My Favorite Bruce Songs

Getting ready for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Austin this past Thursday night I went through all of his studio albums and picked out my favorites. Yes, some of his biggest songs are missing. Yes, the list might change on another day. You'll see that I favor those songs with the tightest lyrics, that flow with the music, that make you want to sing along. Here they are, in chronological order. And here's the Spotify playlist.

I got into Bruce with his 1973 album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, and then soon went back and picked up his first album, from earlier in 1973, Greetings From Asbury Park. I love a lot of those songs but it wasn't until Born to Run came out in 1975 (the one that landed him on the covers of Newsweek and Time, back when that was a big thing) that I feel that Bruce tightened his songwriting and music and produced some of the best rock 'n' roll ever.

Thunder Road (1975)

This is Bruce's masterpiece, the lyrics are required learning for any would-be Bruce fan. He wrote this when he was about 25:

So you're scared and you're thinking

That maybe we ain't that young anymore

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night

You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright

Oh, and that's alright with me

Born to Run (1975)

For this song Bruce wanted to marry the power of a Roy Orbison vocal with a Phil Spector-type wall of sound. Has any song been more clear about what it's trying to say than this opening stanza?

In the day we sweat it out on the streets

Of a runaway American dream

At night we ride through the mansions of glory

In suicide machines

Sprung from cages on Highway 9

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line

Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap

We gotta get out while we're young

'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run

The crazy thing, as we recently learned in his podcasts with Obama, is that Bruce probably didn't know how to drive when he wrote this! 

After his long legal fight to gain control of his publishing, which left him near broke, Bruce returned in 1978 to spit in the face of anyone who tried to hold him down with the album Darkness On the Edge of Town, which included three of my favorites.

Badlands (1978)

I might have shouted these words the loudest Thursday night, and yes, it's still no sin!

For the ones who have a notion, a notion deep inside

That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive

I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me

I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday

Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay

Keep movin' till it's understood

And these badlands start treating us good

 

The Promised Land (1978)

Only the dogs understand!

The dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand

If I could reach one moment into my hands

Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man

And I believe in a promised land

Big Man sax break and then: 

Well there's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor

I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm

Gonna be a twister to blow everything down

That ain't got the faith to stand its ground

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart

Blow away the dreams that break your heart

Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

Bruce has shown us he has that faith for fifty years! 

Darkness On the Edge of Town (1978)

Does your spine tingle when Max hits the drum after the first verse and then, "Well if she wants to see me..."? Mine does.

Well they're still racing out at the Trestles

But that blood it never burned in her veins

Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview

And a style she's trying to maintain

Well, if she wants to see me

You can tell her that I'm easily found

Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge

And tell her

There's a darkness on the edge of town

There's a darkness on the edge of town

Bruce put out The River, a double-record set, in 1980. So many great songs but two, very different, songs have stayed with me.

Sherry Darling (1980)

Maybe Bruce's most fun song to sing along with, this non-PC song takes no prisoners! My daughter Dara always plays this for me on our way back to our Massachusetts lake house from Yankee Stadium to power our drive.

Your Mamma's yapping in the back seat

Tell her to push over and move them big feet

Every Monday morning I gotta drive her down to the unemployment agency

Well this morning I ain't fighting tell her I give up

Tell her she wins if she'll just shut up

But it's the last time that she's gonna be riding with me

You can tell her there's a hot sun beating on the black top

She keeps talking she'll be walking that last block

She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight

Well I got some beer and the highway's free

And I got you, and baby, you've got me

Hey, hey, hey what you say, Sherry Darling?

Wreck on the Highway (1980)

This might be Bruce's tightest song. The story just flows:

Last night I was out driving

Coming home at the end of the working day

I was riding alone through the drizzling rain

On a deserted stretch of a county two-lane

When I came upon a wreck on the highway

There was blood and glass all over

And there was nobody there but me

As the rain tumbled down hard and cold

I seen a young man lying by the side of the road

He cried, "Mister, won't you help me please?"

