Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time: Andy Raw

Under Andy Short’s recent Top 10, there was praise from a reader for his choices that had “objectivity and historical context” as opposed to others, which had been “Some songs I like”. The reader, it has to be said, did enjoy all the lists, though. Unfortunately, this is back to “Some songs I like”. Well, love, really. Objectively, the list should consist of songs that are very popular and that have, perhaps, had a great influence. But it seemed a bit odd to choose tracks that I didn’t like as much as others because they are famous and have had an influence. However, I also had this nagging feeling that I should not choose very obscure tracks, because how great can they be if not many people know about them? A couple of examples of, in my view, excellent but not well-known songs that didn’t quite make the list are Jack Grelle’s ‘Got Dressed Up To Be Let Down’ and Nathan Seeckts’ ‘Little Church’, and there are others. So, there you go, my Top 10 has now become a Top 12.

I am fascinated by people’s taste in music. Why do I like some genres of music but not others? Why do people like music that really doesn’t do it for me at all? And vice versa for my taste, of course. Similar to some other AUK writers who have chosen their Top 10, the lyrics of a song are important to me, whether they are interesting, moving, or thought-provoking. Looking at my choices, it seems as though I like songs that tell a vivid story. I tend to be drawn to the poppier, country, and soul end of americana, rather than the folk and blues end. Steel guitar in a song is always good for me- I have no idea why. I also tend to like less well-known artists. Possibly, because they are struggling for money, they have to live ordinary lives, and so their words are more authentic, or they are more passionate about their music. But this is all up for debate- it may be that I just like the underdog. Finally, I only came to americana about 25 years ago, and so my choices are skewed towards more modern tracks. However, it is mostly all I have listened to in the intervening years.

10. My Darling Clementine ‘There’s Nothing You Can’t Tell Me (That I Don’t Already Know)’  from “Still Testifying” (2017)

This is perhaps the least well-known of the tracks I have chosen, but, on listening to it again, I realised how much I like it. For those who don’t know, My Darling Clementine is a British husband-and-wife country duo, consisting of Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish. A home-grown George Jones and Tammy Wynette. For a start, the country-soul melodies here are fabulous. But I also love the words of two world-weary people, battered a bit by life, meeting in a bar and knowing each other’s life stories just by setting eyes on each other. It is from their third album, “Still Testifying” which, like their first two, “How Do You Plead?” and “The Reconciliation?” were self-penned. All are excellent, with their words, mostly on the troughs that relationships can hit, being set to wonderful tunes. Their last album, “Country Darkness”, is a selection of Elvis Costello covers, which they make a very good job of. They are well worth seeing live, too, especially with the Danish guitar maestro, Preben Raunsbjerg, backing them up.

9. The Handsome Family ‘So Much Wine’  from “In The Air”  (2000)

The Handsome Family are another husband and wife team, Brett and Rennie Sparks. But you wouldn’t, in this case, call them the George and Tammy of Albuquerque, where they now live. Their gothic country is somehow even darker than anything that George and Tammy could come up with. They have both suffered from mental illness, with Brett being hospitalised at one point with bipolar disorder, and this may explain some of the darkness. It is actually Rennie, though, who writes the words with Brett then setting them to music.

I was first introduced to them by listening to their superb “Through The Trees” album, which has ‘Weightless Again’ on it, and which I nearly chose here. The song deals in part with the idea of the floating feeling you might get by throwing yourself off the Golden Gate Bridge. But ‘So Much Wine’, which tells of living with an alcoholic who has hit the bottom and then gone even further downhill, paints an even more vivid story to make it truly memorable. It starts with “I had nothing to say on Christmas day/ When you threw all your clothes in the snow”. The lurid detail is in technicolour and is so extreme as to be darkly comic. One surprise when seeing them live is how funny they are, and they were both on top form the last time I saw them in Hebden Bridge. A great night.

The track is from another excellent album, “In The Air”. It has been covered by Jeff Tweedy from Wilco and by Phoebe Bridges, among others.

8.  Charley Crockett ‘Loretta’ from “Visions of Dallas” (2024)

This one is a more famous and historical choice, which you might traditionally expect from a Top 10 Americana songs. It kills two birds with one stone, in that two great artists were involved- it was written by the towering Townes Van Zandt for his 1978 album “Flyin’ Shoes”, but is performed here by Charlie Crockett, whom I am a great fan of. I first heard the song when performed by Steve Earle on his “Townes” album of covers, where the heavy beat and ragged music work well. It is probably my only choice where the music is much more important than the words, which are a familiar story about a woman the writer had met while ramblin’, you guess.

