monday, so happy Monday, folks. Here’s today’s playlist.

  1. Earth, Wind, and Fire, “September”: You are contractually obligated to put this song on a playlist on this date. I don’t make the rules.
  2. Tom Waits, “The Earth Died Screaming”: I told my brother to listen to this one earlier today. He…did not care for it, I don’t think. Which is weird to me, because it’s a great if rather odd song. Y’know, it’s a Tom Waits song.
  3. Elton John, “Come Down In Time”: So it turns out Tumbleweed Connection is just a fantastic album. It’s earthy and thoughtful in ways I don’t usually associate with Elton John, but damn does he pull it off.
  4. Steely Dan, “Deacon Blue”: I know the lyrics are acerbic and often bordering on the nasty, but the music feels far too well-mannered for my tastes. It sounds like what you’d hear at an upscale cocktail longue in the early ’80s.
  5. Matt Berninger, “Ask For Water”: The National lead singer put out an EP last week mostly filled with songs we’d already heard from him, but it included a couple of new ones. This was the better of the two new songs, in my opinion. Not that the other song is a slouch or anything, but this is just a better tune.
  6. Laser The Boy, “Don’t You Know Who I Am”: Just a beautiful song about identity and self-doubt and relationships and all that kind of stuff. Laser knows his stuff.
  7. Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, “What I Am”: Anytime I reference this song (usually when someone makes a reference to philosophy, to which I reply, “Is just the talk on a cereal box”) I just get blank stares from my students. Maybe it’s time to update my pop culture references?
  8. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel. It’s embarrassing. You’d die of embarrassment if you were caught dead in a Super 8 Motel. Don’t go to a Super 8, is what I’m saying. Nothing good comes of it.
  9. The Wallflowers, “After the Blackbird Sings”: A throwback to their debut album, the one that no one really listened to. You can really hear the debt he owes to Tom Petty in this album, especially this song. It just feels like a Tom Petty song to me. It also feels like the closest they got to sounding like what I think of as the Wallflowers on this album, but I digress.
  10. Tom Petty, “Wake Up Time”: I used to skip this song on Wildflowers. Didn’t care for it. As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve come to appreciate it, understand its beauty and simplicity and know that it’s got a lot to tell me if I’ll just listen. It’s a damn good song, as it turns out, and it was the perfect way to end his best album.

Playlist #281

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Happy Monday, folks. The weather outside shows no signs of cooling off anytime soon, which is unfortunate given my love of and desire to wear flannel shirts every day. But that doesn’t stop the playlists from occurring!

  1. Siba & Monkyman, “Dounana”: The entire song is in a language I cannot even begin to understand. The singer is a poet originally from Palestine living in Germany. But damn if it isn’t catchy as all hell and an absolute bop. Also, it’s about Israeli occupation of Gaza.
  2. Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, “Li’l Red Riding Hood”: I’m sure if it were currently 1966, when this song was originally released, we’d feel less creepy about it than I currently do. Because man, this song is just…well, it’s a great song, but the lyrics are a little on the skeevy side in the Year of Our Lord 2026.
  3. This Is Lorelei, “The Singer In My Band”: She doesn’t have Texas in her heart, man, she just wants to get to Chicago. She does not want to be the singer in your garage band.
  4. Chance Emerson, “Doing A Number”: I really dig this guy’s vibe. And the song is pretty catchy, too. Doesn’t overstay its welcome.
  5. The Fray, “How To Save A Life”: I’ve liked this song for years now, but it really bothers me that he never specifically tells you how to save a life. It’s right there in the title, man! How you gonna let the whole song go by and not do the thing that’s in the title?
  6. The Minus 5, “The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply”: I feel so bad for this town. To completely lose one’s groove supply…how do people know what to do when it’s time to get down? Will they be prepared for next week’s Earth, Wind, and Fire groove explosion?
  7. XTC, “Earn Enough For Us”: Even back in the 80s, XTC knew what was up with shitty economies and the struggle to earn enough money to keep your lady in the finer things like, y’know, enough food to eat.
  8. Leonard Cohen, “I’m Your Man”: He’s confident, suave, and has a voice deeper than the Mariana’s Trench. I’d trust this man.
  9. The James Gang, “Funk No. 49”: Funks 1-48 were all terrible, let me tell you. They really locked it in on number 49.
  10. Ray LaMontagne, “Trouble”: To go from working in a shoe factory to recording some of the most affecting music of all time…it’s not an easy transition, I’m sure, but Ray pulled it off with aplomb. Aplomb, I say.

