by Julian Spivey
​My favorite way to spend an evening is with my wife, Aprille, listening to an amazing band or singer-songwriter live in concert and losing ourselves among a crowd of folks who share a common interest of being entranced by the words and sounds of a particular musician. I attended 15 wonderful shows in 2023 but these were my five favorites. ​

There were bands and artists I saw this year that I enjoy more in general than The Mavericks and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing multiple times like American Aquarium, Dawes and Hayes Carll that put on terrific concerts where I knew the majority of the words and screamed along but seeing The Mavericks randomly while on vacation in Illinois at one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever attended a concert in was too cool of a moment to pass on. I’ve always wanted to see The Mavericks and their unique style of Latin-infused country and Americana music since I bought their terrific 2013 album In Time. The thing that most interested me is the stellar voice of frontman Raul Malo and seeing him live is worth the price of admission alone. Hearing songs like “Come Unto Me” and “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” live was a moment I won’t forget.

Read the full review HERE. 

Something I don’t think I’d ever done before this year was see the same artist twice in a year, but I saw Jason Boland & the Stragglers twice in Little Rock this year. Both times were amazing shows but the one I want to focus on here was the most unique one of the two – when Jason Boland & the Stragglers played an all-acoustic set at The Revolution Room, one of my favorite local venues, in Little Rock on Friday, March 10. This is almost hard for me to believe but in all of my years attending concerts, in which I’ve now seen well into the triple digits of shows, I’d never seen an all-acoustic concert until this one. I’ve seen Boland and the Stragglers more than any other artist at this point in my life – and still believe they’re ridiculously underrated – and seeing them perform my favorites in a different manner made for a wonderful night of music. The great thing is the intensity of the group was still there despite not being plugged in.

Read the full review HERE. 

This show was truly a glorious night for both my wife and me as there were times we didn’t think we’d ever see the Turnpike Troubadours, one of our favorite bands, in concert again after the band went on hiatus in 2019. They reunited for a few shows in 2022 and began touring again full-time this year with their first Arkansas show on Friday, February 24 being a co-headlining event with The Avett Brothers, who I’d never really gotten into before but sure were fun to see live. Despite being a glorious night of music, it was a bit weird seeing the Troubadours, a band we’d seen from the front of the stage at a small one-room club many times from a great distance. The hiatus did wonders for the band’s ever-growing fan base. I don’t think we’ll ever get that up-close experience with these guys again – which kind of sucks, to be honest – but they’re always going to give us fantastic performances. 

​Read full review HERE. 

The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark. has become my favorite venue to see shows at. It’s an incredibly intimate and small one-room bar in seemingly the middle of nowhere within the city but provides the most magical concert experiences. I’d seen James McMurtry, one of Americana’s finest singer-songwriters, open for Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at Robinson Center in Little Rock before but it wasn’t the greatest showcase for his music as a short opening set. I’d wanted to see him perform at White Water before but tickets for his shows, even when he does two-night stands, sell quickly at the venue. I got lucky this time and saw tickets were available on the venue’s website before they advertised them and got to see McMurtry on the second night of his stand. I was late to McMurtry’s music but when I heard “You Got to Me” and “Copper Canteen,” still my two favorite songs of his, from his 2015 release Complicated Game I became entranced by his songwriting. His 2021 release The Horses and the Hounds wound up being my favorite from that year with nearly every song on the album being a slice of Americana perfection. It was a wonderful night hearing just about every McMurtry song I could hope to hear live.

Read the full review HERE. 

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are my all-time favorite band. So, pretty much any time I have the honor of seeing them live in concert – and February of 2023 was the third such chance I’ve gotten – it’s going to be my favorite show of the year. There’s always something special about seeing Springsteen and E Street in concert and the third time was no different with special moments including seeing “Backstreets,” off the classic Born to Run album, for the first time live, as well as seeing the amazing “Badlands,” “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run” and “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” all played in succession – I don’t think there’s any possible song grouping played in a row like that by any artist that could top that. It was magical and the thing about a Springsteen show is you can feel everyone in attendance experiencing the magic at the same time.

Read the full review HERE. 

by Julian Spivey

50. "I Miss That Dog" by Erik Dylan
Album: Stray Dogs & Homegrown Calamities 
Writers: Erik Dylan, Andy Sheridan & Wyatt McCubbin

You’re almost always going to win me over with a tribute to man’s best friend – as long as you don’t get too schmaltzy. Erik Dylan’s “I Miss That Dog,” off his latest album Stray Dogs & Homegrown Calamities, is a softly sung, slowly picked tribute to an important part of any pet owner’s life – their dog. I had the feeling the song, co-written by Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin and Andy Sheridan, wasn’t just fiction plucked from thin air, and sure enough it was based on Dylan’s dog Maude, whom he lost in February after 14 years together. He told American Songwriter: “She quite possibly prevented me from ever wanting another dog. She set the bar too high.”  

49. "Maestro (Tears Don't Lie)" by Wilder Woods
Album: FEVER / SKY
Writer: William Rinehart

“Maestro (Tears Don’t Lie)” by Wilder Woods, off his album FEVER/SKY, will have you wanting to get on your feet and show off your best dance moves – I dare you, listen to it and try to stop your body from moving along. It’s one of those songs where the music is kind of deceptive because the lyrics are darker than the tone given off with the narrator trying to convince a lover, who may be ready to call it quits, to stay and stick it out. ‘Maestro’ has a soulful R&B kick to it, especially with its church choir-like background vocals. Wilder Woods is the side project of Bear Rinehart, the vocalist of the Christian-Rock group NEEDTOBREATHE, showing off that soul has multiple meanings. 

48. "Keeping Tyler" by Posey Hill
Album: No Clear Place to Fall
Writers: Doug Burnett, Megan Burnett & Kristian Miller

Posey Hill keeps it all in the family with this band out of Central Arkansas consisting of a trio of sisters (Kristian, Erin and Megan) and their father (Doug Burnett) and they have hit on a creative breakup song with “Keeping Tyler.” The narrator of the song is sick and tired of her deadbeat man and is ready to hit the road and she’s packing lightly in doing so – the man can keep everything but her Tyler Childers records. It was smart of the group to single out Childers, a true-blue country singer with a constantly growing fan base, in hopes of the song, co-written by Doug, Kristian and Megan, finding a bigger audience – but the songwriting and sisterly harmonizing should have those who’ve found them sticking around on their own merit.   

47. "Best Ones" by Brandy Clark 
Album: Brandy Clark 
Writers: Brandy Clark, Benjy Davis & Jessie Jo Dillon

Brandy Clark’s self-titled fourth studio album finds the excellent singer-songwriter at the most polished of his career, thanks to a keen ear from producer Brandi Carlile. It’s still country music, Americana music, whatever you want to call it but with a bit more crossover appeal than ever before. One of the album’s highlights is “Best Ones,” co-written by Clark, Benjy Davis and Jessie Jo Dillon, a song reminiscing about relationships with such lovely lyrics as: “Yeah, the good nights/don’t have rainy blue eyes that wreck me without warning/they don’t taste like wine and cigarettes and melt into morning/they don’t end up with me waking up with you/No, the good nights don’t, but the best ones do.” Sung in Clark’s crystal blue vocals it’ll make you fall in love with her. 

46. "Border Radio" by John Baumann 
Album: Border Radio
Writers: John Baumann & Charlie Stout

“Border Radio,” written by John Baumann and Charlie Stout for Baumann’s album of the same name, finds the narrator listening to the staticky, in-and-out music of a Mexican radio station while on the road and despite not being able to make out most of the Spanish lyrics being sung he can completely identify with and feel the feelings this singer does in his bones. He just knows it’s a song about longing to go home and, “if she’s singing of her homeland, that’s where I’m bound to go.” Baumann and Stout truly paint a lovely picture that plays out in your mind during Baumann’s softly sung performance. 

45. "Holler Rose" by Pony Bradshaw
Album: North Georgia Rounder
Writer: James Bradshaw 

I’ve never quite been certain what Pony Bradshaw’s “Holler Rose” meant despite spending most of the year listening to it and loving the sound of the chorus: “Holler Rose, the pious moonshiner” repeated. Honestly, I thought the titular character was a woman – but according to Pony Bradshaw from an interview with Holler.Country in December of last year it’s man and “He’s complex. Like most of us.” Pony Bradshaw tells the website: “I realize now that ‘Holler Rose’ us a juxtaposition between piety and stubborn individualism. Holler, the character, is a devoutly religious man who makes his living selling homemade whisk; an illegal act.” Pony Bradshaw added: “[He’s] someone whom I admire; his obstinate pursuit of happiness. He feels wise to me. He’s someone who lives on his own terms. A dissenter. A quiet rebel. A wise anarchist.” 

44. "Wrong Kind of Right" by Rhiannon Giddens 
Album: You're the One
Writer: Rhiannon Giddens 

Rhiannon Giddens sounds like an angel and on “Wrong Kind of Right,” from her latest album You’re the One, maybe one that’s fighting the demon on her other shoulder when it comes to a relationship. Hearing her sing, “I’m just the wrong kind of right,” makes me sit up and exclaim: “yes, ma’am you are and if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.” Even though the song appears on her 2023 album it apparently – even though I had seen the episode I didn’t remember it – had appeared in a 2007 episode of the TV drama “Nashville,” as sung by Giddens’s character Hallie Jordan. 

43. "Hominy Valley" by Steep Canyon Rangers
Album: Morning Shift
Writers: Graham Sharp, Barrett Smith & Aaron Burdett

The Steep Canyon Rangers are the bluegrass group that seems to appear the most on my annual Best Americana and Country Music lists with their excellent combination of storytelling and musicianship and they’re back on the list again this year with “Hominy Valley,” from their album Morning Shift. The song is based off the neighborhood in West Asheville, N.C., where the band’s banjoist Graham Sharp lives, which is evidently cursed by a Cherokee spirit who was tracking Army General Griffith Rutherford’s men on their mission to eradicate the Cherokee in the 1700s and was poisoned and killed in the process and reportedly was buried sitting upright beneath an oak tree by a comrade so he could keep watch over the valley. Supposedly the land where this took place is under dispute to this day by developers and residents. Bass player Barrett Smith takes the vocals on “Hominy Valley,” an interesting historical tale that most of us likely never would’ve known with Steep Canyon Rangers.  

