A number of songs are on heavy rotation in my head at the moment. In no particular order:

Setting aside the album, which I’m still not 100% sold on, the standout track on Little Big Town’s Pain Killer is “Girl Crush”, which is the best Karen Fairchild vocal since “Shut Up Train.”

Tim McGraw’s most recent album Sundown Heaven Town is only slowly impinging on my awareness, as tracks from it occasionally come on in the car. This one struck me immediately, though. In terms of musical arrangement, it’s standard Tim McGraw fare, but I like the lyric, about a ‘small town guy’ who gets his chance with a girl he knows he can never keep, one destined for bigger and brighter things. There’s a trend for these types of songs at the moment (Keith Urban’s “Cop Car” is another), in which a man sits back in hopeless admiration for a woman who is going places.

She’s like a broken heart you can’t wait to have

A shooting star that falls too fast

Try holding on it’s already gone

Great song. Don’t like his trousers though.

Like many others, I was watching an episode of Forever, and this (obscure? excuse ignorance) one was on the soundtrack. “Search Your Heart” by Rudolph Taylor, a Memphis artist who only appears to have ever released one single (not this one). One has to commend the music researchers for that particular TV programme.

I’ve also been listening to music I’ve had in my life for a long time, including this cut from The Band’s Last Waltz, featuring Van Morrison singing “Caravan”. In his own live shows, Morrison tended to do this one longer, with a slower tempo and more improvisation. Not a bad thing, but it often turned into the “introduce the band” song, which often spoils a classic. In this Last Waltz version, the tempo is high (but not too high). Director Scorsese seems only to have had film in two cameras, so all the angles aren’t there, so you don’t see Garth or Levon. I love Robbie’s guitar tone on this. Morrison doesn’t get to control The Band in quite the same way as he does on his own live shows. I think he really checked his ego at the door. Anyway, turn up your raddio.

Mystic Pinball came out in 2012, and this particular number, “I Just Don’t Know What to Say” is John Hiatt at his best: melodic, relaxed, groovy, heartbreaking. Top track.

Finally, can’t finish a post about music I’m currently listening to without these two. Larkin Poe’s ‘social media rabbit hole’ can keep you occupied for hours. The regular postings on their YouTube channel are an absolute treat. Here’s their cover of what we all know as a Nancy Sinatra track. I remember it from its first go around, but younger readers may know it from the soundtrack of Kill Bill. ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).’