Tag: Sad Songs

Jaelee Roberts Is the CEO of Super Lonesome Songs

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

I seriously love sad songs and it’s honestly so hard to keep this Mixtape short. Every time I think I’m done, I remember another song that deserves a spot. Some songs are perfect for those late-night lonely vibes, while others hit harder on a rainy day. I just think sad music has this special kind of beauty that happy songs can’t match. It’s dramatic, emotional, and somehow comforting at the same time.

Honestly, this Mixtape feels more like a mood diary than just a list of songs. Even now, I know I’ve left off some that should be here which means I’ll probably end up making a “Part 2.” At this point I might as well admit I’m the CEO of sad playlists. But hey – you can never really have too many sad songs, right? – Jaelee Roberts

“Desperado” – The Eagles

“Desperado” is a song that has grabbed me by my heart strings for my whole life. The melody alone just has that sad and lonesome feel that I love so much. A line in the lyrics that always jumps out at me is, “You better let somebody love you before it’s too late.” That grabs my heart in the best way.

“Marie” – Blue Moon Rising

The first time I heard this song it stopped me in my tracks. The way Keith Garrett sings it is absolutely the epitome of lonesome. The song is about a man struggling his entire life to make ends meet and finally he gets a glimpse of happiness through a woman he meets, Marie, and she and their unborn baby pass away. Townes Van Zandt’s lyrics paint a heartbreaking picture of poverty and loss.

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” – George Jones

George Jones is my all-time favorite and this is an obvious choice, but such an important one! This song has often been called “the saddest country song of all time” and I might just have to agree with that. A short explanation is that a man lost the love of his life and he was never able to get over her until he passed away – that’s when he finally stopped loving her. That is absolutely gut-wrenching, but I am obsessed with the song and love it so much.

“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – Hank Williams

I am a huge Hank Williams fan and I have always listened to this song when feeling sad. The way his voice almost cries when he sings it just gets me in my heart and feelings every time I hear it. I am a bit of a country music history nerd and I study a lot about the lives of my heroes and learning about him and this song – the lyrics are so sad and hit even harder when you get into the story behind writing the song. He wrote it after he and his wife Audrey split up amongst his struggles with addiction… it’s heartbreaking.

“Are You Lonesome Tonight” – Elvis Presley

I have loved this song since I was a little girl. Elvis was my first love and I can remember this song being one of the first songs to ever make my heart feel sad. I was just a little kid and thinking, “Oh my goodness, is he okay?” The cry and emotion in his voice is so tragically beautiful and it’s a go-to sad song when I need to hear one. The lyrics are so sad. When you hear his voice say, “…And if you won’t come back to me, they can bring the curtain down…” it breaks my heart every time.

“Lonesome Town” – Ricky Nelson

The first time I heard this song I was hooked. The melody, the lyrics, his hauntingly sad voice made my heart hurt in the way you want it to hurt when listening to a sad song. I really love this song!

“Both Sides Now” – Joni Mitchell

This song is filled with the most beautiful imagery. It’s about viewing love one way and then having your heart broken and seeing love a different way – seeing it “from both sides now.” It’s such a perfectly crafted song and Joni’s voice is so sad and raw on this track.

“Let Me Be Lonely” – Jaelee Roberts

When I first heard this song I knew I had to record it. If you can’t tell, sad songs are my absolute favorite songs and this one hit me hard. I am so honored I got to sing this one. I love the way that it all came together with the way the fiddle sounds so sad and then accompanied by the crying steel guitar (my favorite sound in the world). I love the harmonies that the writers of this song, Kelsi Harrigill and Wyatt McCubbin added. It just completed the lonesome feeling. My favorite lyric in the song is the opening line: “Don’t come knockin’ on the door/ That smile’s not welcome here anymore.”

“Chasing Cars” – Snow Patrol

I actually first heard this song during a heartbreaking scene of one of my favorite TV shows and I remember feeling so sad. Every time I hear this song I feel like I’m in a sad music video. Lyrically, the song is just so great. I love the chorus when it comes in strong and says, “If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?”