42. "Tongue Tied" by The Lone Bellow
Album: Love Songs for Losers (Deluxe Edition)
Writer: Brian Elmquist

One of my favorite vocals of the year is “Tongue Tied” by The Lone Bellow, which I assume is led by usual lead vocalist Zach Williams with the wonderful harmony of bandmates Brian Elmquist and Kanene Donehey Pipkin mixing. The song seems to be about a relationship where the narrator is in love but can’t be with the one they love and the pain felt as a result. However, Elmquist who wrote the song said via a Dualtone Records email to their subscribers: “I wrote ‘Tongue Tied’ as a goodbye to NYC (New York City), the place we called home for almost a decade. I allowed myself one last page of revelry. One last night getting lost in the city that I loved. We’re very proud of this song and so glad it made it [emoji of Earth].” 

41. "Heartaches After Heartbreak" by J.D. Clayton
Album: Long Way From Home
Writer: J.D. Clayton 

J.D. Clayton, a songwriter from Fort Smith, Ark., really broke out in early 2023 with his release Long Way From Home as a singer-songwriter to pay attention to in the Americana/country music world. There were a handful of songs on that album that could’ve made this list but my favorite was the rocking “Heartaches After Heartbreak,” which has a little bit of a Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real sound to it. The guitar-heavy song gives a little more defiance to a devastating heartbreak than many songs on the subject, which truly gives it an anthemic punch.  

40. "Wrong Side of Town" by Joe Stamm Band 
Album: Fort Smith (EP)
Writer: Joe Stamm

“Wrong Side of Town,” of Joe Stamm Band’s EP Fort Smith, is the kind of heartland Americana you might have gotten out of Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp in the mid-‘80s. In the heartland, that stuff still plays. It tells the familiar tale of a town that was once a great place to live and for one reason or another – likely because those in charge have failed its citizens – has gone to hell. Tragic but something all too familiar for many places around the country. 

39. "Made For This" by Ashley McBryde 
Album: The Devil You Know 
Writers: Ashley McBryde & Travis Meadows 

One thing is for sure – the music life on the road isn’t easy but Ashley McBryde was certainly made for it. She doesn’t paint a pretty picture of playing in dives, living in vans with smelly bandmates and all the things one has to do just to keep awake and going – but don’t you get the feeling she kind of loves it? This propulsive track off her excellent third solo studio album The Devil I Know will have you wanting to throw your hands in the air and tagging along. 

38. "Norfolk Blues" by Drayton Farley
Album: Twenty on High 
Writer: Drayton Farley

When I first heard Drayton Farley’s “Norfolk Blues,” off his album Twenty on High, early in 2023 I swore it was a new Jason Isbell song – that’s a pretty big compliment from me as Isbell has been my favorite songwriter of the last decade-plus now in the Americana realm. “Norfolk Blues” tells the story of a man having to bust his ass at work just to make a living and provide for his family who lives multiple states away, giving it the added tinge of homesickness to go with his blue-collar tenacity. Farley repeats the line “it’s all the way it’s always been” many times to end the song hitting home the point of generations having had to do the same. 

37. "Love Go By" by Elle King 
Album: Come Get Your Wife
Writers: Elle King, Joe Janiak & Geoffrey Warburton

Elle King began her music career with the breakthrough pop hit “Ex’s & Oh’s” in 2014 and while that song was pretty freakin’ good for pop music I never thought there would come a point where she’d release a pretty damn good country music album. But in early 2023 she came out with Come Get Your Wife with standouts like “Tulsa” and “Jersey Giant,” which is one of my favorite songs of the year but I chose another artist’s recording of it for this list. King ends her album with the smooth love song, “Love Go By,” which truly shows off her unique, smoky-twanged voice and includes a truly catchy chorus penned by her, Joe Janiak and Geoffrey Warburton. 

36. "Runaway" by Lydia Loveless 
Album: Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again
Writer: Lydia Loveless (I assume - couldn't find listed songwriters)

Wikipedia refers to Lydia Loveless as an alternative country singer and that’s fine, I guess. It adds at the end of the opening paragraph that she combines pop music, classic country, honky tonk and punk rock – this combination and mixing truly gives her a unique sound. She released her sixth studio album Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again in September and it included what’s probably my favorite song to date by her, “Runaway.” I absolutely love the line: “I don’t like to run/I just like to run away.” I can feel that deep in my bones, especially the high-note quiver in her voice.

35. "IDK Shit About Cars" by Evan Honer
Album: Non-Album Single
Writer: Evan Honer

The first time I heard Evan Honer’s non-album single “IDK Shit About Cars” I got a good chuckle out of it. There were certainly parts of the song’s lyrics I identified with, including the title itself, but I didn’t think at the time it would be a top-40 song of the year for me. But I kept listening and kept listening and, you know, sometimes it’s just nice to have a fun, catchy song as one of your favorites of the year. And it’s also a bit deeper than it seems on the surface with lines like “I still break my heart” intertwined with the not knowing shit about cars. Also, cool Jason Isbell reference. 

34. "Tanqueray" by William Prince
Album: Stand in the Joy
Writer: William Prince

William Prince has one of my favorite voices in any genre of music these days. He’s a pretty damn good songwriter too. In 2020, his song “The Spark” was my No. 2 song of the year. “Tanqueray,” off his latest album Stand in the Joy, is my favorite of his this year with its smooth-sounding tale of lovers embarking upon a new relationship after some false starts with them in the past. The chorus about “Tanqueray on your lips then mine” is one of the most romantic of the year, especially with Prince’s lush, soulful vocal. 

33. "Ain't No Harmin' Me" by The War and Treaty
Album: Lover's Game
Writers: Michael Trotter Jr. & Tanya Trotter

The War & Treaty, the married couple of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, have this soulful harmonizing bond that will blow you away on almost all of their recordings, especially the ones from their 2023 release Lover’s Game, the duo’s fourth together. My favorite track off the album is “Ain’t No Harmin’ Me,” which the couple wrote together as they mostly do, a song that sees them going up against the Devil himself and coming out stronger on the other side. Michael Trotter Jr. told American Songwriter: “Love is the foundation of our new record and ‘Ain’t No Harmin’ Me’ reminds us that no matter what troubles are waiting around the corner the power of love will pull us through. We wrote this together as a personal testament to ourselves … we aren’t afraid to face the hard times knowing we have the other by our side. It felt like an awakening for us, and I hope fans can feel that same energy when they hear it." We can, Michael! 

32. "Back to You" by Benjamin Dakota Rogers 
Album: Paint Horse 
Writer: Benjamin Dakota Rogers 

The intensity and fervency in Benjamin Dakota Rogers’s vocal on “Back to You,” off his 2023 album Paint Horse, enamored me from my first listen. It’s not exactly one of the cleanest, flawless vocals you’re going to hear but the emotion he’s able to capture in his performance makes the song one of my favorite to sing along to this year. There’s a longingness in this song to get back to a lover elsewhere that you can absolutely feel deep down in your bones and you know based on that stirring vocal it must’ve been a true feeling for its songwriter. 

31. "Evangelina" by Colter Wall
Album: Little Songs
Writer: Hoyt Axton & Kenneth Higginbotham

One of the best things about Canadian singer-songwriter Colter Wall is his love for traditional folk and Country and Western songs and how he brings this sound of yesteryears to today and makes it cool for younger folks who may have never heard some of these songs. Case in point, my favorite track from his latest album Little Songs called “Evangelina,” which evidently was a Hoyt Axton song from 1976 (I really need to know more Axton songs). “Evangelina” is a Western-themed song about a cowboy, whom I’m assuming based on the performer and the songwriter is white, and his love, Evangelina, being a Mexican woman many miles away and his longing to get back to her. It’s a familiar theme when it comes to the Western aspect of Country and Western but one that never seems to fail. 

30. "Gatlinburg" by Cory Branan 
Album: Non-Album Single
Writer: Cory Branan

Cory Branan released a wonderful new album in 2022 with When I Go I Ghost, his first in half a decade, so I was surprised to see a three-song EP in June of this year but was thrilled when I heard “Gatlinburg” from the Memphian singer-songwriter. The song tells the tale from the perspective of a divorced man thinking of his ex-wife and how she said she never wanted to return to Gatlinburg, Tenn., but last he heard she’d found herself a new man and wound up in the place she said she’d never be. 

29. "Basic Channels" by Josiah and the Bonnevilles 
Album: Endurance
Writers: Josiah Leming & Teal Douville  

“Basic Channels” by Josiah & the Bonnevilles, the final track of the group’s album Endurance, is such a cute, simple song about pure love – the kind you know is going to last forever and doesn’t need any fancy frills. It’s a stripped-down performance that will have you wanting to hold your love tight beside you while listening or long for love like the one in the song if you haven’t found it yet. 

28. "Death Wish" by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Album: Weathervanes
Writer: Jason Isbell

I, myself, have never loved a woman with a death wish and am grateful for that but Jason Isbell sure makes it seem scarily intriguing in the track from his latest, excellent album Weathervanes. Isbell’s vocal performance and the frantic playing by the 400 Unit give the song the urgency to match the lyrics. As is the case with any high-profile music relationship – even though it probably isn’t appropriate to do so – I can’t help but wonder if Isbell wrote the song about his wife Amanda Shires. Or perhaps it’s written from her perspective from the times he’s been self-destructive and the genders have been flipped? 

