Playlist #149

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Happy Monday, folks. We’re into March now, which means my birthday is coming up (and what better way to celebrate than to buy one of my books or listen to one of my albums?). Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist.

  1. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Colossus of Roads”: I probably made a mistake listening to this album first of all of their albums, because none of the rest of their stuff sounds like this. It’s folky and country and Americana and mostly acoustic, and it makes me want to put more slide guitar in my own songs.
  2. Big Star, “Thirteen”: No song has ever encapsulated what it feels like to be a teenager better than this.
  3. Paula Cole, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone”: Where, indeed?
  4. Phil Collins, “The Roof is Leaking”: Possibly the best song about cold homesteaders the 1980s ever produced.
  5. Rhiannon Giddens and Iron & Wine, “Forever Young”: Who loves a Bob Dylan cover? Iron & Wine loves a Bob Dylan cover. And Rhiannon Giddens. And me.
  6. Rob Thomas, “Streetcorner Symphony”: I will be the first to admit that Rob Thomas does not create what you would call “good” music. It is disposable and forgettable. It adds nothing to one’s life. But damn, while the song is playing, it is everything you ever wanted a song to be.
  7. Shannon McNally, “Bring It On Home”: What can I say, I like it when I hear covers of old blues standards.
  8. Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night”: Do you ever get the feeling that maybe all of Thom Yorke’s problems could be solved if he just got a little bit more sun?
  9. The Yardbirds, “For Your Love”: Yeah, it’s a Yardbirds song without a guitar solo, which feels a bit like blasphemy, but it’s still a damn good song.
  10. Waxahatchee, “Oxbow”: Hey, they have a new album coming out this year, don’t they? I’mma listen to that.

Playlists #147 and #148

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Good morning and happy Monday, folks. I’m back from Oklahoma. We had to have a funeral for my grandmother who passed away on the 17th. Here are two playlists to make up for missing last week. The first is a selection of my songs, while the second is just a list of songs I’ve been listening to lately.

Playlist #147: A Whitman’s Sampler of Charlie Cottrell Songs

  1. “Unanswered Prayers”: I still love the slide guitar on this one.
  2. “Saint Joan”: Clif really likes how slightly off-kilter the piano on this one is, and I have a hard time disagreeing with him.
  3. “Complete Control”: One of my better rockers.
  4. “I Wish You Would”: I feel like this song could’ve been recorded anytime between 1967 and yesterday. Dig that Bakersfield guitar solo.
  5. “Oh, My Love”: The vocals on this one were overdriven a bit on purpose, and I’m probably most-proud of those guitar solos.
  6. “Dark On My Street”: Still one of the best-recorded songs I’ve ever done; Clif played all the instruments on this one.
  7. “Burnt Offering 2”: If there’s one song that illustrates how important it is to have a good collaborator working on your songs with you, it’s this one. Clif took what I’d recorded and turned it into a powerful, dare I say beautiful song.
  8. “My Head’s Not Equipped To Deal With This Bliss”: An older song that I recorded for the latest album. The new album, Middle Aged Heartthrob, is half old songs, half brand-new songs.
  9. “Losing Sleep”: Just me grappling with death, the passage of time, the collapse of American society, and my reading list.
  10. “The Ocean Just Gets In The Way”: This was originally going to be the closer for the new album, but then Clif went and recorded that little banjo bit at the end of “As Shadows Lengthen” and it just felt like the perfect way to end the album, so this became the penultimate song.

Playlist #148

  1. The Low Anthem, “Champion Angels”: I’ve spent most of this morning listening to Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and this is one of my favorite songs on there.
  2. Martin Sexton, “Diner”: I blame the TV show Scrubs for this one.
  3. The Mountain Goats, “Fall of the Star High School Running Back”: Who doesn’t love a story of a high school football star who gets injured, starts taking pain medication, then starts selling pain meds for profit?
  4. Norah Jones, “The Long Way Home”: Not the Supertramp song, but the Tom Waits song of similar name.
  5. Ondara, “Torch Song”: I like the simplicity of the instrumentation on this one. Mostly just acoustic guitar and standup bass.
  6. Wings, “Helen Wheels”: McCartney rarely rocked out that hard, but this one rips.
  7. Brian Fallon, “Forget Me Not”: I still like the way he shouts the girl’s name, “Stacy!” at the beginning of the verse.
  8. Jars of Clay, “Reckless Forgiver”: I like the idea of reckless forgiveness. It takes a concept that is usually so carefully considered – forgiveness – and says just give that to everyone, everywhere, regardless of anything. It’s a nice idea.
  9. David Gray, “Easy Way to Cry”: I was on a David Gray kick on the drive home this weekend, listening to several of his albums back to back. This one always sits with me afterwards.
  10. Josh Ritter, “Monster Ballads”: I often wish I was a better lower-register singer. Songs like this make me rue that lack even more.

