The term country and western doesn’t really apply much to country music these days but when it comes to Corb Lund you can use the term without drawing any strange looks. Lund and his band the Hurtin’ Albertans brought their brand of Canadian country and western to Little Rock’s Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack on Friday, November 17 for a terrific night of music spanning his nearly 30 years on the road.

Opening with a cover of his friend Hayes Carll’s “Little Rock,” those of us in attendance could tell we were in for something special on Friday night as Lund and the boys seemed to be pumped for their first performance at Stickyz since before the Covid pandemic.

Lund kept the rocking country coming with a couple of my favorite tracks from his 2020 release Agricultural Tragic in the tribute to old cowboys, “Old Men” and “90 Seconds of Your Time,” a song about trying to talk an Army Ranger friend out of killing some folks.  

I became introduced to Lund through his wonderful 2012 album Cabin Fever, which to this day remains my favorite album of his. But as someone with a large amount of favorite musicians, I’ve never really found the time to delve into his pre-2012 releases so I found myself singing along and enjoying his last decade’s work a bit more than maybe some in the audience, who clearly have been with him longer as fans and perhaps enjoyed his earlier folk-western tunes like “Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier,” “I Wanna Be in the Cavalry” and “Roughest Neck Around.”

Cabin Fever clearly means a lot to Lund too as it was the album, despite now being 11 years old, that he performed the most tracks off of on Friday night, including one that he said he hadn’t done in a while in the story song “Priceless Antique Pistol Shoots Startled Owner,” which I was thrilled to see live and remains one of my all-time favorite song titles to this day.

Among my other favorite performances from Cabin Fever were “The Gothest Girl I Can,” which has a ‘50s rockabilly sound to it, the depressing “One Left in the Chamber,” which likely has multiple meanings depending on how you want to take it, and “Dig Gravedigger Dig,” possibly the most fun stomp about gravediggers in music history.

My favorite song off Cabin Fever is “September,” one that was saved for the encore of a show and done as a medley with a couple of his other songs “Run This Town” and “Losin’ Lately Gambler,” which was slightly disappointing but better than not having heard any of it at all. I particularly loved the yodeling in “September” and “Priceless Antique Pistol Shoots Startled Owner,” for that matter. You don’t get enough yodeling from musicians these days!

One song from Cabin Fever that Lund said he always has to be every show now – and I couldn’t quite tell if he was joking or actually tired of it – is the hilarious “Cows Around,” which is my wife Aprille’s favorite song of his and a performance that truly made her entire night. The song tells of the stubbornness of cattle and how cattle farming is sure to cost you a lot of money and drive you crazy. The most fun part of the song is when Lund rattles off all the different breeds of cow, which not only makes for a crazy fun sing-along but also a moment of agriculture education.

A major influence on Lund and his style of music was clearly Canadian folk hero Ian Tyson, who died in December of last year. Lund paid tribute to Tyson by covering his classic “M.C. Horses,” and also performing a new song he wrote in tribute to him called “El Viejo,” which will be the title track of his upcoming acoustic album set to be released in February of next year.

“El Viejo” was one of five songs off the upcoming album that Lund performed on Friday night. He performed a couple of gambling songs, “The Cardplayers” and “When the Game Gets Hot,” that will appear on the album, as well as potentially the first ever Mixed Martial Arts country song in “Out On a Win.”

During the band’s encore later in the evening, they would perform “Was Fort Worth Worth It?” as a spur-of-the-moment trial run because they hadn’t yet performed it live and were hoping to add it to the set on Saturday night for their Fort Worth concert.

Toward the end of his set, Lund would perform a song I’ve been fortunate to have seen it’s other co-writer Hayes Carll perform at least a couple of times in concert in “Bible on the Dash,” the two co-wrote it and it appeared on Cabin Fever.

Lund would finish his set out with a couple of fan-favorites in “Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer,” the other cow song he exclaimed that he’s written, and “Rye Whiskey/Time to Switch to Whiskey.”

He would return for what would be a five-song encore, certainly one of the longest I’ve ever seen in concert, that began with him solo on the stage performing “S Lazy H,” off Things That Can’t Be Undone, a depressing tale of a generation’s owned family ranch that goes under because of changing times and greed.

The concert would culminate in a rocking performance of “Gettin’ Down on the Mountain,” the opening track from Cabin Fever, which perfectly showed off all of the amazing talent in the Hurtin’ Albertans band with Grant Siemens on electric guitar (and at times on steel guitar and mandolin), Sean Burns on bass (both electric and upright and at times on harmonica) and Brady Valgardson, who is the band’s drummer during the offseason from being an actual, by-God farmer.

I’ll be honest upfront – I’m not much of a reggae person. But some artists are just impossible to turn a blind eye to and Bob Marley is one of those artists. So, while “I Shot the Sheriff,” may not actually be one of my 50 favorite songs from 1973, I wouldn’t feel right leaving it off this list. Off Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’, “I Shot the Sheriff” tells of sticking it to the man who’s tried to stick it to him first. Eric Clapton would cover the song the next year and take it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – which is saying something maybe not so great about the history of pop music (white guys taking the music of black guys to the top), but it probably introduced more folks to Marley’s music. 

Sometimes it feels like Bob Dylan’s original version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is the least known and least played version on the radio with Eric Clapton’s smoothed down, reggae-infused 1975 cover and the screeching of Axl Rose on the 1992 Guns N’ Roses cover getting more airplay. I’ll stick with the simplicity of Dylan’s countrified version he did for the soundtrack to director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 Western “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.” Dylan actually played a character in the film, which starred fellow legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson as the doomed Billy the Kid. 

Jerry Jeff Walker always had a wry sense of humor and “Gettin’ By,” off his 1973 live album Viva Terlingua (his career highlight in my opinion), might be my favorite original song of the great Texas sing-songwriter who brought a bit of Hunter S. Thompson’s “gonzo” lifestyle into country music. The line: “just gettin’ by on gettin’ by’s my stock ‘n trade” was essentially Walker’s credo and the verse about promising new material to the record label is pure hilarity.  

Conway Twitty was known for his sexy country songs that could make the ladies swoon and helped him skyrocket to the most No. 1 singles in country music history until surpassed in the last 25 years by George Strait. One of his sexiest – or perhaps dirtiest depending on your opinion – is 1973’s chart-topper “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” which tells frankly of taking a young woman’s virginity. Despite being a No. 1 hit it was banned by some radio stations for its lyrics considered a bit too sexual, even by Twitty’s standards. 

Some folks these days may be more familiar with the hit cover the Fugees did in the ‘90s, but when Roberta Flack took on “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and an uncredited Lori Lieberman (who initially recorded it), in 1973 it stopped the world in its tracks and spent five weeks (non-consecutively) atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the early months of the year. The song truly gets the idea that we all feel often when listening to music in a performer who sings exactly what we’re feeling. The song would go on to win Fox and Gimbel the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Flack the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. 

Dr. John was New Orleans through and through and by combining the Big Easy styles of blues, jazz, funk and R&B he created a unique style of music that culminated in his biggest hit “Right Place, Wrong Time,” which went all the way to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1973. It’s groovy. It makes you want to move and dance and immediately buy a ticket to get down to Bourbon Street ASAP. 

​George Jones and Tammy Wynette's high-profile, highly-volatile relationship produced many of the finest duets in country music history. While 1973’s “We’re Gonna Hold On,” probably wasn’t their finest – that’s likely “Golden Ring” from 1976 – nor did it prove to be true, but it’s still a country classic about a relationship attempting to make it through rocky times. It would be the couple’s first of three No. 1 duets together. 

​Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn were undoubtedly one of the greatest duet partners in the history of country music and my favorite collaboration between the icons was their 1973 country No. 1 hit “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” from their album of the same name. It’s just such a fun, up-tempo blast of a performance from the two performers, who despite not being lovers in real life – a la George Jones and Tammy Wynette – have such incredible chemistry together. 

Jackson Browne’s “These Days” is potentially the most introspective song on this entire list, especially when it comes to the themes and topics of loss and regret … and he wrote it when he was 16 years old! The song had already been cut a couple of times, most notably by Nico in 1967 as this baroque, folk-pop version, before Browne would update some of the lyrics and release his own version on his album For Everyman in October of 1973. That very same month, Gregg Allman released a version on his album Laid Back. Both Browne and Allman’s versions are more countrified, as was the way of doing things during this era. Maybe I’m just biased toward the writer of the art, but I believe Browne’s version in both recording and vocal is the best of these versions. 

