Venerable Video: "Neon" (live acoustic) - Chris Young

I've written a few times about "Neon" on this blog before, and I've made no secret about the fact that I love the song. But contained in the clip that follows is what may be my favorite version of it, a phenomenal acoustic rendition that I'd never come across until a few weeks ago. In it Chris Young speaks about falling in love with the song upon first hearing it, so much so that he gave his last album its title. If you need evidence that Young is one of the--if not the--best male vocalist working in mainstream country music today and not just another gussied-up pretty cowboy who sounds mighty shaky live, look no further than this video.

Venerable Video: "Cry Help" by I Draw Slow

I'm attempting to start a new feature here on the blog: the Venerable Video. These will just be videos--music videos, live, or otherwise--that I've run across recently or that I remember from long ago. I am making the word "venerable" (which means "commanding respect because of great age or impressive dignity" and is a term usually reserved for historical figures and politicians) fit here because I've always loved that word and alliteration is fun. I do this as a way to try and keep the posts coming, at least weekly. Whereas as my song reviews tend to be three or more paragraphs, I will try to keep these in "snippet" form--no more than four or five sentences. Wish me luck.



This Americana band from Dublin, Ireland is led by siblings Dave and Louise Holden, who play acoustic guitar and sing lead vocals, respectively. Their style is a mix of folk and bluegrass that sounds like it came directly from the hills and hollers of Appalachia (which is pretty cool considering the Scots-Irish heritage of many who live and have lived in that region of the US). But by no means are they trapped in the past; this is old-time music that is assuredly contemporary. This video of "Cry Help" off their 2012 album Red Hills is shot beautifully in black and white at one of their lives shows in Dublin, complimenting the melancholy feel of the song. It is one of those songs that most definitely tells a story but lyrically doesn't spell everything out, thus rewarding repeated listens. You won't be able to get the stunning chorus out of your head. (Band Website)

Top 13 Albums of 2012

13) Caroline Herring - Camilla
Steel-guitar drenched, socially conscious country-folk doesn't get much better than this, and Herring's voice is transcendent. 

(WEBSITE)

12) Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson - Wreck & Ruin
Heavy on banjo, fiddle, and excellent songwriting, this married Australian duo is more in touch with American country music than just about anything you'll hear on mainstream country radio.

(WEBSITE)

11) Trampled By Turtles - Stars and Satellites

The Turtles ease up on the ferocity (though its still here) and focus on great songwriting, creating modern, melancholic folk-bluegrass that is timeless.
(WEBSITE)

 10) Steep Canyon Rangers - Nobody Knows You

Bluegrass that has it's foot planted solidly in tradition but is nowhere close to being shackled by it, this album from the group that has a "side job" as Steve Martin's touring band is full of stunning musical precision and modern songwriting craft, and isn't afraid to take a few risks along the way.
(WEBSITE)

9) Alan Jackson - Thirty Miles West

The only thing one can say about this album is that it's neo-traditional songwriting and sound at its very best; in other words, it's pure Alan Jackson, classic and enjoyable as ever.
(WEBSITE)

8) Punch Brothers - Who's Feeling Young Now?

This group is otherworldly when it comes to playing their instruments (you can most appreciate this with an excellent pair of headphones), and mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile's songwriting only gets better.
(WEBSITE)

7) The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter

The Avetts are ones to surprise with every album, smartly reigning in the piano-drenced anthemic quality of I and Love and You and trading it for what they do best: acoustic country-folk with excellent lyricism and pop sensibilities.
(WEBSITE)

6) Chris Knight - Little Victories

Chris Knight rocks out and reigns in in equal measure on his latest album, solidifying the truth that he is one of the most underrated artists and songwriters working today.
(WEBSITE)

5) The Honey Dewdrops - Silver Lining

This modern Appalachian folk album is riddled with beautiful harmonies and restrained yet skillful instrumentation, not to mention it takes balls to end an album with an instrumental and an old traditional sung acapella.
(WEBSITE)

4) John Mayer - Born and Raised

Mayer self-reflects, gets personal lyrically, and surprisingly eases up on the guitar-solo breaks that used to color each of his songs, on this album inspired by the sounds of seventies classic rock and modern Americana. (FULL ALBUM REVIEW HERE.)
(WEBSITE)

3) Ryan Bingham - Tomorrowland

Bingham wanted to experiment with the sounds he could get from a guitar on this album, approaching it as a kid who just discovered the instrument would, and Tomorrowland not only straight-up rocks but also contains poignant, introspective songwriting that's unsurprising to hear coming from the guy who penned "The Weary Kind."
(WEBSITE)

2) The Trishas - High, Wide & Handsome

As good as this album is, you'd think these ladies from Texas had been playing and writing together for years upon years and not just two or three; a truly stunning achievement. (FULL ALBUM REVIEW HERE.)
(WEBSITE)

1) Turnpike Troubadours - Goodbye Normal Street

I can't imagine 2012 without this album. This is country music that takes its cues from the best of old country, bluegrass, and rock and roll. Lyrically clever and deep when it's called for, Evan Felker is a poetically-inclined songwriter with something to say, and one of the best heart-on-your-sleeve vocalists I've ever heard. Keep your eye on these genre-defying fellows.
(WEBSITE)

Top Ten Songs of 2012

10) Ryan Bingham - "Too Deep Too Fill" (from the album Tomorrowland)
The final cut on Ryan Bingham's Tomorrowland album has its eyes set on love of a woman and perhaps more importantly, love of the natural world. It's a brilliant, sparsely-written and picked tune, and Bingham's voice, per usual, is a force to be reckoned with, conveying longing and weariness while sounding like he's got gravel grinding way back in his throat. He bookends lyrics about his disillusionment with people who are apathetic or downright hostile toward the notion that we should care for the natural world, which literally sustains us (And I'm going out to the forest/ I'm going to see if I can find out why/ People all around are still cutting it all down/ But I hope to be on home for suppertime), with lyrics about coming home to his woman (Oh baby, oh sweet baby/ Will you kiss these poor lips of mine/ Tell me that you love me/ and your heart is forever mine). Of course, if you were to ask Bingham why he wrote a political song or a song with an agenda, he'd tell you he was just writing about something that he profoundly cares about. And isn't that exactly what we ask of artists and songwriters? (Here is a video of Bingham talking about the cause of conservancy, and here's a great video someone made putting the song to images of the natural world.)

