counting crows

Playlist #153 – Annabelle the Horsewoman

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Happy Tuesday, folks! I returned from the great wide west to my humble abode in Virginia safe and sound. And today is eldest niece Annabelle’s birthday! In her honor, all of the songs have to do with horses, ’cause that girl is equestrian.

  1. Bob Dylan, “All The Tired Horses”: The kickoff to the infamous Self Portrait album doesn’t even feature any Dylan vocals. Which probably should’ve been a sign to folks, I think.
  2. Moxy Fruvous, “Horseshoes”: “You keep handin’ out horseshoes/Horseshoes have gotta be tossed.”
  3. America, “Horse With No Name”: Spoiler alert: you don’t have to keep riding a nameless horse. You can give it a name anytime you want. Horses don’t care. They don’t know their names.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Silver Palomino”: According to britannica.com., a palomino is a “colour type of horse distinguished by its cream, yellow, or gold coat and white or silver mane and tail.” Which…I mean, I guess you can refer to a horse by its mane color primarily, sorta like we do with hair color, except humans aren’t completely covered in hair that gives us a much better descriptor we could use, Bruce.
  5. Aerosmith, “Back In The Saddle”: If you fall out of the saddle, this song encourages you to get back up and climb back into it once more. Whereas I would say, “Bugger that for a lark, I’m gonna go have a lie down.” Because I apparently became British when I fell.
  6. Counting Crows, “Another Horsedreamer’s Blues”: Why does dreaming of horses give one the blues? I do not know. Maybe it’s because they’re so expensive?
  7. The Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses”: I dunno, I get the feeling wild horses would not want to be employed, let alone to drag anyone anywhere. But maybe that’s just me.
  8. Soul Coughing, “16 Horses”: I have so many questions. Why is she pushing the horses? Why sixteen of them, specifically? You guys have a lot of explaining to do.
  9. The Beatles, “Dig A Pony”: But not as much explaining as John Lennon has. Why do you dig a pony, John? And how? What is…is this a sex thing? Do I really even want an answer to that question?
  10. Tom Waits, “Pony”: Why does he sound so sad while he sings about riding his pony? I thought these things made people happy. I don’t understand.

Playlist #138

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Happy first Monday of Winter Break! We’re cozy, the cat is crazy, and I’ve got a new playlist for ya.

  1. Josiah and the Bonnevilles, “Anti-Hero (Country Version)”: It’s a Taylor Swift cover! Who doesn’t love one of those? This one is mostly acoustic with some nice harmonies.
  2. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, “Look What You’ve Done To Your Brother”: The band cuts loose and rocks out hard on this one.
  3. Dawes, “That Western Skyline”: I love the harmonies on this one. It’s such a great song. Such a shame that they never did anything near as good as this song. It’s a hell of a way to kick off your first album, though.
  4. The Horrible Crowes, “Sugar”: It’s always interesting to hear Brian Fallon singing in a lower register.
  5. The Minus 5, “I Don’t Want To F**k Off Anymore”: I love the banjo in this song, and also the dark humor of the whole thing.
  6. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, “Rude”: The best version of this song that there is.
  7. Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Match Box Blues”: See previous statement.
  8. Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”: Billy Preston maybe isn’t known for his solo work, but damn maybe he should be.
  9. Counting Crows, “A Long December”: I always like listening to this song this time of year. Puts me in a reflective frame of mind.
  10. James McMurtry, “Choctaw Bingo”: This song is always so much fun.

Playlist #112

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Happy Wednesday, folks. I was at the beach on Monday with family, and spent yesterday recovering from the beach, so you get a playlist today and you’ll like it.

  1. Spoon, “Sugar Babies”: These guys manage to stay creative and innovative even a couple of decades into their careers. It’s inspiring and awesome.
  2. X Ambassadors, “Renegade”: I think I’ve been writing songs like this lately. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
  3. Tom Waits, “Looks Like I’m Up Shit Creek Again”: You an’ me both, Tom.
  4. Kris Orlowski, “Go (featuring Glen Phillips)”: I am just a sucker for any song that features Glen Phillips.
  5. Them, “Gloria”: G. L. O. R. I. A.
  6. Jack Johnson, “If I Had Eyes”: What if a regular ol’ Jack Johnson song, but with an electric guitar instead of an acoustic?
  7. Jake Blount, “Didn’t It Rain”: A modern take on a classic number from ol’ Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The electric guitar in this one makes the song feel much more eerie than the original ever did.
  8. Counting Crows, “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby”: It’s epic in length and bittersweet in scope. It’s like the song was written just for me.
  9. Norah Jones, “Don’t Know Why”: How does Norah Jones crank out these beautiful little nuggets of pop brilliance?
  10. Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: Cadillacs are made out of fiberglass now, so maybe it’s time to give it up.