​I think when a lot of people think about Southern Rock they think about multiple guitars thrashing at once like in many of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest hits but The Marshall Tucker Band showed that you could put a beautiful flute solo on Southern Rock too thanks to the incredible Jerry Eubanks, who opens and closes “Can’t You See” off the band’s 1973 self-titled debut album. The song, which might be the band’s most popular, sees the narrator reflecting on the heartache his woman has caused him and his attempt to run away from it. The band would re-release the song again in 1977 after they and Southern Rock in general had become a bit more popular – though it didn’t crack the top-40 either time it was released. It has become a classic rock radio format staple though. 

​If you were to pop on the vinyl of Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ on January 5, 1973 (which based on sales at the time not a whole lot of people did) the very first song you would’ve heard was “Blinded by the Light,” a wordy, Dylan-esque folk-rock number that sounds like it was written by going through a rhyming dictionary (and it actually was!). “Blinded by the Light,” was one of two songs (the other being “Spirit in the Night”) specifically written after the rest of the album when Columbia Records president Clive Davis felt the album lacked a potential single. Springsteen’s single wouldn’t do much, but it would become his first and only No. 1 single as a songwriter when Manfred Mann’s Earth Band spiced it up a bit with a more progressive rock sound in 1976. Even though it’s likely the wordiest song Springsteen ever wrote it’s still a helluva lot of fun to sing.

​“Ramblin’ Man,” written and sung by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, on the band’s 1973 album Brothers and Sisters, would become the band’s only Billboard Hot 100 Top-10 single when it went all the way to No. 2. To this day it’s still a staple on both classic rock and oldies format radio stations. Inspired by a Hank Williams song of the same name, “Ramblin’ Man” was actually written sometime before it was cut, but the rest of the band thought it was a bit too country music sounding for their albums. Coming out around the time that the Eagles, The Marshall Tucker Band and other country-rock acts were having a moment, it hit at the right time with American listeners.  

​Waylon Jennings heard Billy Joe Shaver, a mostly unknown Texan songwriter at the time, perform his song “Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me” at a concert both were performing at in 1972 and invited him to Nashville to write songs for the album that would become Honky Tonk Heroes, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in June. Nine of the 10 tracks on the album were either written or co-written by Shaver, including my favorite on the album – the beautiful love song about a man willing to do whatever the woman he loves asks of him (which was a co-write with Jennings). Jennings was known for his gruff outlaw image but could do a sweet love song with the best of them and “You Ask Me To” is about as sweet as they come. 

​Tom T. Hall was simply known as “The Storyteller” around country music circles for his short story-like songs and 1973’s “Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine” is one of his absolute best. Hall was almost like a reporter in that he could take true events that happened to him or those surrounding him and craft them into these storyline songs and this song came from a real encounter the songwriter had with an old janitor at a Miami Beach hotel while in town for the 1972 Democratic National Convention. It’s such a lovely song and spoken-sung performance by Hall. In 2014, Rolling Stone magazine named “Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine” as one of the 100 greatest country songs of all time. 

“Midnight Rider” had appeared on The Allman Brothers Band’s 1970 album Idlewild South (with the amazing “Whipping Post” as its B-side) but it never charted when released as a single. When Gregg Allman, who had written it with Robert Kim Payne, released a re-imagined version of it on his solo album Laid Back in 1973, it suddenly became a smash, cracking the top 20 on Billboard. “Midnight Rider,” a folk-blues mixture filled with the desperation of an outlaw loner trying just to survive, was always a perfect mix for Allman’s gruff, bluesy voice no matter which version you prefer. 

“Lost in the Flood,” might be the most Springsteen-esque song on his debut album, meaning it’s the song that most resembles what The Boss’s music would come to sound like on later records. It’s Springsteen’s first foray into writing about veterans returning from the war in Vietnam and the toll it’s taken on them. The sparse basic piano-only (likely Springsteen himself) performance works terrifically for the track’s first verse and a half until the epic entrance by the E Street Band on the second verse about the stock car racer “Jimmy the Saint.” In one of Springsteen’s most cinematic tracks, the song comes to a full-on violent finale in the final verse when a New York City gang gunfight involves the cops. You’d see this Springsteen more beginning with 1975’s Born to Run.  

​Few things sound funkier than Stevie Wonder on the clavinet run through a Mu-Tron III filter pedal on his 1973 No. 4 Billboard hit “Higher Ground,” off Innervisions, one of his Grammy Album of the Year winners of the ‘70s. That sound, along with the bass line provided by a Moog synthesizer lays down this amazing groove while Wonder lays down one of his most socially conscious lyrics about all the bad shit going down here on earth but a higher calling waiting for one in the afterlife. 

Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” which was on the band’s 1972 album Machine Head and released as a single in May of 1973, is one of the most epic guitar songs of all time and truly helped bridge the gap between rock and roll to hard rock and even heavy metal. The opening riff that would appear throughout the song, played by Ritchie Blackmore, was ranked as the No. 4 greatest guitar riff of all time by Total Guitar magazine in 2004. The lyrics of “Smoke on the Water” tell of a true story the band witnessed on December 4, 1971, when they were in Montreux, Switzerland to record Machine Head. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing a show at a nearby casino when someone in the audience set off a flare gun that caught the venue on fire and destroyed the entire casino complex. Bassist Roger Glover came up with the title after watching the smoke billowing across Lake Geneva from the inferno. 

I was watching the new ABC criminal drama “Will Trent” earlier this year and was in the fifth episode of the season and I hadn’t completely started jiving with it yet and then in that episode came a scene between two detective partners, one of them the titular character, and Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone” was playing in the background – Will Trent calls it “one of the greatest breakup songs of all time” – and these characters, who had been a bit icy toward each other, really begin to gel with each other to the great breakdown at the end where vocalist Daryl Hall really lets go on the chorus. I had been a bit icy toward “Hall & Oates,” and honestly there’s good reason to be with some of their biggest hits being on the lame side, but a killer groove and vocal like “She’s Gone” was enough to win me over – much like those characters on “Will Trent” – toward this being a killer track. 

​“Bennie & the Jets” must’ve been Bernie Taupin’s idea of what if David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust was a woman when he created the song about a “sort of proto-sci-fi punk band, fronted by an androgynous woman,” as he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2014. This fictional band is so kickass sounding that I kind of would’ve liked to have seen what may have happened if Taupin and Elton John created an entire concept album around the character of Bennie and her band. The song would become a huge hit in North America marking Elton John’s second career No. 1 hit (after “Crocodile Rock” had topped the Billboard chart in 1972). 

​In an oddity of an artist becoming more successful after leaving Motown Records, Gladys Knight & the Pips had the biggest hit of their career in 1973 with the group’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single in the R&B/soul classic “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The song, written by Jim Weatherly, was just the group’s second release after leaving Motown for Buddah Records and would instantaneously make Knight and the Pips one of the biggest acts in R&B and soul music. The song is told from the perspective of the narrator whose lover has failed to make it big in Hollywood and is leaving L.A. on the midnight train back to his home in Georgia and how she’s going to be right there standing by his side. It’s a powerhouse vocal by Knight on what would become her signature hit. 

​“Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” are actually two different songs and tracks on Pink Floyd’s epic 1973 release The Dark Side of the Moon but the two were so often played together by DJs that they kind of became one – kind of like Queen’s “We Will Rock You”/”We Are the Champions.” “Brain Damage” flows so effortlessly into “Eclipse” that it just seems like one and it makes for an absolutely perfect ending to the album – the high point of the entire thing, in my opinion. The insanity-themed lyrics of the song were based on original band member Syd Barrett’s mental instability and eventual breakdown. The song has an interesting dichotomy for me as it’s haunting while at the same time making lunacy seem cool. 

​Bruce Springsteen was often compared to Bob Dylan with his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in early 1973 with its wordy, rambling tracks like “For You.” “For You” is high on imagery, and a little bit less on proper storytelling but I get the gist that it’s about a young woman with troubles in her life who’s considering or attempted suicide and the man, who probably is in love with her, doing whatever he can to save her. The 100 MPH rapid-fire lyrics and Springsteen performance match the music's intensity and what’s going on with the general vibe, making it a rush of adrenaline from start to finish. 

I had an incredibly hard time paring Jimmy Buffett’s excellent 1973 release A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean down to just the few tracks that made this list, and the list was finalized before Buffett’s death in September. That’s how much his music, especially his ‘70s output meant to me. “Death of an Unpopular Poet,” the final track on that album, is probably one of Buffett’s most underrated and most “who is this about?” songs as it spins a tale about an unsuccessful while living poet who dies and leaves all his royalties to his loyal dog and then in death becomes a hit. In reality, the inspiration wasn’t just one poet, but a combination of two: Kenneth Patchen and Richard Farina and Buffett essentially created a fictionalized one from aspects of them. It’s a lovely song that Bob Dylan hailed as one of his favorites. 