27. "Puppy and a Truck" by Jenny Lewis
Album: Joy'All
Writer: Jenny Lewis

“Puppy and a Truck” is one of my favorite songs of the year in the sense that it just makes me smile and laugh every time I hear it – it’s also probably one of those times where I’m getting a bit loose with the terms Americana and country, though Wikipedia does have “alternative country” as one of Jenny Lewis’s genres. “Puppy and a Truck,” off her latest album Joy’All, comes out of the pandemic of 2020 when we were all trying to find ways to remain sane and happy – evidently Lewis’s way was getting a puppy (a cockapoo) and a truck (unsure what kind). Lewis debuted the song online in 2021, but I hadn’t heard it until it made its way to her album this summer.   

26. "Changes" by Joy Oladukon
Album: Proof Of Life
Writer: Olubukola Oladokun & Dan Wilson 

Sometimes when the world has gotten you down you need to make some changes and even if you want the world to change on a grand scale it can be helpful to make changes in your own life on a smaller scale. Joy Oladukon’s “Changes,” off her latest album Proof Of Life, seems to get this. Watching the world burn around you can be scary, it can make you want to ball up in a fetal position and panic, but attempting to keep up with the changes of the world and continuously building yourself as a better person is better than the alternative. Also, Oladukon’s voice mixed with the gently strummed guitar, soft saxophone and pitter-patter of the drums makes for a beautiful listen. 

25. "Family Ties" by Charles Wesley Godwin
Album: Family Ties
Writer: Charles Wesley Godwin

West Virginian singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin seems to have his priorities in line – family first and music career second. That might mean we need to cherish every album we get from him because if songs like “Family Ties” and “All Again,” which appeared earlier on this list, from his excellent third studio album of the same are any indication he may walk away from the music business early to spend his days with his wife and daughters. Family is the theme of the album and the title track, which opens the album after a short instrumental overture, is a love song to his family tree, his family homeland of generations and the overall importance of the family unit. One of the most striking vocal moments all year is the way Godwin hits the line “STRIKE me down if I cut family ties,” with such force that you instantly know he means it. 

24. "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves
Album: Zach Byan
Writers: Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves 

Zach Bryan is an interesting character in modern country music. He’s not always the most likable person, especially if you follow him on social media, often seeming full of himself. His fan base seems fairly toxic, as is the case with a growing number of music fan bases. And he’s not mainstream country – though, hell if I truly know what is anymore as I don’t listen to radio – but he sells tickets and has a following as if he were. I don’t think he’s the greatest thing since the invention of the fiddle like many of his followers seem to believe but I can admit the guy writes some damn good songs and one of the best he’s released in his career thus far is “I Remember Everything,” a thoughtful duet with Kacey Musgraves, off his most recent self-titled album. The rare country song to crossover into the pop world and top the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, Bryan and Musgraves co-wrote this song seeing two different sides to the end of a relationship and somehow makes something tragic into something beautiful.      

23. "Boy and a Bird Dog" by Colby Acuff
Album: Western White Pines 
Writers: Colby Acuff, Ben Chapman & Meg McRee

Sometimes you just want something fun that you can identify with and a feeling you’d like to feel and Colby Acuff’s “Boy and a Bird Dog” is that for me. I don’t give a damn about hunting. But I do love my dogs. The breezy song, with the year’s most fun whistling, about a young man going out to the fields with his best friend, his bird dog, and just spending a day together under the sun and sky sounds like a dream. I get the feeling the narrator doesn’t even care if he doesn’t bring home a kill. There were a remarkable amount of great dog songs this year – there are three on this list alone! – and this was my favorite of them.   

22. "Running Out of Hope, Arkansas" by Brennen Leigh 
Album: Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet
Writers: Brennen Leigh & Silas Lowe  

I love it when a songwriter can get a dual meaning out of a line and that’s exactly what Brennen Leigh and Silas Lowe have done with the wonderful title of Leigh’s “Running Out of Hope, Arkansas” from her album Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet. It’s a great song about trying to escape your hometown to find something more to life and has a terrific bluegrass sound to it with fantastic mandolin, fiddle and twangy guitars that truly makes it sound timeless like it could’ve been released at any time past or present. 

21. "22 Days Too Long" by Adam Hood
Album: Adam Hood's Different Groove
Writers: Adam Hood & Pete Anderson

There are a few songs on this list this year about artists longing to get back home to their families while making a living as touring musicians. One of my favorites with that theme is Adam Hood’s “22 Days Too Long,” an ode to longing to be home with your kids. One of my favorite parts of the guitar-driven song is the travelogue-ness of the verses talking about all the tour stops along the way and you get the feeling these map dots are all just standing between the narrator and his children.   

20. "Congratulations & Condolences" by Greensky Bluegrass
Album: Non-Album Single
Writers: Paul Hoffman & Joshua Davis

I’ve always loved the musicianship of bluegrass but one criticism I’ve often had of the genre is the lyrics often don’t seem to go very deep – but that’s certainly not the case with the single “Congratulations and Condolences.” The song was a track that didn’t make the cut on the group’s 2022 album Stress Dreams (what a great album title) but instantly caught my attention as it reminds me of friendships of the past that have faded away as the one talked about in the song, which was penned by Paul Hoffman and Joshua Davis. Michael Broerman wrote about the song for liveforlivemusic.com saying: “What was once an almost familial bond slips away with the passage of time, reduced to ‘trying to keep up on you through the status on the screen.’” I have at least one member of my past in mind when this song pops up. I’m sure many have these relationships. 

19. "Lucky" by Rodney Crowell
Album: The Chicago Sessions
Writer: Rodney Crowell 

Rodney Crowell has always struck me as a wise man and it seems it may have taken him a few tries but he’s found the right person to stand by his side, one that keeps him going, gives him a reason to wake up each day and survive. I feel I’ve gotten that kind of lucky to with the better half in my life. It’s such a relatable jam for me complete with a catchy chorus and terrific musicianship, like the piano that opens the song and keeps it driving all the way through.  

18. "The Returner" by Allison Russell 
Album: The Returner
Writers: Allison Russell, Drew Lindsay & JT Nero

Allison Russell has one of my absolute favorite voices in music right now – it’s so sultry and smooth and just makes you feel like flying – and it feels like it could stand the test of time like the greats who came before her. “The Returner,” off her second studio album as a solo artist of the same name, is such a glorious mixture of Russell’s voice with lush string instruments, which I believe are SistaStrings (Monique and Chauntee Ross) on violin and cello. Critic Ken Tucker in his review for NPR said of Russell’s album: “Russell makes a kind of rhythm and blues that mixes gospel with soul.” You can certainly hear that in the title track as Russell seems to be soaring with a type of glee that I assure you is infectious. 

17. "Keep It on A Burner" by Margo Cilker
Album: Valley of Heart's Delight
Writers: Margo Cilker

My favorite song off Margo Cilker’s impressive 2021 debut album Pohorylle was “Tehachapi,” which had a terrific reference to the great Little Feat song “Willin’.” My favorite track off her sophomore release Valley of Heart’s Delight this year is “Keep It on A Burner,” which includes a reference to one of my favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival songs “Lodi.” So, maybe what I really just want from Cilker is terrific classic rock references in her music – but I think these references show not just a terrific taste in music but also a musical kinship with some of the legends of the past with her influences coming out in her music and helping to give it a great throwback feel. “Keep It on a Burner” will have you swaying along to the melody while marveling at her stream-of-consciousness songwriting. 

16. "Can I Be Country Too?" by Will Hoge & Friends
Album: Non-Album Single
Writer: Will Hoge

Will Hoge has never been one to shy away from saying exactly what he thinks and feels in his songs and that’s what makes him one of the most honest and best songwriters of the last couple of decades. This summer there were a couple of country songs – both of which actually hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – in Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” that attempted to sew discord among listeners of the genre. It coincided with an artist like Maren Morris no longer she believed in the country music genre do to her opinions on certain topics that some would call political, while others would just think as human or humane. For a while there it seemed like country music was trying to be taken as a white conservatives-only genre, which is absurdist bullshit and Hoge knows that. So, he wrote “Can I Be Country Too?,” a tongue-in-cheek song with brilliant lyrics like: “What if I pray a different way than you do?” “What I believe that black lives matter?” “What if I vote for a democrat politician?” “What if I think gays getting’ married’s OK?” and it all culminates in the sarcastic question, “Can I be country too?” And then after writing the song he sought out the help of some others who might be considered country music outsiders or outcasts to help sing it in members of the Black Opry Revue, the diverse Country Any Way Collective and the black and gay duo the Kentucky Gentlemen. Country music is and shall always be for anybody and everybody. 

15. "Bad Imagination" by Sundy Best 
Album: Feel Good Country
Writers: Nicholas Jamerson & Adam Landry

This must have been a particularly moody year for me based on many of my favorite songs of the year and Sundy Best’s “Pure Imagination,” from its album Feel Good Country, is certainly one of my most listened-to of the year. The song, co-written by Nicholas Jamerson and Adam Landry, sees a narrator who’s stopping himself from being happy in life and features one of the year’s most unique, original and simply interesting melodies. Jamerson also cut a version of the song for his solo album, Peace Mountain, which is quite a bit different in its overall sound (I prefer the Sundy Best version) but still worth a listen for sure.  

14. "Thundertown" by Tony Logue
Album: The Crumbs
Writers: Tony Logue

You can tell from the first listen of Tony Logue’s “Thundertown,” the track that leads off his third album The Crumbs, that it was inspired by Bruce Springsteen. I believe the song to be most certainly inspired by Springsteen’s 1978 classic “Racing in the Street,” the song just shares too many similarities for it not to be. But unlike racing cars in the street to make a living, Logue is doing it with his musical talent and his band driving across the land in a van and playing small venues to earn their stripes. “Thundertown,” hell it even sounds like it strung together Springsteen titles, is one of the best examples I’ve seen of taking a sound, theme, etc. and making it your own. It’s an homage for sure whereas it could’ve just been a rip-off.   

