Festival? What Festival?
Click on any title to play the song in your default music player. Or right-click on a song title to download.
Buffalo River Home is from John Hiatt, one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters. A great live act as well. It would be too hard to choose a favorite, but this is pretty representative of his material.
More from John Hiatt:
Thing Called Love (Bonnie Raitt had a hit with this one)
Memphis in the Meantime
Slow Turning
Blue Telescope
Your Dad Did
Paper Thin
Feels Like Rain
Loving a Hurricane
Out Here in the Middle is kind of an anthem for me. This version is by fabulous Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen. The song was written by James McMurtry, whose dad is Larry McMurtry, author of “Lonesome Dove” among others. I’m starting to (slowly) work on a book that I want to title “Here in the Middle,” about people who have lived in the same small town for their entire life — by choice — and they wouldn’t want it any other way.
More great Robert Earl Keen tracks:
Throwing Rocks
Furnace Fan
Walkin’ Cane
The Rose Hotel
Snowin’ on Raton
Not a Drop of Rain
No Kinda Dancer
The Road Goes on Forever
Desperately is by yet another great Austin guy, Bruce Robison. A little trivia, Bruce’s wife is singer-songwriter Kelly Willis. His brother, Charlie, is a talented singer-songwriter in his own right. Charlie was formerly married to Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks, who had a hit with Bruce’s song “Travelin’ Soldier.”
Angry All the Time is a Bruce Robison song that was also covered by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
I’ve been a fan of John Mellencamp since hearing “I Need A Lover” back in ’78 or somewhere around there. People who haven’t looked past the radio songs and listened to his whole catalog are really missing out.
Save Some Time to Dream is off his most recent CD, “No Better Than This,” and I love the message. I first heard it in late August of last year when my mom had taken a turn for the worse and was close to dying from cancer (continuing my theme of being a downer — I promise I’m not always like this). I went out for a walk in the dark at 6 a.m., hit play on the new Mellencamp release for the first time, heard this song and walked for the next five minutes with tears streaming down my cheeks. By the way, this album was produced by T Bone Burnett. They went old-school and recorded each song in a single take with the whole band around one mic.
Longest Days is another great Mellencamp song off one of his more recent records.