josh ritter

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 #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 #132

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Happy beginning of November, folks! The days are shorter, the nights are longer, and the sun sets at 5:00 now. These tunes ought to keep you going through the darkness, though.

  1. Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone”: I guess I’d never really thought much about the chorus to this song, but holy crap did I apparently not know, like, any of it. “It’s just like steppin’ into the Twilight Zone/This is a madhouse, feels like bein’ cloned/My beacon’s been moved under moon and star/Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?” Like, I had never in my life parsed even half of those lyrics. This song is just wild, man.
  2. The Beatles, “Now And Then”: Anyone with even a passing interest in my writings or who I am as a person knows that the Beatles are my all-time favorite band. Sure, it’s a cliché, but when your father is a Boomer, you have to expect things like this. And this is billed as the “final” Beatles song. Well, the last one made featuring original work from all four Beatles, I’m sure. And it’s not bad! Like “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” it was made using an old demo Lennon made that the other three built around, but they had to use Peter Jackson’s AI unmixer to isolate Lennon’s vocals on the track. The result is that he comes through real clear, more so than on the two Anthology songs. Is it the best Beatles song? No, far from it. Is it still pretty damn good? Yes.
  3. The Rolling Stones, “Bite My Head Off”: Everything old is new again. The Stones put out a new album (only their second or so of the 21st century?), and it’s not bad. It’s not essential, but they left that behind decades ago and are mostly coasting on cool factor now. And that’s okay. If I were in the Rolling Stones, I’d be coasting by on having written some of the best damn rock’n’roll songs of all time, too, by the time I hit my 80s. Not working on new material. This one features Paul and Ringo from the Beatles, even! Pauls’ bass riff at the end is nasty stuff, and I love it.
  4. P!nk, “Who Knew”: Why does she spell her name with an exclamation point? I have no answer. But I kinda dig this song anyway.
  5. Semisonic, “Only Empathy”: Semisonic always hits a bright, warm spot in my heart, and their new album positively glows with energy and love. I particularly like this song.
  6. Tom Petty, “There Goes Angela (Dream Away)”: I always have a place in my heart for Tom Petty music, especially from the Wildflowers/She’s the One era. This particular demo/home recording is simple and gorgeous.
  7. Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready To Get Down”: If I understand the lyrics to this one correctly (and I’ll be the first to admit that my literary analysis skills have waned over the years), I’m pretty sure this is the story of a young woman who discovers she’s a lesbian, gets sent to Bible college, and comes back even more lesbian. Hey, even some of those “little Bible college[s] in Missouri” will teach you something about the world if you’re not careful!
  8. Cory Branan, “When In Rome, When In Memphis”: I absolutely love the chorus and coda to this song. “When I go, I ghost” is just a great lyric.
  9. The National, “Wake Up Your Saints”: High Violet is still the best the National album and even its outtakes and bonus tracks prove that.
  10. Bob Dylan, “False Prophet”: For a while there, I was concerned that Dylan had lost a step or two. I mean, I get one album of Sinatra covers, but three? And one of them was a freakin’ triple album? That seems excessive. But Rough and Rowdy Ways was a fun album full of the Dylan lyricism and in-jokes I’ve come to expect from the man, and I just have to stand in awe that even as he eases into his 80s he’s still releasing exciting and interesting new stuff. The Stones could probably take a tip or two.

Playlist #59

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Happy Tuesday, folks! It’s officially summer break time! That doesn’t mean I’ve slacked off over on Patreon, though. There’ll be a new song each month, just like usual. Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist.

  1. Old 97s, “Holy Cross”: It’s just such a bleak song with such a great rhythm.
  2. The Wallflowers, “Sleepwalker”: “Now, Cupid, don’t draw back your bow/Sam Cooke didn’t know what I know.”
  3. The Minus 5, “Wasted Bandage”: Favorite line is, “dear physician, won’t you heal yourself?”
  4. Golden Smog, “Until You Came Along”: Love the jangly twelve string in this one. It’s an alt-country Byrds song, essentially.
  5. Gin Blossoms, “Just South Of Nowhere”: Early Gin Blossoms stuff is just so damn good.
  6. Justin Townes Earle, “Flint City Shake it”: A song that calls GM out on the carpet for its treatment of the auto workers in Flint, Michigan. Gotta love it.
  7. Jesse Malin, “Addicted”: I will never not love Jesse Malin, and this song – about the problems of modern society and its addiction to smart phones and Instagram – hits a lot of good points.
  8. Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready To Get Down”: “If you wanna see a miracle/Watch me get down.”
  9. Glen Phillips, “Men Just Leave”: I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Glen Phillips’ first solo album, and this song – about how men often suck – still hits too real.
  10. Wilco, “You Are My Face”: I love the middle part of this song, where the band really cuts loose. It’s awesome.