“Manhattan” – Sara Bareilles

I am a huge Sara Bareilles fan and this song has always had a hold on me. It’s one of the first songs that made me want to play piano. Her voice and the piano work together to make such a beautifully sad song. The song is about finding love, sharing their lives together in Manhattan, and letting that other person have that special place when the relationship ends. The way it’s written is just genius, really.

“Weekend In New England” – Barry Manilow

The melody of this song is what first caught my ear’s attention and then Barry starts singing and it’s just so beautiful. I have loved this song since I was just a young girl and have always listened to it when I feel sad. It’s just a classic sad song and you cannot go wrong with listening to it over and over.

“Heartbreaker” – Dolly Parton

I can still remember sitting in the backseat of our car in the driveway at home – small enough that I wasn’t allowed in the front seat yet. My mom would turn on WSM and we’d sit there together listening to the Grand Ole Opry until it was over. I’ll never forget one night when Little Jimmy Dickens had just finished his segment and the Opry signed off. The DJ came on playing music and that’s when it happened – Dolly Parton’s “Heartbreaker” came on. In that moment, my world stood still. I had never felt so heartbreakingly sad from a song, yet so completely happy at the same time. It was the first time music truly hit me that hard and it’s stayed with me ever since. “Heartbreaker, couldn’t you be just a little more kind to me?” So, so good.

“Misery and Gin” – Merle Haggard

This is another song that I have loved as long as I can remember. The music and melody starts off and then you hear Merle’s voice come in singing, “Memories and drinks don’t mix too well/ Jukebox records don’t play those wedding bells…” What a perfectly sad scenario! Merle Haggard is one of my favorites and could sing anything and make it sound sad, which I love so, so very much. This song is so lonely, but so beautiful and the lyrics are everything a sad lonesome song should be.

“Cry In The Rain” – Jaelee Roberts

This song is so beautifully written. Penned by two incredible songwriters – Billy Droze and Chris Myers – it tells a sad story about being heartbroken over someone, but refusing to let them see your tears. Instead, you hide your pain and only let yourself cry in the rain. I really love this image – it’s sad, strong, and poetic all at once. To me, that’s what makes the song so special. I feel truly honored to have had the chance to record it and tell the story in my own voice.

“Between an Old Memory and Me” – Keith Whitley

Keith Whitley had a way of singing that made you feel every single word, as if he lived inside the stories he told in his songs. In this song especially, when he sings the line, “I don’t want to talk about it, why can’t they just let me be?” you can literally hear the raw desperation and aching sadness in the cry of his voice. It’s lonesome, it’s haunting, and it’s heartbreak wrapped in melody. I love this song with my whole heart – it’s everything I admire about Keith Whitley’s music.

Photo Credit: Ava Renee Photography

Rose Cousins Shares Her Truth More Freely with ‘Bravado’

Posted on by Editor

“I’ve always been interested in human struggle,” Rose Cousins says, musing on “The Fraud,” a song off her latest album Bravado. “I think being a living human being is really hard.”

Bravado listens like a series of object lessons on the contradictions inherent to being human, with Cousins using each song to meditate on themes like pretension and vanity, as well as loneliness, solitude, and the crucial distinction between the two. Across the album, her songwriting is as sharp and clear-eyed as it’s ever been, a feat she attributes to pushing herself to dig deeper and share her truth more freely than she’d done on past efforts. Bravado follows her Grammy-nominated 2017 album Natural Conclusion.

BGS caught up with Cousins in late February, just a week after she released Bravado, speaking by phone as she was at home in Halifax putting together packages for Kickstarter supporters. Much has changed for musicians since then, rendering some bits of our conversation irrelevant (like her tour in support of Bravado, which was canceled due to COVID-19), and other portions — as when Cousins shares her desire to spend more of her energy on practices like walking and meditation — strangely prescient.