Playlist #280

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It’s Labor Day, and still technically Monday. We had to have our beloved elderly cat, Cici, put to sleep over the weekend. The house feels weirdly empty now.

  1. Aubory Bugg, “ive come to realize”: I think a lot about grief. Probably too much, if we’re being honest. I completely understand where this song is coming from, asking if my mother ever needs her mother. I get the feeling that never goes away.
  2. Ben Folds Five, “Evaporated (Shelved First Attempt)”: I’m a sucker for sad Ben Folds songs, even if they’re still rather unpolished and rough. I like sad songs that are a little rough around the edges. Feels more authentic.
  3. Cassandra Wilson, “Harvest Moon”: Ever wanted to hear a jazz cover of a Neil Young song? I didn’t think so either, but it’s really damn good.
  4. The Jayhawks, “American Midnight”: I always thought it seemed a little weird, referring to the Jayhawks as “alt-country.” They didn’t seem to have the punk energy of Uncle Tupelo or the jumped up amperage of the Old 97s. But they’ve got that country heart and those beautiful harmonies, so I let it slide. They just make good music, whatever genre you want to call it.
  5. The Head and the Heart, “Rivers And Roads”: There’s a longing in this song that I can’t quite express with words. You just have to listen to it to understand it, I think.
  6. Bahamas, “Lost In The Light”: I always like it when a band’s name gives you a good idea of what they sound like. The Beach Boys? You know that surfin’ is in their DNA. AC/DC? If they even know what an acoustic guitar is, I’d be surprised. With Bahamas, I can feel the warmth from the beach bonfire, hear the young people singing along and playing volleyball as the sun sets. It’s evocative and effective.
  7. The Gaslight Anthem, “Positive Charge”: One of the things I like about the Gaslight Anthem is that they remain, at heart, hopeless romantics and eternal optimists.
  8. Iron & Wine, “Hard Times Come Again No More”: Returning to the topic of grief, I wish I could set it aside and move on from it. It’s probably something I should discuss with my therapist. All that being said, this old standard feels fresh and timeless in the hands of Iron & Wine. I love it.
  9. Langhorne Slim, “Put It Together”: What I like about this guy’s stuff is it all sounds like it’s on the verge of just absolutely falling apart, but the band manages to hold it together at the last second and pull it all off. I like that ramshackle feel.
  10. Wilco, “What Light”: Jeff Tweedy remains another optimistic songwriter, crafting simple songs that remind you that you’ve got all that you need to add something beautiful and wonderful to the world if you just try. I kinda love that.

Playlist #279

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Happy Monday, folks, or as happy as a world can be without Dolly Parton in it. It was a rough weekend in the Branco-Cottrell household, and this next weekend is looking to be even rougher. If you have a second, send a little prayer our way and be thinking of us, especially our dear old lady cat Cici.

  1. Dolly Parton, “Shine”: Dolly gets a lot of praise for her work as a songwriter, and rightly so. But she was also a great interpreter, taking other people’s songs and making them feel like her own. She does that with this classic Collective Soul number, turning it into a bluegrass stomper that blows the roof off in the last couple of minutes.
  2. Alabama Shakes, “Another Life”: This R&B number is a cross between a torch song and a barnburner, and I am here for it. And that one-note guitar solo? Channeling Neil Young in the best way possible.
  3. Camera Obscura, “Tears For Affairs”: Yes, it’s twee and Scottish and more than a little kitschy. But I unironically love this song and its little organ riff.
  4. The Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away”: The Stones were great at picking excellent covers. This one still rocks, all these years later.
  5. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Room At The Top”: I know Echo isn’t everyone’s first pick for their favorite Tom Petty album; it’s not the first one I reach for when I’m in the mood to hear him, either. But damn if it doesn’t just tweak something in my brain the right way.
  6. Mike Doughty, “Grey Ghost”: I’ve listened to a lot of Mike Doughty (both with and without the rest of Soul Coughing), and this remains one of my absolute favorites of his. Just the rhythm and tension in this song…just perfect.
  7. George Harrison, “Wreck Of The Hesperus”: I love all the wordplay in this song. Cheeky George is my favorite George.
  8. Rufus Wainwright, “Going To A Town”: Watching all the nonsense the current administration gets up to on a weekly basis, this song hits especially hard. “I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down.” Yeah, I feel that.
  9. Mon Rovia, “Heavy Foot”: It’s a protest song done up in such pretty, simple instrumentation that you don’t even notice the lyrical content until much later.
  10. Jason Isbell, “Cover Me Up”: Still one of the most beautiful songs Isbell has written, and that is saying something.