An ambulance finally came and took him to Riverside

I watched as they drove him away

And I thought of a girlfriend or a young wife

And a state trooper knocking in the middle of the night

To say your baby died in a wreck on the highway

Sometimes I sit up in the darkness

And I watch my baby as she sleeps

Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight

I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway

In 1984 came the Born in the USA album, which made Bruce a superstar. All great songs but I'm picking just one.

My Hometown (1984)

Bruce wrote about his hometown in the late 60s. Almost exactly the same thing happened in my hometown, Ossining, NY. "There was nothing you could do", was exactly how I felt.

In '65 tension was running high

At my high school

There was a lot of fights

Between the black and white

There was nothing you could do

Two cars at a light on a Saturday night

In the back seat there was a gun

Words were passed, a shotgun blast

Troubled times had come

To my hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows

And vacant stores

Seems like there ain't nobody

Wants to come down here no more

They're closing down the textile mill

Across the railroad tracks

Foreman says, these jobs are going, boys

And they ain't coming back

To your hometown

In 1987 Bruce released Brilliant Disguise, recorded during a time when his first marriage, to Julianne Phillips, was falling apart, and his relationship with his backup singer, Patti Scialfa, was beginning. These two songs show his increasing maturity and vulnerability about relationships.

Tougher Than the Rest (1987)

The road is dark and it's a thin thin line

But I want you to know I'll walk it for you any time

Maybe your other boyfriends couldn't pass the test

Well, if you're rough and ready for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Check out the video for this song for a real treat. While still officially married to Julianne you can see Bruce and Patti making goo-goo eyes at each other!

Walk Like a Man (1987)

Such a touching song, based on Bruce's relationship with his father, but doesn't it make you reflect on your own relationship with your father?

I remember how rough your hand felt on mine

On my wedding day

And the tears cried on my shoulder

I couldn't turn away

Well so much has happened to me

That I don't understand

All I can think of is being five years old following behind you at the beach

Tracing your footprints in the sand

Trying to walk like a man

By Our Lady Of The Roses

We lived in the shadow of the elms

I remember ma draggin' me and my sister up the street to the church

Whenever she heard those wedding bells

Well would they ever look so happy again

The handsome groom and his bride

As they stepped into that long black limousine

For their mystery ride

Well tonight you step away from me

And alone at the altar I stand

And as I watch my bride coming down the aisle I pray

For the strength to walk like a man

Well now the years have gone and I've grown

From that seed you've sown

But I didn't think there'd be so many steps

I'd have to learn on my own

Well I was young and I didn't know what to do

When I saw your best steps stolen away from you

Now I'll do what I can

I'll walk like a man

And I'll keep on walkin'

Bruce released two albums simultaneously in 1992, Human Touch and Lucky Town, without the E Street Band. These two come from Human Touch:

Human Touch (1992)

Incredible song about basic human needs. First Bruce says it in the words:

I ain't lookin' for praise or pity

I ain't comin' 'round searchin' for a crutch

I just want someone to talk to

And a little of that human touch

Just a little of that human touch

Then, with the guitar. Then the most important line:

Oh girl, that feeling of safety you prize

Well, it comes with a hard hard price

You can't shut off the risk and pain

Without losin' the love that remains

We're all riders on this train

I Wish I Were Blind (1982)

Some of Bruce's prettiest writing and most desperate singing, although I think you would have to say the character is stalking his ex! One of my favorite songs to sing along with.

I love to see the cottonwood blossom

In the early spring

I love to see the message of love

That the bluebird brings

But when I see you walkin' with him

Down along the strand

I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man   

 

I love to see your hair shining

In the long summer's light

I love to watch the stars fill the sky

On a summer night

The music plays you take his hand

I watch how you touch him as you start to dance

And I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man

We struggle here but all our love's in vain

Well these eyes that once filled me with your beauty

Now fill me with pain

And the light that once entered here

Is banished from me

And this darkness is all baby that my heart sees 

And though the world is filled

With the grace and beauty of God's hand

Oh I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man

 

1995's The Ghost of Tom Joad was Bruce's most political album. The writing on one song in particular is so crisp and tells such an important story it made this list.