9) Chris Knight - "Hard Edges" (from the album Little Victories)
For a man with such a rugged voice, Chris Knight sure can write a tender song, and this might be one of the tenderest in his long catalogue of great songs. The narrator tells the story of Lisa, who's led a difficult life--mostly due to circumstance--but she's always maintained a dream deep down for something better, happier. The hand she's been dealt has made her a little rough around the edges, a far cry from her true nature. Just let the following lyrics sink in:

Lisa's in a club downtown
where the neon burns 'til dawn
She calls herself Tina now
but she dances to the same old song
Slowly spinning 'round and 'round
in the smoke and the smell of rye
She takes off all her clothes
so they don't look in eyes
Her scarlet rouge and her blue tattoos
They're only painted on
But underneath the dark drumbeat
A ballerina dances on

The story of Lisa's is specific, but it's one we can all relate to: the innocence of childhood and the harsh realities of trying to grow up and become adults in a world that can seem stacked against us. This is Kentucky's own Chris Knight, one of America's best songwriters, at his most heartfelt and nuanced.

I can't find a YouTube version of the song, but you can listen on Spotify here. Better yet, just purchase the entire album Little Victories. It's worth it.


8) The Trishas - "Strangers" (from the album High, Wide & Handsome)
Each song on The Trishas debut LP is striking in its own way, but it was "Strangers" that struck me first. I wrote about it and the rest of the album recently on the blog:

** Truly as good as country music gets, and by that I mean that this is a beautifully sad song. Savannah Welch takes the lead here, imbuing lyrics like "I miss the me I used to be" and "I barely recognize myself" with a vulnerability and sense of tragedy that brings the truth of them home, allows them to be feelings rather than just words. It's a song about the dark side of marriage, about being with someone for a time and then realizing it's gotten to a point where you don't know them, they don't know you, and you don't know you. The second verse attempts to put words to this unexplainable disconnect: "Sometimes when the light's just right/ It's you who's kissin' me goodnight/ When the morning comes it's her I find instead/ Who are these strangers in our bed?" On top of that, memories are conjured up by detailed imagery ("Wedding pictures on the TV set") and the line that encapsulates it all ("There's nothing stranger than being strangers"). In short, this is a song that goes on that playlist you have of songs you listen to by yourself with a bottle. **

Just listened to the song again. Going to get that bottle now.

Check it out on Spotify here. And go ahead and purchase High, Wide & Handsome in its entirety too.


7) The Avett Brothers - "Ferbruary Seven" (from the album The Carpenter)
After the--and I hate to use this world--novelty of  "Paul Newman Vs. The Demons" wore off, this became my favorite song on The Carpenter. It mixes what has made the Avetts great from the very beginning with that Rick Rubin sheen. It's about something specific that happened on the day of February 7th, but there's enough great lines to make it sweepingly profound and broadly appealing. Take the phenomenal chorus for example:

There's no fortune at the end of a road that has no end
There's no returning to the spoils once you've spoiled the thought of them
There's no falling back to sleep once you've wakened from the dream
Now I'm rested and I'm ready
I'm rested and I'm ready to begin

There's a sweet piano melody that comes in just before the music of the chorus takes those words to epic heights. "February Seven" also contains one of my favorite lines of the year:

Sooner than my fate was wrote
A perfect blade, it slit my throat
and beads of lust released into the air
When I awoke you were standing there

It's the Avetts doing what they do best: anthemic, acoustic country-folk that's catchy as hell.

6) Great Lake Swimmers - "The Great Exhale" (from the album New Wild Everywhere)
Tony Dekker, lead singer for Great Lake Swimmers, is a poet if a singer-songwriter ever was one. His songs aren't so much stories as they are meditations on life, using images from the natural world to get his point across, bring everything back around full circle, taking in the scenery and dispensing wisdom on the wheel of life. His hushed vocals suit this song perfectly, and the harmonies sung by newest member of the band Miranda Mulholland (she's the fiery redhead) are gorgeous and haunting. This song makes death sound not only easier to come to terms with, but almost desirable (the luminous veil? I mean, come on). (Don't worry, I don't want to die, just listen to the song.) Here are some lyrics from the chorus:

And the world stops spinning when you stop spinning
It sighs when you sigh when you sigh
I'm coming home so leave the light on for me
I'm drawing over the luminous veil
And when I get in I will see you all there
I'm drawing on the great exhale

Here also is an excellent stripped-down version of the song.


5) Corb Lund - "September" (from the album Cabin Fever)
This song is so good that I already wrote about it several weeks ago. Here's the whole thing, and here's an excerpt:

** "September" plays upon the classic theme of country-boy-pining-for-city-girl (in this case, a country girl who who decides to become a city girl), but it contains a melancholy and a desolation that plumbs deep below surface cliches and allows the listener to really feel the anguish and pain buried in the narrator's heart. He, the struggling cattle farmer staying behind, she, the woman he loves moving to New York City to perhaps chase a long held dream. In a way, he can't really blame her for leaving. In the quiet country "there ain't much to do," "there ain't much glamor," and "the pace is kinda slow," after all. But he is certain that no one in New York City could need her as much as he does. "Stay with me through September," he begs...

...My favorite part of the song is the part without words, where Lund sings "oooos" with an emotional heft that betrays an immense and piercing loneliness, as if singing the very siren song of the relationship in just those few notes. It sounds like a mix between Chris Martin's (of Coldplay) falsetto and a modern twist on a high and lonesome yodel, echoing in the valleys of the mountains he sings about, conjuring up the image of a man standing by himself in a vast and wide open space. Totally free but utterly trapped. It makes the loneliness of the narrator more than palpable. How fitting that loneliness in real life often leaves us struggling to express the feeling in words. **

"September" is also my favorite music video of the year.

4) Daniel Martin Moore and Joan Shelley - "First of August" (from the album Farthest Field)
"First of August" is the beautiful lead track from these two Kentuckians' album of duets, Farthest Field. I first became familiar with Daniel Martin Moore when he released a collaborative album with Ben Sollee (produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket fame) entitled Dear Companion, which contained songs built around a theme of speaking out against mountaintop removal coal mining. My introduction to Joan Shelley, however, was this song.