Playlist #54

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Good Monday Morning, folks! Follow me on Patreon. I’m super excited about May’s song there. Meanwhile, here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Dream Wife, “Hey Heartbreaker”: The chugging guitar is great, and I love the overlapping vocals at the end.
  2. Drive-By Truckers, “Outfit”: “Don’t call what you’re wearing an outfit,” the narrator’s father admonishes him, and I can admit that I have done that on numerous occasions. Oh well.
  3. Wilco, “Say You Miss Me”: A heartbreaker of a song. Love it.
  4. Tom Waits, “Goin’ Out West”: “Well, I’m goin’ out west/Where the wind blows tall,” Tom Waits begins, and things only get weirder from there. Because of course they do, this is a Tom Waits song.
  5. Spoon, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”: A reverb-drenched shot of adrenaline straight to the heart.
  6. SaraoMusic, “Coming Home”: Sunny So-Cal indie pop at its finest.
  7. The Rolling Stones, “Factory Girl”: Always imagined this as the mid-70s version of that Shakespearean sonnet, “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun.”
  8. The Beatles, “Two Of Us”: If there’s a better song on Let It Be, make your case in the comments.
  9. Rhett Miller, “The El”: Who doesn’t love rattling along on the El in Chicago?
  10. Josh Ritter, “Hopeful”: Taking those first few tentative steps out into the wild after a relationship collapses can be terrifying, but you gotta stay hopeful.

Playlist #51

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Happy Tax Day, America! Happy regular ol’ Monday after Easter! Happy, um, April 18th, everyone else? Don’t forget to join my Patreon, where I’m making new music every month for your listening enjoyment (actual amount of enjoyment may vary. Please see your doctor if you receive too much enjoyment from listening to my music)! Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist.

  1. The Beatles, “Taxman”: Like I wasn’t gonna do this today. “My advice to those who die/Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
  2. Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time”: Only started listening to him this morning, but the line, “Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight/You gotta kick in the darkness till it bleeds daylight” is just one of the all-time best.
  3. The Ink Spots, “Java Jive”: Like most music from the first half of the 20th century, my exposure to this song was through a cartoon when I was a small child. Little Lulu, I think?
  4. Lizzo, “About Damn Time”: Here comes Lizzo with another summer jam. God, where did she find that bass player? That bassline slaps.
  5. Ten Years After, “I’d Love To Change The World”: With a chorus that literally says, “I’d love to change the world/But I don’t know what to do/So I’ll leave it up to you,” this is the quintessential Boomer song. “Eh, I’d love to do something about it, but I’m not gonna. Tough luck, future!”
  6. XTC, “Across This Antheap”: Another song with so many good lines just tossed off all casual-like. And that trumpet? So good.
  7. The Wallflowers, “Bleeders”: Included simply because of the way that organ sounds at the very beginning of the song.
  8. Ben E. King, “Stand By Me”: You know what always aggravates me about the John Lennon cover of this song? It adds absolutely nothing to it. You might as well just go back and listen to the Ben E. King version instead. Which is why this version is on the playlist.
  9. Otis Redding, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”: Listening to this song, I’m reminded of how very much in-touch with that ’60s R&B Stax sound CCR (or really, John Fogerty) was. This coulda been a CCR song. Or any CCR song coulda been an Otis Redding song.
  10. Josh Ritter, “Old Black Magic”: This song just chugs along and gets downright fiery towards the end.

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 #21 – So Tired Edition

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As with so many other people my age (or just anyone who is living through these interesting times), I feel like I’m constantly tired. Here’s a list of songs to wake you up.

  1. The Beatles, “I’m So Tired”: My theme song for this week. This month. This year. This…decade, probably? God, was there ever a time I wasn’t tired?
  2. The Pretenders, “I Go To Sleep”: Wouldn’t it be lovely to just drift off to sleep right now? I think it would be.
  3. The Beastie Boys, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”: NO! SLEEP! TILL BROOKLYN!
  4. The Barenaked Ladies, “Who Needs Sleep?”: The jauntiest song about insomnia ever.
  5. The Wallflowers, “Asleep At The Wheel”: For years, the Wife was always concerned I’d fall asleep while driving. She probably still worries about it, she just doesn’t bring it up anymore.
  6. Billy Bragg and Wilco, “California Stars”: Much as Woody Guthrie said, I’d like to lay my weary bones down. Not necessarily on a bed of California stars, but a regular bed, maybe? Yeah, a regular bed would be just fine.
  7. Hem, “I’ll Dream Of You Tonight”: I don’t often remember my dreams, which is probably a blessing since the ones I do remember are usually not at all pleasant. This is possibly something I should discuss with my therapist.
  8. Iron & Wine and Calexico, “Burn That Broken Bed”: I mean, if the bed is broken, you could just leave it out by the dumpster or something. Burning it seems extreme, guys.
  9. Josh Ritter, “Can’t Go To Sleep (Without You)”: Though I do not fault her for this at all, the Wife and I usually go to bed at vastly different times, and I frequently struggle to sleep until she is in bed. Dunno why.
  10. Cake, “When You Sleep”: Is this song about masturbation? I think this song might be about masturbation while you’re asleep, which is an impressive skill, I guess? I don’t know, I’m tired.