BGS: When did you begin work on the album, and when did you feel the project was truly starting to come together?

Cousins: Every year I go on a writing retreat with a group of songwriters from Boston; we’ve been doing it now for 10 years. I wrote two of the songs at the retreat: “Love Comes Back” and “The Fraud.” “The Fraud” was the song that really revealed to me the concept of “bravado.” I thought about the word “bravado” and thought it would be an amazing title, and isn’t that an interesting concept?

I went into the studio to work with some different musicians in Canada I hadn’t worked with before. We had such a great time that I booked some more studio time in May [of 2019] and in between that time wrote “The Benefits of Being Alone.” Once I wrote that song, in March of last year, I was like, “It’s on.” I really wanted to write a song that was coming from my perspective of being a single person, and, while society has different stigmas around [being single], it’s not all bad.

I think people experience loneliness whether they’re in a relationship or not. And aloneness is a really rich thing — spending time by yourself and having your own creative time and energy to devote to yourself and what you want to do. So I was really excited when that song came. I knew after our sessions in May that I was chasing a record.

Back to what you were saying about choosing the word Bravado as your album title, that concept comes up in “The Expert,” too. Can you elaborate on why you felt that idea was so representative of this collection of songs? I always find it interesting when an artist chooses a title for an album that isn’t also the title of a track.

It’s definitely the thread that goes through all the songs. When I was writing “The Fraud,” I was singing, almost in an observational way, about my own self, about presenting yourself one way and feeling another way. And if there is a time in the world that that is happening, it’s right now, where people are presenting versions of themselves that aren’t necessarily true. Maybe it isn’t a complete lie, but we never used to be able to filter photographs. Only people who worked at magazines could do that. Now we are putting versions of ourselves through social media that are depicting the best bits. …

Since my last record, I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters to me, what’s really true, what do I love, what are the things I can let go of? And how can I be more in touch with myself and the ground? It’s really hard. I don’t think there is a single human being who escapes any of that. You can have 75 emotions in one day….

The hardest, deepest, most uncomfortable work — and this is where I’m at in my life — is dealing with your own self. And where you are calling upon bravado. That’s the concept of this whole record. It’s the duality of being a living human being. We present the version of ourselves we want but when we’re in a vulnerable situation, can we live up to the person that we presented? That’s the question for me.

To your point about trying to be more real and truthful in your everyday life, there was a quotation in your bio that stuck with me. You said, “I realized I was chasing a theme and a feeling I had been pondering for months. And it turned into a whole record of perhaps my best writing.” Did that personal digging contribute to your feelings about the finished album?

My last record was definitely some of my most truthful writing. I remember having nervousness about some of the stuff being too dark or that kind of thing. Of course it’s hard to have perspective on your own work, but I historically feel like I elude; I don’t always tell the full story at one time. I elude telling the full story and I allude to things. With this record, it feels closer to an admittance and staring really hard at the way I’ve set my own life up. By being more truthful for my own self, I think that always makes the writing better, and makes the connection to the music better.

Elsewhere in reading about the album creation, I came across a passage where you share that you felt a kind of pressure to be productive, as opposed to going for a walk or enjoying silence. Did making this record alleviate that feeling for you in any way, or offer you a differing perspective?

It did not. It’s funny. So this month, February, I tried to protect all of February as best I could from travel so that I could be home and deal with all the Kickstarter things and all of the press that’s coming in, all of the merch, all the things people don’t see and don’t need to know about. Within that, I dedicated myself to two things that I have been talking to myself about for years: I’ve taken a walk outside every single day and I’ve meditated every single day. Those are two things I’ve wanted to incorporate into my world.

