Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel - Return of the Grievous Angel

Is this the best song I've ever heard? How have I lived til now without knowing this album? Read the damn heartbreaking story ( http://www.avclub.com/articles/week-7-gram-parsons-solo-years-life-hurts,26634/ ), and mourn / celebrate this life.

Gram Parsons - GP

So if by now you're not RSSing Nathan Rabin's Nashville or Bust feature at the AV Club ( http://www.avclub.com/features/nashville-or-bust/ ), I can't imagine what we'd have to talk about. Besides the opening Johnny Cash bits, this week's Merle Haggard was great, but I missed until today his entry on Gram Parsons' solo work. Holy fuck, this is the music my soul has yearned for since I was born. His vocal collaborator is none other than Emmylou Harris, and it turns out this is where she made her mark as the greatest harmony vocalist in the history of pop/rock/country music.

Listen to every musical example on here, and if your work internet blocks these things, burn down your office and live in freedom.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/week-7-gram-parsons-solo-years-life-hurts,26634/

Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash - Nashville Skyline - Girl From the North Country

I've been sniffing around this song for awhile, listening to some Dylan and Cash, even listening regularly to a cover by Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Jim James. Finally I heard the Dylan / Cash version the day Bill DeVille played Johnny Cash on his Honey Do list on The Current. It fucking blew me away. I knew Oberst and the rest were covering Dylan, and I know everyone does that, but those guys do not in any respect hold a candle to the Dylan / Cash version.

I also notice that Nathan Rabin at the Onion's AV Club is doing a wonderful yearlong country retrospective (Nashville or Bust Week 3; also watch the Joni Mitchell duet), and I watched video of Dylan and Cash doing this song on Cash's TV show. Life-changing.

The Great Outdoors - Food, Booze, and Entertainment - If I Were a Car

I'd heard this song before, certainly, but as of last night I'm totally smitten with it. Yearning, plaintive harmony, in three, on the edge of country music, it's really obvious that I would love this song. And I do, so there.

Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) - Journey of the Featherless

I've only heard this song a couple of times, but I just think it's fun.

Tilly and the Wall - O - Blood Flower

So I've been listening to the same random playlist for almost a month, and finally I was inspired to cull from it a disc's worth of awesomeness so I could hear these sweet tunes in my car etc. See my last.fm/user/atengwall for the whole list, but I figure I need to recommend a few of the songs that snuck up on me, in the good way.

Starting with this song. I think it's sweet. Annoyingly, though, it's mislabeled on yahoo music unlimited, the title switched with a somewhat less-awesome song called "Poor Man's Ice Cream." Excellent use of the tap-dancing-as-percussion in this tune, which I guess is kind of their thing.

Mirah - Joyride: Remixes - La Familia

So the central question posed by this song comes to my mind from time to time, of late particularly at roller derby after parties. I bitterly love the question's inevitable answer: no.

Okkervil River

I think Peter put me onto this band a while back. I didn't pay a huge amount of attention, but of late when their songs come up on my exquisitely crafted random playlists, I tend to get really excited and think "Hey, what is this?" and it's always them, and I think it's great. I need to actually sit and listen to an entire album and see what the deal is. Unless someone can just tell me what the deal is, in which case I'll probably listen to the album anyway.

Various Artists - I'm Not There Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

So I had been meaning to see this show, and then I heard about the soundtrack. It's for the most part a bunch of artists I'd normally listen to, except now they're covering Bob Dylan. I've been on a Bob Dylan kick the past couple of weeks, and I suspect this will carry it even further.

The Blow - Paper Television - True Affection

I'm not sure what it is about this song today, except that a couple of years ago I lost a longstanding argument with a dear friend about whether anyone was truly "out of my league." Sure, not everyone is for everyone, and there may even be broad based "types" to which and by which one may be attracted, but ultimately she convinced me that no one was out of my league, per se. This has since gone well for me. The end.