Playlist #2

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Here’s this week’s playlist. I was feeling a little more melancholy this week than last, which I feel is reflected in the selections.

  1. Josh Ritter, “Come and Find Me”: Pretty sure most of this song is just a G chord with little variations to keep it interesting.
  2. The Lemonheads, “Into Your Arms”: One of my team teachers loves the Lemonheads (she’s seen them in concert dozens if not hundreds of times) and I learned how to play this song on the guitar for her. It’s a good and simple song.
  3. The Low Millions, “Eleanor”: Did you know Leonard Cohen’s son had a band? And it was this band? And they never put out another album other than the one this song is on? It’s all true.
  4. The Marshall Tucker Band, “Can’t You See”: I’m a sucker for songs with a real simple chord progression, and this one is just D, C, G, D the entire way through. That’s it. No variation, no chorus, nothing but those three chords.
  5. The National, “90-Mile Water Wall”: My favorite part of this early song from the National is that you can hear the lead singer breathing into the microphone if you listen for it.
  6. Neko Case, “Margaret and Pauline”: Such a beautiful song and character sketch. The juxtaposition of the two characters is sad and gorgeous.
  7. Sturgill Simpson, “Keep It Between the Lines”: Part of the album Simpson wrote ostensibly as advice to his newly-born child, this one advises the listener to, “Stay in school/stay off the hard stuff and/keep it’ tween the lines.” Good advice for anyone, really.
  8. Uncle Tupelo, “High Water”: There was a time in graduate school where I became more than a little obsessed with everything even tangentially related to the band Wilco, which included Jeff Tweedy’s original band Uncle Tupelo. This song, from their fourth and final album, is a good indicator of why I liked them so much if not really representative of what they did as a band (think “punk country” or “alt-country,” if you will).
  9. Van Morrison, “Wonderful Remark”: Specifically, the version from the Philosopher’s Stone collection of outtakes and rarities. The original version is awesome, too, though this one somehow feels more striped down without the overwhelming piano of the original (and this one has flute).
  10. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, “Friends”: Ryan Adams, I think we can all agree, has some problems. Dude is terrible to women and suffers from diarrhea of the recording studio (remember those times he put out three albums in a single calendar year? Yeah, I said times, plural, ’cause he’s done it more than once). But this song, from the double-album Cold Roses (which I still insist would have made one of the finest single albums of his career if he’d just cut some of the fat from the two-disc set), is still one of the best he’s ever written or committed to tape.

Halloween Playlist

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Are you like me, and find yourself wanting to enjoy Halloween but struggling because of a dearth of decent songs associated with the holiday?  I mean, in terms of inspiring music, it’s not Christmas, that’s for sure.  I just find that I can’t stand listening to the Monster Mash and the Addams Family theme and the Munsters theme again and again on repeat this year.  I need some actual, non-novelty music.

And we’re in luck!  There are actually plenty of real, pretty awesome songs that have a stealth-Halloween theme to them.  Here’s a selection of some of my favorites.

1. The Eagles, “Witchy Woman”: Sure, it’s easy to rag on the Eagles as being the dad-est of Dad Rock, but they did some fun songs.  This one carries the witch metaphor throughout pretty strongly, and fits right in with our “real song but Halloween-y” theme.

2. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “I Put a Spell on You”: Yeah, I know, the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version is probably better, and certainly more Halloween-y, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to include a CCR song on a playlist.

3. The Beatles, “Devil in Her Heart”: Not even a little bit of the right tone, barely even mentions anything Halloween-related (the titular devil in her heart, which is more metaphorical than actual), but it’s the Beatles, and it’s my playlist, so nyah.

4. Warren Zevon, “Werewolves of London”: There was a 0% chance I wasn’t going to include this.  An obvious but classic choice.

5. Tom Petty, “Zombie Zoo”: “Sometimes you’re so impulsive/You shaved off all your hair/You look like Boris Karloff/But you don’t even care” is probably the best line in any song ever, and I will fight you if you say otherwise.

6. Josh Ritter, “The Curse”: A love song about a mummy told as sincerely as this is proof this world is sometimes better than we deserve.

7. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “Red Right Hand”: Honestly, you could just put a Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album on for Halloween it’d be fine.  If I have to go with one song, though, this is the one.  The Pete Yorn version from the first Hellboy movie isn’t half-bad, either.

8. Jeremy Messersmith, “Ghost”: A haunting beautiful (get it?) song about disappearing out of someone’s life.

9. The Flaming Lips, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1”: War of the Worlds, if it was fought between a Japanese pop singer who knows karate and giant pink robots that want to eat people.

10. The White Stripes, “Walking with a Ghost”: I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one.  I just wanted another song about ghosts on here.

Happy Halloween, everyone!