Playlist #278

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Happy Monday and happy first day of school, folks! Well, first day for me, anyway. I know the kids out in Oklahoma have been at it for a week or two already. But hey, at least I get to have…(*checks notes*)…three weeks of school more than they do? Yeah, that’ll show ’em. Here’s a playlist.

  1. The Call, “Let the Day Begin”: I’ve told this story several times now. How this was the song they played every morning on the classic rock station out of Oklahoma City. How I heard it on my way to school throughout high school. How it is now forever ingrained within my memory as the song that starts off school. So, here it is, once again, ushering in the first day of the new school year. My 22nd year of teaching. Wild, right?
  2. Charlie Cottrell, “Burnt Offering (Fancy Version)”: Hey, I released a new EP last week! It features this song. I’m pretty proud of the EP and this particular version of the song. It’s all Clyde’s fault.
  3. The Postal Service, “Such Great Heights”: A classic of the indie rock genre.
  4. Dire Straits, “Walk Of Life”: The draw of this song, to me, has always been that organ riff. It’s just bouncy an fun and you ignore the lyrics about the knife and violence. Good times.
  5. The Wallflowers, “How Good It Can Get”: The latest Wallflowers song I’ve learned. It’s remarkably easy to play, which is nice. I’ve always been kinda down on Red Letter Days as an album, but it’s grown on me over the years.
  6. Johnathan Edwards, “Sunshine”: This is apparently an anti-Vietnam War protest song? Who knew!
  7. Marty Robbins, “You Gave Me A Mountain”: God, the way Marty sings this one just kills me. The weariness, the exhaustion, is evident in every single line.
  8. Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine”: I wish I could make it through every single “I know” in one breath. It’s amazing.
  9. Bob Seager, “The Fire Inside”: The longing and yearning in this song still grab me every time I listen to it. I think Bob Seager was a better songwriter than we gave him credit for.
  10. The Eagles, “Take It To The Limit”: I feel like I’m already at my limit with my first period class, and I’ve only had them once.

Burnt Offering EP Liner Notes

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Happy Friday and happy Release Day for the Burnt Offering EP! It’s available on all your favorite streaming platforms. What is it, you may ask? Let’s call them variations on a theme. The theme is a song off my first full-length album, Creature Comforts. Let’s explore each version included in the five-song set.

  1. Burnt Offering (Version 1): Originally intended for Creature Comforts, it got left off because…well, I’m not really sure. Maybe we weren’t totally happy with the mix? Maybe my vocals? It’s been a minute, so who can recall. But it’s the first song I ever recorded without an acoustic guitar. Yup, no Martin in this one! Just the G&L ASAT on this one, baby!
  2. Burnt Offering (Version 2): This one did show up on Creature Comforts! I think this song turned out as good as it did all because of Clyde’s mixing; the version I sent him just all the instruments playing all the time, but he took what was there and crafted it into a great piece of songcraft.
  3. Burnt Offering (Demo 1): The original demo for this song had all of the bits that ended up in the final version: all the words are written, all the chords are there, everything is in the correct order and all. But apparently I had not yet designated a chunk of it as a repeating chorus, and the chord changes happen much faster in this version than in any of the others. I must’ve also forgotten I ever did this version because I ended up doing a second demo just a few months later. I find the iterative process of songwriting to be a fascinating thing, so it’s kind of fun to go back and hear what could have been with this song.
  4. Burnt Offering (Demo 2): Speaking of, here’s that second demo. Everything is played in the correct order, correct chord structure and change rhythm, there’s even an actual chorus now! And some lunatic tried to record a very rough, improvised lead part over the whole thing that was ultimately left out of the final versions (though I think I did adopt a little tiny bit of it here and there in Version 1).
  5. Burnt Offering (Fancy Version): So late last year, as he was preparing songs for his own Gray Charlies EP, my brother happened to pick Burnt Offering as one of the songs he wanted to do a new version of. He didn’t tell me anything about it at first, just went about getting his hired musicians to perform their parts so he could assemble them all mad scientist style at the end. The Gray Charlies version does sound really good, even if the way the woman sings it on that one has kinda crept into how I sing it now. But somewhere along the way, the string quartet he hired to perform on the song used my Version 2 as their template, and I am not well-known for being a consistent rhythm keeper. Which means as a track he could use, it was useless – all the other musicians were following a set rhythm and tempo that this strings track did not. It did, however, mean we could come up with this fancy version of the song for me, which I’ve been sitting on for the past, like, five months now. It makes me feel very fancy.