13. "Macon If We Make It" by Lucero
Album: Should've Learned by Now 
Writer: Ben Nichols 

Lucero’s “Macon If We Make It,” off the veteran band’s latest album Should’ve Learned By Now, was my favorite Southern Rock jam of 2023. Propulsive guitars, especially a ripping solo by Brian Venable, lead the way, as they truly should in any Southern Rocker, as frontman and songwriter Ben Nichols uses an impending storm to draw parallels with a relationship that’s circling the drain like the eye of a hurricane. Nichols told Grateful Web: “We were on tour in Georgia and a hurricane was coming through. Someone asked where out next show was and we said, ‘Macon, if we make it.” Sometimes witty quips in conversation make for the best song titles and plotlines.  

12. "In Your Love" by Tyler Childers
Album: Rustin' in the Rain
Writers: Tyler Childers & Geno Seale 

Tyler Childers isn’t exactly a stranger to love songs – “Feathered Indians” off his debut Purgatory has become something of a modern country classic but with a bit of an edge to it. “In Your Love,” off Childers’ latest Rustin’ In The Rain, loses that edge and comes at you with absolute sweetness (as well as a music video that’ll likely make you cry) about how hard he’ll work for the one he loves. It has this mixture of tenderness wrapped up in the language of a hardworking, blue-collar man that makes me believe it’ll become a classic modern love story of its own. 

11. "Cheap Paradise" by Erin Viancourt 
Album: Won't Die This Way
Writers: Erin Viancourt, Pearl Aday & Ward Davis

One name new to me in 2023 in the country music and Americana circles that I’m no doubt going to be on the lookout for going into the future is Erin Viancourt, whom Wide Open Country called “Country Music’s next breakout indie artist.” Her debut album Won’t Die This Way is filled with many terrific tracks, including “B24” and “Should’ve Known Better,” but it’s the first track on the album, “Cheap Paradise” that stood out to me the most. On the track, Viancourt sings about finding joy in the little things during a busy life, like finding the right bar with an old jukebox and cold Michelob. If I found a bit of paradise in 2023 in my favorite musical genres it was no doubt Erin Viancourt. 

10. "Burn It Down" by Jason Eady
Album: Mississippi 
Writers: Jason Eady & Adam Hood 

One of my favorite lyrics of 2023 is: “Every time things start to go my way I burn it down like a temple on judgment day.” I can identify with that so much. I’m sure many of us can. Jason Eady’s “Burn It Down,” off his terrific album Mississippi, sees the narrator telling of his destructive ways while a nice, electric groove is being laid down underneath it. Eady has been no stranger to this list in past years but usually with more subdued songs that let the lyrics speak for themselves. “Burn It Down” has found a way to give me one of my favorite lines of the year while also making me feel that groove deep down in my soul. 

9. "Mean Old Sun" by Turnpike Troubadours
Album: A Cat in the Rain
Writer: Evan Felker

“Mean Old Sun” was the first single we got from the new Turnpike Troubadours reunion album A Cat in the Rain when it was released in May some months ahead of the album. It’s understandable to be a bit nervous about one of your all-time favorite bands coming back from a long hiatus, one you didn’t know if they’d ever return from, with new music but from the very first listen of “Mean Old Sun” I knew songwriter/vocalist Evan Felker and the boys in the band hadn’t lost a thing. “Mean Old Sun,” the band’s first new song in six years, sees Felker and the group defiant in their return with the terrific chorus ender: “that mean old sun better rise up soon if it’s ever gonna set on me.” With that Turnpike was back and better than ever. 

8. "Middle of the Morning" by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit 
Album: Weathervanes
Writer: Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell has been my favorite songwriter in the Americana genre for more than a decade now going back to the first time I heard his song “Alabama Pines” off his 2011 album Here We Rest. I think the songwriters we wind up liking the most are the ones who write songs we can identify the most with as humans and for better or worse few songs had me identifying with them more in 2023 than “Middle of the Morning,” off Isbell and the 400 Unit’s Grammy-nominated Weathervanes. Isbell knows the feeling of being a Southern man and all the bullshit that comes with it – having to be tough when you feel the furthest thing from it and the like. And the lines about his significant other being scared of him because of these unspoken, depressive feelings hit me hard. The great songwriters will do that to you.  

7. "Cool About It" by boygenius 
Album: the record
Writer: Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers & Paul Simon 

I’m honestly not sure if boygenius – the super trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus - should be included in the seemingly ever-encompassing Americana genre (Indie rock and folk rock are what their Wiki page labels them), but I like the song and it’s close enough, so it’s here. “Cool About It” has the trio beautifully singing over a softly picked guitar about a seemingly young relationship that isn’t working out. I particularly love the line: “I can walk you home and practice method acting.” 

6. "Amarillo and Little Rock" by Caitlin  Cannon
Album: Non-Album Single
Writer: Caitlin Cannon

Caitlin Cannon’s “Amarillo and Little Rock” will just about drop you to your knees with its story of breaking down – both figuratively and literally - somewhere on the road between Amarillo and Little Rock. I completely understand lines like: “always running behind, never can catch up.” It’s such a well-written song by Cannon with a nice conversational tone and a vocal that will knock your socks off. 

5. "Light On in the Kitchen" by Ashley McBryde
Album: The Devil I Know
Writers: Ashley McBryde, Jessi Alexander and Connie Harrington 

Ashley McBryde is one of the best singer-songwriters currently in the country music genre and the great thing about her music is it’s crossed over a bit into the mainstream – even if it hasn’t been as successful in the mainstream as it should be. She really gets the country life down in her music and “Light on In the Kitchen,” which she co-wrote with Jessi Alexander and Connie Harrington, is a perfect example of this as an advice song from one’s elder about life. 

4. "Jersey Giant" by Josiah and the Bonnevilles
Album: Country Covers
Writer: Tyler Childers 

“Jersey Giant” is freakin’ everywhere. The song was written, but never recorded by Tyler Childers, why I don’t understand, but he made it available recently for other artists and multiple ones immediately bit the hook. I first heard the song from the wonderful rendition by Elle King on her latest Come Get Your Wife, but my favorite performance of the song is by Josiah and the Bonnevilles off their Country Covers album. “Jersey Giant” sees the narrator recalling a past love and all the good times they had together and how he’s more than willing to relive some of them if his love just says yes. 

3. "Chipping Mill" by Turnpike Troubadours
Album: A Cat in the Rain
Writers: R.C. Edwards & Lance Roark 

There are a lot of great songs on the Turnpike Troubadours comeback album A Cat in the Rain – half of the album appears on this very list, in fact – but if there’s one song on the album that I think will most stand out to fans it’s “Chipping Mill,” which I feel like has multiple meanings throughout when he says, “I always kept the best for you.” There’s the feeling of vocalist Evan Felker reuniting with his wife Staci, the reunion of the band and coming back together in front of their long-time and passionate fans. I’m not sure if bassist and songwriter R.C. Edwards had all of that in mind when he co-wrote the song with Lance Roark but it’s what I hear when Felker sings it. Like many of the band’s best songs, the instrumentation – especially the driving guitar of Ryan Engleman and excellent fiddle playing by Kyle Nix – is top-notch.  

2. "Buried" by Brandy Clark
Album: Brandy Clark
Writers: Brandy Clark & Jessie Jo Dillon
​
Brandy Clark’s “Buried” is one of the most beautiful and devastating songs I heard in 2023 or really any year for that matter in its tale of undying, but unreciprocated love. In the song she tells of all of the things she can do to pass the time and not think about her past love like reading “Lonesome Dove” and falling asleep to “Hallelujah,” but you can tell by her vulnerability in her voice that it’s next to impossible. The final line of the song will flatten you. “Buried” reminds me a bit of one of my all-time favorite country songs – “I’ll Think of Something” (Mark Chesnutt’s version). 

1. "King of Oklahoma" by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Album: Weathervanes
Writer: Jason Isbell 
​
Many of my favorite Jason Isbell songs over the years have been ones that I felt were really personal to him and what was going on in his life. “King of Oklahoma,” my No. 1 Americana/Country Music Song of 2023, is Isbell looking outward and coming up with a short story about an Oklahoman who used to live a good, simple life until it was all shot to hell due to an accident and opioids. With driving guitars throughout – likely both Isbell and Sadler Vaden – Isbell tells the tale of a blue-collar man’s tribulations by getting into his head and telling his story through his thoughts and feelings, though as someone open about his past addictions (though different ones) there is some personal baggage I’m sure that was pulled from to paint the portrait. The chorus is one of the most devastating of the year and there are moments in some of the verses like: “Molly’s gonna leave me/says she don’t believe me/I got nothing left to lie about/she’s going back to Bixby/tired of trying to fix me/says I got some shit to figure out” that have such a fantastic melody it’ll leave your mouth watering. 

​When Barbara Walters compiled her list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year in 2014 she included TIME's 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift. Barbara Walters said it best when she said that "Taylor Swift IS the music industry." At the time, Swift was coming off her transition into pop with the blockbuster success of 1989. It was considered for years to be the peak of Taylor Swift's career. What is crazy though is it wasn't! Taylor Swift's career peak hit in the year 2023, 17 years into her career. This is remarkable in an industry that tries to tell women they are done by 30 years old. The fact that Swift has peaked this far into her career and was arguably the biggest thing in pop culture this year is the reason no one else deserved the honor for TIME's Person of the Year. 
 
Swift has been extremely popular ever since her second album, Fearless became the most awarded country music album of all time. She became the youngest winner at the Grammy Awards (at the time) for Album of the Year. Swift followed this with her first album written solely by her (Speak Now). It became her first album to sell over 1 million copies in the first week. Her next three albums, Red, 1989 and reputation would all continue this feat. 1989 would garner Swift her second Album of the Year win at the Grammys. With all of the drama in 2016 where Kim Kardashian edited a video to make it appear that Swift had lied about permitting Kanye West to call her that "bitch," it appeared that her career could be over. However, her diehard fans, the Swifties, never strayed from her side. Her album, Lover, returned to sunny pop. When the pandemic happened, Swift strayed from pop to a more indie sound with folklore and evermore. folklore would give Swift her third Album of the Year win at the Grammys, tying her with Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder for the record. 
 
