Lyric of the Week 
James Carr, “You’ve Got My Mind Messed Up”(0)
Though James Carr is probably best known for cutting the first (and some still say, best) version of Chips Moman and Dan Penn’s soul standard “Dark End Of The Street,” Carr, a troubled man who would not last long in the limelight, found his first real success in April 1966 with “You Got My Mind [...]
Martin Sexton, “Fall Like Rain”
Martin Sexton is the guy John Mayer calls “one of the most treasured singer-songwriters I’ve ever heard in my life.” Mayer must have first become acquainted with the Syracuse, New York-born artist when he was busking in Harvard Square while Mayer was a student at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. The two Boston transplants have [...]
Etta James, “I’d Rather Go Blind”
Last Friday, the renowned blues and R&B singer Etta James died at a hospital in Riverside, California, outside L.A. James had battled health problems and years of drug abuse, but died from complications of leukemia. Though James had an early hit in her career with a song called “Dance With Me, Henry” (also known as [...]
Chet Baker, “My Funny Valentine”
The West Coast jazz trumpeter Chet Baker took an obscure show tune about a boy named Val from the 1930s musical comedy Babes In Arms and turned it into an enduring and haunting jazz classic. “My Funny Valentine” was written by the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and premiered in Babes In [...]
More in this category:
- Kevin Gordon, “Colfax”
- Jackson Browne, “These Days”
- Ray Charles And Betty Carter, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
- The Smiths, “Half A Person”
- Hank Williams, “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive”
- Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, “Motorvatin’ Mama”
- Adele, “One And Only”
- Van Dyke Parks, “Come To The Sunshine”
- The Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
- The Velvet Underground And Nico, “Femme Fatale”
- Tom Waits, “New Year’s Eve”
- A.A. Bondy, “Surfer King”
- Stevie Nicks, “Everybody Loves You”
- Buddy Holly, “Not Fade Away”
- Laura Marling, “Goodbye England”
- Beirut, “The Rip Tide”
- Paul Simon, “Love And Hard Times”
- Slaid Cleaves, “Horseshoe Lounge”
- The Felice Brothers, “Cus’s Catskill Gym”
- Wagons, “I Blew It”
- Dawes, “Time Spent In Los Angeles”
- Bon Iver, “Calgary”
- Gillian Welch, “Hard Times”
- Vetiver, “Worse For Wear”
- Mickey Newbury, “Better Days”
- Steve Earle, “This City”
- Grayson Capps, “Coconut Moonshine”
- Bill Callahan, “One Fine Morning”
- Bruce Springsteen, “Jungleland”
- Gary Nicholson, “Same Kind Of Crazy”
- Taylor Swift, “Mean”
- Alison Krauss, “Paper Airplane”
- Jessica Lea Mayfield, “Our Hearts Are Wrong”
- Derek & The Dominos, “Bell Bottom Blues”
- The Band, “Katie’s Been Gone”
- Waylon Jennings, “Good Hearted Woman”
- “Something’s Gonna Happen,” Marshall Crenshaw
- “Stroke It Noel,” Big Star
- Bright Eyes, “One For You, One For Me”
- KORT, “Incredibly Lonely”
- “Go-Go Boots,” The Drive-By Truckers
- “The Trapeze Swinger,” Iron & Wine
- “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” Hayes Carll
- “Golden,” My Morning Jacket
- “We Belong Together,” Randy Newman
- “Junior’s Farm,” Paul McCartney