“Ballroom Blitz” has somehow always seemed out of its time to me. It doesn’t feel like a song that should be half a century old. A mixture of David Bowie glam rock with what would become The Ramones punk rock later in the decade, it also feels like something that would fit perfectly in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The song, which has always felt like an all-out rave to me, was inspired by a real incident that happened while the band was performing at Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland on January 27, 1973, when they were run offstage by audience members tossing bottles and other items at them. Whatever is happening in the song sounds much more fun than that. The song would become a No. 5 Billboard hit for the band. 

​“La Grange” is simply one of the greatest guitar songs of all time. A-haw, haw, haw, haw. Likely the greatest track ZZ Top ever put to record, off ‘73’s Tres Hombres, it tells of a brothel – the one that inspired the Broadway play and later film “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” -  down on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas. It’s mostly a shining example of what happens when boogie rock and blues meld down in the Lone Star state. 

​Found homes can oftentimes be more important or special in the lives of people than the ones they grew up in. That’s the feeling I get from Jimmy Buffett’s beautiful “I Have Found Me a Home,” off A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling Buffett is singing about Key West, which became a transformative place for him and his career. I absolutely love the verse: “And the ladies aren’t demanding here/They never ask too much/And when you’re coming off a cold love/That’s sure a nice warm touch.” It’s one of my favorite Buffett verses – but there are literally dozens of those. 

​Dobie Gray’s 1973 version of “Drift Away” is certainly the most known and popular version (if you’re thinking Uncle Kracker right now please go away), but it wasn’t the original version. The song was originally released the year before by swamp rocker John Henry Kurtz (I’d never heard of him before either). But Gray’s soulful take on the song, written by Mentor Williams, is the definitive take and became the biggest hit of his career going to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes you just want to forget the hardships of life, kick back, relax and listen to your favorite records. “Drift Away” knows this and wound up becoming one of those favorite records you can get lost in.  

​I love “Christmas in Prison” so much because it’s exactly what you would expect from a Christmas song – though it’s one that’s perfect year-round – written by John Prine. Off his third studio album Sweet Revenge, “Christmas in Prison” sees the narrator spending the holidays in prison and waxing nostalgic about a lover – either active or former – back home. Prine had a knack for finding beauty where many others wouldn’t and this is a perfect example of that. 

​“Growin’ Up,” the second track on Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, is a sign of things to come later for Springsteen, in my opinion, in its adolescent rebelliousness. Springsteen was 22 when he wrote the song in 1971 and it has all the gusto and bravado of one ready to break out of his own little world into something bigger with a bang. David Sancious, who was only 18 at the time, gives the album its first great E Street Band flourish with his piano solo.

​Lynyrd Skynyrd certainly had bigger hits – “Tuesday’s Gone” wasn’t even a single – but the second track off the band’s 1973 debut album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) might be the prettiest song the Southern Rock group out of Jacksonville, Fla. ever produced. The song has the theme of moving on, much as the band’s big hit of the debut “Free Bird,” but comes packaged in this incredibly beautiful musical packaging with Billy Powell on the terrific piano solo and the lead guitar by Gary Rossington, who passed away this year. 

​I’m not sure there’s been a singer-songwriter with as high of highs and as tragic of lows as Jim Croce in 1973. His 1972 breakthrough album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim had top 20 hits with the title track and “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” The hits kept coming with Life and Times coming out in July of ’73 with Croce’s first No. 1 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” The prolific songwriter just kept the songs and albums coming and the title track of his next album I Got a Name was to be released on September 21, 1973. However, tragedy struck on September 20 when Croce and five others died in a plane crash in Louisiana. The album, which would become his final, would be released in December. “I Got a Name,” which would posthumously go to No. 10, was a rare song not written by Croce (but by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel) is such an uplifting song of someone being confident in who they are no matter what life throws at them and is one that never fails to perk me up when I need it most. 

​“Gimme Three Steps” is one of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs overall because I love how it brings this juxtaposition of honest sincerity when it comes to confrontation and mixes it with music and a band that’s oftentimes seen as complete masculinity, at least that’s the idea much of the fan base likes to give off. The song about a narrator dancing with another man’s girl and that man ready to end his life over it is infiltrated with this unique bit of humorous cowardice on the narrator’s part that you rarely see in rock music in general, especially from a tough-looking Southern Rock band.  

​I can’t listen to Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” off his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, without getting at least a little bit emotional and depending on what’s going on with my life and in this country at any given time potentially a lot emotional. The song is a mediation on the American experience, both the positive and the negative but with the more mournful melody you can tell things were a bit worse than good at the time. Cash Box called the track, “gorgeous, haunting and highly lyrical,” which I couldn’t come up with a better way to describe the song. Simon’s gentle vocal really fits the lyrics perfectly. 

​Aerosmith started out of the gate in 1973 with their greatest song “Dream On” being the single off the group’s self-titled debut album, though it would take a couple of years for one of classic rock’s most iconic tracks to become the hit it is. When initially released in June of ’73, it failed to make much of an impact outside of the band’s home city of Boston – where it was the single of the year on the local WBZ-FM – but word would get out about the band and the song and when it was re-released as a single in late-1975 it wouldn’t take too long for it to go all the way to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Dream On” is the band at its most introspective, which is interesting since it was them at their youngest, and kind of a sign of the stuff Steven Tyler might have written if the band hadn’t become more interested in the sex and drugs of rock & roll.  

​“Spirit in the Night,” from Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., is the quintessential early E Street Band sound for me – the more R&B, soulful, even jazz-tinged performing with Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez on drums, David Sancious on organ and piano (although it’s apparently Harold Wheeler credited on piano on this track) to go along with guys who would last past the first two albums in saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bassist Garry Tallent. The song, one of two written and tacked onto the album late in the recording process when Columbia Records president Clive Davis didn’t hear single material, is so infectiously fun and loose. The song tells the tale of a wild band of teenagers who drive out to a nearby lake and just screw around and there’s so much young, dumb, rebellious awesomeness in the whole performance. I wish I could bottle up the “Spirit in the Night” sound and wear it as cologne.

​“He Went to Paris,” off Jimmy Buffett’s 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, is maybe the finest song from start-to-finish the singer-songwriter ever penned. If you think Buffett was just about party beach songs I challenge you to listen to this ballad about a man’s life from early adulthood until his elderly years and not be completely taken in and likely even feel like shedding a tear. “He Went to Paris” is both beautiful and crushing in its story of one’s life from the highs to the tragedies. On his 1978 live album, You Had to Be There, Buffett mentioned that “He Went to Paris” was his favorite song he wrote.  

​“Tequila Sunrise,” the lead single off the Eagles’ 1973 sophomore release Desperado, was not really a hit when it was released, it didn’t crack the top 50, but it has stood the test of time as a frequent play on classic rock format radio stations and I think it’s one of the band’s five greatest songs. The country-rock tune, co-written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, sees Frey taking lead vocals about a lonely man and the girl of his dreams running around with other men. The whining of Bernie Leadon’s B-Bender electric guitar, which has a steel guitar sound, and the longing in Frey’s vocal truly make this a classic country ballad. 

​When I was young I used to think Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” was pure cheese. I think it had something to do with the old-timey harpsichord and the crooner-ish vocals. When I grew up, and now as a mid-thirtysomething, I think it’s among the loveliest songs ever recorded – both in vocal, arrangement and, especially, lyrically. Find yourself someone who makes you want to live the chorus: “There never seems to be enough time/to do the things you want to do, once you find them/I’ve looked around enough to know/that you’re the one I want to go through time with.” If you do that, you’ll completely understand and cherish this song. The song had appeared on Croce’s breakthrough 1972 album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim but was not released as a single until after Croce’s death in a plane crash in September of ’73 when DJs began playing it and demand rose for it to be released. It would become a No. 1 posthumously for Croce, only the third time an artist (Otis Redding and Janis Joplin) ever topped the Billboard chart after their death at that time. 

​“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the title track off Elton John’s massive 1973 double album, is the perfect song about getting out of an upper-class relationship and going back to one’s roots. It’s among the greatest lyrics ever penned by Elton John’s songwriting collaborator and lyricist Bernie Taupin and Elton’s vocal performance mixed with his piano and the arrangement, including wonderful strings during the chorus make it one of the finest pieces in Elton John’s vast discography. The lyrics kind of represent what Taupin’s goal in life was, as well, Oz was for the superstar Elton John, but Taupin belonged out with the howling owl in the woods. 

