Album #65: Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

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Sound: Folk rock

Mood: Jaunty

Important Songs: Like a Rolling Stone; Ballad of a Thin Man

Song You Must Hear: Highway 61 Revisited

Quotes: "The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken.”

“Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine is strapped across their shoulders.”

Notes: This is a highly praised album, and I need not heap more upon it.  It is enough to say that it changed the music world and all the rest of the worlds around it. 

Album #69: Swamp Ophelia by The Indigo Girls

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Sound: 00’s female folk

Mood: Angry, sad

Important songs: Fugitive, This Train Revised

Song You Must Hear: Least Complicated

Quote: “I stood without clothes, danced in the sand, I was aching with freedom kissing the damned.”

Notes: The center of this album is consistent, excellently written and made folk, easy on the ears.  But the bookends of the album demand to be heard: Fugitive and This Train Revisited.  Fugitive is amazing, almost psychedelic folk.  This Train Revisited has a gospel sense with a rock drive.  Overall, however, this album is amazing. 

Album #84: Joshua Judges Ruth by Lyle Lovett

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Sound: Folk gospel

Mood: Lighthearted but reflective

Important Songs: Church; Baltimore

One Song You Must Hear: Flyswatter/Ice Water Blues

Quote: “And the dove flew down beside him/And a fork appeared right in his hand/And with everybody watching/The preacher ate that bird right there and then.”

Notes: Lovett toned the country down here and turned up the gospel blues.  There is great whimsy, but also somber ballads to have a wonderfully mixed album.

Album #90: Name Above All Names by Chuck Girard

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Sound: Prophetic folk

Mood: Preachy but encouraging

Important Songs: Name Above All Names; When The Rain Came Down

One Song You Must Hear: When The Rain Came Down

Quote: “Don’t shoot the wounded, they need us more than ever.”

Notes: Chuck is a charismatic Christian and it certainly comes through in this album in which he is often speaking with God’s voice.  This might seem a little weird and maybe in the song Kingdom Come it is, but most of the time it is comforting and encouraging.

Album #93: So Runs The World Away by Josh Ritter

Sound: Modern Folk

Mood: Literate

Important songs: Folk Bloodbath; Another New World; Lark

One Song You Must Hear: Another New World

Quote: “I’m hoping it ain’t true that the same God who looked over them looks over me and you.”

Notes: If Paul Simon was just starting out today, I bet he’d sound like Josh Ritter.