When Swift's entire catalog was sold out from under her to her nemesis Scooter Braun, she decided to re-record her first six albums that were recorded under Big Machine Records. She left BMR for Republic in 2019. Swift decided to release vault tracks from these albums to give fans an incentive to buy her new art and let her finally own the stories from her diary. These re-records have been critically and commercially successful.
 
However, it wasn't until her tenth studio album, Midnights, came out in 2022 that things started going to another level for Swift. She announced her Eras Tour, which would celebrate all 10 eras of her music career and give her the chance to tour four albums that had not been able to be performed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Swift's new album, Midnights, came out and in my opinion, it is one of her best albums. People fell in love with this album, which has been nominated for six Grammys and could get Swift her fourth Album of the Year Grammy this coming February. Aside from this, over these 17 years, Swift's fans have grown up. They have started having kids of their own and those little girls are falling in love with Taylor the same way their parents did. 
 
The Eras Tour has become the first tour in history to gross over $1 billion in revenue. A film version of it has become the highest-grossing concert film in history. Her Eras Tour was causing crazy booms to the economy wherever she was touring. Hotels, restaurants and stores see major increases in sales when Swift is in town. The tour isn't even halfway over either. She is expected to continue the tour through next year. 
 
When it came time for TIME to choose their Person of 2023, there simply was no one else who would have been a great choice. Swift has been everywhere this year and in a good way. She has been helping the economy more than any career politician has in the last few years, bringing joy to the world through her music, and giving us not only the highest-grossing tour but the best concert experience of my entire life. In 2023, there was only one person who could make the whole place shimmer and that was superstar Taylor Swift. - Tyler Glover 

So, my compadre Tyler did an excellent job at stating how Taylor Swift became the biggest superstar in entertainment and as the creator of this website dedicated solely to pop culture I salute him for doing so. But, you see, this is a pro and con article. So, Tyler being the “Swiftie” that he is got the easy part of the gig – explaining and exclaiming why Taylor Swift was the right person for Person of the Year. I have the hard part – and because of how overzealous Swift’s fan base can be, arguably a dangerous one at that in explaining why Taylor Swift is not the right choice for Person of the Year.
 
It also feels slightly wrong for me to vote against an entertainer for Person of the Year. I believe Swift is the first entertainer to ever receive this accolade and if any one performer in the entertainment industry was ever going to be named Person of the Year she’s probably the rightful choice. So, am I claiming an entertainer shouldn’t be significant enough to garner such a title? I don’t know if I believe that. Swift is certainly a more honorable person to be named Person of the Year than previous choices like Elon Musk in 2021, Donald Trump in 2016 and many others (y’all should check out who TIME called Person of the Year in 1938 – but also note Person of the Year isn’t necessarily honorific but a comment on who had the biggest impact on the world in the year chosen).
 
But what does it say when an entertainer is considered the person who had the biggest impact on the world over world leaders? Have we as a society and as a world become more concerned with needing to be entertained than more important societal or philosophical issues?
 
Earlier this month before announcing its selection as Person of the Year, TIME Magazine revealed nine candidates for the title on NBC’s “Today Show.” The eight candidates in addition to Swift were:
 
Hollywood strikes – both the Writers Guild and Actors Guild went on strike this year for higher wages, and more importantly the fight against artificial intelligence and royalties in the age of streaming  
 
Xi Jinping – the Chinese President who surprisingly hasn’t been named Person of the Year before.
 
Sam Altman – the visionary behind the ChatGPT A.I. that’ll write anything for you (seriously, screw that guy).
 
Trump prosecutors – the law in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington D.C. who have brought felony charges against former U.S. President Donald Trump for election interference but thus far haven’t done enough to shut him up, let alone lock him up.  
 
Barbie – a toy that became something much more than a toy this summer thanks to director Greta Gerwig’s highest-grossing film of the year.
 
Vladimir Putin – the Russian President who was previously TIME’s Person of the Year and is still embroiled in a war against Ukraine and killing off his detractors.
 
King Charles III – who became King of England in May simply because of whose vagina he came out of many decades ago.
 
Jerome Powell – the Federal Reserve chairman whom TIME nominated for playing “a key role managing high inflation in the U.S.”
 
So, who among those is more deserving than Swift?
 
If the Trump prosecutors could manage to do something of note and not have half of this country still thinking Trump will be elected President again by this time next year they likely would’ve been my choice.
 
And when it comes to the world of pop culture I’m more inclined to want to say the Hollywood strikers, who truly seemed to make some important and good gains when it comes to earning more and staving off the tide of A.I. completely taking over the entertainment industry. But on a global scale did the Hollywood strikes impact the world?
 
None of TIME’s finalists impress me all that much. But there is one that was kind of on the right trail … and that’s Sam Altman, the man behind ChatGPT – the thing that will potentially put an end to what I’m doing right now – writing my thoughts on the internet.
 
I just don’t think TIME was thinking big enough with Altman being among the nominees. What truly should’ve been among the nominees instead was Artificial Intelligence in general because it was everywhere this year – from ChatGPT to Hollywood strike talks to creating fake videos on the internet that look and feel lifelike.
 
Artificial Intelligence has finally gotten to the point where it’s going to play a major role in this world – and maybe in a mostly negative way. It may take your job. It may take my job. It may take the job of actors, writers, etc. in Hollywood. Hell, it may even take Taylor Swift’s job one day.
 
TIME Person of the Year has been things or ideas before – The Computer in 1982, the Endangered Earth in 1988. Why not give it to our future A.I. overlords right now? – Julian Spivey

by Julian Spivey
This year marks 50 years since both the debut and sophomore albums of Bruce Springsteen, a songwriter that has meant more to me as a music listener than any other. His music makes me believe in a better life. It makes me dream. It makes me feel. And I simply don't know what I would do without it. To celebrate a half-century of Bruce Springsteen's music I have compiled a list of what I believe to be his 50 greatest songs. I hope you enjoy it! ​

50. My City of Ruins (2002) 

Bruce Springsteen had written “My City of Ruins” about his former hometown of Asbury Park, N.J. and how years of economic downfall and hardships had left the once beautiful seaside location in ruins. He had written the song and first performed it live in 2000. But when he took to the stage on the televised “America: A Tribute to Heroes” telethon just 10 days after the horrors of 9/11 it was almost as if the song took on a whole new life with it seeming to be about the destruction of the tragic day. One of the most mournful selections in Springsteen’s discography it ends with the hopeful gospel tone of “rise up, come on and rise up,” which was both his hope for Asbury Park and the exact thing Americans needed to hear in the aftermath of 9/11. “My City of Ruins” would go on to be the final track on his 2001 album The Rising, a reunion with the E Street Band, that did feature many tracks inspired by 9/11. 

49. Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) 
I hope this doesn’t make fellow Springsteen fans immediately switch websites at the very beginning of this list, but I’ve never quite viewed “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” off the 1978 album of the same name, to be one of Springsteen’s ultimate, greatest songs – and the truth is, I don’t really know why. It just hasn’t clicked with me like most of the tracks higher on this list. In his book, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, author Brian Hiatt said: “Some of the other characters in ‘Darkness’ fear the prospect of losing everything, but the guy on the title track almost welcomes it, as a proving ground. If, as Springsteen has said, ‘Darkness’ was his ‘samurai record,’ here is his samurai.” Maybe I just haven’t met the true depths of darkness yet? 

48. Prove It All Night (1978)
“Prove It All Night,” off 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, was apparently inspired by a New York City cabbie raving on and on to Springsteen, his fare, about how you gotta prove it all day to your boss, prove it all night to your wife, prove it all weekend to your kids and on and on. The diatribe must’ve stuck with Springsteen, who wrote one of his best rockers of the ‘70s based on it. While the recorded version of the song is just fine, it truly comes alive in Springsteen and the E Street Band’s live shows, especially when guitarist Nils Lofgren, who wasn’t with the band when the song was recorded, takes on the solos, often spinning around wildly in circles while doing so. 

47. She's The One (1975)
Bruce Springsteen, according to Brian Hiatt’s book Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, wrote “She’s the One,” on Born to Run, simply because he loved its Bo Diddley-inspired beat and the saxophone solo from Clarence Clemons so much he had to have it as a song, so he wrote lyrics about this femme fatale type who he can’t deny, even if he knows she’s bad for him. It’s become a concert staple for the band and features Roy Bittan’s memorable piano arpeggio, which he played in his E Street Band audition before the Born to Run recording, running all the way through.  

46. Death to My Hometown (2012)
If it wasn’t for Bruce Springsteen’s love of old folk music, particularly those made famous by Pete Seeger, and his recording of an entire album of them in The Seeger Sessions, I don’t think we’d ever have gotten “Death to My Hometown,” off 2012’s Wrecking Ball. “Death to My Hometown” takes that old foot-stomp folk mixed with Celtic music vibe and tells the tale of how the rich will always take advantage of poor folks, often in the guise of helping them out first. Springsteen would tell comedian and friend Jon Stewart in a 2012 issue of Rolling Stone magazine: “I called on a lot of roots and Celtic elements because I use the music to give the story a historical context. ‘Death to My Hometown’ sounds like an Irish rebel song, but it’s all about what happened four years ago (the Great Recession of 2008). I want to give people a sense that this is a repetitive, historical cycle that has basically landed on the heads of the same people.” 

