Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

2"48

single, 1943

Written by Al Dexter

This hillbilly honky-tonk was later covered by artists as diverse as Gene Vincent, the Flamin' Groovies, Bing Crosby, and John Prine.  It's a sort of novelty song, or at least a humorous one.  The narrator is out drinking beer and having fun with ladies when his old lady (the "mama" is an epithet for paramour, not the woman who birthed him) comes in with a gun.  Out go the lights and out go the ladies.  He promises that he'll woo her every day and put away his old ways, but, it seems, to no avail: "Now there was old Al Dexter, he always had his fun / But with some lead, she shot him dead; his honkin' days are done."  Sad!

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

3:05

Calypso, 1956

Written by Irving Burgie, a.k.a. Lord Burgess

This is a gentle mento folk song about someone, presumably a sailor, who is leaving Kingston and a lovely girl the narrator met there.  The lyrics evoke detailed memories of a cherished place ("Down at the market you can hear / Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear / Ackee rice, salt fish are nice / And the rum is fine any time of year"), sung in Belfonte's delicate, precisely enunciated baritone.  It's an emotional declaration of nostalgia wrapped in a beautiful melody.

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

2:37

single, 1956

Written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley, 1952

This song has an interesting origin.  It was written by two convicts in Tennessee State Prison, or, more precisely, composed by one convict, Bragg, who gave Riley songwriting credit for writing the lyrics down for him.  Bragg recorded the song in 1953 with his band, the Prisonaires.  Lyrically, the song is a plaint of a man walking around missing his lost love: "Just walkin' in the rain / Gettin' soakin' wet / Torturin' my heart / By tryin' to forget."  Ray's version has a crisp vocal over Ray Conniff's strings, a catchy whistle, and a male chorus that echoes his lines.  I guess it's not Ray's fault that he would become one of the first of many white artists to get rich and famous popularizing black music while the original artists stayed obscure.

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

3:26

Jackson Browne, 1972

Written by Jackson Browne

This bittersweet maritime folk tale of a song is the story of a girl, Jamaica, whom the narrator loves and stays a time with ("Jamaica was the lovely one, I played her well / As we lay in the tall grass where the shadows fell"), but as the daughter of a sea captain, she belongs to the ocean and her native shores.  The narrator helps her load the ship for home on the docks one dark sad night, and must decide to accompany with or lose her.  Browne sketches the relationship in soft, impressionistic strokes, with their romance feeling temporary from the beginning due to lines about hiding from others. Musically, the song drifts with a gentle, melancholy grace, Browne's piano and voice carrying the emotional weight without overstatement. 

Juliet As Epithet - Hamish Hawk

Juliet As Epithet - Hamish Hawk

2:39

A Firmer Hand, 2024

Written by Hamish Hawk, Andrew Pearson, Stefan Maurice and Alex Duthie

This song is more direct and much less florid lyrically than most of the other Hamish songs I've heard and loved.  That's both a good and bad thing, depending on your interest.  Personally, what I fell in love with immediately upon hearing him was the double-barrel blast of his gorgeous voice and his kaleidoscopic, enigmatic explosion of words.  Here, the song is clearly about a love affair that fizzled out.  "So goddamn handsome he makes me anxious / He holds my hand through the sad advances / Why wouldn't he though / I'm just the open secret no-one's ever gonna blow."  It's at a stately tempo, the vocals dignified and subdued, over synths, another change from his typical baroque sound.

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family

3:37

Through the Trees, 1998

Written by Brett Sparks and Rennie Sparks

This song, like the rest of its album, was written after Brett Sparks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hospitalized.  The song's lyrics reflect this grim and probably frightening time.  Disjointed images of an Indian tribe who must carry burning sticks, having forgotten how to start a fire, dying of TB after contact with the white man, are interspersed with memories of a first kiss, sitting in a motel room reading, and suicide by overdose and leaps from the Golden Gate Bridge.  These eerie lines land like punches to the brain, powerful despite being delivered in an offhand, almost lazy baritone.

Kiss Me When You're Through - WIllie Nelson

Kiss Me When You're Through - Willie Nelson

2:45

The Border, 2024

Written by Willie Nelson and Buddy Cannon

A love letter that twists the genre on its head by playing down the power of pretty words, this gentle ballad cedes that there may be dark times in love.  You may say you hate the other person.  You may not show up for them.  You may not complete their dreams.  "And you tell me that you wish / That you never heard of me / When you close your eyes / I'm not the one you see."  Sometimes love inspires strong feelings of a different kind.  But once that's all out of your system, the narrator says to his paramour, "kiss me when you're through."  Sometimes you don't need words.

Mississippi Train - Fred Neil

Mississippi Train - Fred Neil

2:15

Bleeker & McDougal, 1965

Written by Fred Neil

Neil is best known as the writer of "Everybody's Talkin," made famous by Harry Nilsson, but he has some serious folk-blues chops.  This song starts with a Beatles-like harmonica into (by John Sebastian!), then moves into a shuffling blues with electric guitar.  Neil's low register makes the song seem straight out of the Delta swamp (deliberately: "She's going to the bayou / The bayou where the river flows"), when really he was a talented white guy from Cleveland.

Ferry Cross the Mersey - Gerry & the Pacemakers

Ferry Cross the Mersey - Gerry & the Pacemakers

2:24

Ferry Cross the Mersey, 1964

Written by Gerry Marsden

This song was produced by George Martin.  It's a soft, slow ballad and a love letter to the loves shores of England, where people are accepting and smiling.  Huh.  I guess maybe it was different back then?  "So ferry 'cross the Mersey / Cause this land's the place I love / And here I'll stay."  It's more than a bit corny, but the shimmering strings and woodwinds, no doubt arranged by Martin, give it a sweet and tender vibe.

Sunglasses After Dark - Dwight Pullen

Sunglasses After Dark - Dwight Pullen

2:08

single, 1958

Written by Jimmy Noble and Dwight Pullen

This is a terrific rockabilly single from Pullen, a guitarist for Gene Vincent who previously recorded under the name Whitey Pullen.  He changed it because he thought Dwight would sound better to the teenagers buying records.  The song, the spiritual grandfather to both "Sunglasses at Night" and "Cheap Sunglasses," extols the virtues of looking sharp when wearing sunglasses after dark.  It's tongue-in-cheek, describing a fight in which no one comes out on top because all the participants, in their cool shades, could barely see.