Van Zandt’s version is quite stripped-back and low-key, with acoustic guitar accompanied by harmonica. Crockett, though, really works his magic on it. Firstly, his rich voice works wonders, but then his lush musical arrangement turns it into a country-soul classic, adding keyboard, which turns a little jazzy at one point, and then steel guitar later on. At one concert I saw, Crockett described himself as a bluesman, but he has a great feeling for country music, and his music also has so much soul. The song is from Crockett’s “Visions of Dallas”, which, along with his other 2024 album, “$10 Cowboy”, is very worth listening to, if you have any soul in you at all.

7. Billy Bragg and Wilco ‘She Came Along to Me’ from “Mermaid Avenue” (1998)

This one kills four birds with one stone, in that the words were originally written by Woody Guthrie and then put to music by Billy Bragg, and Wilco’s Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy. After his death, Guthrie had left over a thousand sets of lyrics, but there was no music with them. His daughter Nora contacted Bragg and asked him to put some of the words to music, and so bring them to a younger generation. He then contacted Wilco to join him in the project. The track is from the album “Mermaid Avenue”, which is one of my all-time favourites.

I love the music, right from the start with the lead guitar intro. But it is the words, particularly in their respect for women, which make the song memorable. Usually, women in songs are either sex objects or of romantic interest. Here, Guthrie pays tribute to a woman, possibly either his first wife, Mary, or second, Marjorie, who had helped him, and links this to the contribution that women in general make, “Never could have it been done/ If the women hadn’t entered into the deal/ Like she came along to me”. Earlier, he had written “And they’ve not been any too well known/ For brains and planning and organised thinking/ But I’m sure the women are equal/ And they may be ahead of the men”. There is also an acknowledgement in the words that the sexes, with their different strengths, complement one another.

Towards the end, he wonders, with the mixing of “creeds and colours”, if, in thousands of years, “we’ll all be just alike”. He ends this train of thought with the hope that humans will be “Same colour, same size, working together/ And maybe we’ll have all of the fascists/Out of the way by then”. He was a well-known anti-fascist, with “This machine kills fascists” stencilled onto his guitar. Unfortunately, it seems that, at present, significant numbers of people are attracted to right-wing authoritarianism, so defeating fascism doesn’t look likely any time soon. But the thought of it is something to hold onto.

6. Drive-By Trucker ‘My Sweet Annette’ from “Decoration Day” (2003)

This was one of the hardest to choose. The Drive-By Truckers are my favourite group, and there are so many good songs to choose from, with their compelling, often dark, stories. Initially, I thought of Mike Cooley songs, starting with my very first, ‘Birthday Boy’, seen on the Jools Holland Show. Here, the world is seen from the perspective of an escort girl- there aren’t many others like that. Another fabulous tale, the country-rock ‘Carl Perkins’ Cadillac’, came to mind, as did ‘Ghost To Most’ with its steel guitar and reflections on the New Orleans flood. There are many more Cooley tracks I could have chosen. But I have ended up with a Patterson Hood track, as a result, I think, of being blown away by a recent solo gig I saw, and so becoming biased towards him.

From the “Decoration Day” album, this combines great storytelling with some of their best music. Spoiler alert- it tells a pre-war tale of a groom who starts the day planning to get married to Annette, but jilts her and elopes with her best friend. Again, there won’t have been many songs like this. There are some memorable words. “Lord, have mercy for what we done/ Lord, have mercy when two people get along”. It starts with simple guitar picking but builds up momentum, has a great chorus, and ends with beautiful, soaring steel guitar.

Other great Hood tracks are ‘The Living Bubba’ about a friend who died from AIDS, ‘A World Of Hurt’ where he sings of life lessons learned from an older friend. ‘The Righteous Path’, telling of the struggles of a middle-aged man, and ‘Baggage’, about Robin Williams and also Hood’s mental health, are very good. Finally, the way Hood combines the horror of a school shooting with the horror of war and then compares it to the joy and serenity of a family holiday in ‘The Guns of Umpqua’ is simply outstanding. But as with Cooley, there are many more wonderful songs written by him.