It is a poetic tale of family and leaving and letting go, and its striking natural images and slow, hushed tempo lend to the song a feeling like floating on wind. The arrangement is so sparse and non-intrusive that you have to actually listen to fully appreciate it. Shelley and Moore's voices fit together as naturally as the shining sun, so much so that you'd think they were brother and sister. "First of August" is mostly sung in their restrained yet powerful and emotive harmony. Here's one of my favorite lyrics in the song, followed by a beautifully shot live video of the two performing it:

Pray you go with the sweet wind
They'll be trees there that you know
So careful not to harden
Sure to make a letter home
Down the road
Where you shining
Were last seen at the fork

3) Turnpike Troubadours - "Good Lord Lorrie" (from the album Goodbye Normal Street)
A number of songs from their 2012 album could have occupied this spot, but I'm too big a fan of alliteration not to go with this one. Not to mention that these guys know how to tell one hell of a story. Guided by lead singer Evan Felker's songwriting, "Good Lord Lorrie" is quite literally a song about love gone wrong ("Good Lord Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong?"), mostly due to outside influences. There are lyrical gems all over the place:

And I've been learnin' that believin'
and the barely breakin' even
It's just a part of life for you and me
And I've been livin' with the loneliness
It's got down in my bones, I guess
It's just another phase of being free

and...

And if I ever set foot in Sevier County
Well your brother said he'd break my jaw
But here I stand with the dark-haired daughter
of southwest Arkansas

Felker is a truly talented songwriter and vocalist, spouting out his homespun poetry at every turn, interpreting his own words with a twangy phrasing that never fails to surprise (the way he sings the word "good" in this song, with his heart seemingly breaking on his sleeve for all the world to see, is something you must hear). The rest of the members behind him layer the song with guitar, fiddle, harmonica, and drums, playing with a precision and cohesion that never once makes you doubt the notion that this is an actual band, one that was certainly my favorite musical discovery of 2012.

2) John Mayer - "Born and Raised" (from the album Born and Raised)
All year long I thought this was going to be my number one song of the year. That is until I heard what ended up becoming my number one song of the year in early December. I think this is the best song Mayer's ever written, and I've already written a considerable amount about it on this blog. Here's an excerpt:

** With the title track to his recently released album, John Mayer has written what I contend to be his best song to date. "Born and Raised" is somber, elegiac, melodious, hopeful, and contains some of the most poignant lyrics I've heard this year. It is intensely personal, both for Mayer and the listener.

There is no question why Mayer named the album after this song, as it succinctly touches on the gamut of themes that run throughout the entire collection of songs. These include getting older ("I cheat the light to check my face/ It's slightly harder than last year"); losing the childlike innocence and romanticism of dreams as you do, in fact, get older ("I still have dreams, they're not the same/ They don't fly as high as they used to"); and the pointless exhaustion of being somebody you're not ("Then all at once it gets hard to take/ It gets hard to fake what I won't be"). On this song Mayer showcases the rare ability to hit you in the gut seemingly line after line. For the listener, that gut punch represents the recognition of truth in the simple poetry of his words. Perhaps even more impressive: he does it without any fancy wordplay. **

"Born and Raised" also contains another of my favorite lines of the year:

I still got time
I still got faith
I call on both of my brothers
I got a mom
I got a dad
But they do not have each other

1) The Honey Dewdrops - "Together Tied" (from the album Silver Lining)
Somehow or another I came across this band on a website or blog that was recommending duos to check out in the wake of The Civil Wars announcing their break-up (or whatever that announcement was). I listened to the album Silver Lining, The Honey Dewdrops' third, on Spotify, and as soon as those first notes of the acoustic guitar came in on track number eight, I paused what I was doing and listened. It's not often that I take to a song I've never heard before so immediately.

The Honey Dewdrops are Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish, a married couple from Charlottesville, Virginia that play Appalachian-influenced folk music that is honestly and beautifully rendered. Both are unique vocalists on their own, and together their harmonies sound superb. While musically they may tip their hat toward the more traditional, in songs like "Together Tied" they are contemporary lyrical masters, Appalachian poets of the modern era. This is a song about home, about the strands of our memories of it that bind and bond families and people in a deeply emotional way, whether still there or not. And if you like your songs to have emotion, "Together Tied" has plenty of it. It's a song that makes you really feel, to the extent that it makes you grateful to be alive, embedded with tinges of sadness though the song (and life) may be. One of the many lyrics in the song that still floor me over and over again:

And what is home my brother?
If not love and you and me
If not a river between us
Running restlessly

The chorus is:

Home like water
Collects us by and by
Reaches over distance
To hold us together tied

There are no words here that you have to look up in the dictionary, but this is pure poetry that, when set to music as The Honey Dewdrops perform it, creates vivid imagery and stirs up some sort of unexplainable, profound longing in the listener. And whatever that longing may be for, it's a longing that inspires.

As if the lyrics and harmonies and all around excellent song-craftsmanship weren't enough, just try to get that guitar melody out of your head. It's stunning work that can induce a tear or two if you're not careful. I'm just saying. (The performance video of the song below is a must-watch.)



THE HONEY DEWDROPS - TOGETHER TIED - FOLK HAUS 30th St. from BMOREhush on Vimeo.


Related Posts:
Favorite songs of 2012, 50 - 31
Favorite songs of 2012, 30 - 11
Top Ten Country Singles of 2012
Flashback: Favorite song of 2011

Favorite Songs of 2012 (#30-11)

30) Norah Jones - "Happy Pills" (from the album Little Broken Hearts)
"I've gotta get you, I've gotta get you/ I've gotta get you, outta my head/ Get out"
If you watch her perform this on Letterman you will immediately have a crush on her. It's no secret that Norah Jones has a great voice, but who knew she was so groovy and sexy?

29) Lana Del Ray - "Blue Jeans" (from the album Born To Die)
"You so fresh to death and sick as ca-cancer"
There is just no denying this song's bawdy production, bizarre lyrics, and innate catchiness. And am I crazy, or does is remind anybody else of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game"?

28) John Fullbright - "Gawd Above" (from the album From The Ground Up)
"Go and curse my name with your last breath/ if all I brought to your life was death"
This country-blues tune presented from the point of view of the Almighty--who seems to be feeling a little down on Himself--does everything right. I can't decide whether its a hymn of praise or social commentary.

27) Alan Jackson - "Talk Is Cheap" (from the album Thirty Miles West)
"Road's for takin', wine's for tastin'/ Talk is cheap, and time's a-wastin'"
Co-written by Chris Stapleton, former frontman for The Steeldrivers, "Talk Is Cheap" is a simple, straightforward song about not wasting your life. A sweet fiddle line and classic singing from Jackson make it great.

26) Zac Brown Band feat. Trombone Shorty - "Overnight" (from the album Uncaged)
"Ain't no time for talkin', show me what you got/ We gonna get this bed a-rockin' and it ain't gonna stop"
This is the last thing that anybody would ever expect from Zac Brown Band: a Barry White-esque R & B slow-jam about babymaking. Yes, it's as wonderful as it sounds. What can I say--one man's cheesy is, well, another man's babymaking slow-jam of the year.

