The packing continues unabated. We have electricity and water at the new place. And I have a new playlist for you.

1. Shemekia Copeland, “Clotilda On Fire”: Sure, I came to this song because Jason Isbell plays lead guitar on it, but I stayed for the absolute baller story of a slave ship burning.
2. Jason Isbell, “Relatively Easy”: I was realizing over the weekend that Jason Isbell might be my current favorite musician. His songs are just so damn good.
3. Owen Danoff, “Never Been Kissed”: Haven’t heard much from this guy lately, which is a shame. He’s a solid songwriter.
4. Ram Jam, “Black Betty”: Bam-a-lam.
5. Ringo Starr, “Photograph”: It’s easy to crap on Ringo. The dude just seemed happy to be there most of the time. But he’s a fantastic drummer and had a good ear for songs early on in his solo career (the less said about Ringo the 4th, his abysmal foray into disco, the better). It helped that some of the songs, like “Photograph,” were contributed by former Beatle bandmate George Harrison (the same album had songs from John and Paul as well).
6. Van Morrison, “And The Healing Has Begun”: That spoken word interlude always drives me up the wall. Just sing, Van. Just sing.
7. The Grass Roots, “I’d Wait A Million Years”: I just love this song. I love the Grass Roots. I wish they’d done even more music than they released.
8. Glen Phillips, “Men Just Leave”: I still really enjoy the sound and style of Glen Phillips’ first album. I wish he’d pursued this style more instead of the more polished, Toad the Wet Sprocket-esque stuff he did afterwards.
9. Gillian Welch, “Revelator”: My introduction to this song was the Glen Phillips cover. Her original version is better.
10. Electric Light Orchestra, “Twilight”: Was still on an ELO kick last week, and ended up listening to Time. It’s still an interesting latter-day ELO album, filled with interesting ideas and quirky musical directions.