​No doubt one of the most recognizable and greatest country songs of all time, Dolly Parton’s 1973 country charting No. 1 hit “Jolene” is the tale of a woman confronting another stunningly beautiful woman who is trying to steal her lover or husband away. According to Parton many years later, there absolutely was a “Jolene” figure in her life – possibly a local bank teller if the rumor is correct. But have y’all seen a photo of Dolly Parton circa 1973 – what must this “Jolene” have looked like to easily be able to take her man away? Don’t worry, Parton and her husband Carl Dean have been married for nearly 60 years, but at least this flirt in their lives at one point gave us an all-timer of a country classic. 

​“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” has always been one of my favorite Springsteen story songs and one of the most vivid of his career, as you can see the entire thing play out like a movie in your mind’s eye. It’s a love song – but what is Springsteen really in love with: Sandy or the Asbury Park boardwalk scene? The nostalgia and romanticism of it all, complete with real-life characters of the time like the fortune teller Madame Marie, makes me feel I need to see Asbury Park in my lifetime, though I’m not sure if it could ever compare or even look the same a half-century later - or if it ever really felt that way in general: E Street Band drummer at the time Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez told Rolling Stone: “No one would ever go under the boardwalk. There were rats under the boardwalk!” Springsteen has called the song a “love note and a goodbye song” to his adopted home of Asbury Park and the song hits both of those feelings perfectly. 

Bob Seger released “Turn the Page,” which I believe to be his all-time greatest song, in 1973 on his album Back in ’72 to little fanfare. It wasn’t until the song was released as a single on 1976’s live album Live Bullet that it truly became the classic rock staple that it is. It’s almost always that version you’ll hear and you could argue it should actually be on the 1976 list of this article we’ll probably do in a few years – but I’ll stick with the year of its original release (even though you can’t even find that version on Spotify). “Turn the Page” is the story of life on the road – something Seger would know more than most having truly created a successful career as a touring musician more than a recording artist. It’s real, it’s hard and it includes one of the greatest saxophone solos ever put on record by the great Alto Reed, who was told by road manager Tom Weschler to: “Think about it like this: You’re in New York City, on the Bowery. It’s 3 a.m. You’re under a streetlamp. There’s a light mist coming down. You’re all by yourself. Show me what that sounds like.” Reed freakin’ nailed it. 

The great thing about Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” from his Christmas album Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present, is it’s not only one of the greatest Christmas songs ever written (for my money it is No. 1) but it’s also a song that works for the entirety of the year in its theme of a man down on his luck trying to provide for his family. The toughest time of year for folks suffering financially is around the holidays, especially if they have little children they hope to cheer up via Christmas presents. Haggard was known as the “poet of the common man,” and this is one I fear too many common men both at the time it was written and even now have felt too closely. Haggard is one of my all-time favorite songwriters and “If We Make It Through December” is easily in his top-10. 

​What started out as a tribute to fellow Southern Rocker Duane Allman, the Allman Brothers Band guitar virtuoso who died in a motorcycle accident in 1971 at just 24 years old, would become something of a tribute to the band and its leader (and one of the song’s co-writers) themselves when a plane crash ended the band and killed Ronnie Van Zant just over four years after the release of the band’s debut album it appears on. “Free Bird” would go on to be such an iconic rock song, with its introspective lyrics that culminate in a guitar hero breakdown, that it’s become something of a cliché with fans at random concerts throughout the country and probably the world shouting “Free Bird” at bands to be a nuisance. But we shouldn’t let what the song has become in the pop culture lexicon take away from its greatness. 

​“Desperado,” the softly sung country-rock ballad title track off the Eagles’ sophomore studio album, would become a classic rock staple despite never actually being released as a single by the band. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group has had a number of stellar tracks during its tenure, but “Desperado” is, for my money, their best. The track, written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey with Henley on lead vocals, was written in the style of old 1800 songs by Stephen Foster and helped to create the sound of the album overall based on themes of the Old West. 

“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is my favorite jam on Bruce Springsteen’s sophomore album (his second album of 1973) The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, in its tale of a young rock and roller ready to set the world on fire but needing to steal away his girl from his hometown to truly have it all. In his book, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, Brian Hiatt called it: “his first great rock song.” It’s a fever dream of a seven-minute rocker with rapid-fire lyrics that Springsteen wrote in his early 20s and having seen him perform it in Kansas City this past February in his early 70s one he still knocks out of the park. The track includes some of the greatest saxophone work from beginning to end of legend Clarence Clemons’s career. ‘Rosalita’ will have you wanting to dance your ass off with the biggest smile on your face every time you hear it. 

​“Piano Man” was Billy Joel’s first bit of success as the first single on his 1973 album of the same name. The song had come from Joel’s, a natural New Yorker, experiences as a fish out of water lounge musician in Los Angeles from 1972-73 while escaping a bad contract situation with a record company back home. Reportedly, all the characters in Joel’s song were based on real people or real experiences he witnessed as this lounge pianist/singer. “Piano Man” would not just become Joel’s signature song in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career, but also one of the all-time greatest story songs and sing-alongs. 

WOMEN!
At the 2018 Grammys, #GrammysSoMale started trending on Twitter due to the winners being overwhelmingly male. In response to this, the Grammy President at the time, Neil Portnow responded by saying women needed to "step up." That year, Bruno Mars took home Album, Song and Record of the Year. At the time, it was relatively new that the Grammys had switched categories to just Pop Solo Performance instead of Best Male Pop Solo Performance and Best Female Pop Solo Performance. With so many men winning, it appeared that this could be a way that women would not be recognized. I feel this was the fear at the time. Portnow did not know what he was talking about at all then and I am so thrilled to see so many women nominated in the General Field categories. In fact, the only male nominations in Record and Song of the Year are for Jon Batiste. It appears that the men need to step it up now. Women have been on fire in music for years. I am glad that an Academy that just a few years ago seemed to predominantly only value art by men are recognizing that women, in my opinion, are carrying the music industry right now. In Album, Record and Song of the Year, we have Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, boygenius, Janelle Monae, Victoria Monet and Dua Lipa. I am truly excited for all of these women to be celebrated since they have all played a part in making 2023 truly an unforgettable year in music. TG

Taylor Swift
It has been Taylor's year! The amount of things Swift has accomplished since October 2022 is outright insane. Last October, Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, to massive critical and commercial success. The lead single, "Anti-Hero," went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her longest-running #1 hit. Shortly after, Swift announced her Eras Tour, which is a trip through her music beginning with her debut album all the way to Midnights. The Eras Tour has become a cultural phenomenon. On October 13th this year, she released a concert film of the Eras Tour in theaters. The film became the highest-grossing concert film in the United States of all time. Theaters were filled with Swifties dressing up, trading friendship bracelets and singing and dancing like they were at the concert. Oh, and she also released two more albums for her well-documented re-recording project: Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in July and 1989 (Taylor's Version) last month. It came as no surprise when Grammy nominations were announced last Friday when Swift was announced as a finalist for Album of the Year for Midnights and Record and Song of the Year for "Anti-Hero." Right now, Swift is in a four-way tie for most wins for Album of the Year with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder. If Midnights wins AOTY, she will be the ARTIST at the Grammys with the most Album of the Year wins. Swift also made history as the songwriter with the most nominations for Song of the Year ever and has tied Barbra Streisand as the female with the most Album of the Year nominations in Grammy history. If Swift had been snubbed on Grammy nomination morning, it would have been unforgivable. That is why her six nominations (Album, Song, Record, Pop Solo Performance, Pop Vocal Album, and Pop Collaboration with Vocals) are my favorite Grammy nominations this year! TG

But Here We Are by Foo Fighters for Best Rock Album
If you read the Grammy Snubs list that Tyler and I collaborated on yesterday you’ll know that I’m pretty bummed/irritated that the Foo Fighters’ excellent and incredibly emotional new album But Here We Are couldn’t break into the general field Album of the Year category (at least boygenius is there to represent some form of rock music), but that doesn’t mean I can’t be thrilled for the veteran Rock Hall of Famers to be nominated all up and down the rock genre-specific categories, most notably Best Rock Album. You can see the emotions of frontman Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foos losing drummer Taylor Hawkins all over this album, which is honestly one of the band’s best of their career. JS

"Butterfly" by Jon Batiste for Song of the Year
Jon Batiste is an artist that makes me love the Grammys. Until Batiste became an Album of the Year winner two years ago, I had never heard of him. The Recording Academy shined a light on this artist for me and made me look. What I found was a brilliant songwriter and vocalist who truly touches the hearts of listeners everywhere. If it wasn't for the Grammys, I would probably have never heard Batiste sing and it would have been a true shame. He is easily one of my favorite new artists of the last several years. "Butterfly" is such a touching song of going through the journey of life and finding out who we are. Batiste brilliantly does this in comparison with the progression of a butterfly's journey in their lives. This was a song that I wanted to be nominated for Song of the Year so badly but it wasn't an obvious pick for Grammy voters so I am beyond thrilled to see Batiste get the recognition. TG