25) Punch Brothers - "Who's Feeling Young Now?" (from the album Who's Feeling Young Now?)
"Dark room to doorway/ doorway to sidewalk/ Youth will not be wasted on this one"
There are so many incredible songs on the Punch Brothers' latest album that it was hard to choose one for this list. The mandolin solo around the 1:45 mark in the above video sold me, however. Punch Brothers' brand of bluegrass makes even the most progressive of today's bluegrass bands feel traditional. It's excellent.

24) Wade Bowen - "Patch of Bad Weather" (from the album The Given)
"But you had your fingers crossed, yea you think you're so clever/ Rollin' through this town like a patch of bad weather"
One of my favorite Texas/Red Dirt songs of the year. The chorus on this up-tempo country rocker is killer.

23) Sons Of Bill - "This Losing Fight" (from the album Sirens)
"'Cause it's little blue pills in The Great Depression/ it's bad girls in a booze recession/ Guess it's all one big life lesson then you die"
This song has one of my favorites lyrics (quoted above) of 2012. Times are tough economically in the states, and anthemic hard rocker captures the anger, jadedness, and anxiety that comes along with that pretty damn well.

22) Caroline Herring - "White Dress" (link opens to Spotify) (from the album Camilla)
"Burning alive, burning inside/ but you won't burn me down"
I will let Herring explain this one in her own words: "'White Dress' is about then 24-year-old Mae Frances Moultrie, the only African-American female on the original Freedom Ride in 1961. Her bus passed through Anniston, Alabama and was firebombed. Moultrie exited the burning bus wearing a white dress."

One of my favorite discoveries of 2012, Herring's songwriting is relevant not just poetically and musically, but socially as well.

21) Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson - "Familiar Strangers" (from the album Wreck and Ruin)
"We can make believe it's worth fighting for/ But I don't even know you anymore"
This Australian couple's latest duets album sounds like it was recorded in the heart of Nashville (the heart being the good part, the lifeblood, not the corporatized part that gets the most attention). In "Familiar Strangers" they play the part of jaded lovers so well that you almost worry if things are going alright in their own relationship. I'm sure they are, and regardless, it's obvious they've both been to the sad place this song talks about before.

20) Little Big Town - "Sober" (from the album Tornado)
"You're like drinking from a neverending bottle/ When I think it's gone there's always a little more left"
My favorite song from Little Big Town's most recent record is a gem about being drunk on love; the narrator hopes to be so until she dies. Kimberly Schlapman takes lead vocals on this one, giving the most visible member of the band, Karen Fairchild, a run for her money.

19) Truckstop Darlin' - "Sad, Sweet Songs" (link opens in Spotify) (from the album Hope and the Heart It Breaks)
"Makin' sense of poetry and makin' sense of art/ Write down all your memories and sing about a broken heart"
If you are even remotely a fan of the brand of southern rock that Drive-By Truckers and Lucero play, I think you'll love this song. Sounding more like Cooley than Hood (of DBT), the lead singer belts this one out over insanely catchy electric riffs and pretty pedal steel. Honestly, this is the last kind of music I'd expect to come from the hipster mecca Portland, Oregon. But I'm glad it did.

18) Chris Knight - "Low Down Ramblin' Blues" (from the album Little Victories)
"Laid down with the dogs/ You woke up with fleas/ Your mama tried to tell you/ You didn't pay no heed"
I know Chris Knight more for his slow acoustic songs about the dark side of small-town life. "Low Down Ramblin' Blues" is a full-on rocker where the narrator starts out as his own independent man, but when the song ends it's more cautionary tale than celebration. And the drumming is fantastic.

17) Paper Route - "You and I" (from the album The Peace of Wild Things)
"We gotta turn of the lights/ We gotta run for the woods now"
This is gleeful pop music made with precision and craft. I only even found out about them because their 2012 album took its title from a poem by a writer from my home state of Kentucky named Wendell Berry (The Peace of Wild Things). Berry spends most of his time writing about the gifts of the natural world, so I was bit surprised to find that Paper Route more closely aligns itself with electronica-pop rather than rustic acoustic music. But inspiration is inspiration.

16) Ryan Bingham - "Never Ending Show" (from the album Tomorrowland)
"I don't need the marquee sign/ I don't need my name in lights/ I don't need to wonder why/ my head hurts and I can't sleep at night"
Ryan Bingham put out one of the best albums of last year. He's said in many interviews that he wanted to just experiment with his electric guitar like he was a little kid again, and he certainly does so with ace results on "Never Ending Show." But this song about touring and life and knowing when to stop trying to prove yourself and just do what you do, also has a rhythm that chugs along so effortlessly that it practically begs you to play it again.

15) Trampled By Turtles - "Widower's Heart" (from the album Stars and Satellites)
"Oh, rain/ Come wash me and cleanse me and take me away"
One of the premier bands on the modern bluegrass/americana scene released an album full of introspective ballads in 2012, and "Widower's Heart" is one of the best. It conjures up the feeling of beautiful sadness like a good short story that was written in a cabin in the woods.

14) Steep Canyon Rangers - "Easy To Love" (link opens in Spotify) (from the album Nobody Knows You)
"I may never be/ I may never/ I may never be this easy to love again"
This is excellent traditional bluegrass yet the Steep Canyon Rangers know how to be just progressive enough to appeal to a younger, more open-minded crowd. You wouldn't hear a melody like this in most traditional bluegrass, but in songwriting and composition it tips its hat mightily in that direction.

13) The Infamous Stringdusters - "Night On The River" (from the album Silver Sky)
"A night on the river is all I need/ A cool drink of water is all I need"
Like Steep Canyon Rangers, The Infamous Stringdusters have one foot planted firmly to bluegrass tradition, but they, even moreso than the Rangers, seem compelled to shake things up a little bit. This is a song where they actually use a more straightforward approach, but it's got a classic quality that is undeniable. Check out the video above (live from a sporting goods store!) for an insane display of musicianship at the 3:30 mark, where banjo and fiddle duel it out (a friendly duel, of course). I can't be this video doesn't have more views; it's incredible

12) The Trishas - "John Wayne Cowboy" (link opens in Spotify) (from the album High, Wide & Handsome)
"Comes in like an earthquake/ Bends but never breaks/ Look-you-in-the-eye handshake/ That's all in takes"
I already wrote about this steel-guitar heavy gem:
The arrangement, the melody, and that steel guitar just sound downright dirty. Jamie Wilson is singing here about a certain type of man, one who doesn't come off as a faux-machismo douchebag, but as authentic. He's a rough-and-tumble, look-you-in-the-eye, firm-handshake, no bullshit kind of man. Some would call this type of man John Wayne-esque, hence the title of the song. It probably references a few of his movies, but I'm only familiar with The Searchers so I may have missed a few of them. But it doesn't matter when a song's this good. The worst part about it is the steel guitar solo that kicks in around the 2:50 mark doesn't last nearly long enough. Still, it is five seconds of beautiful twangy brilliance.

