On the Right Side of 2011

        As usual, I don't have too much to say about the year that's passed.  I do think that there were a lot of good albums, but there weren't too many that thrilled me from beginning to end.  Perhaps I'm just a harder boy to thrill these days. :) Still, there was no dearth of songs to put on my year end mixtape - in fact, I had to leave off some cuts that would have made it in previous years.  (And as in 2009 and 2010, all the mp3s are tagged with the album they came from.)

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Video Games	Lana Del Rey
Escape	Richard Buckner
Montezuma	Fleet Foxes
The Reason Why	Ron Sexsmith
Gone, Gone, Gone	Nikki Lane
Always Looking	Dum Dum Girls
Get Some	Lykke Li
Relax	Das Racist
Tropical Affair	Money Mark/Thalma de Freitas/Joao Parahyba
Paraty	Mia Doi Todd
Progress	Booker T Jones
Stone Rollin'	Raphael Saadiq
Checkout Time	Nick Lowe
Between The Cheats	Amy Winehouse
A Commotion	Feist
She Stole The Blush	Tom Waits
Born To Be Loved	Lucinda Williams
Calgary	Bon Iver
Heartaches and Pain	Charles Bradley
The Way The Whole Thing Ends	Gillian Welch

More Selections from the Harlan Howard Songbook

It's been a real long time (probably about 15 years ago), but I remember reading an interview with Harlan Howard where he said that when he first started writing country songs, he didn't know anything about love (or maybe he said women). I thought of that quote a couple of weeks back when I listened to Charley Pride's version of "Image of Me". While the psychological realism is a tad lacking, the male melodrama in the song is undeniably appealing. I'd try to find a quote to give a better description of Harlan Howard's songwriting genius, but I have some other stuff I have to get to, so the second volume of my tribute to HH will have to do.

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Heartaches By The Number	Dwight Yoakam
I've Got A Tiger By The Tail	Ray Charles
Busted	Duane Eddy
Sally Was a Good Old Girl	Waylon Jennings
Why Not Me ?	The Judds
Don't Call Me From A Honky Tonk	Johnny & Jonie Mosby
The Sound Of Laughter	Johnny Cash
The One You Slip Around With	Skeeter Davis
Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was on the Right)	George Jones
The Keys In the Mailbox	Tony Booth
Odds and Ends	Justin Trevino
Heartbreak U.S.A.	Kitty Wells
The Image Of Me	Charley Pride
I Fall To Pieces	Carla Thomas
A Thief in the Night	Jean Shepard
He Called Me Baby	Ella Washington
I'll Catch You When You Fall	Buck Owens
Above & Beyond (The Call Of Love)	Wynn Stewart

The Heartache Headmaster - A Harlan Howard Tribute

Just to be clear, I'm not a proponent of "great man" theories of history. Still.....it's kind of hard to imagine what country music would be like without the songs of Harlan Howard. His own recordings may leave a little something be to desired (though they're not terrible), but damn, the guy was a gifted and prolific songwriter. As with Townes Van Zandt last year and Tom Waits in 2009, I've put together a two volume compilation of Harlan Howard covers (with Volume 2 to follow next week).

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Streets of Baltimore Gram Parsons

The Hurtin's All Over Connie Smith

Pick Me Up On Your Way Down Charlie Walker

Excuse Me, I Think I've Got a Heartache Cake

The Chokin' Kind Joe Simon

Evil on Your Mind Jan Howard

I Don't Believe I'll Fall In Love Today Derailers

It Takes One to Know One Skip Heller

You Took Him off My Hands Patsy Cline

Too Many Rivers Brenda Lee

It's All Over The Everly Brothers

Life Turned Her That Way James Carr

Ain't Found Nobody The Mavericks

I've Seen That Look On Me (A Thousand Times) Willie Nelson

I'm Down to My Last Cigarette k.d. lang

Baby Me Baby Gene Watson

Don't Our Love Look Natural Keith Whitley

She's Gone, Gone, Gone Lefty Frizzell

More Billie Holiday and Elis Regina

I was listening to the Billie Holiday - Elis Regina comp I made last year (which you can still download) a while ago and, well, I thought it'd be nice to have another volume. Score one for niceness. :)

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20 Anos Blue Elis Regina

I Love My Man Billie Holiday

I Don't Want To Cry Anymore Billie Holiday

O Que Foi Feito De Vera with Milton Nascimento Elis Regina

All Of Me Billie Holiday

Madalena Elis Regina

Bicho Do Mato Elis Regina

Swing, Brother, Swing Billie Holiday

Canto de Ossanha Elis Regina & Toots Thielemans

Jeepers Creepers Billie Holiday

Alo Saudade Elis Regina

Who Wants Love? Billie Holiday

East Of The Sun Billie Holiday

O Que Tinha De Ser Elis Regina

These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) Billie Holiday

Gracias a la Vida Elis Regina

Them There Eyes Billie Holiday

E Com Esse Que Eu Vou Elis Regina

Confissao Elis Regina

What A Little Moonlight Can Do Billie Holiday

Baby, I'm A Charlie Rich Fan

In addition to his eclecticism (and his rather unique career arc), one of the things I find most intriguing about Charlie Rich is that his wife Margaret Rich wrote (or co-wrote) some of his material. Offhand, I can't really think of another male singer (or even that many female singers) with that dynamic. One of her compositions, in fact, leads off this compilation - Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs. I tried to stay away from any songs on his great 2 two cd best of collection: Feel Like Going Home, but Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs was just too perfect as the opening track. I did however, have enough willpower not to put his great demo version of Feel Like Going Home from that collection as the closer. :)

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Life Has It's Little Ups And Downs

Down On The River

Philadelphia Baby

You Win Again

Just Like Old Times

Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast

Blowin' Town

A Sunday Kind Of Woman

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Am I Blue?

Almost Persuaded

Now Everybody Knows

That's How Much I Love You

You Can Have Her

Don't Come Knocking On My Door

Just a Little Bit Sweet

Very Much Alone

I Take It On Home