Here’s the lesser-known (or at least lesser-known to me) Taylor Swift song from the original Hunger Games soundtrack. Her other contribution, ‘Safe & Sound,’ is a haunting track featuring backing vocals by the Civil Wars.
This one has a more typical Swift-ian sound, and is therefore less of a stylistic fit for the movie. Catchy song, though.
I debated whether today’s random selection should qualify as a Song of the Day, given that it’s just a truncated snippet. But I decided it’s an interesting enough snippet to warrant a post.
‘Maggie Mae’ (usually spelled ‘Maggie May’) is a Liverpool folk song that a teenaged John Lennon played with The Quarrymen. The Beatles gave it a smirking turn during the sessions that became Let It Be and the result was captured in this 40-second clip that closes out Side One.
Here’s an album I owe a second chance.
Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky was released in 2007, three years after the disappointing A Ghost is Born, and by that time I’d moved on.
2001’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a ground-breaking masterwork following a handful of excellent releases, but Ghost stopped the band in their tracks. To be honest, I can’t say with any conviction that A Ghost is Born is a bad album. I just know it left me cold.
Here’s a beautiful song from 2007’s Grammy-winning Raising Sand, a collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
This is the sort of safe, adult contemporary album that Grammy loves to award with its top prize (think Norah Jones, Steely Dan, Adele, Ray Charles, Celine Dion, Santana, Herbie Hancock, Dixie Chicks and the O Brother Where Art Thou? performers in just the last 20 years).
When today’s random iTunes song — the title track from Shelby Lynne’s 2008 album of Dusty Springfield covers — popped up, I was prepared to write a “whatever happened to?” post. Often these Random Weekend selections serve as reminders of artists who recorded their last albums years ago and then fell off the map.
But to my surprise, Lynne has stayed quite busy since this record. She started her own label and released four well-reviewed albums between 2010 and 2015.
Meet Me In Montauk 