11) Old Crow Medicine Show - "Ain't It Enough" (from the album Carry Me Back)
"Throw your arms 'round each other/ And love one another/ 'Fore it's only one life that we got/ And ain't it enough"
If you didn't know, this band is a hell of a lot more than "Wagon Wheel," and this beautiful ballad proves as much. The composition is simple and straightforward, just like the message: we've only got one life, do what makes you happy, and rely on each other to get through the hard times.

Click here for my favorite songs of 2012, numbers 50 through 31

Favorite Songs of 2012 (#50-31)

There's really no rhyme or reason why this song came before that one, or why this song made it and that one didn't, these are simply some of my favorites songs of 2012. I wore out the repeat button on some of them and others I discovered just the other day. The only rule I tried to follow was not to choose more than one song from the same artist (a rule which I broke once or twice), otherwise my top fifty songs would be pretty much be completely filled up with my top five albums. Anyway, hopefully you find a song or an artist on this list that is new to you, someone that perhaps you can be a fan of for years to come. There are surely countless good songs I've yet to hear from the past year, and more that I will probably never hear. But that's a good thing. It's how you know it was a great year for good music.

50) Earl Dibbles Jr. - "The Country Boy Song"
"I fix trees, I widdle sticks, my barbed wire tattoo gets me chicks"
Finally, a cliched song about being a redneck from the country that it's okay to like (ironically, of course). A great parody of the Brantley Gilberts of the world, "The Country Boy Song" is not only hilarious, but has a high production quality that--here's that word again: ironically--would fit in perfectly at country radio. Kudos to Texas country singer Granger Smith for creating a characters that's able to poke a little fun and be genuinely likeable and funny all at the same time.

49) Horse Feathers - "Last Waltz" (from the album Cynic's New Year)
"Call in the doctor, the day may have died/ There's a thimble of light for an acre of sky"
Talk about a gorgeous string arrangement, this song has it. I've known about this band for less than year, but I'm slowly trying to listen to their catalogue of songs. "Last Waltz," with its aforementioned strings, banjos, and the sweetly melancholic vocals of lead singer Justin Ringle, is a stand-out folk-waltz from their latest album Cynic's New Year.

48) Lindi Ortega - "Heaven Has No Vacancy" (from the album Cigarettes & Truckstops)
"Jesus, he don't know me, God ain't answering my prayers/ If they don't let me in, I'll just sit here on the stairs"
Lindi Ortega (who I believe had a small cameo in an episode of Nashville this year) has an indescribable voice, or at least one that can't be described in these short blurbs. (Well, I'll try: organically otherworldly, maybe?) This soulful, slow rumination on post-existential unease even has the narrator taking a trip to Hell and back.

47) B.O.B. feat. Taylor Swift - "Both Of Us" (from the album Strange Clouds)
"I can feel your pain, I can feel your struggle/ You just wanna live but everything's so low/ that you could drown in the puddle"
I first heard this song in a hotel room somewhere in Virginia when the video came on MTV around four or five in the morning (don't worry, I was only watching because I couldn't sleep and was trying to catch up on the latest musical trends). I have no clue why this guy named himself after an Outkast song; regardless, I was pleasantly surprised to actually like it. Nice flows here.

46) Josh Turner feat. Iris Dement - "Pallbearer" (from the album Punching Bag)
"I'm like a lonesome pallbearer, carrying the dead"
The best song on Josh Turner's 2012 album Punching Bag will most definitely never be released as a single, but isn't that usually how it goes? The fact that Turner brought in Iris Dement to lend her vocal talents for harmony purposes shows that Turner has tastes that rise above the occasionally lackluster material he releases. This song uses the image of a pallbearer as a metaphor for the crushing anguish that results after getting your heart broken. It's one of his best, and he wrote it all by his lonesome.

45) Patterson Hood - "Come Back Little Star" (from the album Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance)
"You always had a drink in your hand/ but your liver at what it used to be"
Hood trades in the chunky southern rock riffing of his day job with the Drive-By Truckers for a piano-laced ballad with subtle pedal steel flourishes, a sweet bass line, and beautiful female background vocals from Kelly Hogan (who's also a co-writer; they wrote it about their late singer-songwriter friend Vic Chestnutt, who hails from the same hometown as Patterson Hood, Athens, Georgia). It's a real treat seeing this side of a passionate, multi-talented, hard-working, genuine artist.

44) Gangstagrass feat. R-SON and Dolio The Sleuth - "Bound To Ride" (from the album Rappalachia)
"The sub-zero nature of the words I'm writin'/ will have you hypothermic from all the frostbitin'"
I love what the guys behind the theme song for Justified are doing. Their fusion of bluegrass and hip-hop is absolutely unlike anything you've ever heard, and "Bound To Ride" is a funky, twangy, and--well--gangsta representation of those seemingly disparate elements working wonderfully together. The vintage music video is pretty sweet too.

43) Red June - "Foolish Me" (from the album Beauty Will Rise)
"Wanna pick your red, red rose/ Wanna get to heaven, steady as she goes"
This is folk-bluegrass at its best. I found out about Red June after reading the blog of another band I discovered in 2012, The Honey Dewdrops. The vocals here are unique--not the run-of-the-mill high and lonesome wail of most typical bluegrass--lending to the song a quality that makes it stand out. As if it's simple, well-crafted beauty wasn't enough. I'll certainly be looking into these guys a little more.

42) Chelle Rose - "I Need You" (from the album Ghost of Browder Holler)
"I need something like a mother, 'cause I'm just a child/ I need something like an asylum, 'cause I go wild"
It doesn't get much twangier than Chelle Rose (even more so on her other songs). Pair that twang with the Chris Knight-esque country-rock of "I Need You" (written by Julie Miller), and you get a song that makes you want to see what else this gal's got.

41) Nathan Reich - "Sweet Isolation" (from the album All Night Pharmacy)
"No I don't love her, but she offered me comfort/ Comfort means nothin', if it don't come from you"
I had the pleasure of getting to see Nathan perform at a house show here in Lexington, Kentucky just a few weeks ago. It was excellent. His songs are hushed folk ruminations on home and the road and girls, and every single one of the features some astounding work from him on the acoustic guitar. "Sweet Isolation," my favorite song from his recently released All Night Pharmacy album, is a perfect example. I couldn't get the guitar melody out of my head for weeks. The live video linked above, which looks to be professionally made, is super well-done, and showcases his excellent skills on guitar. Check him out if he's ever rolling through close to where you are.