45. The Wrestler (2008)
Bruce Springsteen has written some killer songs for Hollywood films over his legendary career and a few of those songs are going to make this list, beginning with “The Wrestler” from director Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 drama of the same name. The film starred Mickey Rourke in a bit of a comeback as a veteran professional wrestler just trying to survive a hard life. The song “The Wrestler” gets this feeling perfectly with the narrator taking on this role and comparing himself to one trick ponies and scarecrows filled with dust and weeds. Like Rourke in the film, Springsteen makes us feel for this imperfect individual in such a humane way. The song won Springsteen the Golden Globe Award for Best Song in a Motion Picture, but somehow despite a prior Oscar for “Streets of Philadelphia” from director Jonathan Demme’s “Philadelphia,” Springsteen wasn’t even nominated by the Academy Awards for the song. He would tack it onto the end of his 2009 album Working on a Dream and it wound up being the best track on the entire thing.   

44. The Ties That Bind (1980)
Bruce Springsteen mixed some of his ‘60s garage-rock (the jangliness of The Byrds) and British Invasion (drummer Max Weinberg was asked to do his best Keith Moon of The Who) influences on the poppier sounding 1980 double-album The River, which kicks off with “The Ties That Bind,” a track the band recorded fast and in one day to attempt to get the spontaneity of their live shows, according to Springsteen in his 1998 book Songs. “The Ties That Bind” sees the narrator impressing upon a heartbroken woman not to let the downs in her past relationship keep her from seeking out future relationships. 

43. Secret Garden (1995)
“Secret Garden,” released as a non-album single on Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits package, is him at his softest moment of romantic crooning about a woman who is so intriguing to the narrator but won’t ever quite let him past the walls she’s put up to protect herself. The song would become popular after being included in director Cameron Crowe’s 1996 rom-com “Jerry Maguire.” I can understand why some Springsteen fans may not be a fan of the song because it’s so different in performance than most of his work but the idea of this hard-to-figure-out puzzle of a person and the overall execution of smooth vocal culminating in one of Clarence Clemons’s sexiest saxophone solos captured me. 

42. It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City (1973)
“It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” the final track on Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, is a fantastic way to end his debut. Few songs have ever had as much swagger as this song. Just check out the coolness of lines like: “I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra/I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova/I could walk like Brando right into the sun/then dance just like a Casanova.” That’s just the beginning too. It pretty much keeps up that badassery for just over three minutes.

41. Independence Day (1980)
“Independence Day,” is one of the most emotional songs in Bruce Springsteen’s discography because you know it’s based on the hard relationship he had with his father, Douglas, who suffered from a mental illness that was long undiagnosed. One of the darker tracks on the poppier The River album, it tells of a young man seeking his independence once he becomes an adult and not wanting to get trapped in the kind of hard, factory life that his father has found himself in. Not only can you feel the languish in Springsteen’s vocal about leaving this dying town for a hopefully better life, but the feeling just oozes out of Clarence Clemons’s saxophone solo. Any man who’s ever had a rift with their father will feel this one in their heart. 

40. Sherry Darling (1980)
“Sherry Darling,” off The River, is one of the most fun performances in Bruce Springsteen’s discography in its humorous take on a man wanting to just party with his girl but having to put up with her pain in the ass mother. The chorus about making the mom walk the next block if she just won’t shut up is sure to make anyone who’s ever dealt with a mother-in-law chuckle. “Sherry Darling” is often compared to frat rock songs from the ‘60s like The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” in its feel and performance. It’s a fun standout in the career of such a serious songwriter. 

39. Ghosts (2020)
Bruce Springsteen’s most recent album of original music, 2020’s Letter to You, seems to be “The Boss” coming to terms with growing older and remembering the many friends and family members who have passed on. The impetus for the album on at least a small scale seemed to be when the last member of his first-ever band, the Castiles, died in 2018 leaving him as the last man standing. According to a statement by Springsteen when “Ghosts,” one of the standouts from the album, was released as a single it’s “about the beauty and joy of being in a band, and the pain of losing one another to illness and time. ‘Ghosts’ tries to speak to the spirit of music itself, something none of us owns but can only discover and share together.” Having seen him perform it for the first time on tour with the E Street Band in Kansas City in February I can say it’s a magical moment to see live. 

38. Letter to You (2020)
The title track of Bruce Springsteen’s most recent album Letter to You is a love letter both to his bandmates and loved ones that have passed on before him and his loyal fan base. In his ranking of every Springsteen song for NJ.com writer Bobby Olivier said: “’Letter to You’ is familiarly forceful and earnest, a spiritual cousin of ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’.” He added, “It all feels like home.” Much of the Letter to You album, the first of original material with the band in eight years, has that lived-in Springsteen sound making it potentially (but hopefully not) the final classic Springsteen album. 

37. The Rising (2002)
“My City of Ruins” may have originally come out of the devastation the economy had taken on Asbury Park, but there’s no doubt the majority of The Rising – especially its title track – was influenced by the tragedy of 9/11 and the heroics and defiance shown by those, especially in New York City, in its aftermath. “The Rising” tells the story of a fictional firefighter: “can’t see nothin’ in front of me/can’t see nothin’ coming up behind …” making his way up the floors of the World Trade Center. The anthemic, spiritual feel of the song’s chorus sounds uplifting – and depending on your take on religion likely is – with the firefighter finding paradise in his ascension to another world.   

36. Out in the Street (1980)
“Out in the Street,” off Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 double album The River, is one of the E Street Band’s best flat-out rockers but it seemed to be one of the toughest recording sessions the group ever had with it being done 30 or 40 times in completion with “The Boss” altering lyrics as he went and then, according to Patrick Humphries 1996 book Bruce Springsteen it was almost left off the album for being “too idealistic.” But “Out in the Street” is a different side to Springsteen’s songs of the working man in the sense of hoping the working week flies by so you can be your own boss, your own man on your own time. Idealistic? No! That’s just how Fridays at 5 p.m. feel. 

35. Girls in Their Summer Clothes (2007)
I think Magic is one of Bruce Springsteen’s most underrated albums in the sense that I think it’s actually one of his greatest albums but his later career output doesn’t get the same attention as his first dozen years or so as a recording artist. Maybe it’s just that when Magic came out in 2007, I was first entering my Springsteen fandom. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” is one of the standouts on Magic with its wispy nostalgia of better times on the New Jersey beaches – maybe a remembrance of the past or a hope for the future or both at the same time with much of the album focusing on the darkness of the President George W. Bush era. 

34. If I Was the Priest (2020)
“If I Was the Priest” is one of the most fascinating stories of any Bruce Springsteen song because there’s almost a half-century gap between when he wrote it and when he finally recorded and released it. Springsteen wrote the song, which seems to be a wild Western story with Jesus Christ as a sheriff and the narrator – assuming it to be Springsteen himself – as a priest, sometime in the early ‘70s and the song sat untouched in his archives until he came across it in 2019 and wound up re-recording it with the E Street Band for their 2020 album Letter to You. It’s this unique moment of early-20s Springsteen the songwriter melding with early-70s Springsteen the man and performer. The interesting lyrics of the song are up for interpretation, but to me, they just sound cool. 

33. Meet Me in the City (2015)
It wasn’t planned to have two songs that Bruce Springsteen wrote decades before and never recorded and released until many years later back-to-back on this list but here we are with “Meet Me in the City” coming directly after “If I Was the Priest.” “Meet Me in the City” was originally started for potential use on the 1980 double album The River, but according to Brian Hiatt’s Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs was “apparently left unfinished.” I’m thrilled that when The Boss decided to do a deeper look at that album with an expanded edition in 2015 he fleshed the song out into a full recording because it wound up becoming an absolute favorite of mine and sounded quintessential E Street Band. The band would open their 2016 tour in which they played The River from start to finish with this song and having seen it in Oklahoma City, Okla. it was amazing to witness live. 

32. Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
“Born in the U.S.A.,” the title track from Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album, is clearly the most misunderstood song of his entire career and has been from the very beginning back when President Ronald Reagan felt it was a patriotic anthem, not a song partially built out of his policies that helped to separate the classes of American citizens. The easy-to-chant chorus makes the song feel anthemic and that was a smart way to try to bring listeners into the plight of Vietnam vets struggling to return home, find work and make a living. It’s just that some of the casual listeners of the song didn’t want to pay enough attention to the verses in between that sing-along chorus. Springsteen rarely performs the song live anymore. I wonder if it’s potentially due to people misunderstanding it?   

31. Lost in the Flood (1973)
“Lost in the Flood,” off Bruce Springsteen’s debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., might be the most Springsteen-esque song on the debut, 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 of the band on the second verse about the stock car racer when Springsteen sings “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.  

30. Tougher Than the Rest (1987)
“Tougher Than the Rest,” off 1987’s Tunnel of Love, is a rarity in Bruce Springsteen’s discography in that it’s an all-out love song. But the thing I love the most about it is it’s clearly the way Springsteen would write a love song, in such matter-of-fact language that a hard, working-class person might appreciate but many average music listeners might find off-putting. Brian Hiatt in Bruce Springsteen: Stories Behind the Songs notes that “Tougher Than the Rest” is “one of Springsteen’s most obviously country-influenced recordings,” which might be why Chris Ledoux’s terrific cover of it from 1995 was the first time I’d ever heard it. 

29. Land of Hope and Dreams (2001)
Bruce Springsteen wrote “Land of Hope and Dreams” in 1999 when the E Street Band reunited after more than a decade apart because he felt the reunited group needed a new song for the tour – something big and summational, according to Brian Hiatt’s Bruce Springsteen: Stories Behind the Songs. According to that book, Springsteen viewed his band as a “big train coming down the track,” and drew inspiration from “People Get Ready” by the Impressions. What he came up with was one of his most hopeful songs of a better life – one we might not get to experience in this life (though, we should try), but maybe somewhere in another one. It’s a summation of what Springsteen and the E Street Band mean to me. It would take nearly 15 years but it would finally find its way on an album with 2012’s Wrecking Ball. 