Playlist #146

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Happy Monday, folks! I hear Taylor Swift won the Super Bowl yesterday, so good for her. And in her rookie season, too.

  1. Dr. Dre, “Still D.R.E. (featuring Snoop Dogg)”: That intro is iconic, but maybe if you’re embarrassed to seen listening to a song that drops the n-word as frequently as this one does, find the clean version?
  2. The Decemberists, “Burial Ground”: It’s new Decemberists! It sounds exactly like what you think a Decemberists song would sound like. Your mileage with such a thing may vary.
  3. Coldplay, “Clocks”: I dunno, it’s just such a wistful, sad song to me for some reason. Not even really sure it’s intended to be a sad song, but that’s the tone I’m picking up.
  4. The Greencards, “Marty’s Kitchen”: Ever wanted to hear some of the fastest damn guitar, fiddle, and mandolin playing you’ve ever heard? This is the song for you.
  5. Jenny Scheinman, “I Was Young When I Left Home”: A Bob Dylan cover? On one of my playlists? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  6. Neko Case, “That’s Who I Am”: From the darkly gothic Ghost Brothers of Darkland County musical (written by John Mellencamp, T-Bone Burnett, and Stephen King). It’s sly and clever and has a good bounce to it. I want T-Bone to produce one of my albums someday.
  7. A.C. Newman, “Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer”: I was on an A.C. Newman kick last week, listening through Get Guilty and Shut Down The Streets several times.
  8. Phil Collins, “I Wish It Would Rain Down”: When I was a little kid and this song came out, the main draw was the Eric Clapton guitar part. Now, that’s the part of the song that makes me cringe. God, Eric Clapton, how come you turned out to be such a sleezebag?
  9. Rhett Miller, “The El”: I’ve been thinking about Rhett and his main band, the Old 97s, a bit lately. Probably because they have a new album coming out soon (notification of which was accidentally dropped early by Stephen King).
  10. Sheryl Crow, “My Favorite Mistake”: I wonder if her least-favorite mistake is that one duet with Kid Rock.

Playlist #145: Grammy Edition

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Happy Monday, folks! Yesterday they had the Grammy awards, and once again I was shunned by the RIAA. Soon, very soon, they shall feel my revenge. It will be swift, subtle, and probably completely unnoticed by anyone in any position of authority or power. Anyway, here’s a bunch of Grammy-related songs.

  1. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”: If you missed seeing her perform this song with Luke Combs last night, you need to find it and watch it. That woman has not lost a single step. If you’re not crying joyous tears by the end, your heart is harder than mine. Or maybe it’s missing, I dunno.
  2. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, “This Ain’t It”: He won for best Americana album last night for Weathervanes, as well as best Americana song for “Cast Iron Skillet.” Hard to disagree with either of those choices, honestly.
  3. Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”: And apparent she has a new album dropping in April, with the dope title Tortured Poets Department. Can’t say this woman doesn’t bust her ass getting things done.
  4. boygenius, “Satanist”: These three are just flat-out awesome. Spent a good chunk of the weekend listening to this album again, and it slaps.
  5. Foo Fighters, “Nothing At All”: The Foos continue to rock my face off.
  6. Joni Mitchell, “Down To You”: Joni Mitchell is an institution and the fact that she performed last night is a thing we should all be so very thankful for.
  7. Noah Kahan, “Dial Drunk”: Folks, don’t drunk dial your ex. Nothing good ever comes of it.
  8. The Rolling Stones, “Angry”: Kinda nice to see the old fogies still getting a mention.
  9. SZA, “Ghost in the Machine”: Hadn’t ever listened to anything SZA has ever done, but this song sounds nice. I kinda dig it.
  10. Luke Combs, “Fast Car”: And we round things up with the Luke Combs version of this song, which sorta kicked this whole thing off.

Playlist #144

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Happy Monday! And a truly happy Monday it is, too, for I just did something I haven’t been able to do in three months: take a hot shower in my condo! Sure, it cost a ridiculous amount of money to get it all fixed, but it’s a small price to pay to have water above room temperature when I step into the shower.