Anyway, there you have it. Thanks as always to Brother Cylde for mixing and mastering all my stuff and managing to make me sound like I might actually know what I’m doing.

Playlist #277

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Happy Monday, folks! Summer is officially over; I’m back at school for teacher in-service this week, which means more meetings than you can shake a stick at (why do you shake a stick at something? I’ve never really understood that adage). Anyway, it’s Monday, so here’s a playlist.

  1. Hozier, “Too Sweet”: It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this was a Hozier song. It’s good. Has a Mark Ronson feel to it.
  2. The Mountain Goats, “Candlebox”: The latest album from tMG is apparently a song cycle about 90s grunge artists and the alternative music movement of that time period, and this is an excellent example of what Darnielle and Company have cooked up. I dunno that I’d personally want to open for Candlebox for a summer tour, though if they asked I would probably still say “yes.” Not sure their audience is exactly my audience, mind you.
  3. Phoebe Bridgers, “As Above”: A new Phoebe Bridgers album is always cause for celebration. Most of the songs just sort of float by on this record, but this one stuck out in my mind pretty well.
  4. Lord Huron, “Love Like Ghosts”: Even after having listened to it obsessively for several months now, I still find myself coming back to the songs on Strange Trails. This is a great album opener.
  5. Huey Lewis and the News, “I Know What I Like”: I’m a sucker for Huey Lewis and the News. They sound like that band your dad tried to put together back in the mid-90s with his buddies from work, but they mostly sat around in the garage on Saturday nights drinking beers and playing old Lovin’ Spoonful covers. But that’s, like, not a bad thing.
  6. Ma Rainey, “See See the Rider”: One of the OGs singing a song that has come down through the decades until it ended up as 60s rock number.
  7. Sean Watkins, “Let It Fall”: I’m always going to be a sucker for this song. The vocals are plaintive, the guitar work is flawless, and it’s just really damn good.
  8. Blue Mountain, “Bloody 98”: The banjo solo in this song – a song I would deem very unlikely to have a banjo solo – is top-notch and just rips the roof off the building. Love it.
  9. Bruce Springsteen, “Ain’t Good Enough For You”: I always enjoy Bruce’s hard luck stories; this one is very tongue in cheek and far too much fun to be about a relationship you give more than half a damn about.
  10. Them, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”: One of the best Dylan covers out there. Can’t top it.

Playlist #276

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Happy Monday, folks! The AC is out at the Wife’s school, which has sent them scrambling home and us to the local library for the day. But playlists don’t care about the temperature!

  1. The Allman Brothers Band, “Midnight Rider”: All these years later, this song still kicks a serious amount of ass. Those harmonies in the chorus? They send chills down my spine.
  2. Badfinger, “Day After Day”: It’s always a bit of a tragedy, this band. They had so much potential, and it ended up being (mostly) wasted by managerial incompetence (or, y’know, malfeasance).
  3. Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time”: I heard a Barenaked Ladies cover of this song the other week, and it just…lacked any kind of oomph. The line “You gotta kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight” is still stone-cold badass, though.
  4. Tom Waits, “Get Behind The Mule”: The title for this song apparently came from famous bluesman Robert Johnson’s father, who famously said, “the only thing wrong with Robert Johnson is that he doesn’t want to get behind the mule in the morning and plow.” And that thought now resides rent-free in my head.
  5. Tom Petty, “You And Me”: I’ve softened considerably on latter-day Tom Petty as I’ve grown older, especially The Last DJ and Highway Companion. This one comes from the former, though I think I can be forgiven for originally thinking it came from the latter. It just has that solo style, that easy-going, laid-back tone that so much of his best work possessed.
  6. Queen, “’39”: A folky little slice of…I dunno, colonialism? It’s less endearing than I originally thought now that I give it more thought. Hmm.
  7. Monsters of Folk, “Say Please”: Speaking of a group that’s supposed to be folky, there’s these guys. I wonder if any of them ever went on to make anything else?
  8. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”: A stone-cold classic. I feel like the horn section is what really holds the song together and gives it that certain something that sets it above many of the English Beat’s peers.
  9. Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”: That Billy Preston could release songs with such emotion and energy and feel as…trapped as he apparently felt still resonates with me.
  10. Jefferson Airplane, “Somebody To Love”: How did the band that released songs like this, “White Rabbit,” and “Volunteers” eventually morph into the band that released “We Built This City?” It’s one of life’s great mysteries.