40) The Stray Birds - "Wildflower Honey" (from their self-titled album)
"And I knew when I laid down to him at night/ I was holding a rolling tide"
Acoustic guitar strumming and delicate electric guitar picking compliment the gorgeous and graceful voice of Maya de Vitry in "Wildflower Honey." When I first this song's title, I knew there was just no way I was not going to like it, and my suspicions were confirmed immediately as the opening chords lead into a voice that grabs your attention like a bee to...well, you know. The lyrics are poetic and the story is affecting; you can't ask for much more.

39) Tift Merritt - "In The Way" (from the album Traveling Alone)
"Sometimes my heart is all I've got/ sometimes my heart gets in the way"
This is a rollicking piano-filled americana number, with an electric guitar that seems to essentially play the same notes over and over. And it works brilliantly. I've never delved into Merritt's albums, but after listening to Traveling Alone on Spotify, reading a few interviews about her devotion to her craft, and realizing what a truly amazing voice she's been gifted with, I can't wait to do so. "In The Way" is a great starting point.

38) Amos Lee - "The Darkness" (from the EP As The Crow Flies)
"Well I know you think you knew me/ Well I thought I knew you too/ I guess I was fool but/ that ain't nothin' new"
Lee's As The Crow Flies EP is possibly my favorite thing he's ever recorded. "The Darkness," the lead track on the album, is a moody and atmospheric meditation on the end of relationship. Truthfully, any song from the EP could claim this spot

37) Shawn Mullins - "Give God The Blues" (from the compilation album Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us)
"God don't hate the Muslims, God don't hate the Jews/ God don't hate the Christians, but we all give God the blues"
Singer of the 90's superhit "Lullaby," Shawn Mullins, was recruited by producer Phil Madeira to cut this bluesy and somewhat humorous take on religion and exceedingly fallible humanity's relationship to God. In the description of the linked video above, it states that the compilation album Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us (I love that title) is the culmination of an idea "to put out a positive message that perhaps God is just love." Mission accomplished, and "Give God The Blues," the second track on the album, works as a great thesis statement.

36) Dwight Yoakam - "Nothing But Love" (from the album 3 Pears)
"If nothing but love is all there was/ Then nothing but love is there for you and me"
When I saw him perform this song on Leno, I knew I was going to be buying his new album. Sweet guitars, sweet harmonies, classic Yoakam.

35) Father John Misty - "Hollywood Cemetery Forever Sings" (from the album Fear Fun)
"I laid up for hours in a daze/ Retracing the expanse of your American back"
Come for the cemetery sex, drugs, blaspheming with superb vocal phrasing, and subtle existential angst, stay because it simply will not get out of your head.

34) Elizabeth Cook - "Hear Jerusalem Calling" (from the EP Gospel Plow)
"Hear Jerusalem calling, Jesus is his name"
I love me a good song about Jesus, especially when its got an electric guitar that sounds as badass as the one Cook's husband Tim Carroll plays here. This is gospel music getting down. Check out the Letterman performance video above for a great quote from Dave: "I knew it would be lovely. I didn't realize we'd be saved."

33) Willie Nelson feat. Merle Haggard - "A Horse Called Music" (from the album Heroes)
And he sings oooh to the ladies/ and oooh he makes 'em sigh/ Now he rides away no a horse he calls Music/ with a pain in his hear and a tear in his eye"
It's hard to come out with a bad song when you've got these two legends singing on it. Well into their seventies, you can honestly say about both Nelson and Haggard: they haven't lost it.

32) Easton Corbin - "Tulsa Texas" (from the album All Over The Road)
"I'll be down in Tulsa, Texas/ Tallahassee, Tennessee/ Memphis, Missippi/ That's where I'm gonna be"
Have you ever wanted to leave a woman who's been making you her fool for far too long, and go somewhere she could literally never find you? This cheeky modern country classic will be right up your alley.

31) Iris Dement - "The Kingdom Has Already Come" (Link goes to Spotify) (from the album Sing The Delta)
"Stopped in the church to pray/ It was the middle of the day/ And I don't even know if I believe in God"
It is difficult to describe Iris Dement's voice; it's something on the edge of beautiful, which in a way makes it better, fuller, more authentic. Some will instantly love it, some will instantly hate it, and some will slowly grow to love it. Those who love it are the lucky ones, because she writes fantastic, refreshingly honest songs that more people would do well to hear. When you have a decade plus between new original albums, songs like this are the result.

Top Ten Country Singles of 2012

10) Shooter Jennings - "The Real Me" (released in May, did not chart)
From the album Family Man
Songwriter: Shooter Jennings
His calling out of John Mayer this past year on Twitter was rather pointless, and came off as someone who thinks they should be more popular whining about people who actually are. But Shooter Jennings is not some talentless guy trying to ride his father Waylon's coattails. You cannot listen to one of his albums with realizing the amount of raw and eclectic talent that was obviously passed along from his father to him; quite literally, it's in his blood, and "The Real Me" is proof positive of this. It is a song with a great sense of humor, tongue planted firmly in cheek, about whiskey and the devil and the transformation that happens when they take over. It is 100% traditional country but is still different in enough ways that modernize it and make it appealing to an audience for today. There are hard rock elements, southern rock elements, massive changes in tempo. After the first chorus--a chorus that is frenetic both musically an lyrically--when he settles back into the verse with the sweet ring of a steel guitar, it's a thing of a beauty, and it was the point I realized this song was something special. Read the lyrics of the chorus and tell me you don't want to hear how he fits all these words into a couple bars of music:

And I'm a double-talkin', chicken lickin'
Meaner than the dickens, sick and wicked
Hole-diggin', pickin', son of a gun
And I'll love you like the devil
Bite you like a snake and then forsake
And break everything I don't take before I am done

The pre-chorus is just as good, but I will spare you those lyrics and just let you listen for yourself. Lastly, I can't help but love a song that begins with the line, "I wake up with my children, right around the crack of noon."

9) Zac Brown Band - "The Wind" (released in June, peaked at #11 in September)
From the album Uncaged

Songwriters: Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, Levi Lowery
It is no surprise that "The Wind" was Zac Brown Band's first single not to crack the top ten on the Billboard Country charts. With its ferocious picking, breakneck lyrical delivery, and a sound unabashedly and heavily influenced by bluegrass music, it's a small wonder that it reached number 11. The song moves so fast that it's over before you know it, like a gust of wind that blows your hat off or your skirt up before you know what happened. The bizarre animated music video made by Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge is also worth a watch.

