The Mavericks “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” (1995)
I’d be hard pressed to come up with a song that has a greater disparity between its dreadfully dour lyrics and the unmitigated joy of its music than this one. While singer and bandleader Raul Malo is crooning the oft-repeated depressing title line, he’s also leading his band through one of the happiest... Read More
The Kinks “Better Things” (1981)
It seems to me the turning of the annual calendar means not only the onset of a new year but the inherent wish, whether recent times have been good or bad, for things to get better. And on that theme there are many good songs from which to choose, but some are just, well, better...... Read More
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers “Heal Me” (2017)
See if the following three sets of statements shake you. 1) Sarah Shook is arguably one of Country/Americana music’s biggest current stars; she was born in the not-quite southern stronghold of Rochester, NY. 2) Shook was homeschooled and grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family where, among other things, music was severely restricted; she is...... Read More
Bruce Springsteen “Land Of Hope And Dreams” (2000)
This marks my 100th post for SoMuchGreatMusic.com and in the months since I started it I’ve consistently put off, over and over, writing on one of the favorite and most important artists in my life, Bruce Springsteen. Really, more than just put it off, I’ve been wholly intimidated to try to cover him. I mean,...... Read More
Hozier “Nina Cried Power” (2018)
“It’s not the waking, it’s the rising” With that softly delivered line, Hozier begins one of the hardest-hitting songs I’ve heard in a very long time. “It’s a song about protest songs,” he says, “It’s a thank you note to the spirit of protest.” Hozier vaulted from obscurity to international acclaim with the roof-raising, anthemic...... Read More
Beatles “Run For Your Life” (1965)
For all the cheeriness of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘All You Need Is Love’, ‘Good Day Sunshine’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, the Beatles also wrote some goddamn dark songs. And I’m not even talking about... Read More
Dawes “A Little Bit Of Everything” (2011)
There are a lot of ways to discover a song and a band. This one came via a restaurant in Nashville called Etch. I was there last year with my wife and our friends Paul and Maryellen, and on our first night in town, with so much local flavor we were anxious to try, the...... Read More
George Thorogood “It Wasn’t Me” (1978)
As legend, or some old music magazine, has it, an interviewer once asked George Thorogood why he didn’t write more of his own songs, to which he replied “Because Chuck Berry already wrote all the f*cking songs that ever needed to be written.” I can’t quite call this a direct quote, but I’m pretty confident...... Read More
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Almost Cut My Hair” (1970)
I didn’t get a haircut or shave for roughly two years. Yeah, some circumstances in my life changed…whatever. But the best answer I could muster, the truest, when people would ask me why I’d let things go is that I’d kind of always thought about trying it and, well, for the same reason dogs lick...... Read More
Southern Culture On The Skids “Liquored Up And Lacquered Down” (2000)
Why do I love Southern Culture On The Skids? Well, first the name. Pretty descriptive. It jumped out at me in some music magazine I was reading many years ago, and I thought, yeah, that’s a band I’ve got to check out. That led me to the music, which was way better than I could...... Read More