Youngstown (1995)

Here in northeast Ohio, back in 1803

James and Danny Heaton found the ore that was lining Yellow Creek

They built a blast furnace here along the shore

And they made the cannonballs that helped the Union win the war

Here in Youngstown

Here in Youngstown

My sweet Jenny, I'm sinking down

Here, darling, in Youngstown

... 

Well, my daddy come on the Ohio works

When he come home from World War II

Now the yard's just scrap and rubble

He said "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"

These mills, they built the tanks and bombs

That won this country's wars

We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam

Now we're wondering what they were dying for

Bruce watched the World Trade Towers collapse from the Jersey shore and released The Rising the following year. 

The Rising (2002)

The title song starts as a tribute to the first responders and ends in a prayer.

Can't see nothing in front of me

Can't see nothing coming up behind

Make my way through this darkness

I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me

Lost track of how far I've gone

How far I've gone, how high I've climbed

On my back's a sixty pound stone

On my shoulder, a half-mile of line

...

I see you Mary in the garden

In the garden of a thousand sighs

There's holy pictures of our children

Dancing in a sky filled with light

May I feel your arms around me

May I feel your blood mix with mine

A dream of life comes to me

Like a catfish dancing on the end of the line

Sky of blackness and sorrow (A dream of life)

Sky of love, sky of tears (A dream of life)

Sky of glory and sadness (A dream of life)

Sky of mercy, sky of fear (A dream of life)

Sky of memory and shadow (A dream of life)

Your burning wind fills my arms tonight

Sky of longing and emptiness (A dream of life)

Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life (A dream of life)

Come on up for the rising

Come on up, lay your hands in mine

Come on up for the rising

Come on up for the rising tonight

 

Mary's Place (2002)

I love this song for its energy, for its defiance in the face of tragedy, for its knowledge that music can heal a broken heart. It starts out as a house party:

I got seven pictures of Buddha, the prophet's on my tongue

Eleven angels of mercy sighing over that black hole in the sun

My heart's dark but it's rising, I'm pulling all the faith I can see

From that black hole on the horizon, I hear your voice calling me

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Meet me at Mary's place, we're going to have a party

Meet me at Mary's place, we're going to have a party

Tell me how do we get this thing started?

Meet me at Mary's place

Meet me at Mary's place

 

Familiar faces around me, laughter fills the air

Your loving grace surrounds me, everybody's here

Furniture's out on the front porch, music's up loud

I dream of you in my arms, I lose myself in the crowd

 

I got a picture of you in my locket, I keep it close to my heart

This light shining in my breast, leading me through the dark

Seven days, seven candles in my window, lighting your way

Your favorite record's on the turntable, I drop the needle and pray (Turn it up)

And then all of a sudden we're at a concert

Band's counting out midnight, floor's rumbling loud (Turn it up)

Singer's calling up daylight, waiting for that shout from the crowd (Turn it up)

Waiting for that shout from the crowd (Turn it up)

Fast forward to the end of the decade, to another attack on Americans, this one by Americans. Bruce responded with Wrecking Ball.

Death To My Hometown (2012)

This extremely powerful song, in the form of an Irish jig, addresses the financial crisis, caused by men whose crimes have still gone unpunished. His response: rally the people to fight back through song!

Oh, no cannonballs did fly, no rifles cut us down

No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground

No powder flash blinded the eye, no deathly thunder sound

But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my hometown

They brought death to my hometown

No shells ripped the evening sky, no cities burning down

No armies stormed the shores for which we’d die

No dictators were crowned

I awoke from a quiet night, I never heard a sound

Marauders raided in the dark and brought death to my hometown, buys

Death to my hometown

 

They destroyed our families’ factories and they took our homes

They left our bodies on the plains, the vultures picked our bones

So listen up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come

For they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun

Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it ’til you’re done

Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well

Send the robber barons straight to hell

The greedy thieves who came around

And ate the flesh of everything they found

Whose crimes have gone unpunished now

Who walk the streets as free men now

Bruce's most recent album of original material, Letter To You, has some of his finest writing. The title song definitely belongs on this list!