8) Kacey Musgraves - "Merry Go 'Round" (released in September, currently at #20 Airplay and climbing)
From a hopefully soon-to-be-released album
Songwriters: Kacey Musgraves, Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally
Who would have thought a song that is the antithesis of small-town romanticism would be one of the most talked about singles of the year, and would actually wind up being a mild success (a huge success actually, for a song like this; it's #20 and still climbing) on mainstream country radio? I certainly didn't think so. Musgraves' voice is often compared to Miranda Lambert's, but I don't think such comparisons give enough credit to Musgraves. Not to say her voice is definitively better than Lambert's, but on "Merry Go 'Round" she's able to vocally conjure up frailty and jadedness in a way I've yet to hear from Lambert. Which is a good thing, especially when you have cynical--what some would call "downer"--lyrics such as:

If you ain't got two kids by twenty-one
You're probably gonna die alone
At least that's what tradition told you

And...

Mary, Mary quite contrary
We get bored so we get married
And just like dust we settle in this town

And...

Mama's hooked on Mary Kay
Brother's hooked on Mary Jane
Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down

It takes a truly talented singer to sell such lyrics, not merely as bleak, but as realistic and heartfelt, painful though it may be for Musgraves and her co-writers to hold up such a broken mirror. The wonderfully understated production (softly plucked banjo, weeping steel guitar, simple percussion) compliments such lyrics perfectly (Nashville producers would do well to learn that even lyrically mediocre songs become instantly better when they're not loud wall-of-sound monstrosities). I look forward to the full-length album from Musgraves that hopefully releases sooner rather than later.

7) Kellie Pickler - "100 Proof" (released in April, peaked at #50 in May)
From the album 100 Proof  
Songwriters: James T. Slater, Leslie Satcher
A song about 100 Proof love, not liquor, the title track from Kellie Picker's 2012 album seems to me a good representation of what the young stars of today could do to "update" traditional country music for today's mainstream market. Not that traditional country music needs that, but let's be honest: Country radio programmers are most assuredly not going to play songs that sound like "Mama Tried" or "Stand By Your Man" in today's market. Well... umm... it turns out they aren't going to play songs like "100 Proof" either. The mix of traditional instrumentation and lyricism with classic vocals and pop sensibility (in terms of it being immediately catchy), this song still wasn't enough to impress programmers and listeners. It starts out with a killer first line (of which, if you've read this blog more than once, you know I am a huge fan of): "Ain't no rain as cold as the look she just gave him." A melody plucked on an acoustic guitar guides the verses to a soaring steel guitar-soaked chorus ending with, "We got love, 100 Proof." Essentially, it's a song about two different kinds of relationships. One is where the couple likes to go out and party and have a good time very, very often, the night usually leading to drunken fights, the man usually the arbiter of wanting to stay out later and later and get drunker and drunker, the woman begrudgingly staying by his side. The other, of which the narrator is proponent and part of, is the kind where the love is built on a more solid foundation; it's a relationship that's strong, solid, and healthy, a "beautiful truth" they get to wake up with every morning. It's a love that "ain't in no shot glass, no bottle." The song is a nice twist on what the title makes you think it's going to be about.

To give you hope about the state of mainstream country music: Pickler was dropped from her label after dismal sales of the traditional-leaning album 100 Proof and the disappointing radio performance of its subsequent singles. That pretty much sums up where we are. Pickler, an American Idol alum of all things, has proven herself in 2012 to have more balls than the hyper-masculinity of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan (well, let's not get crazy labeling his schtick "masculine"), Brantley Gilbert, and "Truck Yeah" combined, which honestly isn't surprising seeing as Pickler was all but made a commercial outcast for doing her part in trying to bring integrity back to the airwaves.

6) Kix Brooks - "Bring It On Home" (released in September, peaked at #39 & #44 Airplay in October)
From the album New To This Town  
Songwriters: Rhett Akins, Kix Brooks, Dallas Davidson
While Ronnie Dunn was getting nominated for Grammy awards, Kix Brooks somewhat quietly released a few singles that are much better than I expected, especially this one. It shouldn't have been surprising though, with one of my favorite Brooks and Dunn songs being "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," one of the few on which Brooks assumes lead vocal duties (and absolutely kills it, by the way). In this video, Kix calls "Bring It On Home" a tribute to his wife. It tells the oft-told story of a traveling musician who misses home, but Brooks so nails this particular version of that tale that originality simply does not matter. I heard this song on the radio about five times within the span of a week driving around in a box truck. I had no idea who it was singing the first time, I just knew that it stuck out like that guy at the party you remember was drunker than everybody else. A healthy does of steel guitar, a few splashes of mandolin here and there, and an emotionally invested yet fun vocal by Brooks truly make "Bring It On Home," and it is immensely re-listenable. The deal-sealer for me is when the "All my life" part kicks the chorus off. Great stuff.

5) Tim McGraw - "Better Than I Used To Be" (released December 2011, peaked at #5 in June)
From the album Emotional Traffic
Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Bryan Simpson
Despite releasing in late 2011, I first heard "Better Than I Used To Be" some time in May, and I honestly could not believe it was Tim McGraw. Even more surprising is that it's a track of his last and seemingly infinitely-delayed album for Curb Records, Emotional Traffic, which was released after many public scuffles with the label over artistic freedom and their releasing of countless "greatest hits" packages that were not McGraw-approved. Perhaps yet more surprising than that is it came after several flat-out bad singles over the course of a few years from the usually solid veteran: "Last Dollar (Fly Away)," "It's A Business Doing Pleasure With You," "Still," and the abysmal "Felt Good On My Lips." McGraw's strength has always been as a ballad singer, and "Better Than I Used To Be" is one of his best. Co-written by progressive bluegrass band Cadillac Sky's former front man Bryan Simpson, and Ashley Gorley, who co-wrote one of Trace Adkins' best singles, "You're Gonna Miss This," this is a song about the lifelong pursuit of trying to become a better person.

From opening lines "I know how to hold a grudge, I can send a bridge up in smoke" to the climax of the chorus, "I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see/ I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm better than I used to be," McGraw gives an effortless vocal performance. These are the kinds of songs he was meant to sing. Here's hoping not only that McGraw chooses to record songs like this more often, but that Gorley and Simpson choose to collaborate as writers more often. Mainstream country music could use a lot more songs like this.