Playlist #99: Elvis Has Left the Building…

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No, don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind and finally made an all-Elvis playlist. No, this is a playlist all about rooms and buildings. It goes rather like this:

  1. John Hartford, “In Tall Buildings”: A rumination on giving up the wild, carefree days of youth to go work in tall buildings downtown. It’s sad and thoughtful and a little bit rueful.
  2. Counting Crows, “Perfect Blue Buildings”: “I wanna get me a little oblivion,” Adam Duritz sings. I think we could all use a bit of oblivion. Or at least a nice nap in a perfect blue building.
  3. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, “Our House”: Why are the two cats out in the yard? They’ll decimate the bird population! Is that what you want, guys? Huh?
  4. The Wallflowers, “I Am A Building”: Being the son of Bob Dylan must be hard. I’m pretty sure that’s why Jakob Dylan tried being a building for a while in the early ’00s.
  5. The Commodores, “Brick House”: She is mighty mighty.
  6. XTC, “No Thugs In Our House”: This seems like a reasonable thing to expect. Little Graham better be on his best damn behavior, that’s all I’m saying.
  7. The White Stripes, “Hotel Yorba”: Did you know you can still write a song that’s just G, C, and D? Jack White knows!
  8. Traveling Wilburys, “Poor House”: If there’s a song that’s more fun to play in a pickin’ circle, I don’t know it.
  9. Tom Petty, “The Apartment Song”: I, too, used to live in a two-room apartment where the neighbors were knocking on my walls. Tom Petty is the Everyman.
  10. Bruce Springsteen, “Mansion On A Hill”: However, I never lived in a mansion, hill-based or otherwise. So much for this man of the people!

Tune in next week, when I’ll do something completely different for Playlist #100!

Playlist #76

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Happy Indigenous People’s Day! This is your annual reminder that Christopher Columbus can suck it. I also have that neato Halloween story you can read available for the low, low price of $0.99! Anyway, on with the playlist!

  1. Adeem the Artist, “Going To Hell”: Just found out about this artist over the weekend, and I already love their work. They’re a non-binary pansexual folk musician, a combination of words that either piqued your interests or sent you running for the hills. This is their best song, if you ask me, though the one about Toby Keith is a close runner-up. Features the line, “Love ain’t just a feeling, it’s a god dang magic spell.”
  2. Counting Crows, “Hard Candy”: Sometimes, you just need some electric 12-string jangle in your music. This is a good song for that.
  3. Soul Asylum, “Runaway Train”: Did you know the album this song is off of, Grave Dancers Union, came out 30 years ago this past weekend? Doesn’t that make you feel old, especially since I’m pretty sure 1992 was actually only 10 years ago, if my brain is processing the passage of time correctly (spoiler: it isn’t).
  4. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Angel Dream”: I will always love the She’s the One Soundtrack. It’s so damn good, better than it has any business being.
  5. James Taylor, “Fire And Rain”: I mean, you can write some pretty songs about drug addiction, as it turns out.
  6. Green Day, “Hitchin’ A Ride”: Have I mentioned how much I enjoy the extreme tonal shift between songs on a playlist? Because I love it.
  7. U2, “Seconds”: Early U2 > Late U2. Fight me.
  8. The Who, “I Can See For Miles”: Sir, you’re farsighted. You cannot read a book right in front of your face. You probably need eye surgery.
  9. The Doubleclicks, “Oh, Mr. Darcy”: Everyone needs that one aloof asshole that you fall head over heels in love with but don’t want to admit it and then in the end you do admit it and they admit they love you and I think I’m starting to see the appeal of Jane Austen.
  10. Dan Auerbach, “Shine On Me”: I like this song, I really do, but I do not understand the wisdom of getting Mark fucking Knopfler to record a guitar track for your song and then not making it the most obvious part of said song. I just . . . how do you bury this at the bottom of the mix?!

Playlist #49

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Whoops, it’s Thursday and I totally forgot to post this week’s playlist. My bad. In my defense, it’s been Spring Break all week, and I’ve been trying my damnedest to relax the whole time. Don’t forget to give me a follow on Patreon!