28. Hungry Heart (1980)
Even though Bruce Springsteen had always been a critical hit he had not really broken into having mainstream hits, even with the success of Born to Run. He, however, had found some success with his songs being covered by other artists. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had taken “Blinded by the Light” to No. 1 in 1977. The Pointer Sisters took “Fire” to No. 2 in 1979. Patti Smith’s “Because the Night,” which was co-written by her and Springsteen, went to No. 13 in 1978. But Springsteen hadn’t been able to crack the Billboard top 20 himself through four albums. Then came “Hungry Heart.” Springsteen actually intended the song to go to the Ramones, the New York City punk band that certainly would’ve had the song sounding different than what the E Street Band came up with for The River. But then Springsteen’s producer and manager Jon Landau, using his keen ear for hits, persuaded Springsteen to hang onto it. The E Street Band put this sort of '60s-inspired Phil Spector pop sheen on it and it went to No. 5, where it would become one of Springsteen’s all-time biggest hits. 

27. No Surrender (1984)
“No Surrender,” off 1984’s Born in the USA, has one of my all-time favorite song lyrics in it: “We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school.” Now, I was a pretty good student and I definitely believe in education and gaining as much knowledge as one can but dammit if I don’t feel that line deep down in my soul. This quick, two-and-a-half-minute rocker just absolutely gets the feeling down pat of a kid breaking out of his small-town bubble with his buddies on the way to make something more of himself. 

26. Blinded by the Light (1973)
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.

25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (1975)
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” off 1975’s Born to Run, is the origin story of the E Steet Band and the great friendship and musical companionship between the group, especially between Bruce Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Having seen him perform this song three times in concert since the death of Clemons in 2011 I can’t help but feel the song means more to him in the dozen years since than it did before. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” is a great song to pump you up. I don’t think I could possibly explain it better than author Jim Beviglia did in his book Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs when he said: “Every superhero worth a damn needs a great origin story. Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive insect. Superman crash landed from another planet and gained inhuman strength from Earth’s sun. Bruce Springsteen was hit by a saxophone blast from Clarence Clemons and made it his mission to save rock and roll.” You nerds can have Superman and Spiderman. Bruce Springsteen is my superhero and God bless the big man Clarence Clemons. 

24. Atlantic City (1982)
I’m not sure why – maybe it’s because Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band make a glorious cacophony of music together and it was as stripped as an album can possibly be – but I’ve never been as high on Nebraska as many of Springsteen’s other classic albums. “Atlantic City” is the track from Nebraska that’s always stood out to me the most. Maybe it’s because it feels like a song that likely could’ve or maybe even should’ve been on a different album. The lyrics are certainly dour but the music and performance aren’t quite as much as the rest of the album. The song tells about the mafia battling over control of the New Jersey coastal town, which legalized gambling in the late ‘70s. The chorus is one of Springsteen’s greatest and drew its inspiration from dialogue in director Louis Malle’s 1980 film of the same name when Hollis McLaren’s character says: “I don’t mind that Dave’s dead. It just means he’ll be reincarnated sooner, that’s all. Everything comes back.” The Band’s cover of “Atlantic City” on its 1993 album Jericho is my favorite cover of any Springsteen song. 

23. American Skin (41 Shots) (2001)
“American Skin (41 Shots)” might be Bruce Springsteen’s most controversial song of all time but it’s also proof he refuses to pull any punches when something important needs to be said. Springsteen wrote the song in response to the 1999 police shooting death of 23-year-old unarmed Guinean student Amadou Diallo when four plainclothes officers mistaking him for a rape suspect opened fire with 41 rounds, hitting Diallo 19 times. The officers were charged with second-degree murder, but as it so often happens with these police shootings, the officers were acquitted at trial. The E Street Band debuted the song, which includes a verse about an African-American mother having to teach her son about the different rules people of color have when stopped by police, in Atlanta on June 4, 2000. They would then perform the show at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden where the performance led to the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association calling for a boycott of Springsteen’s shows. A live performance was released on 2001’s Live in New York City. The song wouldn’t appear on an album until Springsteen’s High Hopes in 2014 with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello playing lead guitar on it. Springsteen had begun performing it again in concert following the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. The song has unfortunately been relevant ever since it was written without a whole lot of change.  

22. Streets of Philadelphia (1993)
“Streets of Philadelphia” is the song that made Bruce Springsteen an Oscar-winner (it would also win Song of the Year at the Grammys), but that honestly has little to do with why it’s such a fantastic song. It has such a different sound than most of Springsteen’s repertoire – more of a modern R&B, even with a hip-hop flavored drum beat (at least in the early ‘90s) than the classic R&B of the ‘60s that occasionally pops up in Springsteen’s music. Director Jonathan Demme wanted a song for his 1993 drama “Philadelphia,” which told the story of an attorney (played by Tom Hanks in his first Oscar-winning performance) who is fired by his firm after they discover he has AIDS. “Streets of Philadelphia” truly makes you feel sympathy for this character whose body is beginning to betray him, and society already has and is essentially dying alone. Springsteen reportedly drew inspiration for the lyrics after having recently lost a friend to cancer. I think “Streets of Philadelphia” is one of Springsteen’s best vocal performances.  

21. For You (1973)
In his 2019 book Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs writer Brian Hiatt says “[‘For You’] feels inappropriately frantic on [‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.,’ but I must disagree with that summation. After all, what’s more frantic than young love ending in suicide? The franticness in the performance – both the barely time to breath vocal from Springsteen and the fast-paced drums by Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez and organ playing by David Sancious, gives the song a yearning that feels realistic for a 22-year old who’s heart has been broken. If you prefer a slower version there are more solo piano-driven live versions out there for you. Springsteen wrote in his 2016 memoir Born to Run of the heartbreaker who inspired the song as a “drug-taking, hell-raising wild child … so alive, so funny and broken … She stirred up my Catholic school-bred messianic complex.”

20. Incident on 57th Street (1973)
“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 the lovers actually get away from this life. 

19. Devils & Dust (2005)
I’m never going to forget this as long as I live: On February 8, 2006, I was a senior in high school who had just gotten into Bruce Springsteen’s music recently and was watching him perform “Devils & Dust,” which was nominated for Song of the Year, on the Grammy Awards telecast. Springsteen performed the dark song from the perspective of a soldier fighting in a war, presumably the ongoing one in Iraq at the time, and not understanding why or who he could trust. Springsteen was on stage alone with just his guitar and harmonica and everything about this performance instantly resonated with me, especially when Springsteen ended the song and exclaimed: “Bring ‘em home!” It was such a simple performance and message and of all the performances that evening, which included Kanye West, U2, Mariah Carey, Gorillaz and more huge stars it was the standout performance. When Springsteen has something important on his mind that he wants to get out in song he seems to do it better than almost anybody and “Devils & Dust” is a fine example of it.  

18. Growin' Up (1973)
“Growin’ Up,” on Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 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. 

17. Racing in the Street (1978)
Wow. We’re really getting into the thick of the list now. Even sitting here writing this passage I can’t believe “Racing in the Street,” the epic about illegal street racing off 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, is only at No. 17. But then I scrolled up to remind myself of the 16 songs above it and think, “OK, fine, any of these could’ve been top five.” Everything about “Racing in the Street” is perfect. It’s like a movie that plays out in just under seven minutes set to music. It begins with this amazing somber piano playing from Roy Bittan that runs throughout the song, is joined by Danny Federici on organ about two minutes in and these performances musically fit the mood of this tale about a street racer who races for money at night because there’s not much better to do and it’s about the only kind of entertainment he can find and if it ends tragically so be it. The song certainly has its tragedies but not necessarily the kind you’d expect from a song about street racing, but with feelings of depression from a world you’re almost willing to kill yourself to escape. Sometimes music can be so damn beautiful in its sadness and the long solo from Bittan and Federici on their respective keys that ends the song is one of those shining moments. 

16. Spirit in the Night (1973)
“Spirit in the Night,” the penultimate track on 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.

15. Backstreets (1975)
Roy Bittan’s minute-plus long piano intro in “Backstreets,” which ends side one of Born to Run, is his most beautiful composition of the many beauties he performed with the E Street Band. In his review of Born to Run for Rolling Stone magazine journalist Greil Marcus said: “[Roy Bittan’s piano intro] might be the prelude to a rock & roll version of The Iliad.” Listening to this intro makes me think of James Cagney’s gangster crossing the street in the rain walking directly toward the camera with this menacing look on his face in “The Public Enemy.” But the song itself doesn’t have quite as violent of a story. It’s Springsteen reminiscing about the good old days of a relationship that burned bright but seemingly fast – some over the years have even debated whether or not the Terry he sings about was a man or woman and whether it was a romantic or platonic love. It doesn’t matter about the gender but I definitely feel like it was a romantic relationship. Born to Run is an album filled with cinematic songs that could all be their own little movies and “Backstreets” is one that might make you smile until you cry. 

14. I'm On Fire (1984)
“I’m On Fire” is about as short and sweet as Bruce Springsteen gets. It’s also the sexiest Springsteen gets – although some fools misinterpret the “hey little girl is your daddy home” line to mean something much more nefarious than is meant and screw those folks for doing so. The track off Born in the USA just oozes sensuality from the very beginning with Max Weinberg’s snare cross stick hits and the softly sensual twang of Springsteen’s guitar with the two together giving off the old Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two “boom-chicka-boom.” It’s simplistic, but shouldn’t a song about urges and sexual feelings be succinct and to the point? There is so much tension in this vocal and then the ending release of the “whoo-whoo-whoos” at the end. It’s the type of desire you don’t get a whole lot out of Springsteen’s discography but it’s a slam dunk here. 

13. Dancing in the Dark (1984)
“Dancing in the Dark,” off 1984’s Born in the USA, is the closest “The Boss” ever got to a No. 1 Billboard hit as a recording artist when it topped out at No. 2 for four weeks and was kept off the top spot by Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” (Boo!) and Prince’s “When Doves Cry” (OK, that’s understandable). “Dancing in the Dark” would, however, win Springsteen his first Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Rock Vocal Performance. The song is one of Springsteen’s poppier-sounding tunes of his career but just taking a listen at the lyrics lets you know it’s still the same old Springsteen ready to bust loose from a dead-end job or town and who can’t identify with lines like: “I check my look in the mirror/wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face/Man, I ain’t getting’ nowhere/I’m just livin’ in a dump like this/There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere/Baby, I just know that there is.” 

