The Essentials – Valentine’s Day Playlist Share
February 12, 2012 by Mike Messick
Filed under Blog
In “The Essentials” series, our official blogger, singer/songwriter/journalist Mike Ethan Messick, dives into the catalog of one of the Texas Music Scene’s brightest stars or biggest legends and comes up with a handful of essential songs to recommend. Alternately he might tackle a theme, regional scene, or subgenre and list off just enough highlights and personal favorites to fill up your next mix CD.
THE ESSENTIALS – Valentine’s Day
1. “Cradle of Love” – Kelly Willis – Off of her beautiful (and criminally underrated) album What I Deserve, this song in particular put Willis’ singularly sweet twang to awesome use … there’s some innocence in that affection, but the commitment and heat in her voice really speak to love on just about any level you can come up with.
2. “What Kind of Love” – Rodney Crowell – A big, swoony, hopelessly romantic semi-hit from Crowell’s last gasp at being a mainstream Nashville hitmaker, this already-perfect tune earns extra poignancy from the fact that it was brought to Crowell to finish by co-writer Will Jennings, who had been working on it with the late and legendary Roy Orbison. Who, of course, knew a thing or two about amazing love songs.
3. “Taste” – Josh Abbott Band – Arguably the top young-gun on the Texas country scene, this horndog anthem about backseat passions was borderline explicit, standing out enough to break the band through to a larger audience (including no shortage of female fans) by highlighting the romantic side just as much as the physical.
4. “Love Means Never Having To Say You’re Hungry” – Charlie Robison – Full of bluesy swagger and comically sexy innuendo, Charlie made life around the Robison household sound like a lusty, well-fed good time. “She unbuttons that top button, and wipes it on her blouse/She’s always looking finger-lickin’ good around the house …”
5. “Happy Ever After” – Brandon Rhyder – With a voice that has more gears than an eighteen-wheeler, Rhyder’s entire Night After Night album was a romantic setpiece worthy of vintage Neil Diamond, with this song in particular a hell of a showcase for his ability to belt, whisper, and plead with equal conviction (no previous-album pun intended). The ladies swooned, the guys took notes, and the audience got bigger.
Rounding things out …
6. “Night Right For Love” – Robert Earl Keen & Maura O’Connell
7. “Love Must Follow You Around” – The Randy Rogers Band
8. “Baby’s Got A Whole Lot More” – Reckless Kelly
9. “Give It Away” – The Trishas
10. “Velvet” – Stoney LaRue
11. “Wrapped” – Bruce Robison
12. “Between Here & The Stars” – Larry Hooper
13. “Pretty” – Ben Morris & The Great American Boxcar Chorus
14. “Let Me Love You” – The Casey Donahew Band
15. “Constantly” – Cross Canadian Ragweed
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