  1. Rufus Wainwright, “Harvest”: The one that features Andrew Bird on violin and guest vocals! It’s such a beautiful and simple rendition of the Neil Young tune.
  2. k.d. lang, “Constant Craving”: I, too, hope to someday be disentangled enough from my ego to ignore proper punctuation and capitalization when writing my name. Until then, I stick to the capital letter at the start.
  3. Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”: We could all use a little Prince tune to get us moving today, I think.
  4. Alannah Myles, “Black Velvet”: This song is about Elvis, right? Pretty sure it’s about Elvis.
  5. The Eagles, “After the Thrill is Gone”: One of the sadder Eagles songs out there, and one where Don Henley only kinda over-sings.
  6. Elliott Smith, “Christian Brothers”: Elliott Smith sounds like he could and would fuck you up really bad in this song. It’s great.
  7. Frank Turner, “Get Better”: Just a reminder that things can always improve, you just have to let them.
  8. Iron & Wine, “About a Bruise”: One of Sam Beam’s goofier songs, probably, at least based on backing vocals.
  9. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.”: Explosive.
  10. 10,000 Maniacs, “These Are Days”: Such a soaring song. Very uplifting. A great way to start the week, I think.

Playlist #143

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Happy Monday on this rather chilly morning! We’re back at work for a relatively short week (though not nearly as short as last week, y’know?), and I’ve got a bunch of jumped-up raves to get you motivated to face that work week.

  1. Green Day, “Panic Song”: If this song doesn’t get you pumped up and jumping out of bed, ready to face the day, then you might wanna check your pulse because you might just be dead.
  2. Sleater-Kinney, “Turn It On”: Hey, these awesome ladies just released a new album last Friday! No, this song isn’t off that album; it’s off the seminal Dig Me Out.
  3. The Record Company, “Turn Me Loose”: This one’s a slow burner, with some excellent build-up.
  4. Old 97s, “Champagne, Illinois”: If you’re going to borrow a melody from someone, why not borrow from Bob Dylan? And why not borrow the melody from “Desolation Row,” if you’re going to borrow from Bob Dylan? And why not make the lyrics a travelogue of the Midwest?
  5. The New Pornographers, “Sing Me Spanish Techno”: Is Spanish techno well-respected in the techno community? Are there lots of people out there searching for that particular sub-genre? I just don’t know.
  6. The Pretenders, “Middle of the Road”: Chrissy Hinde rarely sounds so gnarly as she does in this song. There’s real menace here. I dig it.
  7. REM, “So. Central Rain”: Okay, so REM don’t generally go hard as a rule of thumb, and this song doesn’t, but it’s still very good.
  8. Lucero, “Downtown (Intro)” and “On My Way Downtown”: Okay, so I paired these two because “Downtown (Intro)” is, as it so clearly states, an intro to the full song “On My Way Downtown,” and I just really dig the way they feed into each other.
  9. Bob Dylan, “32-20 Blues”: It’s just Dylan and an acoustic guitar, and it still has more energy and forward momentum than most other songs you’ll hear.
  10. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, “Friends”: Okay, so we gotta cool it down for the end of the playlist here. This is one of the best songs Ryan Adams ever wrote, on the best album he ever released.

Playlist #142 – Latter-Day Dylan

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It’s Monday, it’s snowing, and I’ve had Covid again all weekend. Here’s a list of Dylan songs from post-Time Out Of Mind that prove the old man can still write a damn fine tune.

  1. “Workingman’s Blues #2”: From Modern Times, it sort of encapsulates a lot about latter-day Dylan stuff I really admire: the damn-near stately instrumentation, the rumination on man vs. society, and its allusions to older musical traditions and musicians.
  2. “Duquesne Whistle”: From Tempest. It opens the album with a railroad rhythm and some choice slide guitar work. Dylan’s wry sense of humor comes through on this one pretty well, too.
  3. “Goodbye Jimmy Reed”: From Dylan’s latest, Rough and Rowdy Ways. This messy blues shuffle memorializes the great Jimmy Reed in a style that wouldn’t sound out of place on Dylan’s own Highway 61 Revisited.
  4. “Shake Shake Mama”: From Together Through Life. A lot of the songs on this one were written Robert Hunter, including this particular song. It’s also a bit unusual in that it features accordion heavily, a sound that livens up a lot of Dylan’s more staid arrangements.
  5. “Tell Ol’ Bill”: From Bootleg Volume 8. As with the rest of his career, it seems that some of Dylan’s best songs end up on the cutting room floor for reasons I’ll never be able to understand. It’s a simple three-chord blues song, but damn if it isn’t compelling.
  6. “High Water (For Charley Patton)”: From “Love And Theft”, which remains to this day my favorite latter-day Dylan album. “High Water” is a, well, a high point on a record that seems composed of high points. The standup bass and banjo really carry it for me.
  7. “Early Roman Kings”: Tempest again. A slow-burn blues that proves that all men, even Bob Dylan, spend a lot of time thinking about the Roman Empire.
  8. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”: From Shadow Kingdom. Dylan is famous for reframing, recontextualizing, and reimagining his songs, especially as his voice has gotten older and rougher. Shadow Kingdom is a live-in-the-studio type of album, where he and his backing band took a bunch of old Dylan tunes and reimagined them in their current style. It’s just about all-acoustic, very subdued, and all-around lovely.
  9. “My Wife’s Hometown”: From Together Through Life. “Hell’s my wife’s hometown,” Dylan croons wryly. It’s great and snarky and fun as hell.
  10. “Ain’t Talkin'”: From Bootleg Series Volume 8. I prefer this version to the one that ended up on Modern Times, mostly because the drums are a bit more prominent here and Dylan’s vocals feel looser and more natural. Honestly, though, either version is pretty damn solid.

