A Quiet Confession Deepens Emmylou Harris’s “A River for Him” on 1989’s Bluebird
On “A River for Him”, Emmylou Harris lets restraint do the heaviest work, turning an...
Melody Era
A Bluegrass Door Swung Open: Emmylou Harris’s Roses in the Snow Set Her 1980 Album in Motion
Before the album could travel anywhere else, Emmylou Harris let its first song clear the...
Before the Bayou Took Hold: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1968 Wilson Pickett Cover “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”
On their 1968 debut, Creedence Clearwater Revival turned Wilson Pickett’s demand for “a hundred” into...
John Fogerty’s Radar Took a Left Turn, Letting Disco and New Wave Into Déjà Vu All Over Again
On Radar, John Fogerty briefly steps away from the weathered road and lets a sleeker,...
One Gentle Wish Named an Album: David Cassidy’s Harry Nilsson Cover of The Puppy Song on Dreams Are Nuthin’ More Than Wishes
In David Cassidy’s hands, Harry Nilsson’s small song about wishing became the emotional key to...
After the Teen-Idol Glare, David Cassidy’s “Somebody to Love” Reframed Didn’t You Used to Be…
On Somebody to Love, David Cassidy sounded less like a memory from the wall and...
Linda Ronstadt Let New Wave In on Talking in the Dark, Her Elvis Costello Jolt on Mad Love
On Mad Love, Linda Ronstadt did not borrow new wave as a costume; she used...
The Tender Defiance in Linda Ronstadt’s Dos Arbolitos on Canciones de Mi Padre
In Dos Arbolitos, Linda Ronstadt turned a Mexican huapango into a homecoming, letting Canciones de...
A New Song Among Old Ghosts: Neil Diamond’s In My Lifetime and His 1996 Three-CD Box Set
A newly recorded title track gave Neil Diamond’s 1996 career retrospective something rarer than completeness:...
When Bee Gees Let the Moog Speak: Sweet Song of Summer on To Whom It May Concern
On Sweet Song of Summer, the Bee Gees let harmony drift toward the future, with...
When Love Stays Quiet: Josh Turner’s ‘Soulmate’ Finds the Tender Core of Everything Is Fine
On “Soulmate”, Josh Turner lets romance breathe softly, turning a deep country voice into something...
A Private Storm Opens Wide: Linda Ronstadt Recasts Laura Nyro’s Blowing Away on Living in the USA
On Living in the USA, Linda Ronstadt took Laura Nyro’s Blowing Away and let it...
Profile II’s Quiet Surprise: Emmylou Harris’s Previously Unreleased Someone Like You Became a Billboard Country Hit
Someone Like You was the quiet extra on Profile II, but in 1984 Emmylou Harris...
A Polite Lie Cuts Deep: Emmylou Harris Recasts Jack Clement’s Just Someone I Used to Know on Thirteen
On Thirteen, Emmylou Harris turns Jack Clement’s country classic into a careful confession, where the...
A Two-Minute Detour Says Plenty: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Poorboy Shuffle on Willy and the Poor Boys
A brief instrumental tucked inside a famous 1969 album, Poorboy Shuffle lets Creedence Clearwater Revival...
David Cassidy Hated the Part The Partridge Family Needed Most in “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted”
A bright 1971 pop hit carried a strangely vulnerable moment inside it, and David Cassidy...
Before Fame Found Its Shape, Linda Ronstadt Took Randy Newman’s Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad Into Country-Rock on Hand Sown… Home Grown
Before the grand ballads and the arena applause, Linda Ronstadt let a Randy Newman song...
Neil Diamond’s The Drifter Hid a Restless Heart Inside 1981’s On the Way to the Sky
On a polished 1981 album built for big melodies, Neil Diamond let a quieter wanderer...
Neil Diamond’s Numbered Stranger: Why Lonely Lady #17 Feels Like Lovescape’s Quietest 1991 Confession
On Lovescape, Neil Diamond tucked one of his most curious lonely-room portraits away from the...
Before Disco Defined Them, Bee Gees’ Please Read Me Built a Baroque-Pop World on Bee Gees’ 1st
Before the Bee Gees became shorthand for another era, Please Read Me showed three brothers...
After Disco’s Glare, Bee Gees’ “Soldiers” Turned Living Eyes Into a Quiet Reinvention
On “Soldiers”, the Bee Gees let the disco glare fall away and tested how their...
The Deep-Cut Spark Josh Turner Tucked Into Baby, I Go Crazy on Everything Is Fine
Buried inside Everything Is Fine, Josh Turner’s Baby, I Go Crazy reminds listeners how powerful...
A Low Voice Filled the Grand Ole Opry: Josh Turner’s Live Peace in the Valley
At the Grand Ole Opry, Josh Turner’s deep voice turned a gospel standard into a...
A Pop-Soul Classic Became a Lullaby in Linda Ronstadt’s 1996 Dedicated to the One I Love
On her 1996 children’s album, Linda Ronstadt let a pop-soul standard become a cradle-side promise,...
A Golden Cage, A Family Voice: Linda Ronstadt’s La Calandria on Canciones de Mi Padre
In La Calandria, Linda Ronstadt turned a song of captivity and flight into a graceful...
A Showgirl Standard Suddenly Kicked Dust: Emmylou Harris Reworks Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend on White Shoes
When Emmylou Harris carried a Broadway jewel onto White Shoes, she did not polish it...
Emmylou Harris Let Jesse Winchester Breathe on My Songbird from Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
In Emmylou Harris’s hands, Jesse Winchester’s My Songbird becomes less a cover than a careful...
A Signal Through the Static: Emmylou Harris’s Can You Hear Me Now and the Stumble into Grace Sound
On Can You Hear Me Now, Emmylou Harris turned distance into atmosphere, letting a late-career...
Emmylou Harris Made Rodney Crowell’s “Baby, Better Start Turnin’ ’Em Down” Spark on White Shoes
On White Shoes, Emmylou Harris took a Rodney Crowell song and gave it the bright,...