I definitely am a workaholic. I definitely have this thought-circle in my mind of, “If you’re not doing something productive, if you’re not moving forward…” I can’t let myself off the hook… I’ve still been trying to put those desires into motion. There are plenty of days when I don’t want to go for a walk, but once I’m outside I feel better. Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to get back to the gym, or stop eating garbage? It’s because we’re emotional people and we form habits and you have to make different decisions. Sometimes the psychic pain of change is horrible and also exactly what we need.

That’s a good segue to one of the songs I’ve found myself coming back to a lot, which is “The Time Being (Impending Mortality Awareness Society).” First of all, that is such a fantastic title. I’d love to hear how you wrote that one.

I feel very lucky to have a friend, an older gentleman, who is a fisherman. We were catching up one day and he was talking about coming back from a fishing trip where he had a gentleman with him who was much older than him. He said, in passing, “impending mortality awareness.” I thought it was brilliant and about a month later I found myself sitting at a piano and came up with that first line, “The Impending Mortality Awareness Society meets twice a week / Do or die because time is of the essence.” And I kept running with that…

Of all the stuff we’ve just talked about, isn’t it the hardest to just be present? That’s what going for the walk is. That’s what meditation is. Can you give yourself a moment where you tune in to your own body and your own brain and pause? It is about paying attention to what is important. It’s about telling the people you love that you love them. It’s about checking in with your fears. Because most of them are not real. It’s about acknowledging that time is in motion and you need to get your head out of your ass and be in it.

Photo credit: Lindsay Duncan

MIXTAPE: Nate Sabat’s Quiet, Poignant & Powerful Playlist

Posted on by Editor

Something completely magical happens when musicians find the perfect blend of darkness, quietness, and intensity. It almost feels like the bottom drops out of the music, guiding the listener’s ears into the void of beautiful nothingness below. I still can’t pin it, how such a soft sound can feel so immeasurably huge, like it somehow contains the entire universe within itself. It’s something I’ve grown to love over the past few years, and I hope these songs will touch you as they’ve touched me.

P.S: The tracks on this list have been responsible for the majority of my tears over the past few years, so get your tissues ready. — Nate Sabat

“Humble Me” – Norah Jones

The raw story mixed with the incredibly honest delivery of the lyric always gets me with this one. Norah at her absolute best. I also particularly love the line “it never rains when you want it to.” I feel like it sticks out in a really, really good way.

“Pink Champagne” – Kathleen Edwards

The combination of Kathleen Edwards’ brilliant songwriting and Justin Vernon’s production approach are in full force on this track. Since hearing this song I’ve made it one of my life goals to not feel like this on my wedding day.

“Unless” – Hawktail

I love the winding, lush melody of this tune, paired with the beautifully shot video at Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian Church. And also, I like, TOTALLY geek out at Paul’s bass shredding. Ya know, as a fellow bass player and all.

“Louise” – Daniel Romano

I first heard Daniel Romano on WUMB, Boston’s premier folk music radio station, with his song “Time Forgot (To Change My Heart).” Since then I’ve dug into a ton of his stuff, and particularly love his record Modern Pressure, an ode to the psychedelic sounds of yesteryear.

“Dreams of Nectar” – Abigail Washburn

This track is so cool and collage-like. I’m such a sucker for horns, so was instantly pulled in from the start the first time I heard it.

“Turning Away” – Crooked Still

I love how exposed Greg Liszt’s banjo part is on this track. The track is so short, but also the exact right length.

“Bonden & fan / Leffes polska” – Hazelius Hedin

This pair of tunes from Swedish duo Hazelius Hedin are so dark, so expansive, and so, so rich. I always picture a dark Swedish forest after an intense rainfall when I listen to this one.

“Your Long Journey” – Sam Amidon

This song, written by Rosa Lee and Doc Watson, has been beautifully reimagined by the great Sam Amidon. In my opinion he’s one of the greatest interpreters of folk and traditional music on the scene today, so definitely check out more of his stuff if you haven’t already.

“Harbour Hawk” – Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens’ music is some of the most interesting stuff I’ve heard to date. Constant texture and groove changes are tied together with impeccably crafted lyrical content. I love the opening riff of this song, and how it re-enters throughout in such a smooth way.

