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Remember When: a nostalgic anthem - like a tour through your favorite photo album. The minimal production - especially at first when only a guitar and mandolin are playing - emphasizes the feeling of a man looking back on his life and knowing he’d do it all again. Think of yourself thirty years from now, sitting in your living room at dusk, looking at photos of your spouse, your kids, all the time that has passed. That’s the mood Jackson is expressing. And his voice is clear and strong enough to make me believe he knows what he’s talking about.
Nostalgia seems to be pretty big in the love song business doesn’t it? It’s telling us something deep, but I’m not sure what. (Anyone?) Maybe it has to do with how true love – if it’s really true – is always launching itself into eternity. All you have to do is remember your high school sweetheart and you know what I mean. You felt epic, like your story would be repeated a million years from now, because how could anything be more riveting?
Vince Gill’s voice isn’t the best of the great country singers. But what he lacks in timbre and fullness he makes up for with sincerity. He sings with a calm, slow confidence, and the unimposing accompaniment matches the mood: competent musicians, all aware that their main job is to get out of the way of the song’s message.
What a job! Choosing the best of anything is tough – even if one stands Stetson and shoulders above all the rest. But to select the Top 20 Country Love Songs of all time? … that’s like choosing your favorite sunset.
I’m sure each of you will have your own ideas about what songs should be at the top – Great! Let us know, and tell us why.
In the meantime, here are our choices for the Top 20 Love Songs. We’ll be posting a song a day until Valentine’s Day, when we’ll announce our Number One song. Keep checking back - some of these songs will surprise you!
Even though I've been a musician for more than 30 years, tonight was the first time I heard this song. And I loved it!!! I want my own band to do it (are you listening, boys?). Reasons I liked it:
Lyrics - the unexpected lyrics in this song made me smile. They talk about the pains and hassles of married life, but in a way that makes you whisper quietly to yourself: It was all worth it.
Music - A sultry and slinky 8-bar blues, spiced up with jazz riffs and Lovett's best crooner voice - hard to top!
Video - The video is of Lovett performing the song in an uptown jazz club, but interspersed are scenes of (obviously) married couples. The effect is the same as the music + lyrics: you get to see firsthand the humanness of long-lasting love.
A great song - and well worth being on the Top 20 list!
Unfortunately, we can't embed the video for this song, but you can see it by clicking here ...
Asleep at the wheel? Not really. This band has been going 100 miles an hour since they began, and they’ve still got their eyes on the road straight ahead.
A combination of jazz, big band, boogie, country and swing – and all you’ll want to do is dance to it. Impeccable musicians, blazing licks, soulful vocals, and a toe-tapping beat that doesn’t stop until the last dog has left the house.
After their 2009 collaboration with Willie Nelson (Willie and the Wheel), Asleep At the Wheel has launched yet another winning collaboration – this time with Texas Playboy vocalist Leon Rausch. Rausch, for those of you living in a closet who don’t know about the Texas Playboys, was the lead vocalist for Bob Wills and his Playboys from 1958 until their final concert in 1986. His smooth, smoky voice and Texas twang fits Asleep At the Wheel like a your favorite worn-in boots. His rendition of Cliff Bruner’s Truck Driver’s Blues with Willie Nelson is an instant classic – the two sound like they’ve been on the long-haul all their lives and know all about the low-down new-to-town-and-leaving-tomorrow lives of truckers.
Alright, OK, You Win – a duet between Rausch and Wheel relative newcomer Elizabeth McQueen – is a remake of the old classic. Big shoes to fill – the song has been done by Count Basie and Joe Williams, Peggy Lee, Bobbie Darin, Ella Fitzgerald – but they did it. McQueen’s crystal-clear voice is sultry and clean as a clarinet all at the same time, a perfect counterpoint to Rausch’s raspy Louie Armstrong vocal. The guitar and piano breaks come at you like Carl Sandburg’s fog – on little cat feet: they’re understated, light as a feather, and heartfelt.
No review of the Wheel is complete without mentioning the leadership of Ray Benson, the founder and leader of the group for 40 years. Benson has guided this group through the ups-and-downs of contemporary music, always with a steady hand and a sure ear. This album (their 25th or so) is no exception – a hip and finger-snappin’ addition to the band’s ever-expanding oeuvre.
Listen to selections, and buy tracks, here or here.
For those of you interested in Asleep At the Wheel's history, here's a great video of the band doing Cherokee Maiden (1999). Notice the cameos by Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, the Dixie Chicks, and Lyle Lovett.
Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 3:09PM Tweet 
Alan Jackson. Photo courtesy of alanjackson.com.