Playlist #275

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Happy Monday! I’m back from the beach, a little more tanned and a little less rested than I’d prefer. But that’s okay, because being chronically exhausted is just part of my brand. Here’s a playlist.

  1. Steve Miller Band, “Mercury Blues”: My dad (whose birthday is tomorrow; happy birthday, dad!) owns a early-60s Mercury Comet. It’s his current fixer-upper, the car he is working on restoring from basically the ground up. The song is a banger.
  2. Stone Temple Pilots, “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”: By this point (1996), Stone Temple Pilots and many of their grunge peers had already abandoned the grunge label for a broader alternative approach. It pays off in spades here.
  3. The Heavy Heavy, “Go Down River”: The latest in my “heard it in a restaurant” playlist does not really disappoint. It’s a country song, as far as I can tell, but a pretty decent one.
  4. Noah Kahan, “The Great Divide”: Another “hear it in a restaurant” tune. It’s not bad. Is it as good as any of the better songs off Stick Season? Eh. It’s good, but not exactly great. Hard to really put my finger on it.
  5. Jeremie Albino, “Across The Hall”: Guy reminds me a lot of John Fullbright, and that’s a style and musician we could use a lot more of, I think.
  6. The Shins, “Gone For Good”: The world needs more songs with pedal steel and a plot about divorce and leaving your wedding band on the train tracks for the train to flatten. It’s just a fact.
  7. The White Stripes, “The Denial Twist”: You know things will get interesting if (1) Bob Dylan or (2) Jack White gets behind a piano for a song. This does not mean I endorse the whole “I’m going to spend the whole concert at the piano” Bob Dylan we’ve seen over the past decade or so.
  8. Portugal. The Man, “Once Was One”: I think it’s about evolution? I dunno, there’s a line in the chorus about monkeys, and I can’t really get past that for whatever reason.
  9. The Coral, “Dreaming Of You”: I watched the hell out of Scrubs back in the day, and have enjoyed what I’ve seen of the latest revival season. I still remember this song pretty much verbatim from back then. Thanks, Scurbs.
  10. Blur, “Song 2”: I have this thing I do where I recite the lyrics to this song as if I were reading a Shakespearean sonnet, all slow and sonorous and full of self-import. The “whoo-hoo”s are my favorite part. The Wife absolutely hates this and rarely lets me get that far before she shuts it down.

Playlist #274

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Happy Monday Wednesday! I’m currently at Virginia Beach for a week of family fun. Here’s some songs to rock away the days in the sun.

  1. Lord Huron (featuring Phoebe Bridgers), “The Night We Met”: I love this song and I love the addition of Phoebe Bridgers’ vocals.
  2. Chuck Prophet (featuring Qiensave), “First Came the Thunder”: I dug his collaboration with this band. Their styles are different, but there’s enough overlap for a happy medium style of thing here.
  3. Ben Folds, “Not the Same”: if I ever climb a tree at someone’s party and come down as an evangelist for…well, anything, please sit on my head until the urge passes.
  4. Iron & Wine, “Call It Dreaming”: I kinda love how the coda to this song reminds me of the Elton John song “Levon.” Dunno why or how, it just does.
  5. Pearl Jam, “Hail Hail”: for when you really need to get the blood pumping and the juices flowing, accept no substitutes! Though I’m pretty sure by the point they recorded this song, it’d be weird and inaccurate to refer to Pearl Jam as a grunge band.
  6. Sara Bareilles, “Armor”: I still really dig this song, even…geez, eight years later?! Why does time keep moving forward like that?
  7. Josh Ritter, “Golden Age of Radio”: I love playing this song on the guitar, even if the low notes are really damn hard to sing well. I still try to sing ‘em.
  8. Lizzo, “Good As Hell”: I know Lizzo’s been in her “Bad Bitch” era for a bit now, but I still dig the vibes of this song and will sing along whenever it comes on.
  9. Greg Felden, “Incoming”: I like this song a lot, and spent a good four hours of a road trip home from Oklahoma only listening to this song on repeat turned up about as loud as my ears could handle it. Would do it again.
  10. Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic”: I had this song on the playlist when I put it together Sunday evening (yes, I started planning ahead for this week, and still didn’t get it done before I left). Then this morning someone posted a version Glen Hansard did of it live acoustic, and it just knocked me right out. Not long after, I learned he’d died in a motorcycle accident. Life is short, folks.