Happy New Year! In addition to the playlist this week, I have CD’s for sale! That’s right, I put together the EP that I released last January and the two singles I released over the course of the year. For $10, you can have a copy of it all for yourself! Email me at crookedhalo42 [at] gmail dot com and we can set it all up.

And now, on with the playlist!

1. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”: Who doesn’t love some second-wave ska? I know I do.
2. Loreena McKennitt, “The Mummer’s Dance”: Celtic electronica? In this economy?
3. Jason Isbell & Elizabeth Cook, “Pancho & Lefty”: Gotta love a Jason Isbell cover of a Townes Van Zandt song.
4. Fleetwood Mac, “Little Lies”: Only recently discovered that this song was a Fleetwood Mac song.
5. America, “Ventura Highway”: I just want to drive along the coast with this song cranked way up.
6. XTC, “Dear God”: A song that demands God explain why bad things happen to good people.
7. Wilco, “Say You Miss Me”: The yearning and pleading in this song get me every time.
8. Van Morrison, “I Love You”: I’ve had a difficult time listening to Van Morrison the past few years. His weird anti-vaccine views and his persecution complex have kinda gotten on my nerves. But this song is still tremendously sweet.
9. Tom Waits, “Jockey Full Of Bourbon”: I’m not really sure what good a jockey full of bourbon would do, unless this is really a song about peeing ’cause you had too much bourbon.
10. Semisonic, “Never You Mind”: I love this song for nothing else if not the reference to Spock’s brain.