Rolling Up the Welcome Mat by Kelsea Ballerini for Best Country Album
Kelsea Ballerini is a country artist whom I have really grown to just love over the years. She definitely leans more toward pop like Taylor Swift did before she fully committed to just making pop music. At the end of the day though, Ballerini's EP Rolling Up The Welcome Mat is something truly special. Ballerini breaks our hearts as we hear track by track about the dissolution of a marriage. All the high hopes and the best of intentions float away as the album continues on. The best song on the album is "Penthouse," which offers a glimpse of how we can act like everything is okay and project to the world that everything is perfect in our lives, but the looks cannot hide the fact that sometimes, we are playing pretend. Another fantastic track on the album is "Leave Me Again." Ballerini sings that she hopes life is going good for her ex but she hopes that she will never leave herself again for someone else. While the album arguably could be considered pop, I am truly excited to see that the Recording Academy felt this album deserved recognition. TG

"Buried" by Brandy Clark for Best Country Song
I love songs that are both heartbreaking but find a bit of beauty in the heartbreak and, boy, does “Buried” by Brandy Clark have that in spades. In a softly sung almost whisper, Clark lists off all of these things she can do with her newfound singlehood – some sound like dreams, some sound like time killers – but at the end of the song she will nearly knock you dead with the punchline of it all. It’s a stunner of a song written by Clark and Jessie Jo Dillon and while it has some solid competition in the Best Country Song category it’ll certainly be the one I’m rooting for on Grammy night. JS

Barbie
One of the biggest films this year was the hit film, "Barbie," starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The film struck a chord with people for so many reasons.

The film truly had us thinking about what our purpose was in this world and made us all think about how patriarchal our society has become. Women are expected to be perfect while men can be extremely flawed but celebrated for those flaws. “Barbie” will be remembered for its incredible direction by Greta Gerwig, its spot-on performances from Robbie, Gosling and America Ferrera, its brilliant script, its beautiful production design, its vibrant costumes, and most definitely for its soundtrack. I was so excited to see that the Recording Academy agreed with me. On Friday, the "Barbie" soundtrack was nominated for 11 Grammys. Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?" was nominated for Record, Song and Best Pop Solo Performance of the Year. Dua Lipa's "Dance the Night" was nominated for Song of the Year." Barbie's soundtrack was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack and Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. In the Best Song Written for Visual Media category, four of the five nominations are from the Barbie movie: Eilish's "What Was I Made For?," Lipa's "Dance the Night," Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj's "Barbie World" and Gosling's "I'm Just Ken." "Barbie World" was also nominated for Best Rap Song. The Recording Academy absolutely fell in love with this film the way we all did. This was definitely one of my favorite Grammy nominations this year. TG

Jubilee by Old Crow Medicine Show for Best Folk Album
So, Old Crow Medicine Show is facing some major hitters in the Best Folk Album category like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, but it is an honor they’ve won before for 2015’s excellent Remedy. But the veteran band’s latest release Jubilee is right up there with the best albums of their career with terrific tracks like, “Miles Away,” “Allegheny Lullaby,” “Smoky Mountain Girl” mixed in with fun barnstormers like “Belle Meade Cockfight” and “Wolfman of the Ozarks.” I love Paul and Joni, but on Grammy Night it’s O.C.M.S. I’ll be rooting for it. JS

Weathervanes by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit for Best Americana Album
Jason Isbell has been one of the best singer-songwriters in all of music for the last decade-plus and the nominating committee for the American Roots/Americana categories knows this well as he’s been frequently nominated and frequently wins awards in those genre-specific categories, but he’s never broken into the general field categories and that’s a damn shame. This year’s Weathervanes is right in line with the rest of Isbell’s discography with fully-fleshed terrific story songs about the highs and lows of life lived by real-life Americans. So, while I’m thrilled Weathervanes is nominated for Best Americana Album, as it should’ve been, I still harbor some resentment that it can’t break through the general field’s pop strong-and-stranglehold. JS

The Returner by Allison Russell for Best American Roots Song
I mentioned in our recent The Word on Pop Culture Podcast episode that if I had the ability to fill out a ballot for the general field Song of the Year category I’d put Allison Russell’s terrific “The Returner,” the title track off her most recent album, as one of the best of the year. I knew that was not going to happen – you watch these things enough and you know some artists are just destined for the genre-specific categories. But, at least “The Returner,” which features the best of Russell as a vocalist, musician and songwriter, got a nomination for Best American Roots Song. The song will simply make you want to fly. JS

No Country Music in General Field
 
Once again this year the Grammy Awards have been incredibly cruel to the genre of country music by snubbing it completely from the general field categories of Record, Song and Album of the Year. If you look at the country genre categories you’ll see that the Grammys are completely aware that there was some great country music made during the eligibility period with stuff from Brandy Clark, Chris Stapleton, Zach Bryan, Brothers Osborne and others appearing in the genre-specific categories but apparently the nomination committee body as a whole doesn’t view any of that as worthy of the general category field, which has mostly turned into a category for pop music. It’s gotten to where I truly believe the Grammys should mandate at least one country, rock and hip-hop nominee in the general field categories to at least attempt to even the disjointed and unfair playing field. JS

"About You" by The 1975 for Song of the Year

"About You" is a song that was on my list of hopes to be nominated for Song of the Year. The haunting and gothic feel of this song truly stays with you. The 1975 sing about how they cannot seem to get their ex off of their mind. They feel like if questioned about it, they would truly ask, "Do you think that I've forgotten about you?" Love truly can be so strong sometimes that even when it ends, it doesn't. The proximity and the way that we show that love for each other may go away but it doesn't. It becomes love that you cannot do something with except think about how it cannot exist the way you want it to. I am normally not into rockish-pop songs but this one truly hits a nerve ... I just wish that the Grammys would have appreciated it the way that I do. TG

Tanya Tucker 

In 2020, Tanya Tucker finally won a Grammy at the age of 61. Tucker had been nominated for Grammys over the years but had never been able to turn one of those into a win until then. Tucker won two Grammys: Best Country Album for While I'm Livin and Best Country Song for "Bring My Flowers Now." This album and song were easily some of the best country music released in recent years so when Tucker released her latest album, Sweet Western Sound, I expected the Grammys to continue to shower Tucker with love. This was especially due to the amazing song, "Ready As I'll Never Be," which really does continue some of the themes of her Grammy-winning song, "Bring My Flowers Now." I guess the Recording Academy thought it might have resembled the other work too much maybe. TG

Foo Fighters in General Field 

At least the Grammys didn’t completely snub rock music in the general field categories this year with boygenius receiving an Album of the Year nod for The Record and a Record of the Year nom for “Not Strong Enough,” but the Foo Fighters took a lot of pain and tragedy with the death of longtime bandmate and drummer Taylor Hawkins and the death of frontman Dave Grohl’s beloved mother Virginia and turned it into truly one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s greatest albums in But Here We Are. The band did receive love in the rock genre specific categories but has been known to break into the general field categories in the past making this year’s snub seem all the worse. JS

"Dear Insecurity" by Brandy Clark & Brandi Carlile for Song of the Year 

“Dear Insecurity,” the collaboration between Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile on Clark’s self-titled album, being nominated for Song of the Year was one of my hopes for that category. When I first heard this song, there was not a single lyric that did not feel like it applied to me. Every line delivered so beautifully by Clark and Carlile just hits you in your soul. You feel sadness for what you have felt, you feel happiness that you aren't alone and you feel like you can find the strength to deal with it all through this song. This song truly is like a therapy session for the soul. I am surprised the Academy overlooked this song for Song of the Year, especially considering that they have really been recognizing Carlile in recent years for her amazing vocals and songwriting talent. Knowing this is a song that truly will affect so many people makes it hard to believe that it could not touch the hearts of Grammy voters as it did mine. TG

Jason Isbell in General Field

So, Jason Isbell not being nominated in the general field categories of Song and Record of the Year this year isn’t all that surprising. I felt he had better stuff on his Weathervanes album to submit in those categories than “When We Were Close” and “Save the World” respectively, but the fact that he’s never been able to break through into those categories like some of his Americana brethren in Brandi Carlile and Sturgill Simpson steams me, especially because he’s dominated the Americana/American Roots categories at the Grammys every time he’s released an album for the last decade. JS

by Julian Spivey

Bruce Springsteen’s sophomore release The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle was released 50 years ago today on November 5, 1973. It was his second release of 1973 with his debut Greetings from Asbury Park debuting on January 5. Much like the first release, the second album gained critical acclaim but was released to average to poor sales and many wouldn’t find their way to it until the success of Springsteen’s third album Born to Run two years later when going back to see what else was in his discography.
​
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle contains the kind of wordy, storytelling of Springsteen’s debut but in more of a rock and roll flavor and sound than the folky debut. It includes some of Springsteen’s most epic songs both in storytelling and in the minds of his legion of fans and classics he performs often in concert to this day.

