Month: June 2016

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 4: A Song That Makes You Sad

As I’ve said many times before on this blog, the four essential ingredients of a great song (in my estimation) are three chords and a sad story.  I think I’ve always had a particular affection for sad songs, one that has only grown over the years, and my guess is that if I made a…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 3: A Song That Makes You Happy

For today’s pick, I’m returning home to Soulsville, to draw from one of our deepest cultural and musical wells: Stax. The Stax “sound” is the sound that I most closely identify with Memphis, my home, and even the saddest of songs from the Stax vault has always possessed the power to cheer me up. Those…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 2: Your Least Favorite Song

First, see yesterday’s post for my caveat about picking “favorite” and “least favorite” songs. The category “least favorite song” is a weird one, since it presumes there is something at least minimally favorable about the pick. It needs to be a song that is not so awful that you actively avoid hearing it, but still…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 1: Your Favorite Song

As I’ve done for the last several years, I’ll be posting once a day throughout the month of June for the #30DaySongChallenge. (Here is the link to the “anchor” page for this year’s iteration of the Challenge where you can keep up with my daily picks.) There is a prompt for each day, and today’s prompt…

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