Letter To You (2020)

I view the letter as a summation of all the thoughts he's put in all his songs. We'll see if it represents the capstone of his career or just the encapsulation of the first 50 years!

I took all the sunshine and rain

All my happiness and all my pain

The dark evening stars

And the morning sky of blue

And I sent it in my letter to you

I'm Dave Jaffe, that's right, a real DJ!

Over the past month I trained to become a DJ on KOOP, an Austin community radio station. The music I want to play is, of course, rocknrollcountrysoul!

I did a few sets on a KOOP show called the Lonesome Stranger as part of my DJ training. They're a bit rough but I think I'm starting to find the groove. You can listen using the following links. I recommend you download the MP3s to your device before playing:

12/1/2022 - w/ Honest John - West Texas, Rodeo, Tequila songs

12/8/2022 - w/ Dillon Minacci - Black Opry, Indigenous Americana

12/15/2022 - w/ Yanceman - Hippies Doing Country Music, Okie From Muskogee answer songs

I passed the training right before Christmas and joined the Lonesome Stranger collective as their 5th DJ, so I will do the 5th Thursday of the month, the first one of which is March 30, plus possibly substitute before then. The show streams on koop.org at 9 am Central on Thursdays and the recording is available afterwards. With my travel schedule I can't have my own weekly show but I am trying to find a partner to share one with. Stay tuned!

My Thanksgiving 2022 Playlist

My Thanksgiving 2022 Playlist

There was so much great new music this year that my Thanksgiving playlist (Spotify link) is mainly new stuff and I moved a bunch of great old stuff into a second playlist!

Recorded while Yola was working with the Highwomen on their album, her anthem Hold On kicks it off. Highwomen Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby, as well as Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell are on the track as well.

Next, a little East Bay grease for ya'll: fifty years later Tower of Power still blows the doors off with You're Still a Young Man.

Los Lobos put out the Grammy-winning (Best Americana Album) Native Sons this year, full of covers of the LA songs they grew up with. Here's their version of War's The World is a Ghetto.

The Iguanas' Oye Isabel is on here for my friend Max, who had a daughter, Isabelle, this year with his wife Kate. This is his life in about 18 years!

The next two songs feature Black Country/Americana singers that opened for Jason Isbell during his 2021 Ryman Auditorium residency (see Tressie McMillan Cottam's excellent piece on it), Brittney Spencer's Sober & Skinny and Shemekia Copeland's Too Far To Be Gone.

Miranda Lambert earned herself another Grammy nomination (Best Country Song) with her take on gender roles and cowboy myths in If I Was a Cowboy.

My personal song of the year, nominated for Grammys in the  Best Song, Best American Roots Song, and  Album of the Year categories, is Bonnie Raitt's powerful Just Like That:

I spent so long in darkness

Never thought the night would end

But somehow grace has found me

And I had to let him in

Bruce had a lot of fun recording his new album of soul covers, Only the Strong Survive. Here's his take on Jimmy Ruffin's What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.

Next, a few songs by Texans about drinking tequila, Miranda Lambert's Tequila Does (dedicated to my wife Leslie) and Midland's The Last Resort.

One of the highlights of Americana Fest this year was a panel discussion on Indigenous Americana, led by Shoshona Kish and Amanda Rheaume of Ishkode Records, and then a showcase featuring their bands. Rheaume's 100 Years addresses the recent revelations of the deaths of Native children in Canadian residential schools and the awakening of Native people:

Can you feel the heat

Underneath your feet

Rising on the land, stirring in the street

Waking from a hundred years of sleep

A hundred years of sleep

A hundred years of sleep

After hanging out with Joni Mitchell so frequently over the last few years, Brandi Carlile re-recorded her 2021 album In These Silent Days as In The Canyon Haze with a Laurel Canyon feel and Crosby, Stills and Nash-type harmonies. Here's  the new version of You and Me On The Rock. (Be sure to check out the videos of Joni and Brandi at the Newport Folk Festival if you haven't already).

At the Americana Awards his year Brandi won Best Song for Right on Time (on last year's Thanksgiving playlist) and Allison Russell won Best Album for Outside Child (featuring Persephone and Night Flyer, also on last year's playlist). Then they premiered You're Not Alone.