“00000 Million” – Bon Iver

One day last summer I was in a dark place, so naturally I listened to Bon Iver, specifically the entirety of 22, A Million. This song, the final one of the record, was so comforting. I remember being amazed at how powerful music can be, that it could somehow reach into my mind and make me feel better.

“Closer” – Joe Walsh

Man, Joe wrote an absolute gem. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a melody so simple and profound. I told him how much I loved this tune, and that I always thought of the name as meaning “closer to someone or something,” but he told me that it’s actually “the closer of the album,” as it is actually the closer of his latest album, Borderland. Go figure.

Using Music to Blast Away Holiday Stress

Posted on by Editor

Somewhere between going to your sixth holiday party, second school Christmas performance, 12th crowded mall, and 38th traffic jam, you realize you’ve come down with it yet again this year. Even though you vow every year you’re going to somehow escape it, organize your way out of it, downsize your experience of it, or simply consume wine by the case, at some point between Black Friday and Christmas morning, you realize you once again have come down with a nasty case of the Holiday Blues — an exhausting kind of stress that causes you to loathe the season which is supposed to be rooted in joy, love, and generosity.

Holiday stress is impossible to escape. It doesn’t matter if you’re the town Scrooge or a devout atheist, holiday stress and strain grabs everyone by the throat and doesn’t let go till we’re popping the Tylenol on January 1. There are too many people trying to accomplish too much in the same crowded spaces in too little time. And it’s not like work and family duties just evaporate at this time of year. Rather, like everything else, they multiply and magnify until we fantasize about becoming a contestant on Naked and Afraid … because wouldn’t covering up with oak leaves and eating berries for dinner just be so much easier than tackling that insane to-do list?

To make matters worse, health experts offer lots of facile advice around this time of year about how best to combat it: Slow down. Take a hot bath. Remember what’s important. Meditate.

As though anyone has time for any of that!

Here’s another, easier solution: Listen to your favorite music.

There’s an impressive amount of scientific research on how effective music is for changing our brain state and reducing the experience of stress.

It used to be thought that classical music held a monopoly on this, but more recent research suggests any music you find pleasurable will create positive brain changes — improved memory, improved mood, and improved immunity, to name just a few benefits.

Here are five easy ways you can use music to de-stress during the holidays:

Keep Your Favorite Playlist Handy

While all music provides neurological benefits (except for music that’s jarring or harsh), researchers have found that music which gives you pleasure has an even greater impact. So, as a Christmas present to yourself, go ahead and create that playlist with your crazy-favorite tracks — the songs you truly love and feel inspired by. Whether it’s a song you were recently turned onto, or something you’ve been belting along to for years, pull together your “A-Team” playlist of songs that make you feel really good.

Listen to Music While You’re Out and About

Thanks to technology, we’re in a time where — short of implanting music directly into our brains (which we assume is coming soon) — music could not be more accessible, more customizable, and more portable. Every cell phone and pair of earbuds can become your own personal stress-busting therapist.

Take advantage of this. Without sacrificing safety or tuning out your surroundings, listen to music while driving, walking through crowded sidewalks, picking up snacks for the holiday party, or waiting on line at the post office. The same situation that might previously have left you furious or fed up can have the opposite result if you’ve been listening to music you find physically energizing or spiritually uplifting. And feeling good is contagious. If you’re tapping your toes while dealing with that frazzled store clerk, your smile and positive mood might just rub off on her, as well.

Sing Along

Singing with emotion has been shown to release oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone.” Oxytocin is a natural human hormone associated with empathy, trust, and relationship-building. So, when you sing along to a song that makes your heart swell, you might just end up wanting to give a hug, as well as a dollar, to that Santa shaking his cup outside the department store.

