Looking at old photographs is usually a happy occasion, reminding people of great memories and good times. Context is everything, however, and photos can sting if the person in the picture and the person viewing the picture are no longer part of each other’s big picture. That’s the set-up for The Cure’s “Pictures Of You,” [...]

The most powerful songs are quite often the ones that are written from a writer’s own experience, and such is the case with “I Drink” by Mary Gauthier. From Gauthier’s 1999 album Drag Queens In Limousines, “I Drink” is the story of an alcoholic who seems resigned to, maybe even satisfied with, the life of [...]

Syd Barrett was really only an active participant on one Pink Floyd album, their enchanting 1967 debut The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, before drug abuse exacerbated pre-existing mental problems and forced the band to fire him. Yet his influence and inspiration on the four members of the group lasted well into the next [...]

Writing a good love song, one that will bring tears to a woman’s eyes quicker than a dozen roses (or in the case of a man’s eyes, maybe quicker than tickets to a NASCAR race), is one of the hardest things any writer can do. Paul McCartney’s written a few that are part of pop [...]

It’s sort of an answer record to an answer record. Or maybe it’s the last act in a trilogy. Whatever you want to call it, “Ronnie And Neil” by Drive-By Truckers is part of a continuum of rock songs that deal with the rich, complicated history of the American South and the way that history [...]

Unless you’ve been living in a Twitter-proof bunker for the past week, you’re probably aware of a certain cringeworthy country-rap collaboration that has mortified the music world. The less said about that mess, the better, but rest assured that there is a way for a songwriter to describe a complex heritage with honesty, pride, and [...]

They had a name that sounded like the house band for a Muzak company, and they released albums with drawings of ornate spaceships on the covers. It was a recipe for a debacle, but Electric Light Orchestra also had a genius at the helm in Jeff Lynne, who peppered the airwaves in the late 70’s [...]

Few popular music performers have been as polarizing as John Denver was. The man sold tens of millions of albums and was adored by fans of pop, adult contemporary and country. At the same time, he was downright reviled by many rock fans and music critics, especially urban ones, who considered his music bland and [...]

Whoever she was, she apparently did quite a number on ol’ Dwight. In “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere,” Dwight Yoakam is a deeply wounded, empty man who has been abused and discarded by someone he may never get over in one of the bleakest heartbreak songs ever. Pretty much everyone experiences the pain of love [...]

Before they formed Shovels & Rope, Michael Trent and Carry Ann Hearst traveled the country separately, with Hearst peddling her country tunes as a solo act and Trent serving as guitarist and frontman of the Films. They crossed paths often, both on the road and at home in Charleston, South Carolina. Eventually, the two began [...]

Depending on how you feel about your alma mater, you can interpret “My Old School” by Steely Dan in a number of ways. Some might hear it as a vengeful, nasty kiss-off from a bitter ex-student. Others might discover the heartbroken lament of a dude who doesn’t want to return to the scene where his [...]

Any honky-tonk band that works four sets without playing at least one song by Merle Haggard needs to be given a lesson in music history. “Workin’ Man Blues,” “Okie From Muskogee,” “I Think I’ll Just Sit Here and Drink” – the list of songs by The Hag that help define country music goes on and [...]