12. My Hometown (1984)
This might have me on the outskirts of many Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band fans but my favorite track off the epic Born in the USA album has always been the album-ender, “My Hometown.” It might be unusual because it’s an anthemic album that sent Springsteen from critical rock God to one seemingly everybody in the United States loved overnight and this track is more in line with something like the title track off The River – which now that I think about it was actually a great deal different than most of that album, as well. “My Hometown” sees Springsteen’s narrator both waxing nostalgia about his hometown and feeling all the dark times that have always bubbled under and now are about to breach the surface and knowing he needs to get out for the benefit of his family. It’s a mixture of beauty and pain and you can feel every bit of it via Springsteen’s almost pained vocal.  

11. Wrecking Ball (2012)
“Wrecking Ball” just seemed to be 100 percent Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band from my initial listen of it in 2012 off the album of the same name. It’s a song that sounds like Springsteen and the band could’ve written, recorded and performed it at nearly any point in their careers. It’s defiant. It’s ready to take on the world and it came about as the result of a frequent home of the band’s live shows in their home state of New Jersey being torn down when the NFL team that called it home got a new one. E Street Band guitarist, and Springsteen’s nearly lifelong best friend, Steven Van Zandt told Rolling Stone magazine in 2012: “Bruce wrote this song for our final shows at Giants Stadium in 2009 before they tore it down. It’s one of those road songs written for the band. But it’s become a bigger song than merely about a physical wrecking ball. We had a long conversation about whether it should be the title of our album. I thought once it’s elevated to the title of the album it actually will take on an additional metaphorical significance that can turn around the defensive negative implications of a wrecking ball smashing a structure or metaphorically smashing one’s past or history or dreams. There’s some of that in there. The song begins to say, ‘We are now the wrecking ball. We’re out here wrecking your passivity. We’re wrecking your acceptance of mediocrity. We’re out here living it with you in the pouring rain, we’re not afraid of anything. Bring on the wrecking ball.” The song was an important message for us E Street fans, especially after the death of Clarence Clemons and this being the first album for the band since (although this having been an older song is one of two he plays on on the album). The band may have been battered but they cannot be beaten.  

10. Long Walk Home (2007)
Magic was an important album for me as a young Bruce Springsteen fan when it was released in 2007 during my sophomore year in college. The George W. Bush presidency had gone haywire with a war in Iraq that we knew fairly early on was unnecessary, the economy was beginning to nosedive and there was an overall sense of dread overtaking the country (we were naïve to think at the time it couldn’t get worse). But on this album about these moments and feelings, there was a song that, while still holding those themes, gave me a bit of hope, although Springsteen let us know it wouldn’t be an easy journey right in his title and chorus of “Long Walk Home.” It’s a song that always gives me hope to continue fighting for a better future and depending on what’s going on in the world takes on different meanings each time I hear it. It was important enough for Springsteen that he used lines from it to endorse Democratic candidate Barack Obama for President in 2008. 

9. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) (1973)
“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” off The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, 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. 

8. The Promised Land (1978)
“The Promised Land,” off 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, may have my single favorite Bruce Springsteen chorus of any of these great songs on this list with the absolute defiance of: “The dogs on Main Street howl ‘cause they understand/If I could take one moment into my hands/Mister, I ain’t a boy, no, I’m a man/And I believe in the promised land.” Anytime I see or hear of folks trying to keep others down with their archaic laws or beliefs or simply think they know better because of their age or race or religion I can’t help but think of the rebelliousness of “Mister, I ain’t a boy, no, I’m a man/And I believe in the promised land.” I too believe in a promised land and it’s men like Springsteen that make me realize I’m not alone in this feeling and with battle cries like this one, we might one day make it to that promised land. 

7. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (1973)
“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. 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. 

6. The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
As with many singer-songwriters of his era, Bruce Springsteen was inspired by potentially the greatest of all folk singers Woody Guthrie. This led to his interest in Guthrie’s song “Tom Joad,” which took its inspiration from author John Steinbeck’s great work of American fiction The Grapes of Wrath. In Steinbeck’s book the character Tom Joad has this great monologue about fighting for the little guy and Springsteen built “The Ghost of Tom Joad” around this epic moment of literature, which appeared on Springsteen’s 1995 album of the same name. Tom Joad was a Depression/Dust Bowl-era character fighting against the ills of that time, but when Springsteen sings about the problems of the times in which he wrote his song many of those problems (rich getting richer, poor getting poor, etc.) are still major issues. So, the narrator of the song sees himself as a kindred spirit of Tom Joad. Guthrie, Steinbeck and Springsteen are all using Tom Joad to speak for the voiceless.       

5. The River (1980)
The River was supposed to be Bruce Springsteen’s foray into a poppier, radio-friendly type of rock music and much of the double album is but then there’s the title track, which is one of the most devastatingly depressing songs “The Boss” has ever written and recorded about a young man who’s forced to enter the real world very quickly once he gets his girl pregnant and poof goes any dreams of a better life. But was a better life really possible? The opening line states: “I come from down in the valley/where, mister, when you’re young/they bring you up to do/like your daddy done.” This is the story of many young folks throughout the decades of American life. In the first live performance of the song in 1979, Springsteen stated that “The River” was based on his sister and brother-in-law and in author Peter Ames Carlin’s 2012 biography Bruce there is an interview with Springsteen's sister, Ginny, in which she said the song is a precise description of her early life with her husband Mickey. Springsteen would then write in his 2016 autobiography Born to Run that the song was a tribute to Ginny and Mickey. It’s a pretty devastating and haunting tribute. 

4. Badlands (1978)
“Badlands,” off 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, has what’s probably my single favorite Bruce Springsteen lyric of all-time with: “Poor man wanna be rich/rich man wanna be a king/and a king ain’t satisfied/’til he rules everything.” “Badlands” is Springsteen at his most defiant. The world is pushing him down and he’s just about had enough – it’s something most of us who love his music so much have probably felt at moments in our own lives, I know I have. There’s a ferocity to the lyrics, music and performance of “Badlands” that makes you want to throw your fists in the air and scream along – Springsteen was said to be inspired by the punk records he was listening to at the time and you can tell. He told Rolling Stone magazine in 2010 that he would frequently come up with a great title first and then have to write the song to fit it. He said: “’Badlands’ – that’s a great title, but it would be easy to blow it! But I kept writing, and I kept writing, and I kept writing and writing until I had a song that I felt deserved that title.” Springsteen most definitely didn’t blow it. 

3. Jungleland (1975)
Bruce Springsteen wrote a good many epics in the ‘70s but none were as grand in scale as the Born to Run album ending “Jungleland.” World building isn’t something you see a whole lot in songwriting – there isn’t enough time, as most songs are two-to-four minutes long – but there’s an entire community built in “Jungleland,” the most cinematic of Springsteen’s output. We’re introduced at the beginning to our main characters: Magic Rat and the barefoot girl. We follow them through this glorious New York City night where everywhere you see and feel a mixture of love, desperation, violence, despair, danger, longing, escapism and so many other words that describe Springsteen’s entire ethos. All of this culminates in Clarence Clemons’s greatest saxophone solo of all time, which was actually a studio creation by Springsteen himself editing bits and pieces of multiple takes together in what Clemons said in his memoir Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales: “To me, that solo sounds like love.” The sax solo might sound like love – between Springsteen and Clemons, between Magic Rat and the barefoot girl – but the song quickly turns tragic in its finale, which finishes out the epic in a way that truly makes Springsteen New Jersey’s Shakespeare.  

2. Born to Run (1975)
After Bruce Springsteen’s first two albums, both released in 1973, failed to burst through to the mainstream despite critical acclaim, he knew he had to break through in a major way or else that might be the end of his promising career at its beginning. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Springsteen said: “I had these enormous ambitions for it. I wanted to make the greatest rock record that I’d ever heard. I wanted it to sound enormous, to grab you by your throat and insist that you take the ride, insist that you pay attention – not just to the music, but to live, to being alive.” Springsteen succeeded. “Born to Run” may very well be the greatest rock record ever recorded and it certainly grabbed us listeners by the throat and made us pay attention. Having truly become a Springsteen fan around the time I was leaving my hometown for a new world of college and adulthood I think it was the escapism of his music – trying to break free and find your way in the world – that worked its way into my mind, body and soul and has never left my bloodstream in the nearly two decades since. Born to Run, both the song and album, was my entry into this wondrous world of hope and I haven’t stopped running since because as the man says, “Someday, I don’t know when, we’re gonna get to that place where we really wanna go and we’ll walk in the sun.” 

1. Thunder Road (1975)
The opening harmonica, played by Bruce Springsteen, on “Thunder Road” mixed with that beauty of a piano piece by Roy Bittan just sets the stage perfectly for the beginning of both my favorite Springsteen album, Born to Run, and its opening track, my favorite Springsteen song. It sounds so tragic setting the stage for this young man ready to bust loose from his “town full of losers” with the girl of his dreams, but magic happens about a quarter of the way through the track when the whole E Street Band comes in and this tragedy turns into a world full of hopefulness. This is their one chance to make it out of this place and they’re going to take it. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Springsteen was sure the Born to Run album would begin with its title track until he wrote “Thunder Road.” Springsteen said: “’Thunder Road’ was just so obviously an opening, due to its intro. It just set the scene. There is something about the melody of ‘Thunder Road’ that suggests a new day, it suggests morning, it suggests something opening up.” For me, it suggested a new beginning – not only in life but with a brother in music – and like the song’s narrator and Mary, I’ve never turned back to what was left behind. Springsteen may have had two truly good albums under his belt by the time Born to Run came along, but with this opening track and statement his career truly took off and he hasn’t looked back in half a century since.