Pecan Pie - Golden Smog

Pecan Pie - Golden Smog

2:54

Down By the Old Mainstream, 1995

Written by Jeff Tweedy

This is an upbeat country-folk number, featuring some note-bending finger-picking and catchy harmonies. The lyrics are from the point of view of a guy conflating two desires: the titular sweet, syrupy Southern dessert, and his love.  "Now, don’t you call me key lime / You are the apple of my eye."  It's folksy, whimsical, and maybe just a little twee, but like the dessert, it's nice in small doses.

Payday - Jesse Winchester

Payday - Jesse Winchester

2:54

Jesse Winchester, 1970

Written by Jesse Winchester

This bluesy folk-rock, riding on a boogie piano line and a rocking guitar riff, is the dizzy celebration of a working stiff who just got paid, his "pockets heavy with loot."  He can't believe his position, he's gonna get liquored up and make passes at the ladies.  He's been eking out a barebones existence until now: "I've been living from hand to mouth / For what must be three or four weeks / And I can tell you one thing, Jack / You listen when your stomach speaks."  I know the song, vaguely, from Elvis Costello's cover on Kojak Variety, an album I haven't spent too much time with.  Winchester's debut was produced by Robbie Robertson, featured drums by Levon Helm, and was engineered by Todd Rundgren.

Peace - Los Lobos

Peace - Los Lobos

3:56

Kiko, 1992

Written by David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez 

This folk-rock song shows that sometimes understated conviction hits harder than a shouted slogan. The song's main strengths are its hypnotic, strolling acoustic guitar groove and David Hidalgo's soulful, pleading vocals. Lyrically, it envisions a day when we can do away with the divisive walls that separate us: "We build a wall of stone / As high as the trees are tall / Higher than the mountains / Stronger than us all / Some day that wall will crumble / Tumble and fall."

She Don't Care About Time - The Byrds

She Don't Care About Time - The Byrds

2:29

single, 1965

Written by Gene Clark

Bafflingly left off Turn! Turn! Turn!,  this is a gem.  A dreamy love song with a decidedly Dylan-esque sensibility, it recalls "Love Minus Zero" in its enigmatic imagery and its portrait of a woman who seems to exist outside the ordinary concerns of the world: "She don't have to be assured of many good things to find / And she'll always be there, my love don't care about time."  The song blends ornate and ambiguous wordplay with a baroque jangling riff, topped off with David Crosby's ethereal harmonies and McGuinn's beautiful guitar work.

She's About a Mover - Sir Douglas Quintet

She's About a Mover - Sir Douglas Quintet

Mendocino, 1965
2:25

Written by Doug Sahm

This song was inspired by Sahm's remark about a lovely woman in a club: "She's a body mover, isn't she?" Sahm cleaned the remark up a bit and turned it into this musical strut that extols the virtues of a fine lady.  The lyrics are simple but the groove is hypnotic.  Built on a compulsive organ riff, this is a rough and raw slice of Tex-Mex garage rock in the vein of the Standells' "Dirty Water."  

Swampland - J Shogren Shanghai'd

Swampland - J Shogren Shanghai'd

3:47

Why So Blue, Bird?, 2016

Written by J Shogren Shanghai'd

J Shogren Shanghai'd, quondam merely J Shogren, is the brainchild of Jason Shogren, who is actually a Nobel Prize-winning economist in another life.  This genre-mixing Americana song, a fusion of rock, blues, and old timey folk, is inspired by Shogren's grandfather going off to WWI.  The narrator of the song gets married to his sweetheart the day before he must go: "Elizabeth, today we wed and tomorrow we must part / Mr. Wilson’s vindicated war needs a swampland Bonaparte."  It's a haunting, note-bending, powerful hymn of a song, closing on a universal sentiment: "Love can be so kind / To an unremarkable life / Like mine."

Saddle Up the Palomino - Neil Young

Saddle Up the Palomino - Neil Young

3:01

American Stars 'N Bars, 1977

Written by Neil Young, Tim Drummond, and Bobby Charles

This country-tinged rocker is another of Young's apparent goofs.  It centers around a guy lusting after various women, notably other men's wives, but the lyrics are impressionistic and tossed-off: "I want to lick the platter, the gravy doesn't matter / It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down / But it's the neighbor's wife I'm after."  At the time of the recording, Young had split up with his first wife, and was about to marry Pegi Morton in one of the rock world's apparent storybook marriages, until he would divorce her 36 years later and take up with Darryl Hannah.  Linda Ronstadt and Nicholette Larsen (with whom Young also reportedly got romantic) provide backing vocals.

Soul City - Southern Culture on the Skids

Soul City - Southern Culture on the Skids

2:36

Dirt Track Date, 1995

Written by Rick Miller

This is country surf rock with a twang and a "if we think it’s fun we'll do it" attitude.  These guys are the musical grandsons of Jimmy Buffett, raised on punk and country. They blend solid musicianship with knowing winks and goofiness, the vocals half-shouted with plenty of distortion, as if through a bullhorn.  It's funky, catchy, and funny, and evokes a delightedly, defiantly proletarian party vibe.  "It don’t matter if your pants are shiny / If your dick is big or your dick is tiny.” Come on, who wouldn’t love that?  Well, some people, but this isn't for them.

Clobbered - Eels

Clobbered - Eels

3:22

Cookie Happened, 2026

Written by Mark Oliver Everett

Although I adored their debut and the next couple of albums, I stopped paying attention to Eels around 2001's Souljacker.  This song sounds like a return to their earlier glum, deadpan energy, although the jangly, '60s-inspired pop arrangement is considerably sunnier than the lyrics.  Everett's raspy half-spoken delivery describes a renaissance of sorts.  The narrator here has suffered a setback; ten years of hard times have gone by.  But the chorus indicates a renewed sense of purpose: "Make way, I'm on a tear / Got clobbered and laid bare / There's nothing left to lose / I'm coming through."  He's been knocked flat, but apparently he's decided that's as good a place as any to start again.  I'm cheered to find that Eels are still doing something worth listening to after a (gasp) quarter century.

True Blue - Frankie Miller

True Blue - Frankie Miller

2:20

single, 1959

Written by Frankie Miller

This twangy country tune is written from the point of view of a guy looking for a good time.  He hits the honky-tonks, loves to dance and drink and love the ladies, and he has no intention of marrying.  "'Cause I was born in a cave, I was raised in a den / My chief occupation′s taking women from the men / I'm a true blue papa, gonna have a ball tonight."  I love the sly line "I want to love 'em all, kind of spread me around."  Miller's nasal vocal and the bass and guitar combo give this song a little bounce.  Leon Chappel recorded a song called "True Blue Papa" around 1950, but I don't know that song, and can't say if Miller's song is a response, a rip-off, or just a coincidence.