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Song of the Day #4,330: ‘Gaslighter’ – Dixie Chicks

I’ve written recently about several artists who are returning with new music this year after a long hiatus. But none of those hold a candle to the Dixie Chicks.

The trio’s last studio album was 2006’s Grammy-winning Taking the Long Way, the record that addressed lead singer Natalie Maines’ controversial comments about President Bush and the absurd reaction of country music fans. While the band suffered boycotts and death threats during that episode, Taking the Long Way managed to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 and Country charts, go double Platinum, and win Grammys for Album, Record and Song of the Year.

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Song of the Day #4,329: ‘When the Ways Gets Dark’ – Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is back with her first new material since 2016’s The Ghosts of Highway 20. I featured that album track-by-track on the blog, much to the consternation of some loyal readers.

Ghosts was a very meditative, delicate album, full of sad remembrances and long guitar solos. I think the Trump years have made an impact on Williams, because Good Souls, Better Angels is the opposite — loud, angry, confrontational.

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Song of the Day #4,328: ‘Wish You Were Here’ – Ryan Adams

Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful mom, who I haven’t had a chance to hug in a couple of months now. I hope that changes soon.

And Happy Mother’s Day to my lovely wife, who along with our two daughters has made this extended quarantine something special. I’m going to look back on this time fondly, especially when my older daughter leaves for college (coronavirus willing) later this year and we miss the chance to see her all day every day.

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Song of the Day #4,327: ‘Nem Vem Que Nao Tem’ – Wilson Simonal

Fernando Meirelles’ City of God was my #1 film of 2003 and my #4 film of the 2000s. It’s a vibrant, violent immersion into Brazil’s lawless favelas, and one of the most exhilarating films I’ve ever seen.

I haven’t watched it in full for close to a decade, I’d guess, but hearing this track from the movie’s soundtrack has me wanting to revisit it. The movie it is compared to the most is Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, and it shares that film’s dark humor and rewatchability.

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Song of the Day #4,326: ‘I Contain Multitudes’ – Bob Dylan

It’s never clear what exactly motivates Bob Dylan, so maybe it was coronavirus or maybe it wasn’t, but the 78-year-old legend has released two new tracks over the past month and a half, his first new original material since his 2012 album Tempest.

The first track, released in late March, was titled ‘Murder Most Foul.’ At just under 17 minutes, it is the longest track Dylan has ever released, and the first about the John Kennedy assassination, a subject that has always fascinated him. It’s extremely spare musically, a spoken-word poem set to a somber piano and strings backdrop.

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