4) Turnpike Troubadours - "Gin, Smoke, Lies" (released in July, did not chart)
From the album Goodbye Normal Street
Songwriters: Evan Felker
If you like your banjo tunes to rock, then this is the song for you. I already attempted to put into words how much this song kicks ass back in July, so call me lazy if you must, but I'm just going to copy what I wrote back then here:

I hope to write a little more on this here blog about Turnpike Troubadours, though no amount of praise, written or shared, that I could heap on the band would do them justice, not to mention that said praise would often venture into hyperbole, for better or worse. Quickly to the point, this is one of the best, if not the best, country bands making music today. The lyrics are sharp: if they aren't making you chuckle then they're making you cry (or at least feel like you could). The musicianship is tight, skillful, and nuanced: I challenge you to find a band of any genre that uses instrumentation so perfectly to the degree that each song calls for as well as these guys. The vocals are... well, I'll just say that lead singer and principal songwriter Evan Felker has quickly become one of my favorite voices; twangy, earnest, and emotive (some friends I have compare him to Ryan Adams, though I enjoy Felker quite a bit more). "Gin, Smoke, Lies" is the first single from their recent May release, Goodbye Normal Street, and it's as ferocious a first single as you're bound to hear. Banjo, fiddle, and heavily pounding drums (think "We Will Rock You") round out the production, and Felker's lyrics are as biting and sharp as ever: "Well a spade is made for diggin' dirt/ and an ax is made for choppin'/ Darlin' my heart's hard as nails they hammer/ in a hardwood coffin/ In a hardwood coffin." The "coffin" line is sung twice to drive home the starkly bleak imagery, you know, just in case you missed it. In the end, it's a stone cold country song that flat out rocks, a cheating song the likes of which you've never heard before. CMT.com somewhat surprisingly debuted the video (which I believe was the group's first ever) for the song earlier this week, and if it catches any sort of mainstream traction, I can honestly say it might be the best thing to happen to mainstream country music this century. Turnpike Troubadours are simply too good not to want the rest of the world to hear. (no chart position...yet)

Unfortunately, "Gin, Smoke, Lies" still did not chart in the latter half of the year, but I'd be willing to bet mainstream commercial success isn't high on this group's list of goals. They still had great year, with the album Goodbye Normal Street debuting high on the Billboard 200 back in May, and that collection of songs going on to become album of the year on many year-end lists, including mine.

3) Chris Young - "Neon" (released in March, peaked at #23 in August)
From the album Neon
Songwriters: Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne, Trevor Rosen
"Neon" was one of my favorite songs of 2011, contained on his album of the same name and of that same year. Back then I wrote of the song: "If Young's label doesn't release this as a single in 2012, it will be a country music travesty." Well, the label did release it, and the result was probably more of a travesty than it would have otherwise been as an overlooked gem of an album cut. But as it stands, "Neon" is the first single of Young's not to reach number one since "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" hit the top spot back in October of 2009. Hell, it didn't even crack the top twenty. I mean, it had a super cheesy-ass music video and everything (the performance at the Opry embedded below is a much, much better video to watch). The single's commercial failure is pretty historic in my opinion. Young has for years been one of country music's fastest rising stars, but he released a neo-traditional drinking-song classic, and it caused his career's momentum to have the proverbial rug pulled out from under it. "The light at this end of the tunnel is neon," or at least it used to be. Now the light more closely resembles fake tans or bleached teeth or the headlights of a truck driving out to the backroads where they build the campfire and blare Nickelback over the speakers. Boom, boom.

2) Eric Church - "Springsteen" (released in February, peaked at #1 in June)
From the album Chief 
Songwriters: Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Ryan Tyndell
This is the song that will be looked back on as the one that took Eric Church to a different level of success. It's not totally country but sounded totally unique on country radio; I mean that in a really good way. I wrote a full review of the song here, and though a bit wordy, it's been the most viewed post at Abundant Ramblings since this blog's inception. Here's an excerpt:

"Springsteen" is a glorious testament to the fact that Eric Church understands music to be a powerful and emotional force rather than a commercial and formulaic one. In the musical atmosphere of country radio, such an understanding feels like a minor miracle. With Church, music's power is more than just lip service, and with "Springsteen," he does a service to fans of music everywhere, helping us to understand that though we are struggling human beings living in an insane and real world, music has the power to keep us young in spirit and at heart, which may just--in the long run--not only help us to find our way, but help us to survive.

1) George Strait - "Drinkin' Man" (released in April, peaked at #37 in July)
From the album Here For A Good Time
Songwriters: Dean Dillon, Bubba Strait, George Strait
I have hope that George Strait won't go the way of Alan Jackson and fall completely out of the good graces (somehow) of country radio. But if the chart performance of "Drinkin' Man" is any indication, the end is nigh, my friends. It's not a happy song. It's not an upbeat song. There is no silver lining at the end of the song. There is only the silver lining that comes with going through the struggle that this song is about; the silver lining is in the journey of the fighting. Here's what I wrote about the song last summer:

It's nearly unforgivable the way radio has treated what is the best single of the past five years from country music's elder statesman. "Drinkin' Man" tells the heartbreaking story of one man's lifelong struggle with alcohol, starting at the tender age of fourteen. We sympathize profoundly with the narrator because he talks about how he's tried to quit and how he knows his reliance on drink is hurting those closest to him who love him the most. Take, for example, this chill-inducing line: "Stayed sober once for nine days in a row, I quit cold turkey/ Damn near almost made it ten/ But that's a hell of a lot to ask/ of a drinkin' man." In a similar way that Wade Bowen sings a different tune about Saturday nights, George Strait sings a different tune about alcohol. Many songs on country radio (and pop radio for that matter) glorify night after night of drinking to excess, but "Drinkin' Man" trades glory and good times for something a little more poignant, dangerous, and real. And it doesn't matter that it's sung and co-written by King George; radio programmers wouldn't touch something this authentic with a thirty-seven foot pole. And they didn't.

I still can't get over that "Damn near almost made it to ten" lyric, one of the best lines of the year, to be sure. Strait sings this song not only with the respect it deserves, but with the yearning its narrator feels compelling him toward change. By the end of it the listener realizes that quitting is going to be a lifelong struggle for this person, full of false starts and giving up and pain. And Strait and his co-writers give us no promise at the end that the narrator will ever totally conquer the demon. Perhaps the only appropriate response after hearing this song for the first time is, "Damn." Even if it's something you've never gone through personally, sometimes a song just hits you when it delves into subject matter that's dark and real. As with Kacey Musgraves' "Merry Go 'Round," sometimes it's painful to hold up a broken mirror, but that doesn't mean someone shouldn't still hold it up.

The rest of the top 40:
Numbers 40 through 31
Numbers 30 through 21
Numbers 20 through 11