Shooflypie

This song came to mind this week for two reasons: 1. This band, one of my favorites, has been posting pictures and video of themselves in the studio working on their 11th album this week. 2. Thursday was St. Patrick's Day and the first graders were all about hunting for leprechauns and four leaf clovers at recess. That means this week's song can be nothing other than... "Four Leaf Clover" by Old 97s Too Far To Care was not my first Old 97s album, but it was my second. I started with Fight Songs in 1999, loved it, and immediately went back to pick up TFTC , which had come out in 1997. Turned out I loved TFTC even more, to the point where it's one of my all-time favorite albums. "Four Leaf Clover" is the last song on the album and takes it out on a great note. It starts with a bit of feedback and then Philip Peeples brings in a pounding drum attack. After a strum of an electric guitar, Murry Hammond comes in with a fantastic bass line. The s...

I've realized something important about this new feature...it's going to be difficult to decide what song to write about each week. There are so many great songs, so how do I go about narrowing it down? As it happens, today (or yesterday, depending on which website you look at) is the 25th anniversary of the release of Out of Time , and learning that fact this morning made for an easy decision... "Me In Honey" by R.E.M. I knew a little about R.E.M. before 1991. I sang along on the radio to "The One I Love" in 1987 and again to "Stand" in 1988, but that was as far as I took it. In 1991, though, I was starting to branch out and try new music and "Losing My Religion" was all over the radio, so I bought my first R.E.M. album. It was not my last, to be sure. Speaking of last, the band has always had a way with album closers. Think "Wendell Gee" from Fables of the Reconstruction , "Electrolite" from New Adventures in Hi-...

The idea for this new feature has been around for at least a couple years; I almost started in a few different times and then just...didn't. So, why start now? The blog has been fairly stagnant for a long while now and I want to get back to some actual writing. I do still enjoy doing the Sunday Shuffle, but that format doesn't lend itself to talking about the songs. There are so many great songs out there and I want to focus on one song a week, to tell you why I love it. I'm sure I will cover songs almost everyone knows and songs that only a handful of you know. Either way, I want to share my passion for music in another format. I will create a Spotify playlist to house every song that gets featured here, so that you can listen along if you're so inclined. Okay, let's get to our first song... "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers It was the era (the early 90s) when bands would put out a greatest hits album and include newly-re...