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,...
Old Wounds Under the Harmony: John Fogerty Covers Rick Nelson’s Garden Party with Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit
On Garden Party, John Fogerty did more than honor Rick Nelson; with Don Henley and...
A B-Side Became the Clue: John Fogerty’s “Evil Thing” and the Vanished Hoodoo Album
Before Hoodoo disappeared into rock-and-roll rumor, John Fogerty left one sharp, uneasy clue on the...
Years Recast a Teen Idol: David Cassidy’s 2003 “Walk Away Renee” on A Touch of Blue
On A Touch of Blue, David Cassidy returned to Walk Away Renee not as a...
When Teen Fame Grew Quiet: David Cassidy’s 1974 UK Hit If I Didn’t Care
David Cassidy’s 1974 recording of If I Didn’t Care carried an old standard into the...
A Second Voice Deepens Linda Ronstadt’s You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down with Maria Muldaur on Prisoner in Disguise
On You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down, Linda Ronstadt lets a small album cut...
A 1950s R&B Tear Found a New Home in Linda Ronstadt’s Teardrops Will Fall on Feels Like Home
On Feels Like Home, Linda Ronstadt turned Teardrops Will Fall into a bridge between old...
Before the 1970 Hit, Neil Diamond’s “Shilo” Hid Inside 1967’s Just for You
Before “Shilo” became a 1970 radio hit, its 1967 album version on Just for You...
Maurice Gibb Alone on the B-Side: Bee Gees’ “Country Woman” Behind “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”
On the quiet side of a career-making single, Maurice Gibb found a small space where...
Josh Turner Strips Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues to Its Acoustic Nerve in Keepin’ It Country
In his 2020 Keepin’ It Country acoustic cover, Josh Turner does not try to out-Cash...
Before the Breakthrough, Linda Ronstadt Recast I Fall to Pieces on Her 1972 Self-Titled Album
Before superstardom gave her voice a larger stage, Linda Ronstadt was already showing how a...
A Road Song Caught Fire: Emmylou Harris and The Nash Ramblers Open At the Ryman with Guitar Town
In the first bright rush of Guitar Town, Emmylou Harris turned a Steve Earle road...
A Death in the Red Dirt: How Emmylou Harris’s “Red Dirt Girl” Anchored Her Grammy-Winning 2000 Album
With “Red Dirt Girl”, Emmylou Harris turned a small Southern tragedy into the emotional center...
Before Woodstock Made Them Mythic, Creedence Clearwater Revival Put Grit Into “Ninety-Nine and a Half”
Before Creedence Clearwater Revival became shorthand for swamp-rock certainty, their Wilson Pickett cover showed a...
David Cassidy Fought the Spoken Line in The Partridge Family’s 1971 Hit “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted”
In 1971, a bright pop single carried a quiet struggle inside it: David Cassidy’s famous...
Before Fame Settled In, Linda Ronstadt Let The Dolphins Close Hand Sown… Home Grown in Quiet Uncertainty
Before Linda Ronstadt became one of American music’s most commanding interpreters, The Dolphins closed her...
The Road Was Nearing Its End: Neil Diamond’s “Melody Road” and His Final Original Album
On “Melody Road”, Neil Diamond sounded less like a man chasing one more hit than...
A Quiet Top 10 With Real Staying Power: Neil Diamond’s This Time and His 1988 Adult Contemporary Moment
In 1988, Neil Diamond proved that a song did not need to shout to find...
A Six-Minute Falsetto Labyrinth: Bee Gees’ Stop (Think Again) on Spirits Having Flown
On Stop (Think Again), the Bee Gees turned a slow R&B ballad into a study...
Odessa’s Quietest Wound: Bee Gees’ Sound of Love Let Barry Gibb Make a 1969 Double Album Feel Private
On Odessa, the Bee Gees built a grand double album, but “Sound of Love” lets...
A Baritone Answers the High Lonesome: Josh Turner Joins Ralph Stanley on We Shall Rise from Man of Constant Sorrow
On “We Shall Rise”, Ralph Stanley’s mountain gospel met Josh Turner’s country baritone, and the...
Josh Turner Kept “One Woman Man” Rough-Edged on Everything Is Fine, Where George Jones Still Echoed
On Everything Is Fine, Josh Turner treated “One Woman Man” less like a museum piece...
The Quiet Wound in Linda Ronstadt’s Silver Blue on 1975’s Prisoner in Disguise
On Silver Blue, Linda Ronstadt turned a J.D. Souther song into one of the quietest...
Lies Got Its Bite Back When Linda Ronstadt Revved Up The Knickerbockers’ Hit on Get Closer
On Get Closer, Linda Ronstadt turned The Knickerbockers’ Lies from a sharp 1960s garage-pop jolt...
Emmylou Harris Let Chip Taylor’s Son of a Rotten Gambler Breathe in the Shadows of Cimarron
On Cimarron, Emmylou Harris turned Son of a Rotten Gambler into a hushed piece of...
A Softer Kind of Risk: Emmylou Harris’s I Will Dream on 2003’s Stumble Into Grace
In I Will Dream, Emmylou Harris turns longing into atmosphere, letting a quiet original from...
Before Trio, Emmylou Harris’s Diamond in My Crown Let Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt Shine Through Sally Rose
Before the celebrated Trio album arrived, Emmylou Harris opened a small, luminous doorway where three...