He's Fine is a catchy tune from The Secret Sisters. I would not like to be a real person named Davey White.

Austinite Sunny Sweeney has a fine new song, Easy as Hello.

I wanted to include Amarillo By Morning by George Strait but it didn't fit in anywhere else so here it is. The fiddle is beautiful, especially the long solo at the end.

We lost three amazing women in the past year. Native Austinite Nanci Griffith wrote some great songs, including Listen to the Radio. In it she namechecks badass Loretta Lynn, so let's add her Fist City which includes the immortal line, "But the man I love, when he picks up trash, he puts it in a garbage can". And we would be remiss not to honor Ronnie Spector, here singing on The Ronettes' Be My Baby.

The 2022 Americana Festival and Awards

My wife Leslie and I finally got to Nashville in September for the Americana Festival and Awards. We've been planning to do this since 2020 with our friends Donald Cohen and Madeline Janis. I'm kinda glad we waited because our new favorite singer, Allison Russell, won Best Album for her first solo album, Outside Child (see my blog post about her).

Overall the festival was a ton of fun, made even more special by Donald's knowledge of the music and relationships with many of the fine musicians present, including Alisa Amador and Ali McGuirk. We spent a few enjoyable days in Nashville prior to the fest, catching up with old friends and touring the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Johnny Cash museum.

Diversity was a strong theme of this year's fest, with Allison Russell and The War and Treaty winning awards, and Al Bell of Stax Records receiving a Lifetime Achievement award. A panel on Indigenous Americana, led by Shoshona Kish and Amanda Rheaume of Ishkode Records was eye opening and led us to attend their showcase later where Kish's band, Digging Roots, and Rheaume rocked!

Another fascinating panel, at the Country Music Hall of Fame, featured the Black Opry, a group of African-American country music lovers under the leadership of Holly G, with Aaron Vance, Nikki Morgan, Julie Williams and The Kentucky Gentlemen. All of the artists played a few of their songs, representing the range of roots music from blues to soul to indie rock to pure country.

Musically the highlight of the week for me was my discovery of Amanda Rheaume, a member of the Metis (Indigenous/French) Nation of Canada. She sings with a compelling intensity, with eyes that seem to make contact with you, even when you're at the back of the hall. Her songs combine the history of Indigenous people with her own personal experiences. One Hundred Years deals with awakening of Native people in response to, among other things, the recent revelations of the Canadian government's treatment of Native students, with thousands dying in residential schools:

Can you feel the heat

Underneath your feet

Rising on the land, stirring in the street

Waking from a hundred years of sleep

A hundred years of sleep

A hundred years of sleep

In Do About Her Rheaume sings forcefully about her experiences growing up with both Indigenous and settler lineage and not being accepted by either:

She's not quite an Indian girl

She's not quite a white girl either

Her heart beats in both worlds

What we gonna do about hеr?

Put a bullet or a blanket out for her

 

And I got a chance to chat up the fabulous Marissa Moss, author of the recent book Her Country on the struggles women have faced breaking through in country music and getting played on country radio (see my blog post about this great book). We talked about why many of these stars had to leave Texas for Nashville (the three singers she focused on - Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton - plus others like Miranda Lambert and Amanda Shires are all Texans!).

Why Allison Russell Should Win All the Major Americana Awards

After a two-year wait due to Covid, my wife Leslie and I are finally going to Nashville next week for the Americana Music Association's Americanafest. It's four days of nonstop keynotes, panels, and music performances all around Nashville, plus the 21st annual Americana Honors & Awards.

I've been a big fan of Allison Russell since her time in Our Native Daughters (the group she formed with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah, four Black female banjo players) and her first solo album, Outside Child, released last year and  produced by Dan Knobler, has just blown me away. Her personal story of  survival from and triumph over a decade of abuse at the hands of her stepfather (see this NPR piece), coupling that with the survival of enslaved people (she wrote Quasheba about her enslaved ancestor for Our Native Daughters), is reflected throughout this powerful album.