Topping up your oxytocin reserves means it’s also more likely you’ll be loving and patient with family members, even as the proverbial holiday kaka hits the fan. There’s nothing worse than raging at your spouse or kids just because you’re trying to bake gingerbread cookies with one hand and wrap gifts with the other. Sing along to Mavis Staples as you’re baking, and you might be much more charitable when you’ve discovered your three-year old has just poured molasses all over the sofa. (Though, in truth, the fact that “You Are Not Alone” is a big part of the problem!)

Use Music in Emotionally Challenging Situations

Some research suggests that music which impacts you emotionally has the ability to help process old emotions. These are emotions which — though stored deep in the subconscious — nonetheless influence our present-day mood and behavior. Do you have one of those dreaded family dinners coming up, which inevitably serve up extra helpings of drama and tension alongside the mashed potatoes? Listen to your favorite “sad song” on the way home. Those tears you shed while listening will likely be linked to your old emotional wounds. The sense of clearing and release you feel will be beneficial, even if you aren’t clearing or releasing the original emotional hurt.

Give the Gift of Music

Most of us get financially stressed during the holidays. We live in a consumer culture that worships expensive high-tech offerings while downplaying simplicity. One of the great things about roots music is that it crosses genres and is universally appealing. That playlist you created to help you stay sane during the holidays? Consider burning a CD of it, spiffing it up with a pretty bow and attaching a heartfelt note for a quick, easy gift for multiple people on your list. Like cookies made from a cherished family recipe or a lovingly hand-knit sweater, receiving a “mix tape” consisting of a loved one’s hand-picked songs is like receiving a part of that person’s heart and psyche. People are moved by it. Rather than appearing cheap, it looks unique and thoughtful.

If you want to make it a little extra special, fill a mason jar with epsom salts from the drugstore and offer it alongside the CD with a note expressing your wish for them: peace, relaxation, and (if they’re lucky) maybe even a good cry.

No one has to know it’s the same ol’ playlist you’ve been listening to all season long as your own personal Xanax!

Heather Juergensen is a health and wellness consultant based in Los Angeles. Her company, The Strong Woman, devises natural, non-pharmaceutical solutions for clients dealing with myriad physical and mental health issues, including depression. Find more of her favorite ways to de-stress on her blog.

Lede photo credit: _spy_ on Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Dori Freeman, ‘Just Say It Now’

Posted on by Editor

There’s nothing quite like a sad song that isn’t actually sad at all, or a happy song that’s anything but. It feels good to condition the emotions and not let things get too caught up in the predictable, the status quo. We’re programmed to think that minor keys and slow acoustics always mean that lyrics just as somber are to come; and we’re equally used to hearing sprightly tales alongside fast beats and carefree picking. But when music really gets interesting, is when this formula is dismissed completely: Often a tool of bluegrass, the instruments can walk a much different line than the brain, painting a more complex picture of the human experience. It’s rare that anything is cut and dry, anyway, and, like some mournful words paired with a dancing fiddle, there are usually two sides to everything … at least.

Dori Freeman, on Letters Never Read, knows this well. Many of her songs play with the ability to be many things at one time and unveil their true vulnerability once they have captured us within their inherent melodies. “Just Say It Now” is an ode to just getting the band aid ripped off before the pain is too intense, and it sounds delicate and light — a go-lucky sing-along with a gauzy, Lauren Canyon chug. “Just say it now before the silence makes me cry,” she sings. “From the beginning, I knew you would say goodbye.” Her voice is sharp and ethereal, pastoral and crisp, able to carry the task of complexity easily within a two-and-a-half-minute frame. Maybe the best sad songs are the ones that make us smile, too.