Here’s my track-by-track look at The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle … 

The E Street Shuffle
If “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” which would come out a couple of years later on Born to Run, is the origin story of the E Street Band then “The E Street Shuffle,” the opener on The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, has to be the band’s theme song. Springsteen himself never lived on E Street in Belmar, N.J., but early key extraordinaire in the E Street Band David Sancious did and as Jim Beviglia said in his 2014 book Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs, it would become “the figurative and spiritual home of all things Springsteen.” In his own book, Bruce Springsteen: Songs, Springsteen said: “’The E Street Shuffle’ is a reflection of a community that was partly imagined and partly real. The cast of characters came vaguely from Asbury Park at the turn of [the ‘70s]. I wanted to describe a neighborhood, a way of life, and I wanted to invent a dance with no exact steps. It was just the dance you did every day and every night to get by.” There may be no specific steps but the song sure makes you want to dance with every member of the early version of the E Street Band in unison on something so funky Stevie Wonder of the same era may have recorded it. When the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, Springsteen joined members of every era of the band for a performance of this song.

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy,” the second track off the album, has always been one of my favorite Springsteen story songs and one of the most vivid of his career, as you can see the entire thing play out like a movie in your mind’s eye. It’s a love song – but what is Springsteen really in love with: Sandy or the Asbury Park boardwalk scene? The nostalgia and romanticism of it all, complete with real-life characters of the time like the fortune teller Madame Marie, makes me feel I need to see Asbury Park in my lifetime, though I’m not sure if it could ever compare or even look the same a half-century later - or if it ever really felt that way in general: E Street Band drummer at the time Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez told Rolling Stone: “No one would ever go under the boardwalk. There were rats under the boardwalk!” Springsteen has called the song a “love note and a goodbye song” to his adopted home of Asbury Park and the song hits both of those feelings perfectly.

Kitty’s Back
This will likely be controversial but “Kitty’s Back,” the seven-minute epic that makes for the third track on the album, isn’t one that would crack my top 50 favorite Springsteen songs, even though the band sounds tight as hell with the jazzy-rock sound of the music behind Springsteen’s lyrics and the “oo-ooh, what can I do?” part is an earworm. I’ve just never really gotten into the story, which was inspired by Springsteen seeing a sign outside either a strip club or go-go dancing club welcoming a dancer back after some time away. It feels like the type of song that must’ve come out of the improvisation of a band learning to play together at a small bar scene. It sounds fantastic, and you’ll want to see it live, but as a lyrics guy first it doesn’t hit me the way a ‘Rosalita’ or ‘Sandy’ does.

Wild Billy’s Circus Story
The first side of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle vinyl comes to an end with “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” which truly has the old circus feel to it with the opening tuba part coming from bassist Garry W. Tallent melding with Danny Federici’s accordion. Springsteen told Elvis Costello on Costello’s Channel 4 U.K. show “Spectacle” that he was always enthralled with the circus as a young lad. “I was both thrilled and frightened by the sideshow. It all felt frightening, uneasy and secretly sexual.” It’s the experience of a boy sneaking off to see the behind-the-scenes of the carnival “freaks.” It’s probably the weakest track on the album, but just as cinematic as the rest of these short stories set to music.

Incident on 57th Street
“Incident on 57th Street” is essentially Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s Romeo & Juliet, except better because it’s set to kickass music, like David Sancious’ piano and Danny Federici’s organ. In “Incident on 57th Street,” Romeo is Spanish Johnny and Juliet is Jane. Springsteen doesn’t even attempt to hide the inspiration for the characters referring to them as “cool Romeo” and “a late Juliet.” But instead of battles between rival families, Johnny is trying to make it on the streets of New York doing whatever he can to make ends meet and survive. Unlike the tragic ending of Shakespeare’s classic though, Springsteen leaves his version open-ended to let the listener decide if they think it ended in tragedy or if the lovers actually get away from this life.

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is my favorite jam on The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, in its tale of a young rock and roller ready to set the world on fire but needing to steal away his girl from his hometown to truly have it all. In his book, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, Brian Hiatt called it: “his first great rock song.” It’s a fever dream of a seven-minute rocker with rapid-fire lyrics that Springsteen wrote in his early 20s and having seen him perform it in Kansas City this past February in his early 70s one he still knocks out of the park. I, shockingly, haven’t mentioned the name Clarence Clemons yet in talking about this album, but his saxophone work from beginning to end in ‘Rosalita’ is among the best of his career. ‘Rosalita’ will have you wanting to dance your ass off with the biggest smile on your face every time you hear it.

New York City Serenade
“New York City Serenade,” the longest non-live track of Springsteen’s career, begins with a mesmerizing piano piece by Sancious, once again proving the early iteration of the E Street Band to be a jazz-rock outfit, before moving on to the story of New York City characters and their lives. It’s not one of the more interesting stories on the album, but the music – like “Kitty’s Back” – is enough to keep you moving along and vibing with the track. “New York City Serenade” actually came from Springsteen and the band melding two unused, potentially unfinished songs – “Vibes Man” and “New York City Song” – together. Overall, the musicality of “New York City Serenade” makes for a nice, easy listen to come down off the epic high of ‘Rosalita’ and play out the album to its end. 

It was a homecoming for Ashley McBryde on Sunday, October 15 at the Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock, Ark. as the native from the unincorporated community of Saddle, Ark. brought the house down in front of a packed house of adoring fans, that included family and long-time friends.

McBryde just released her third solo studio album, The Devil I Know, on September 8 and her set on Sunday night was very heavy on tracks from the album, which seemed just fine with the audience – much of which already knew all the lyrics by heart and sang along. The Devil I Know is probably McBryde strongest effort from top to bottom thus far of her ACM, CMA and Grammy-award-winning career that still feels like it could skyrocket at any moment.

McBryde began her set around 9 p.m. with one of the more raucous numbers off the new album, “Blackout Betty.” She was in complete control of the stage from the very beginning of the show oozing an effortless cool about her the entire way through.

Amazingly, McBryde was able to fit the entire 11-song album into her 20-song set on Sunday night, something you rarely get from an artist. Among my favorite performances from the new release were “Whiskey and Country Music,” “Made for This,” “6th of October” and “Cool Little Bars.”

McBryde basically made the almost always in my opinion stuffy venue and crowd at Robinson Center feel like a cool little bar crowd on Sunday night for the first time making me able to focus on the terrific music on the stage completely and not some dumb nuisance that can come with a crowd forgetting concerts are supposed to be about the music. Kudos to McBryde’s fan base in her home state for that.

While fitting the entirety of The Devil I Know into her set, McBryde also found time for some fan favorites from her previous albums like the raunchy “Brenda Put Your Bra On,” off last year’s collaborative album Lindeville that she kind of over-sought. Never have I seen so many bras tossed on a stage in my life and McBryde was sure having a helluva time with it, picking one rather large one up and hanging it on the neck of guitar player Matt Helmkamp’s guitar.  

I was thrilled she performed what’s still my favorite song of hers, “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” from her 2018 slightly different titled Girl Going Nowhere debut.  I had been perusing through previous recent sets of hers and hadn’t seen it on any of them, so I was worried she might not play it on Sunday night, but if you’re going to break that particular song out anywhere it’ll be at your home state show. The massive reaction from the crowd still seems to choke her up after all this time, which is incredibly moving and you can tell isn’t just a put-on for us.

It was probably around the quarter-to-halfway mark of her set when McBryde let us into a little bit of a secret that my wife and I in attendance hadn’t noticed at all – she was a bit under the weather and losing her voice. This was quite shocking as her performances up to that point had sounded about as close to the albums they are on. As the show went on, you could tell she was indeed losing her voice as her speaking voice in between songs got coarser and coarser as the night went on but miraculously, at least to my untrained ears, it never showed once in any performance.

McBryde’s few selections from her sophomore studio release Never Will from 2020 were impeccable, as if she asked me, “Hey, Julian, what do you want to hear from that album?” Those songs included “First Thing I Reach For,” likely my favorite from the album, “Sparrow” and “One Night Standards.”

Toward the end of the set, she performed “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” which was the first song I’d ever heard from here toward the end of 2017 and immediately piqued my attention as both a voice and songwriter to pay attention to and six years later she’s stood out as one of the best (really one of the few) from country music who can be among the mainstream acts (though radio still doesn’t quite do her justice – “One Night Standards” is her only solo top 20 charter) and still perform by-God country music.