Three songs from Outside Child stand out for me:

Persephone (written with her husband Jeremy Lindsay aka JT Nero) is Russell's homage to her first love, a girl with whom Russell would take refuge from her stepfather. It's a rockin', toe-tapping, great to sing along with, joyful song of overcoming adversity and first love:

Blood on my shirt, two ripped buttons

Might’ve killed me that time, oh if I’d let him

He’s slow when he’s drunk, and he lost his grip on me

Now I’m running down La Rue St. Paul

Trying to get out from the weight of it all

Can’t flag a cop ’cause I know he won’t stop

I’ll go see Persephone 

 

Tap tap tappin’ on your window screen

Gotta let me in, Persephone

Got nowhere to go, but I had to get away from him

My petals are bruised, but I’m still a flower

Come runnin’ to you in the violet hour

Put your skinny arms around me, let me taste your skin  

 

Mouth to mouth, mouth to flower

Salty sweet, you give me power

I feel you shake under my lips

Your fingers tender find my secrets

Don’t make a sound, don’t cry out, love

Your parents are sleeping just above

I kiss you once, I kiss you twice

Fall asleep looking in each other’s eyes

But the night must end and then it's

Back to the cold’s bite, back to the hard life

Back to the harsh bright street 

Nightflyer's chorus echoes two great rock songs:

Yeah, I'm a midnight rider

Stone bona fide night flyer

I'm an angel of the morning too

The promise that the dawn will bring you, you

The verses are filled with lush imagery celebrating her triumph over the abuse:

His soul is trapped in that room

But I crawled back in my mother's womb

Came back out with my gold and my greens

Now I see everything

Now I feel everything, Good Lord

What the hell could they bring to stop me, Lord?

Nothing from the earth, nothing from the sea

Not a God Almighty thing 

 

I'm the wounded bird, I'm the screaming hawk

I'm the one who can't be counted out

I'm the dove thrown into battle

I can roll and shake and rattle hm-mm, hm-mm

I'm the moon's dark side, I'm the solar flare

The child of the Earth, the child of the Air

I am The Mother of the Evening Star

I am the Love that Conquers All

Nothing is going to stop Allison Russell! 

4th Day Prayer is another empowering song about rising up against hate:

Father used me like a wife

Mother turned the blindest eye

Stole my body, spirit, pride

He did, he did each night 

 

From the coast of Africa

To the hills of Grenada

To the cold of Montreal

That whip, that whip still falls

The chorus exhorts us to stand against the hate: 

One for the hate that loops and loops

Two for the poison at the roots

Three for the children breaking through

Four for the day we're standing in the sun

So I'm definitely rooting for Allison Russell to win Album of the Year for Outside Child, Song of the Year for Persephone (it could have been Nightflyer, which was nominated for Grammys in Best American Roots Song and Performance) and Artist of the Year. Let's take a look at her competitors.

Album of the Year

Outside Child's competitors for Album of the Year are:

• "In These Silent Days," Brandi Carlile; Produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings
• "Raise The Roof," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; Produced by T Bone Burnett
• "A Southern Gothic," Adia Victoria; Produced by Mason Hickman and Adia Victoria, Executive Produced by T Bone Burnett
• "Stand For Myself," Yola; Produced by Dan Auerbach

I think Brandi Carlile will be Russell's main competitor in all three categories. In These Silent Days is a great album, like we've come to expect from Carlile, with several excellent songs like Right on Time. I was glad to see Adia Victoria and Yola, two new Black women singers, recognized. I never got the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss pairing. She can do a lot better! Several great albums but I'm gonna go with Outside Child.

Song of the Year

The other nominees for SOTY are:

• “Canola Fields,” James McMurtry; Written by James McMurtry
• “Diamond Studded Shoes,” Yola; Written by Dan Auerbach, Natalie Hemby, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Yola
• “Juanita,” Sturgill Simpson feat. Willie Nelson; Written by Sturgill Simpson
• “Right On Time,” Brandi Carlile; Written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth

Right on Time, a powerful ballad in the style of her songs The Story and The Joke shows off Carlile's vocal range and songwriting ability. Yola's Diamond Studded Shoes is a strong conciousness-raising song. I love Sturgill and Willie but they've each done better songs than this. And I actually like Canola Fields, from an artist I've never enjoyed, despite his being from Austin and the son of Texas royalty. Persephone beats these fine songs.

