Rachel's Song

Because I'm one of those people who pretty much stopped investigating new music or even new old music, it is rare that I find something I like. Big surprise. I stopped looking so what do I expect?

That said, a friend of mine loaded up an iPod for me and I gradually listen to the stuff he put on it when I get bored of working out to Zevon, The Time, The Who, Everclear, Cracker, The Faces, Fountains of Wayne, Bruce, Mellencamp, etc.

One guy he put on there is James McMurtry, a country rocker I guess if I had to define him but really it is his deep voice on the ballads that gets me. He can paint a picture with words and guitar that just take you exactly where his head's at. Go listen to Rachel's Song about a man struggling to raise his son on his own, missing the woman who left him and headed down a slow road to self-destruction without the strength to stop. I'd love this song anyway, but the fact that it shares it's name with a girl who is still stuck in my head 25 years later doesn't hurt.

Yes, he's the son of Larry McMurtry who got his early stuff to Mellencamp, which certainly helped but I don't mind someone being born on second if they can hit a home run on their own.