The final two selections on Sunday night came from the new album, including her current single (and my favorite track on the album) “Light on in the Kitchen,” which she told the Robinson Center audience was the highest trajectory of any of her singles to date – it’s currently No. 22 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and based on what she said is hopefully still climbing.

McBryde and her supremely talented band – which incredibly includes two musicians from my hometown of Mountain Home, Ark., shout out to Quinn Hill on drums and Wes Dorethy, who mostly was on keys but also played guitar, harmonica and fiddle during the show (no, I don’t know either personally) – finished the night up with the title track “The Devil I Know,” capping off a night of truly terrific music from a home state girl who made her dreams come true.

McBryde mentioned during the show that she and her band handpicked their opening acts when they had the opportunity to play headlining shows like on Sunday night and her choice for the Little Rock show was another amazingly talented Arkansas artist – J.D. Clayton from Fort Smith.

Clayton put out his debut album, Long Way from Home, in January and it's been a highlight in my country music of 2023 playlist for sure.

Clayton performed many of the standout tracks from the album during his eight-song opening set on Sunday evening, including the title track, “Gold Mine” and “Heartaches After Heartbreak,” which has been my favorite from the album.

He also performed a couple of beautiful songs written for his wife, whom he told us he met as a senior in high school in Fort Smith, “Beauty Queen,” which opened his show, and “Brown Haired Blue Eyed Baby,” which he had released on an E.P. in 2018 and of which he and his talented bandmates mixed with Steve Miller Band’s hit “The Joker.”

While “The Joker” certainly got the crowd singing along, it was actually Clayton’s amazing cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1995 top-five hit “Give Me One Reason,” which truly showed off his voice and range. Between this cover and Luke Combs taking “Fast Car” to the top of the country airplay chart, it’s damn nice to see country dudes giving a black, queer songwriter in Chapman some love.

Clayton finished off his opening set with a performance of “Arkansas Kid,” which is a slightly reworked version of Ronnie Van Zant/Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Mississippi Kid,” which was the perfect way to send him off.

 
I had been wanting to check out the Arkansas Goat Festival in Perryville, Ark., held annually on the first Saturday of October, for some years now but my work schedule never seemed to align with it. This year I got lucky it fell on an off-Saturday and it was off to see some goats in lingerie (seriously, they have a goat lingerie show!).

I just so happened to see on the festival’s website that a band called Posey Hill, which I’d just recently become acquainted with thanks to its single “Keeping Tyler” popping up on my Spotify via the Saving Country Music Top 25 Current Playlist curated by that website’s maintainer Kyle Coroneos, would be headlining the concert stage at the event, so after seeing livestock parade around in frilly undergarments, my wife, Aprille, and I decided to stick around for some country music.

Posey Hill is a regional touring band from central Arkansas that kept it all in the family featuring sisters Kristian, Erin and Megan on vocals, while their dad Doug Burnett picks guitar and helps the harmony flow. They also had two fine instrumentalists with them on fiddle and banjo whose names I wish I had remembered to write down.

Posey Hill had a bit of a train theme going on early in its set, opening with a nice cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freight Liner Blues,” before transitioning into Alan Jackson’s “Freight Train” and then into the group’s first original song of the set, “First Train,” the opening track off the debut album No Clear Place to Fall.

Being a festival where there are a lot of comers and goers and the general population of the event might not know you from Adam it was easy to see why Posey Hill performed mostly covers on the sunny, finally feeling-like autumn Saturday afternoon, but when the originals are as good as the ones the group performed it’d be just fine by me if they’d toss a few more in the set.

The other two originals the group performed were “I’m Too Old for This,” and the aforementioned “Keeping Tyler,” a tale of a broken relationship in which the narrator only wants to keep her Tyler Childers records. If you’re a fan of Childers, I assure you that you need to check this song out. I guarantee you’ll love it, even if you might be like me and my wife and think Eric Church shouldn’t catch a stray.

Posey Hill showed it was capable of doing just about anything singer-songwriter-ish on Saturday afternoon going from bluegrass to country to folk to rock to even harmonizing pop on a stunning cover of the Bee Gee’s “To Love Somebody.”

The cover choices from the group were impeccable with some great ones I’d never been familiar with like Kasey Chambers’ “Last Hard Bible” to all-time favorites of mine in John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.”

The girls even let pops shine for a bit when Doug took the vocals on a nice performance of Vince Gill’s “Liza Jane.”

One of the many highlights of the set was the finisher “Mule Skinner Blues,” which allowed the sisters to show off their vocals on the bluegrass staple revitalized by Dolly Parton in 1971.

As I mentioned, Posey Hill bills itself on its website as a “regional touring band,” but if they keep writing and recording songs like they have on their album and showcased on Saturday afternoon to a bunch of goats and their humans they might drop that “regional” part real soon.

Y’all be sure to see them locally while you can. They’ll be at the Arkadelphia Festival of the Arts on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 3:30 p.m. 

Singer-songwriter James McMurtry brought his brand of literary Americana folk-rock music to the White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark. for a two-night stand on Wednesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 5.

I attended the Thursday night show and, as always seems to be the case at the White Water, it was a magical evening of terrific music in a nice communal atmosphere.

I feel like I was pretty late to the McMurtry game. He’s been recording music since the late ‘80s but I’ve come to know him over his last two albums: 2015’s Complicated Game and 2021’s The Horses and the Hounds. He’s an extraordinary storyteller, something that no doubt runs in the family as his father was famed novelist Larry McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame, and his mother was an English professor. Prose is in his blood.

I might be a simpleton, but music has always been my favorite form of literature, so McMurtry’s brand of storytelling set to music is just perfect for me.

From the very moment I heard “Copper Canteen” and “You Got to Me,” off Complicated Game, they immediately became my favorite McMurtry songs, as I have a feeling that’s never going to change. They are perfect short stories set to music that I can see in my mind’s eye every time I listen and sing along, mentally putting myself in the shoes of the narrator. “Copper Canteen” actually has lines that remind me of my own life and relationship, though I’m younger than the narrator telling the story and I have no desire “to kill one more doe” before the end of deer season. But it’s almost as if: “Hold on to your rosary beads/leave me to my mischievous deeds like we always do” was written directly for me and my wife.

“You Go to Me” is the story of a gentleman who ends up as a guest at a wedding in a once-familiar location that instantly brings back the memory of a long-lost love. This is not a scenario I’ve ever found myself in personally, but damn if I don’t feel it in my bones as if somewhere and sometime in this universe I was again in the narrator’s shoes. That’s the kind of lived-in, true-to-life storytelling McMurtry is capable of.

Thursday night wasn’t the first time I’d heard him perform these wonderful songs. A few years ago, he opened a show for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at the Robinson Center in Little Rock and performed both – but on Thursday night it was like hearing them again live for the first time. I’ll never tire of hearing “Copper Canteen” and “You Got to Me.”

What made me the most excited to see McMurtry on Thursday night, other than the hope he’d perform those two songs again and the White Water Tavern becoming my favorite live music haunt, was the fact that I hadn’t seen him live since he released The Horses and the Hounds, which was my favorite album period of 2021.

And McMurtry certainly did not disappoint when it came to performing his latest album getting to seven of the 10 tracks on it and, by God, if they weren’t probably my seven favorites on the thing.

The first one he performed on the evening was “Canola Fields,” which is one of my two favorites on the album (it’s so hard to decide between it and “Blackberry Winter”). “Canola Fields” is similar to “You Got to Me” in recalling a lost love, but unlike in the previous songs, this love eventually finds its way back to him. Speaking of “Blackberry Winter,” it was potentially the most magical performance of his entire set with his three The Heartless Bastards bandmates – Tim Holt on guitar and accordion, Darren Hess on drums and his bassist who simply went by “Cornbread – stepping away for a bit and McMurtry even walking away from the microphone to perform to a stunned, hushed crowd. He’s not the first artist I’ve seen do this at the White Water and it’s always a spine-tingly moment no matter who does it. For him to do it on one of my favorite songs of his just added to the beauty of the entire evening.

The other songs from The Horses and the Hounds performed on Thursday night were “Operation Never Mind,” “If It Don’t Bleed,” “Vaquero,” the hilarious “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call,” with the crowd singing the refrain “I keep losing my glasses” and the tragic “Jackie.”

Among the many other fantastic performances of the evening was the band rocking through a “medley of their hit” as McMurtry wryly stated – don’t worry though folks he didn’t smile! – of “Choctaw Bingo” which just about burned the place down, as well as “Childish Things,” the title track off his 2005 album, and “No More Buffalo,” from 1997’s It Had to Happen.

