For me, at least, this year has been more about songs than albums. Here are just a few of my favorites from the first half of 2015.
If Still It Can’t Be Found, Joe Pug (from the Lightning Rod Records release Windfall)
A melancholy ode to perseverance and pursuing one’s dreams. Simply magical.
Don’t Let a Good Thing Go, Paul Kelly (featuring Dan Sultan) (from the CEN release The Merri Soul Sessions)
One listen and you’d swear that this song was written in Muscle Shoals back in the 1960’s. It wasn’t. Kelly proves once again why he is an elite songwriter.
If I Was Stronger, Allison Moorer (from the Entertainment One release Down To Believing)
A song remarkably beautiful and stunningly heartwrenching.
Be Back Home Tonight, The Sweetback Sisters (from the Signature Sounds Recording release Signature Sounds 20th Anniversary Collection: Favorites and Rarities from the Second Decade)
A good ol’ fashioned country truck drivin’ song. Like the Kelly classic, another song that one would swear was written years ago.
Every Time It Starts to Rain, Lyal Strickland (from the self-released Balanced on Barbed Wire)
The old adage of “write what you know” rings true for this Missouri musician and farmer. With a voice as weathered as the ground he tends, he reflects on the hardships of life in a rural small town.
Too Afraid to Love You, Dylan Gardner (from the Warner Brothers Records release Adventures in Real Time)
I started the spring addicted to “Let’s Get Started,” the lead single from Gardner’s debut release. That was soon supplanted by this blast of pure pop perfection.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.