Artist of the Year

For Artist of the Year we have Russell and:

• Brandi Carlile
• Jason Isbell
• Billy Strings
• Yola

Either Carlile or John Prine has won this award for the last five years and she could quite well win it again. Jason Isbell is my favorite current singer but his main contribution in 2021 was the release of Georgia Blue, a record of covers of Georgia songs that Isbell promised if Georgia went for Biden, with proceeds going to voting registration organizations. Major props to him for the courage to cover Otis Redding's I've Been Loving You Too Long! Yola and the multi-instrumentalist Billy Strings are up-and-coming stars and will have their day. But this is Allison Russell's year!

Her Country by Marissa R. Moss

 I just finished a fine new book about the women of country music, Her Country, How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be, by Marissa R. Moss, a superb Nashville-based music writer. I used her Rolling Stone reporting on the Highwomen extensively in my 2020 blogpost on that fine supergroup (A Deeper Dive Into The Highwomen).

Focusing on Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton, Moss tells the story of the struggles that women have had to go through in the last twenty years to get played on country radio, once abundant with the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, etc., etc. Between consultants telling radio programmers that their audience only wants to hear one female artist per hour, sexual harassment from DJs and programmers, and resistance to weed- and gay-friendly lyrics (Musgraves) or Black voices (Guyton), these three and many other women have had to force their way into the national conversation.

As a reporter covering the Nashville scene for the past decade, with close access to all these artists, Moss presents a compelling story of the rise of these artists and many others including Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark and Brittney Spencer. I found her description of the Nashville music scene especially fascinating, how the musicians agree to write together during the day, then play together in clubs and living rooms at night; how singer/songwriters face the choice of having their best work covered by established artists or hold on to the song for their own breakout vehicle.

Until reading this book I never realized how the banishment of The Chicks from country radio after lead singer Natalie Maines blasted George W. Bush for the Iraq invasion was so profoundly received in Nashville, forcing progressive country singers there to "shut up and sing" for years.

Of course the story of women in country music is a work in progress and I found two areas that I would like to see Moss (or someone else) explore further:

The first is the economics of country music and the reliance on country radio airplay. Several of the artists mentioned in the book broke through using non-traditional channels such as Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM Radio, or Country Music Television. Can a country singer thrive financially without airplay on mainstream country radio?  Many country-adjacent Americana artists like Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell seem to be doing okay, although I don't have career earning figures at my disposal compared to, say, Tim McGraw.

The second question I have concerns the fact that Musgraves, Morris and Guyton are Texans, as are Miranda Lambert and Highwoman Amanda Shires. Why did these women have to leave Texas for Nashville to make it? As an Austin resident for almost four decades, I have become used to country radio ignoring our biggest stars like Kelly Willis, Joe Ely and Robert Earl Keen. I rarely hear the new breed of Texas country artists like Josh Abbott, Cody Johnson or Midland on traditional country radio. Since Willie Nelson fled Nashville in the early '70s for Austin the Texas music scene has flourished and has had a definite impact on Nashville country but hasn't lifted many local artists to national prominence. What's your take on that Marissa?

Texas Waltz Playlist

Here are 26 Texas songs I love, arranged in a somewhat geographical manner. So put it on and get ready to waltz across Texas. Here's the Spotify link.

Let's kick it off with Gary P. Nunn telling us What I Like About Texas. My buddy Venancio Figueroa has created a great video that goes along with the song. Here's the link.

You ask me what I like about Texas
I tell you it's the wide open spaces!
It's everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande.
It's the Llano Estacado,
It's the Brazos and the Colorado;
Spirit of the people down here who share this land!

We're going to start our tour in Austin where, Waylon Jennings will tell you, Bob Wills Is Still The King.

Then we'll bring back Gary P. for his classic London Homesick Blues (Home With the Armadillo).