McMurtry and The Heartless Bastards ended their set with a rip-roaring performance of “Too Long in the Wasteland,” the title track off his debut album in 1989.

McMurtry was coaxed back onto the stage for an encore, something I honestly haven’t seen much at the White Water Tavern, for a performance of a new song he’s been working on called “Pinocchio in Vegas,” which was both humorous and touching as hell and I can’t wait to see on a future album.

Amazingly, McMurtry left the stage again and took the stairs to the second story of the small barroom venue before once again being begged back downstairs for a second encore, this time performing the beautiful “These Things I’ve Come to Know,” off Complicated Game, before finally calling it a night.

BettySoo, a singer-songwriter out of Austin, opened both nights at the White Water for McMurtry with her terrific songwriting and beautiful voice. I had never heard of BettySoo prior to Thursday night’s show but I’ll definitely be following her now. Always pay attention to the openers when you go to concerts. I promise you will find new favorites. She began her set solo with quiet, contemplative tunes before being joined on stage by Hess and Cornbread for a thoroughly rocking second half of the set.

Singer-songwriters Will Hoge and William Elliott Whitmore brought their fall co-headlining tour to The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark. for a wonderful night of stories and songs on Thursday, September 21.

It’s interesting how some of these pairings take place. Hoge mentioned on the stage the two artists had never even met each other until the day before and their music while both falling within I’d considered to be the genre catch-all known as Americana music wasn’t all that similar. Hoge’s music is more alt-country, whereas Whitmore’s was more bluesy-folk. Whitmore’s performance is more guttural, while Hoge’s is more thoughtful. Both musicians were friendly and talkative on the stage with Hoge being more storyteller-ish and Whitmore having a “I’m just happy to be here” type vibe with the crowd.

The crowd was a bit of a surprise to me too even though I’d been to many White Water Tavern shows before – it’s truly become my favorite concert venue in my surrounding area – I was surprised that the majority of those in attendance on Thursday night seemed to know Whitmore better than Hoge, whereas I was the other way around. I’ve been a fan of Hoge’s songwriting for many years and had seen him previously across town at Stickyz Chicken Shack and had never heard of Whitmore before.

By the end of the evening, I would be thrilled with Hoge’s set and have found a new artist in Whitmore from whom I’d be looking for upcoming music. Hopefully, those in attendance for Whitmore felt the same about Hoge.

Hoge peppered his set on Thursday with a handful of songs from his most recent album – 2022’s Wings On My Shoes. He opened the show with “Birmingham” off the album and later included the lovely “The Last One to Go,” the hilariously biting “Whose God is This,” taking on a particularly insidious brand of religion you’ll see from many within this country, and he’d finish the show off with a fantastic performance of “John Prine’s Cadillac.”

Among my favorite performances from Hoge’s 12-song set on Thursday night was “Still a Southern Man,” about how it’s past time to tear down the hate-filled Confederate battle flag and how one can be a Southerner without believing in such a hateful symbol of the region’s past. It’s likely my favorite Hoge song period and it’s a message I love that Hoge has enough bravery to perform for a crowd in the Deep South, in a city that has certainly had its share of racist moments in its past.

I also loved Hoge’s performance of “Even the River Runs Out of This Town,” which was my favorite track from his 2020 album Tiny Little Movies. It’s such a beautifully solemn take on running one’s course in a particular place.

The biggest surprise from Hoge’s set for me was the performance of “Can I Be Country Too?,” which had just been released as a single to streaming platforms a couple of weeks prior and I figured might be too new and unknown to play in a short set in a small room, especially as the recorded track is a collaboration with numerous artists from the Black Opry, Shoes Off Nashville and more. It’s a song that Hoge was inspired to write after the recent controversies within the country music community surrounding such vitriolic views like Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and its accompanying music video. With lines like: “What if I believe that black lives matter” and “What if I think gays gettin’ married’s OK” the song speaks to me as someone who believes both in country music and inclusivity among all. There’s no doubt that “Can I Be Country Too?” is going to end up being one of my favorite songs of 2023.

Speaking of country music, Hoge had quite the big country hit as a songwriter when Eli Young Band took his “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” to No. 1 on the charts in 2012 and garnered Hoge a couple of Grammy Award nominations for co-writing it. His performance of the song on Thursday was another highlight of his set.

Thursday night was Hoge’s debut at the White Water Tavern, which is sort of hard to believe, but I sure hope he’ll be back for more in the future.

Despite never having heard Whitmore’s music I hung around for his set – as any music listener should do – and I’m sure glad I did. I was immediately taken by his banjo playing and the bluesy guttural vocals of songs like “Lift My Jug” and “Diggin’ My Grave.” The musician out of Iowa was playing the White Water Tavern for the second time. I believe he said and raved about the small venue he claimed would be his home base if he lived in the area. It’s just a small one-room bar with a tiny stage in the corner but there’s always something magical about the venue and the artists who perform there constantly rave about it.

One of Whitmore’s biggest receptions on Thursday came from his cover of punk band Bad Religion’s “Don’t Pray On Me,” which is quite the sight coming from a bluesy folk singer from Iowa. A couple of my favorites of his set were the tale of the C.I.A. LSD tests called “Mk Ultra Blues” and “Old Devils,” about the elder leaders of the country and how they never seem to change. But my favorite performance from his set was “Johnny Law,” a Woody Guthrie-esque jam about a bad cop getting his jollies from being a bad cop.

Whitmore seems like an interesting cat, and I’ll be paying more attention to his stuff from now on. It’s always nice when you get to a show to see one artist and come out as a fan of another.

There’s something so right about country music at a county fair. Like the smell of the livestock and fair food wafting over on the wind, the rings and buzzers from the carnival rides and the rural, blue-collar ambiance of it all enhance the sound.

That’s how it felt at the Pope County Fair in Russellville, Ark. on Saturday, Sept. 16 when ‘90s country music hitmakers Shenandoah came to town.

The band, hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., released six studio albums from 1987-1994 and had 10 top-10 hits, including five No. 1 hits during their run. Vocalist Marty Raybon left the band in 1997 to record as both a solo artist and with his brother Tim as the Raybon Brothers. Neither act had much success.

Shenandoah regrouped in 2000 sans Raybon and toured over the years with a revolving door of singers until Raybon rejoined the group in 2014. The band today includes two original members, Raybon and drummer Mike McGuire, with fiddle player and guitarist Donnie Allen having joined the group in 1990 (with a hiatus in between). The rest of the group consists of guitarist Nicky Hines, bassist Paul Sanders and keyboardist Andrew Ishee.

Shenandoah excited the Pope County Fair attendees by opening the show on Saturday night with one of its biggest hits, 1990’s No. 1 hit “Next to You, Next to Me,” an up-tempo love song with the narrator confessing “they ain’t no place I’d rather be, next to you, next to me” in the Robert Ellis Orrall and Curtis Wright-penned tune that was nominated for Single of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards (where it would lose to Garth Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places”).

The group would continue with its biggest hits over the next 90 minutes or so, including more up-tempo classics like “Darned If I Don’t (Danged If I Do),” their last top-five hit from 1995, and the beautiful “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart,” which they had done as a duet with Alison Krauss in 1994 and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

One of the highlights of the show was when the group did its 1994 No. 1 hit “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too),” which included a spur-of-the-moment dance routine from crowd members who all looked like their name could easily be Bubba breaking it down county fair style.

Another highlight was the back-to-back performances of “Sunday in the South,” a No. 1 from 1989’s The Road Not Taken, a sweet reflection of sacred memories of growing up in the South, and “I Wanna be Loved Like That,” a touching ballad that was No. 3 hit in 1993 which includes a “Rebel without a Cause” movie reference with James Dean and Natalie Wood that I’ve always loved.

Hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., one of the biggest musical landmarks in this country, the band, of course, paid tribute to some of the legendary music that came out of that region – even if Raybon erroneously said no place had more hits at the time (seemingly forgetting Motown of Detroit and country music’s capitol of Nashville and others). This portion of the show included a medley of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition,” Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and culminated with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” which mentions Muscle Shoals and its legendary Swampers session players in its lyrics.

My favorite part of the concert was the two-song ender of the show that consisted of my two favorite Shenandoah songs and two of the group’s biggest hits – which were both No. 1s in 1989 – “Two Dozen Roses” and “The Church on Cumberland Road.”

While Shenandoah released its self-titled debut in 1987, the group truly broke through in 1989 with The Road Not Taken, which included “Two Dozen Roses, “The Church on Cumberland Road” and “Sunday in the South” and is truly a modern classic in what would become known as ‘90s country – a heyday, if not still somewhat underrated era for the genre.