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Song of the Day #5,919: ‘Greyhound Bound for Nowhere’ – Miranda Lambert

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…

#3 – Kerosene – Miranda Lambert

In 2004, Miranda Lambert was a 20-year-old aspiring musician who had just finished third on the reality show Nashville Star. She recorded her first album, Kerosene, and released it the following year to positive reviews but little fanfare.

Nineteen years later, she has won more Country Music Association awards than any other artist in history, with 14 celebrated albums under her belt and a certain spot in the Country (and Rock?) Hall of Fame.

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Song of the Day #5,918: ‘Landed’ – Ben Folds

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…

#4 – Songs for Silverman – Ben Folds

Ben Folds’ second solo album dropped the tongue-in-cheek, juvenile elements of his previous work in favor of a more mature, thoughtful song cycle. Some fans were disappointed in the direction, but I was delighted.

Don’t get me wrong… I love many of Folds’ silly songs. But I also love to see artists evolve and explore new territory, especially when they are as talented musically and lyrically as Ben Folds.

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Song of the Day #5,917: ‘Devils & Dust’ – Bruce Springsteen

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…

#5 – Devils & Dust – Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen’s 13th studio album, Devils & Dust, came three years after the celebrated The Rising but was more in the style of the album that preceded that one, 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad.

The other touchpoint would be 1982’s Nebraska, suggesting that Springsteen has one of these somber acoustic albums in him every decade.

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Song of the Day #5,916: ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ – The Animals

The week of September 12, 1964, was smack in the middle of a three-week run at #1 for one of the greatest folk rock songs of all time: The Animals’ ‘The House of the Rising Sun.’

This was just the second single for the young English band, and it would be their only #1 hit in both the U.S. and their native UK.

The song’s origin dates back so far nobody is really sure when it was written, though it bears similarities to folk songs from the 1600s. But The Animals’ version owes the most to Bob Dylan’s recording.

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Song of the Day #5,915: ‘The Little Shoemaker’ – The Gaylords

Throwing back to the week of September 11, 1954, we find two repeats atop the Billboard chart: The Crew Cuts’ ‘Sh-Boom‘ and Rosemary Clooney’s ‘Hey There.’

At #3 was vocal trio The Gaylords with ‘The Little Shoemaker,’ a song based on the French tune ‘Le petit cordonnier’ by Rudi Revil.

The song certainly has a European flair, with two of the choruses sung in Italian (maybe they had too much trouble singing in French?).

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