Category Archives: song of the day

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Song of the Day #4,717: ‘Waxahachie’ – Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram & Joe Randall

Plenty of artists used the COVID quarantine to produce new work of one sort or another. Through Zoom concerts and table reads, virtual presentations became ubiquitous. On the more ambitious side, Taylor Swift hunkered down and recorded not one but two full-length albums.

Miranda Lambert split the difference with a surprise release of her own. Teaming up with two friends and songwriting collaborators, Jack Ingram and Joe Randall, she headed to the small town of Marfa, Texas, to record a decidedly low-fi quarantine album.

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Song of the Day #4,716: ‘Elevator Boots’ – Counting Crows

It’s been seven years since Counting Crows’ last album, 2014’s underwhelming Somewhere Under Wonderland. That release came six years after another lackluster effort, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.

Which means it’s been nearly two decades since the last great Counting Crows album, 2002’s Hard Candy. That release capped off a fabulous four-album run for the alt rock band, one that promised a long and brilliant career.

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Song of the Day #4,715: ‘Dark But Just a Game’ – Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey released one of the best album’s of the previous decade with 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell, a sadly romantic ode to a country on the brink of disaster. The disaster at the time was Trump’s presidency and a climate crisis that had set California ablaze, but the album only grew more resonant in the face of the pandemic.

Following up that masterpiece was a tall order. Del Rey didn’t have a realistic shot at topping what will likely be her crowning achievement, but with this year’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, she has managed to both build on and stray from the sound of its predecessor.

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Song of the Day #4,714: ‘jealousy, jealousy’ – Olivia Rodrigo

Riding high on the wave of her successful first three singles and a well-received performance on Saturday Night Live, teen singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo dropped her debut album, Sour, ten days ago.

Sour is a solid debut, synthesizing Rodrigo’s many influences into a sound all her own. She hopscotches between acoustic ballads, punk and pop, and sounds fully at home with each.

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Song of the Day #4,713: ‘Masters of War (Live)’ – Bob Dylan

Here’s a live version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War,’ recorded in 1963 at Town Hall in New York City. This song appears in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home and later on the Bootleg Series release of that film’s soundtrack.

Those who read my criticism of Jackson Browne’s overtly political songs might wonder why I’m not similarly dismissive of this track. And it’s a fair question.

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