Stardust in the Snow

Willie Nelson had enjoyed one of the biggest hits of his career in 1978 and 1979 with Stardust, his collaboration with producer Booker T. Jones. It went to Number One on the country album chart and Number 30 pop, and contained three monster hit singles. But all that success did not buy Willie any time [...]

Top 5: You Oughta Be With Me

Every once in a while the universe smiles upon us, and we get a week that’s filled with musical goodness such that in years to come, we can hardly believe it was real. Six years ago, Eric Boehlert, then writing for Salon, called the week of December 20, 1969, “the greatest week in rock history.” [...]

December Snow

On one of my family’s home movies, taken in the late 60s or early 70s, a snowplow comes up the road toward our farm. It’s one of those big highway snowplows with a blade eight feet tall or so, and it takes the whole blade to move the snow that’s blown across the road. I [...]

Doing the Christmas Shuffle, Vol. 6

It’s time again for a feature begun two years ago, in which I put my Christmas music stash on shuffle and we see what comes out. The list begins in an entirely predictable fashion.
“What Child Is This”/Vince Guaraldi Trio/A Charlie Brown Christmas. Fun fact about the special, which aired Tuesday night on ABC and will [...]

Old, New, and In Between

Usually I ease into the Christmas music every year, letting holiday songs pop up at random on the laptop in the days after Thanksgiving. Not this year—I jumped into the pool fully clothed, doing four solid hours of Christmas tunes on the radio the day after Thanksgiving, which felt like an awful lot awfully fast. [...]

Where Have You Gone, Wyatt McPherson?

Before I forget, here’s the final installment of the series on one-hit-wonders whose lone claim to fame peaked at Number 97 on the Hot 100. (The first part is here and the second part is here.)
“Mississippi Mama”/Owen B (3/14/70, two weeks on chart). Here’s an artist more obscure than Wyatt (Earp) McPherson, the first one-hit [...]