WATCH: Matt Woods, ‘Fireflies’

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Artist: Matt Woods
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
Song: “Fireflies”
Album: How to Survive
Release Date: October, 2017
Label: Lonely Ones Records

In Their Words: “It may come as a shock to folks who have been listening to my music for some time to find a genuine love song on this new album, but even the lonely-hearted find some inspiration from time to time. To the dear faithful listener, don’t fret: There are plenty more sad songs to come.” — Matt Woods

Photo credit: Beau James

LISTEN: Paul Bergmann, ‘Always, Forever’

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Artist: Paul Bergmann
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Song: "Always, Forever"
Album: Stars and Streams
Release Date: August 26

In Their Words: "'Always, Forever' is an impersonal song for me. I feel a fond detachment toward it, as if it's always existed on its own. I don't remember finding the words to write it and sometimes I'm not sure it's me singing it. It seems to be about acceptance, love, the feeling of standing before a tall mountain. Meaning. But it's probably not about anything at all. Sometimes I wish to live in this song when I'm deeply sad." — Paul Bergmann

Photo credit: Samantha West

12 Sad, Sad Songs by Patty Griffin

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Patty Griffin kind of can't help but have sad songs … it's just in her voice. But that's one of the reasons we love her so. Still, it makes the compilation of a "Sad, Sad Songs" list all that much more difficult. After all, the whole of Living with Ghosts could be included on such a list, but we made some effort to pare the picks down … so you don't have to. 

"Moses" from Living with Ghosts

Key Lyric: "Diamonds, roses, I need Moses to cross this sea of loneliness, part this Red River of pain. I don't necessarily buy any key to the future or happiness, but I need a little place in the sun sometimes or I think I will die."

"Goodbye" from Flaming Red

Key Lyric: "Today my heart is big and sore. It's tryin' to push right through my skin. I won't see you anymore — I guess that's finally sinkin' in."

"Coming Home to Me" from Downtown Church

Key Lyric: "When you get to that place that's just under the stars, hanging over the tree at a quarter to three … When you get there, you'll know that's as far as you go. When you get there you'll see, you were already free."

"One More Girl" from Silver Bell

Key Lyric: "You don't know what you want. At this moment, you think it could be me, so you move your hand across my knee, turn me into some novelty."

"Let Him Fly" from Living with Ghosts

Key Lyric: "There's no mercy in a live wire, no rest at all in freedom. Of the choices we are given, it's no choice at all. The proof is in the fire — you touch before it moves away. But you must always know how long to stay … and when to go."

"Rain" from 1,000 Kisses

Key Lyric: "Now I don't wanna beg you, baby, for something maybe you could never give. I'm not looking for the rest of your life — I just want another chance to live."

"That Kind of Lonely" from American Kid

Key Lyric: "Every strand has come unwound. Every heart is all worn down. Everyone in this room wanted to be somewhere else. So tonight I find the key and drive away a little early. It's the last time I wanna be that kind of lonely."

"Long Ride Home" from 1,000 Kisses

Key Lyric: "Forty years go by with someone laying in your bed. Forty years of things you say you wish you'd never said. How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead? I wonder as I stare up at the sky turning red."

"Someone Else's Tomorrow" from Children Running Through

Key Lyric: "You filed out of the churchyard so cold it was silver, to gold, tan, and blue cars. And the cars drove away. All the memories fade. Send the ghosts on their way. Tell them they've had their day — it's someone else's tomorrow."

"You Never Asked Me" from Servant of Love

Key Lyric: "It was an exercise in catastrophe. It was a dance of destruction. It was the daze of futility. It was the flight of fragile wings."

"Mother of God" from Impossible Dream

Key Lyric: "So I'm wearing my footsteps into this floor. One day, I won't live here anymore. Someone will wonder who lived here before and went on their way."

"Wild Old Dog" from American Kid

Key Lyric: "Dropped him out on 93. Tall grass was waving there just like the sea. He tore off running like we set him free, just disappeared right in front of me. God is a wild old dog someone left out on the highway."

Editor’s Note: Patty Griffin is one of the latest lineup additions for the 15th Edition of Cayamo: A Journey Through Song! BGS is excited to be onboard with Patty and so many other great Americana acts in February. Take a look at our photo recap from last year’s cruise.