The Quiet Wound in Linda Ronstadt’s Teardrops Will Fall on Feels Like Home
On Feels Like Home, Linda Ronstadt made Teardrops Will Fall feel less like a cover...
Melody Era
Hurt Hit the Dance Floor When Emmylou Harris Brought Wayne Kemp’s Feelin’ Single – Seein’ Double to Elite Hotel
On Elite Hotel, Emmylou Harris made a Wayne Kemp honky-tonk lament move like a getaway...
The Hot Band Catches Fire as Emmylou Harris Drives Carl Perkins’ Restless on Last Date
On Restless, Emmylou Harris lets the stage move faster than memory, turning a Carl Perkins...
A Patty Griffin Song Became Emmylou Harris’s Open Horizon on 2000’s Red Dirt Girl: One Big Love
On Red Dirt Girl, Emmylou Harris took Patty Griffin’s One Big Love and made it...
A Woman Refuses the Rules: Emmylou Harris’s Woman Walk the Line on 1985’s The Ballad of Sally Rose
In “Woman Walk the Line”, Emmylou Harris lets honky-tonk sorrow swell into something tougher than...
A Rebel Groove Reborn: John Fogerty’s Bad Bad Boy Turns Blue Moon Swamp Toward 1950s Rock
On Bad Bad Boy, John Fogerty turns a playful strut into a roots tribute, bringing...
After CCR, John Fogerty’s Travelin’ High Found Freedom in a Self-Produced 1975 Deep Cut
Between the shadow of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the road ahead, John Fogerty made Travelin’...
David Cassidy Took a Blues-Rock Detour on “Hi-Heel Sneakers” and Quietly Reframed His 1990 Comeback
On his 1990 Enigma Records album, David Cassidy stepped into “Hi-Heel Sneakers” not as a...
A Grown-Up David Cassidy Gave “Show and Tell” a New Pulse on 1998’s Old Trick New Dog
On Old Trick New Dog, David Cassidy turned “Show and Tell” from a familiar soul...
Top 40 Wasn’t Done With Linda Ronstadt: I Knew You When and the Get Closer Era
I Knew You When caught Linda Ronstadt at a revealing 1982 crossroads: a borrowed song,...
Linda Ronstadt Let “Silver Blue” Close Prisoner in Disguise Like a Door Left Open
At the end of Prisoner in Disguise, Linda Ronstadt turned J.D. Souther’s “Silver Blue” into...
Neil Diamond’s Lady-Oh, the 1976 Beautiful Noise Album Track That Whispered Beneath the Big Songs
On Beautiful Noise, Neil Diamond could fill a room with drama, but Lady-Oh proved how...
A Quiet Bee Gees Surprise: Sea of Smiling Faces Became a Japan-Only Single in 1972
On To Whom It May Concern, the Bee Gees tucked a gentle acoustic confession into...
A Digital-Only Josh Turner Detour: Hard Headed and the Rougher Edge of Your Man
In the shadow of Your Man, Josh Turner left a rough-edged digital trace that still...
A Deep Cut With No Armor: Linda Ronstadt’s Give One Heart on Hasten Down the Wind
On Give One Heart, Linda Ronstadt shows that vocal power can live in restraint, turning...
When Crescent City Went Acoustic: Emmylou Harris Brought Lucinda Williams Home on 1993’s Cowgirl’s Prayer
On 1993’s Cowgirl’s Prayer, Emmylou Harris turned Lucinda Williams’ Crescent City into a quiet map...
A Father’s Door Closes Again: Emmylou Harris Recasts My Father’s House on 1986’s Thirteen
On Thirteen, Emmylou Harris took Bruce Springsteen’s dream of return and made it sound like...
Before Creedence Had a Sound, The Golliwogs’ 1964 B-Side “Little Girl (Does Your Momma Know)” Pointed the Way
Before Creedence Clearwater Revival became a name people could recognize in a single guitar phrase,...
David Cassidy’s Rougher Edge Made The Partridge Family’s “Roller Coaster” a 1973 Bulletin Board Surprise
By 1973, The Partridge Family still carried a television smile, but “Roller Coaster” let David...
Before the Big Ballads, Linda Ronstadt’s “Mental Revenge” Gave Silk Purse Its Country-Rock Bite
Before the grand ballads made her a household name, Linda Ronstadt could turn a country...
Before the Spotlight Widened, Neil Diamond’s A Modern Day Version of Love Brought Restless 1968 Energy to Velvet Gloves and Spit
Before the grand choruses and packed arenas, “A Modern Day Version of Love” caught Neil...
Before the Big Duet, Neil Diamond’s Let Me Take You In My Arms Again Carried His 1977 Album’s Ache
On a 1977 album filled with grand romantic shadows, Neil Diamond’s Let Me Take You...
Barry Gibb Sounds Unusually Exposed in Bee Gees’ One Minute Woman from the Bee Gees’ 1st Stereo Mix
Before the Bee Gees became a story of reinvention, One Minute Woman caught Barry Gibb...
A Fragile Bee Gees Reunion Turns Bright on Every Second, Every Minute from 2 Years On
On Every Second, Every Minute, the Bee Gees made reunion sound less like repair work...
Christmas Carries a Uniform: Josh Turner’s Soldier’s Gift Honors Veterans on King Size Manger
Josh Turner turns a Christmas album toward the quiet debt owed to veterans, making Soldier’s...
Josh Turner Makes Alan Jackson’s Midnight in Montgomery Feel Even Colder on Country State of Mind
On Country State of Mind, Josh Turner does not simply revisit Alan Jackson’s ghostly country...
Linda Ronstadt Made “Tell Him” Tougher on Get Closer, Recasting The Exciters’ Spark
On Get Closer, Linda Ronstadt turned “Tell Him” from a bright early-sixties plea into a...
The Hurt She Wouldn’t Oversing: Linda Ronstadt’s “Am I Blue” with Nelson Riddle in 1986
With Nelson Riddle’s orchestra behind her, Linda Ronstadt turns “Am I Blue?” into a study...
Before Believing Gave Emmylou Harris’ Pieces of the Sky Its Quietest Country Proof
On Before Believing, Emmylou Harris turned Danny Flowers’ quiet country doubt into one of the...
When Emmylou Harris Stepped In: Gram Parsons’ We’ll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning on 1973’s GP
On GP, a country song about desire, guilt, and daylight became the first clear glimpse...