5. Laura Cantrell  ‘Do You Ever Think Of Me?’  from “Not The Tremblin’ Kind” (2000)

A bit of light relief here. This isn’t meant to be disrespectful, indeed quite the opposite, but it’s alt-country bubblegum. I like a bit of bubblegum. From Cantrell’s iconic “Not The Tremblin’ Kind” album, it has an absolutely fabulous melody that brings joy to your heart. There are many others like this on the album, so you can see why it was one of John Peel’s favourite ever albums. The sunny words, from someone who is thinking about her lover and hoping that they are returning the compliment, lift your mood. In my Top 10 Laura Cantrell Songs article, I had ‘I Can’t Wait’ as my top song, but it was equal first with this, really, so I have chosen this one.

4. Wilco  ‘What’s The World Got In Store’ from “Being There” (1996)

This is my most personal choice. I first heard the song at about the same time as my son was born, when I was wondering how life would treat him and hoping that it would be kind. For this reason, it now reminds me of him and also my daughter, born later, and would be a Desert Island Disc for me. The lyrics aren’t about a child but are addressed to a weary partner, wondering what the future holds for her, but I put that to one side in my mind. The song, from the excellent “Being There” album, is absolutely beautiful. Starting with the simple picking of what sounds like a banjo, it stirs into wonderful melodies with organ accompanying superbly.

3. Gram Parsons  ‘Return of the Grievous Angel’ from “Grievous Angel” (1974)

Gram Parsons is famous enough and has had so much influence on other musicians for this to be another quite traditional choice. His fusing of soul, country and rock n’roll to create his “Cosmic American country” was groundbreaking, as was his work on the Byrds’ “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo”. This was thought by some to be the first country-rock album and so is historic, although Parsons apparently hated the term “country-rock”.

It was difficult to choose just one of his songs. I also considered the yearning ‘Hickory Wind’, the fabulous, dare I say it, country-rock of ‘One Hundred Years From Now’ or his cover of The Everlys’ ‘Brand New Heartache’. The perfectly mournful ‘$1000 Dollar Wedding’, written with his never-to-be wedding with the mother of his child in mind, is also superb.

The track is the opener from the “Grievous Angel” album, another of my favourites ever. The album was recorded soon before his death from a drug overdose at the age of 26 and was released after it. The track was written quickly, using words from the poet Thomas Brown, as Parsons didn’t initially have enough material for the album. It tells of being on the road and thinking of his love, “Annie Rich”, who he wants to get back to. The momentous chorus line, “20000 roads I went down, down, down/ They all led me straight back home to you”, has Emmylou Harris providing superb backing harmony vocals. She was, of course, such an important part of Parsons’ success. “Twenty Thousand Roads”, from the song, is the title of a Gram Parsons biography, telling of his tragic, bitter-sweet life, and is well worth reading.

2. Otis Gibbs ‘Ghost of Our Fathers’  from “Souvenirs of a Misspent Youth” (2014)

The words here are incredibly moving. They tell of a boxer friend of Gibbs’ father who used to come round to their house. The friend had taken many hard knocks in the ring, but none as hard as when his son was killed in Vietnam: “How to carry on/ When the hardest punch is thrown”.  One verse has them all around their TV watching a fight: “We all stood and cheered/ When Ali knocked out Foreman that night in Zaire”, but then, “And later that night/My father held his hand as he broke down and cried”. The song finishes with Gibbs at the Remembrance Wall in Washington DC. He saw the son’s name amongst the thousands of others there, and it brought memories of both fathers.

From Gibbs’ excellent “Souvenirs of a Misspent Youth” album, it has his trademark gravelly vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar strumming. Later on, the steel guitar enhances the track very nicely.

Gibbs is a great live performer with some cracking tales and a gruff charm that wins an audience over and creates a warm atmosphere in the room. Get to see him if you can.

1. Richmond Fontaine ‘Post To Wire’ from “Post To Wire” (2004)

This one jogs along very nicely, driven on by Paul Brainard’s lovely steel guitar. Vlautin has joked that he tried to write a hit to make his long-suffering bandmates rich, and this is what he came up with. It has Amy Boone’s sister, Deborah Kelly, on vocals – Boone is his vocal sidekick in The Delines. I nearly chose their country-soul tale of a world-weary couple, ‘The Golden State’, as another of my Top 10, but that would have been a bit much.

The title comes from a horse racing term, where the original leader sees it out to the end to win the race. In this case, the words are of yet another world-weary couple suggesting that they forgive and forget their screw-ups and stay together. I find it all very moving.

It is from “Post To Wire” which is full of gripping tales, sometimes heartwarming but at other times heartbreaking. My pick as the greatest alt-country album ever.