  1. Bon Iver, “Blood Bank”: I remember, many years ago, sitting down in my classroom with a coworker to record him doing a selection of songs. This was one of them, and it’s been one of my favorite Bon Iver songs since even before then.
  2. Cake, “Comfort Eagle”: “He is now accepting callers for these pendant keychains.”
  3. Camper Van Beethoven, “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”: Back at Accotink, I occasionally taught a Humanities class. We spent a quarter on art, a quarter on poetry, a quarter on theater, and the final quarter on the history of popular music. I’d put together short playlists for each genre of music we covered, and then I had the kids research a genre of their choice and put together a playlist for it. One of my coworkers put together a playlist that I can’t recall the genre for, and this song was on it.
  4. The Clash, “Train In Vain (Stand By Me)”: I do dig the album London Calling, and this is one of the best songs on their best album.
  5. Traveling Wilburys, “Heading For The Light”: I used to play this song on the guitar all the time. I should relearn the chords for it.
  6. Laurie & John Stirratt, “Juniper”: Someday, I’ll put together that list of songs by bands related to Wilco. These two will appear on that list, since John Stirratt is the bass player for Wilco (and one of the musicians in The Autumn Defense).
  7. Tom Waits, “Cold, Cold Ground”: “Lay down together in the cold, cold ground.” Beautiful and weird, Tom.
  8. Mark Knopfler, “The Trawlerman’s Song”: A song about a fisherman who has to keep going out and fishing because he owes money on his boat? Classic Knopfler.
  9. Counting Crows, “Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes To Hollywood)”: One of my favorite songs off of Hard Candy, which is otherwise a pretty great album as well.
  10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Who’ll Stop The Rain”: Still just one of the best CCR songs out there, which is saying a lot.

Playlist #40

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Sorry, this one won’t be going up on Spotify, nor will future playlists, because screw those guys.

  1. 40 Watt Sun, “Behind My Eyes”: I have a tendency to play every song on the guitar at about the same speed. These guys play slower than anything I will ever be capable of playing, and I kind of love it. Maybe I’ll try to write a song that goes this slow? But definitely not this long. It’s a very long song.
  2. Lana Del Rey, “Tomorrow Never Came”: Why does every female singer of a certain style sing like their mouth is full of cotton? I mean, I dig this song, don’t get me wrong, but she sounds like someone numbed her mouth for a dentist visit and she stopped halfway through to sing.
  3. Soul Asylum, “Growing Into You”: Never really listened to them back when they were big back in the early ’90s, but this is a fun song.
  4. Cat Power, “Paths of Victory”: Again with a song so very slow. But very pretty.
  5. Counting Crows, “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby”: This one cranks the tempo up a bit. There’s something about the drum sound from this song that I dig.
  6. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Effigy”: This is a fun song to play. I especially love hitting the low E string to get that grungy “bwam” sound out of it.
  7. The Who, “A Quick One, While He’s Away”: Sing it with me: “Cello, cello, cello, cello…”
  8. Sparklehorse, “Sick Of Goodbyes”: A band I imagine my brother might enjoy.
  9. Josh Ritter, “Right Moves”: The first Josh Ritter song I really loved, and still one of my favorites.
  10. The Head and the Heart, “Lost In My Mind”: I think we all sometimes get lost in our mind.

Playlist #31 – Loooooong

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Happy Monday after Thanksgiving, AKA “Online Consumer Armageddon.” I posted a list of stuff you can buy that benefits me back on Friday, for those who are curious. And now here I am with this week’s playlist, a set that features songs that are all about being long (but most of them are actually quite short).

  1. The Beatles, “Long, Long, Long”: Off the White Album, this quiet George Harrison gem is gorgeous and simple.
  2. Bruce Springsteen, “Long Time Comin'”: Features two of my favorite Boss lines: “Let your mistakes be your own” and “I ain’t gonna fuck it up this time.” Good stuff.
  3. Counting Crows, “A Long December”: With one of the best opening lines in any song, “A long December/And there’s reason to believe/Maybe this year will be better than the last.” Your lips to God’s ears.
  4. The Doobie Bros., “Long Train Runnin'”: My brother and I used to try to perform this one back in college. I…could not sing it then, and maybe sorta kinda can now, just not the way they do it.
  5. Green Day, “Longview”: I love how this song is mostly about the bass.
  6. The Hollies, “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)”: That one song that you always kinda thought was CCR but you weren’t 100% sure.
  7. Jars of Clay, “The Long Fall”: I’ve been a fan of these guys since I was back in high school dating a preacher’s kid. I kinda fell off for a few years, but their most recent stuff is still pretty darn good.
  8. Little Richard, “Long Tall Sally”: How do you not include Little Richard on this playlist, hmm? That’s the real challenge here.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”: I originally had a different Dylan song here (“The Man In The Long Black Coat”), but I think this one fits the general vibe and intent of the playlist better.
  10. Charlie Sexton, “It Don’t Take Long”: The train horn at the beginning of this song always throws me off, but it’s still lovely and all that.