the horrible crowes

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.

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 #120

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Happy Monday, folks! As I sit here at school, in between meetings, waiting for a call from my realtor to let me know whether or not I’m condemned to spend the rest of my days in an overpriced rental, I present to you a new playlist full of songs to brighten your week.

  1. Willie Nelson, “Don’t Give Up (Featuring Sinead O’Connor)”: I discovered this song last night as I was getting ready to hop in the shower, and had to stop and just listen to it all the way through. It’s a beautiful take on the Peter Gabriel tune,
  2. Neil Young, “Star of Bethlehem”: Neil Young’s Chrome Dreams is a fascinating snapshot of where he was in the late ’70s, mixing in some Crazy Horse guitar workouts and some softer, more contemplative acoustic numbers. This one is mellow and beautiful.
  3. Kevin Morby, “Rock Bottom”: I like this song for nothing else than the inclusion of the line, “They’re all gonna laugh at you.” Old-school SNL fans know what’s up with that one.
  4. The Rolling Stones, “Far Away Eyes”: The single hokiest country song to ever country it up.
  5. The Record Company, “Turn Me Loose”: Feel-good rock’n’roll.
  6. Ray Charles, “(Night Time Is) The Right Time”: Those backing vocals are just killer.
  7. Preservation Hall Jazz Band And Jason Isbell, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”:
  8. Tom Waits, “Big Black Mariah”: If you know me, you know I love me some Tom Waits, especially weird Tom Waits. This fits.
  9. The Horrible Crowes, “Go Tell Everybody”: This song reminds me of a Gospel rave-up sing-along. That is a very good thing.
  10. The Heavy, “What Makes A Good Man”: Thumpin’ and bumpin’. Really dig this song.

Playlist #38

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Last week was a rough week, if I’m being honest. I was mostly over my case of covid, but still couldn’t return to work, and my wife…well, we had to take her to the hospital on Thursday because her O2 sats dropped dangerously low frighteningly quick. It’s only been in the past day or two that we’ve come to find out just how bad off she was. If we hadn’t taken her to the hospital when we did, she would not have survived the night.

So, she’s still at the hospital (in a covid isolation room where I cannot visit her), but thankfully on the mend. On Saturday, my old college advisor passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm, which…yeah, still haven’t processed it. All of that probably explains the slower tempo and more downbeat list of songs on this week’s playlist.

  1. The Horrible Crowes, “Sugar”: I always thought it was more than a little daring to open the album with this song, which is by far more downbeat and subtle than what follows.
  2. Iron & Wine, “Hard Times Come Again No More”: I don’t know how I found this particular recording. I think it’s from the TV show Copper, if anyone remembers that (I never actually saw it, but still somehow heard this version of the song).
  3. Jars of Clay, “Faith Enough”: A song filled with contradictions and paradoxes.
  4. Jason Isbell, “Cover Me Up”: Beautiful and heartfelt and far more subtle than most of the songs I prefer by him, but no less glorious for it.
  5. The Wallflowers, “Up From Under”: If Breach isn’t the best Wallflowers album, it’s definitely top two. And while this isn’t my usual go-to song from that record, it’s still simple (for a song with a string arrangement) and beautiful.
  6. Willie Nelson, “The Rainbow Connection”: A voice and a song that I’m surprised it took so long to put together, though I have to ask – aside from this one and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” just how many songs are there out there about rainbows?
  7. The Beach Boys, “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”: “Sometimes I feel very sad.” Sometimes Brian Wilson just cuts right to the damn chase.
  8. The National, “I Need My Girl”: I would like my wife home from the hospital now, please.
  9. The Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize??”: The happiest song about death that I know.
  10. Glen Phillips, “Train Wreck”: This one just sorta…feels right at the moment? That’s probably not good, is it?

Playlist #32

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New week, new playlist!

  1. Pearl Jam, “Black”: I learned to play this song last week, only 20-some years too late for it to be relevant.
  2. Jonathan Edwards, “Sunshine (Go Away Today)”: Also learned this one last week. It’s fun and folky.
  3. Sting, “Shape Of My Heart”: I just really like the guitar figure in this one.
  4. The Decemberists, “Sucker’s Prayer”: I mentioned this one the other week, and then just put a different Decemberists song on the playlist instead. Here’s this one now.
  5. Big Red Machine, “Renegade (featuring Taylor Swift)”: Am I sucker for recent Taylor Swift? Yes. Is this song really gorgeous? Also yes.
  6. The Beatles, “For You Blue”: I dig George Harrison songs, and this one is just so much fun. John’s slide playing is gleeful and too much fun.
  7. The Avett Brothers, “Ain’t No Man”: I dig these guys, and this song is tub-thumpin’ good times.
  8. Wilco, “Everyone Hides”: I like how Wilco has eased into their dad rock years and are just hummin’ along, making laidback music and having a good time.
  9. Yael Naim, “New Soul”: Pretty sure this was a song featured in an iTunes commercial back in the day? I don’t remember. But it’s cute and lovely.
  10. The Horrible Crowes, “Mary Ann”: Sometimes, you just need Brian Fallon shouting someone’s name in the chorus.

Playlist #20

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The school year is settling in (except for my freshmen, maybe), so here’s some tunes to cruise into mid-September to.

  1. Fleetwood Mac, “Tusk”: I love the drums on this one. The high school marching band that joins in halfway through is also pretty neat.
  2. Frank Turner, “Get Better”: “I’m trying to get better ’cause I haven’t been my best,” Turner sings, and damn if I don’t feel that most days.
  3. U2, “Hawkmoon 269”: Just what the heck is a hawkmoon, anyway? My Google-Fu is useless, at least since Destiny 2 released an exotic gun of the same name.
  4. Tom Waits, “(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night”: I’m a sucker for any song title that starts with parentheses. And this song is just sad and sweet and gets me every time.
  5. Sublime, “What I Got”: I dare you not to sing along. You can’t not sing along.
  6. Walk the Moon, “Shut Up And Dance”: My niece likes this song. I think it’s pretty catchy, to the point that I find myself occasionally listening to it even when she’s not around (and sometimes putting it on a playlist, like this one).
  7. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, “Pump It Up”: It’s got a very insistent bassline and drumbeat that just gets into your brain and won’t let go.
  8. The Horrible Crowes, “Behold The Hurricane”: Brian Fallon just writes such catchy songs.
  9. Iron & Wine, “Claim Your Ghost”: Speaking of songs that are sad and sweet…
  10. The Jayhawks, “I’d Run Away”: The harmonies these guys got up to just send shivers down my spine.