Playlist #141

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s bright and clear here in Northern Virginia today, though tomorrow promises rainstorms. In January. Because we don’t get to have snow days anymore. Anyway, have some music.

  1. Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band, “All That’s Left Is Fare-Thee-Well”: Contemporary country that doesn’t suck? It’s more likely than you’d think! At least, it is when you’re talking about Terry Allen, who’s been at it since the mid-70s. And can you dig the name of that backing band?
  2. Neil Diamond, “Holly Holy”: Neil Diamond singin’ his heart out on this one, God bless ‘im.
  3. Bob Dylan, “Born In Time”: Sometimes, latter-day Dylan gets on even my nerves. He’s gotten to a point on many of his songs (you could easily make the argument that he was there from the very beginning) of getting too repetitive with the chord structures; it’s the same phrase, repeated over and over and over for six or seven minutes. But sometimes, he throws out a gem like this one, which didn’t even merit a regular release (it’s from The Bootleg Series, Volume 8. Though, come to think of it, there were several bangers on that particular set). So most folks will never hear this one, but thank God we got the three-disc Sinatra karaoke of Triplicate.
  4. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: Peak 1980s Mac. Which means my wife would hate it.
  5. Moby, “New Dawn Fades”: “Moby is so edgy,” said some vegan teen in 1998.
  6. Jenny Lewis, “Carpetbagger (Featuring Elvis Costello)”: Always sing a song with Elvis Costello if you get the chance. It just sounds good.
  7. Old 97s, “Jagged”: Is this from one of their best albums? No. It’s far too poppy for my tastes, generally speaking. Is this still a damn good song that just tears a hole straight through you? Yes.
  8. Josh Ritter, “Monster Ballads”: This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in the past twenty years. Just guts me every time I listen to it.
  9. Miles Davis, “It Never Entered My Mind”: One of my favorite jazz songs. I don’t talk much about jazz, because (1) It’s hard to talk about jazz in general and (2) most jazz is too up its own ass for my tastes. But this song is gorgeous and mournful and melancholy in all the best ways.
  10. Rhiannon Giddens, “The Angels Laid Him Away”: This woman knows her way around an old folk tune, as this particular ode reveals to great effect.

Playlist #140

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Happy New Year, folks! It’s now 2024, which means…well, not a whole lot, on the blog side of things. The playlists will continue until morale improves. That said, here’s this week’s.

  1. Andrew Bird, “Auld Lang Syne”: How this went from a song sung when folks were being generally lauded to a song about the end of one year and the beginning of a new one is beyond me. Maybe someone should research that.
  2. Brian Fallon, “Forget Me Not”: I know I just featured this one a couple of weeks ago, but I really like this song and it’s basically been playing on repeat in my brain for those two weeks.
  3. Frank Turner, “The Gathering”: I always enjoy a Frank Turner rave-up, and one that features Jason Isbell? That’s just icing on the cake.
  4. The Horrible Crowes, “Mary Ann”: Maybe I just really like songs where Brian Fallon shouts someone’s name, okay?
  5. Huey Lewis & the News, “It’s All Right”: Even these guys, the whitest of white guys, know you clap on the two and the four. Get it together, white folks.
  6. Ingrid Michaelson, “Be OK”: I think we can all admit that 2023 was lousy for a whole lot of us. Here’s hoping we’ll all be okay in 2024.
  7. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Climb That Hill”: But it’s not enough to just be okay, is it? No, we want to reach the summit, achieve new heights, do great things. And we will. We just have to go out there and do it.
  8. Tom Waits, “Cold Cold Ground”: Read a thing last week that rated all of Tom Waits’ albums, and this one (Franks Wild Years, without an apostrophe because Tom Waits) was ranked mid-tier. Which is crazy to me, because any album that features this song is automatically top-tier if you ask me.
  9. Wilco, “Quiet Amplifier”: I find it hard to believe Jeff Tweedy has a quiet amplifier. I’ve seen Wilco in concert. He gets loud just like everyone else.
  10. Sting, “Brand New Day”: It is a brand new day, at the start of a brand new year. Make the best of it, folks.