It Sounded Like Herself Again: Emmylou Harris, Heaven Only Knows, and Bluebird’s 1989 rebirth
Heaven Only Knows opens Bluebird as a song of uncertainty, grace, and emotional maturity, and...
Classic Oldies
The Last Whisper Still Echoes: Emmylou Harris’s Prayer in Open D as Wrecking Ball’s 1995 Benediction
At the end of Wrecking Ball, Emmylou Harris does not chase a dramatic finale. Prayer...
The Quietest Moment on Trio: Emmylou Harris’ Hobo’s Meditation With Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt Carries Jimmie Rodgers Forward
On Hobo’s Meditation, the women of Trio turn an old railroad prayer into a hushed...
That ‘Put Me In, Coach’ Cry: John Fogerty’s Centerfield Turned a 1985 Comeback Into Ballpark History
In Centerfield, John Fogerty turned a baseball dream into something larger: a 1985 comeback song...
The Working-Man Soul Behind “Proud Mary”: How John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival Defined Bayou Country in 1969
Bayou Country was more than a breakthrough record for Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969; it...
The Voice Fans Weren’t Ready For: David Cassidy’s No Bridge I Wouldn’t Cross and the 1990 Break from His Teen Idol Shadow
In 1990, No Bridge I Wouldn’t Cross let David Cassidy step out of the frozen...
Behind the Sunshine, The Partridge Family’s Summer Days Let David Cassidy Sing 1971’s Quiet Sadness
Summer Days is one of those rare The Partridge Family recordings that smiles like television...
One Quiet Masterpiece: Why Linda Ronstadt’s 1984 When I Grow Too Old to Dream Feels Like the Peak of Her Nelson Riddle Years
In 1984, Linda Ronstadt turned When I Grow Too Old to Dream into more than...
The Quietest Heartbreak of 1976: Linda Ronstadt’s Someone to Lay Down Beside Me Defines Hasten Down the Wind at 50
At the heart of Hasten Down the Wind, Linda Ronstadt sings loneliness without spectacle, making...
Caught in the Split: Bee Gees’ Tomorrow Tomorrow Became the Lost 1969 Bridge Between Robin’s Exit and Cucumber Castle
A bright, ornate single carrying a hidden strain, Tomorrow Tomorrow caught the Bee Gees in...
The Quiet No. 1 of 1975: Neil Diamond’s I’ve Been This Way Before Gave Serenade Its Deepest Moment
A song of emotional deja vu and hard-won grace, I’ve Been This Way Before found...
The No. 2 Hit That Won the Year: Why Josh Turner’s ‘Time Is Love’ Finished 2012 on Top of Billboard Country
A song about the quiet wealth of giving your days to someone you love became...
The Cover That Carried More Pain: How Linda Ronstadt’s Tracks of My Tears Hit No. 25 from Prisoner in Disguise
On Prisoner in Disguise, Linda Ronstadt turned Tracks of My Tears into a softer, deeper...
The Quiet Moment No One Forgot: Emmylou Harris Turned ‘Evangeline’ From The Last Waltz Into Her 1981 Album Title
In the long shadow of a famous farewell, Evangeline became something even harder to forget:...
A Song Older Than Memory: How Emmylou Harris’s Miss the Mississippi and You Carried Jimmie Rodgers’ 1932 Heartache Into 1979’s Blue Kentucky Girl
Miss the Mississippi and You is a song about missing more than a river or...
Behind the Teen Idol Mask, David Cassidy’s Can’t Go Home Again in 1973 Sounded Like a Plea to Escape Fame
Can’t Go Home Again catches David Cassidy in 1973 at the uneasy edge where adoration,...
A Happy Tune With a Dark Heart: John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising Reached No. 2 in America and No. 1 in Britain
Bright on the surface and shadowed underneath, Bad Moon Rising turned a 1969 radio smash...
When Linda Ronstadt Toughened Up: Tumbling Dice and the FM-Fueled Road to Living in the USA
Tumbling Dice became something sharper in Linda Ronstadt’s voice: not a copy of the Rolling...
The Same Words, a Darker Heart: How Josh Turner’s 2010 ‘I Wouldn’t Be a Man’ Recast Don Williams and Steve Wariner’s Hit
Josh Turner did not simply revisit I Wouldn’t Be a Man in 2010. He stepped...
The Sequel Couldn’t Repeat 1977, but Bee Gees’ Someone Belonging to Someone Gave Staying Alive Its Heart
Someone Belonging to Someone is the sound of the Bee Gees returning to a world...
Before Conway Twitty’s No. 1, Bee Gees’ 1978 B-Side Rest Your Love on Me Revealed Barry Gibb’s Country Soul
Hidden on the back of a pop phenomenon, Rest Your Love on Me let the...
The Song That Turned Night Into Freedom: Neil Diamond’s Thank the Lord for the Night Time Hit No. 13 in 1967
A celebration of evening freedom, Thank the Lord for the Night Time turns the end...
Before Barbra, the Silence Cut Deeper: Neil Diamond’s 1977 You Don’t Bring Me Flowers on I’m Glad You’re Here with Me Tonight
Before it became a legendary duet, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers was a solitary confession....
Where 2006 Country Found Its Soul: Josh Turner and Ralph Stanley Turned ‘Me and God’ Into More Than a Duet
Me and God mattered because Josh Turner and Ralph Stanley made faith sound intimate, inherited,...
That Quiet 1992 Heartbreak: Linda Ronstadt’s Perfidia in The Mambo Kings Still Casts a Spell
In The Mambo Kings, Linda Ronstadt turned Perfidia into more than a soundtrack selection. She...
Where Her Voice Turned Home: Linda Ronstadt’s La Cigarra and the 1987 Canciones de Mi Padre Mariachi Turning Point
On the 1987 album Canciones de Mi Padre, La Cigarra became more than a song...
The Train That Kept Rolling: Emmylou Harris’s ‘Luxury Liner’ and Gram Parsons’ Legacy in 1977
On Luxury Liner, Emmylou Harris turned a fast-moving Gram Parsons song into a 1977 statement...
The road felt older in 1981: Emmylou Harris’s Born to Run on Cimarron gave Springsteen’s anthem a country-rock soul
Emmylou Harris turned Born to Run into something startlingly different on Cimarron: not a city-street...
Before Trio Had a Name, Emmylou Harris’ Light of the Stable United Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt in a Sacred 1979 Moment
Light of the Stable is one of those rare Christmas songs that feels humble and...
So Quiet It Feels Like Prayer: Emmylou Harris’ Bright Morning Stars Became the Soul of 1980’s Roses in the Snow
A song carried out of the mountains and sung without hurry, Bright Morning Stars lets...