Well we might as well use this terrifying global crisis of uncertain danger to civilisation to highlight the really good lyric writers out there, the highest quality story tellers operating in the singer/songwriter world.
With the help of the auto-generated washyourlyrics.com, I produced my first with the greatest of them all with my post, The 7 Tom Waits Songs To Wash Your Hands To So We Don't All Die In An Apocalypse Like In Song Number 6. It was wildly succesful and is now being used in health promotion right across the globe.
Now it is the turn of Jason Isbell, the greatest lyricsts so far in the 21st century and the way this century is going there might be much time for him to be beaten. (Unless I get too bored with this, next up will be Lucinda Williams.)
The list starts with the first song of Isbell's that was recorded, which was released with the Drive By Truckers. "Decoration Day" is the ultimate song about a surprisingly recent bloody fued in Alabama that is also a true story to which the songwriter has some family connections. It's a tough field to top but Isbell manages it easily with a truly insane, tragic andcomplicated story. Then there's song 6 which is maybe too dark given the potentially deadly virus causing havock around the world, but it is Jason Isbell so what do you expect.
I've included links to listen to the songs so you can pick up the melody. You can buy his music and merch here. Don't thank me, just buy me a beer sometime, maybe when the Apocalypse has passed.
No comments:
Post a Comment