Listen along on Spotify as you read.
1. Alvvays: “Easy on your own?”
Let’s start with the most recent: Last Wednesday I saw an excellent double bill in Prospect Park, as part of BRIC Arts Media’s annual Celebration Brooklyn! Festival. Canadian dream pop band Alvvays played first; the last album, ‘Blue Rev’, was one of my favorites of 2022, and I especially love this vague, softly melancholy second track. (Listen on YouTube)
2. Alex G: “Gretel”
And here’s the other half of that double bill, Philadelphia indie musician Alex G, who Also released one of my favorite albums last year, the strange and poignant ‘God Save the Animals’. Alex’s live shows are always a bit louder and rawer than his records would lead you to believe; I’ve even seen moshpits break out when he plays this seemingly understated highlight from his stellar 2019 album, “House of Sugar.” (Listen on YouTube)
3. Taylor Swift: “The Archer”
I’ve been known to call this one “The Sagittarius Anthem.” The more I think about Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour – and there are plenty of opportunities to do that; it’s still the only thing anyone wants to talk about – all the more I think my favorite part of the concert was the first, when she finally got to play some songs from her 2019 album ‘Lover’. Here she is at her most minimalist and most anti-heroic, puncturing her own brave-girl image on “The Archer”: “I see right through me, I see right through me.” (Listen on YouTube)
4. Tanya Tucker: “Delta Dawn”
When I traveled to the Gorge in Washington earlier this summer to attend Brandi Carlile’s Echoes Through the Canyon festival — and, you know, a very special headliner — I was lucky enough to catch an early evening set by country icon Tanya Tucker . . My second favorite part of the show was when she played “Delta Dawn,” which she recorded at age 13, and everyone there sang along at the top of their voices. My first favorite part was when Tucker uncorked a bottle of her signature tequila and passed it around in the front row. (Listen on YouTube)
5. Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson: “Always on my mind”
The headliners on the last night of Echoes Through the Canyon were the Highwomen, a country supergroup featuring Carlile, Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby and fiery violinist and singer-songwriter Amanda Shires. Each Highwoman performed a solo cover during the set, and Shires wowed me with a poignant rendition of “Always on My Mind,” which she dedicated to Bobbie Nelson. Fortunately, you didn’t have to be alone: the studio recording of the song, on which Nelson played piano shortly before her death last year, is beautiful and comes close to the version Shires played live. (Listen on YouTube)