Now we head down I35 to San Antonio. We're going to hear two versions of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys' San Antonio Rose. The original was an instrumental with those twin Texas fiddles and pedal steel guitar. This was a hit, but the record company wanted a version with lyrics so Tommy Duncan wrote and sang the New San Antonio Rose, with more of the big band instrumentation the Playboys were known for.

San Antonio's Doug Sahm made his fame with Mendocino in California with his band the Sir Douglas Quintet but came back to Texas in 1972 and recorded (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone, which had been a 1970 hit for Charley Pride.

We leave town to Tish Hinojosa's autobiographical West Side Of Town and head down to the border.

My favorite version of The Streets of Laredo was song by a guy who's not from Texas but it's Johnny Cash so we'll let it slide.

Next we swing back up to the Texas Hill Country for Waylon and Willie's Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love).

Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood could happen anywhere in Texas but I'm placing it in the Hill Country to commemorate the adventure we had picking up our kids from their camps in Hunt, Texas when the Guadalupe overflowed!

Now we take a left turn and head out west, where Marty Robbins will spin a tale of old El Paso.

Lubbock's Butch Hancock wrote the classic West Texas Waltz but I like the way his Flatlanders bandmate Joe Ely sings it more.

From Lubbock we head up 87, the Amarillo Highway. Terry Allen wrote it but I prefer Robert Earl Keen's version better. More from REK later.

I don't wear no Stetson
But I'm willin' to bet son
That I'm as big a Texan as you are

Can't have a Texas playlist without George Strait's Amarillo By Morning.

We'll stay up in the Panhandle for a minute to catch Texas country music supergroup The Panhandlers' West Texas in My Eye, written by Charlie Stout. Check out the video with William Clark Green, John Baumann, Cleto Cordero and Josh Abbott taking turns on the verses.

Lately I've been thinking that I could leave this town
I'd cut back on my drinking, stop this running 'round
Playing songs 'til after midnight, staying up till dawn
There's something in the dust and wind that keeps me hanging on
And I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd say goodbye
I ain't crying, that's west Texas in my eye

From the Panhandle we head down to Dallas, Jimmie Dale Gilmore's song. Once again we are going with his Flatlanders bandmate Joe Ely's version.

You can't have a playlist about Texas without Tanya Tucker's Texas (When I Die).

Texas Sun by Houston's Khruangbin, with a vocal by Fort Worth's Leon Bridges, is a little tour of Texas by itself.

I had to include Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks, which is clearly about Texas even if it doesn't mention Texas. If I had to pick one voice that represents Texas it would be Natalie Maines's!

Sir Douglas Quintet's Texas Tornado starts out in Port Aransas and wipes out a bunch of Texas cities includes Galveston, Amarillo, Houston and Corpus Christi.

Speaking of Corpus, Robert Earl Keen tells us about life on the Corpus Christi Bay.

From the coast we'll head back toward Houston.

The Yellow Rose of Texas goes back to the 1840s. Many historians believe it is about Emily Morgan, a free mulatto working for Capt. James Morgan in 1836 whom Santa Anna met when his army came through what is now the Houston area in pursuit of the Texian army under the leadership of Sam Houston. To get at her, Santa Anna stopped in an indefensible position in San Jacinto, and was in his tent with her when the Texians attacked and routed the much larger Mexican army. Santa Anna was captured and was traded back to Mexico in exchange for Texas's freedom. Everybody in the world has recorded this song, from Gene Autry to Mitch Miller. My favorite, by Artie Morris, is not available on Spotify, so I'm going with Texan Michael Martin Murphey's version.

Houston's most successful musical export of course is Beyoncé and this is her song about her father, Daddy Lessons. I picked the version where she is backed up by The Chicks. What a combination!

Before we leave the town, we need to hear Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers' Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer To You).

Asleep at the Wheel are from Philadelphia but they have been the biggest proponent of Western Swing since they got here in the 70s so let's celebrate this road trip with Miles and Miles of Texas. And, yes, I'm gonna live here until I die.

I hoped you enjoyed this Waltz Across Texas. Take us home, Ernest Tubb!