Here are this week’s five songs worth listening to.

Delta Rae–Morning Comes Live

I typically try to feature new, or new(ish) songs on here, or the occasional cover. But here is a live version of a song originally released back in 2012. I’ve seen Delta Rae live three times now, and their live shows always far outshine their album work. It’s just an atmosphere and showmanship thing with them.

I’ve been working through some emotions this week that had me in a funky headspace when this one popped up in my Release Radar on one of my walks. It’s a song that I’ve heard a hundred times, and seen live a few, but not in the last year. But damn if it doesn’t hit just a little bit different in 2020.

Can I be blamed if I’m angry?
Can I be saved if I’m barely clinging to hope?
I’m clinging to hope
When I say oh, oh
Rain don’t change the sun
Jealous is the night when the morning comes
But it always comes
It always rains down on us
And like an old dog lying by a new gravestone
It’s still our home
It’s still our home
So if you ever feel like you are alone
After the night
The morning comes

Katie Pruitt–Look The Other Way

I wasn’t familiar with Katie Pruitt until I caught BJ Barham talking about her in a recent interview. Well, you know me. Good enough for BJ, good enough for me. So, Expectations went into the To Listen To list. And damn does it hit you in all the feels. Expectations is semi autobiographical, and raw and sweet and heartbreaking. It is the album all the people in love with Taylor Swift’s work this year should be listening to as well.

BJ mentioned covering one that wasn’t on the album, however. Look The Other Way. And it is one is raw in a different way. An angrier way. It jumps out and smacks you in the face. And I really need to find that cover BJ did. It fits him perfectly. Also, I really need a Katie Pruitt/Brandi Carlile collaboration now.

Shinyribs–Bitch Better Have My Money

And now for a sharp left turn.

I am admittedly a sucker for the hip hop song turned acoustic or country. Whether it was anything from The Cleverlys, or Kris Allen’s Heartless, or anything similar. I’m a sucker for it. One of the original well known versions was of course The Gourds’ Gin and Juice. Well, Kevin Russell is back. Formerly the lead man for the Gourds, Russell now fronts Shinyribs, who just released a cover of Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money. And, yes it is glorious fun in all the ways Russell typically is. When bars are a thing again, this one is going in the jukebox rotation.

Zephaniah Ohora–All American Singer

Miss the old days of that 70s country sound. Well then, Zephaniah is your man. If you didn’t know better, you would think Merle had a new album out. None oozes that feel off of his new album Listening To The Music more so than All American Singer. So, find a room with some shag carpet and wood paneling and drift away to a different time to the sultry tone of a Brooklyn country man.

Caylee Hammack–Small Town Hypocrite

Here at IAmWeez, we don’t play by many rules. But one rule we do have is if you sing a song about small towns, I’m going to listen. So, here we are. This one is a little more “new country” than my typical style, but it has the subject matter (regret!) and just enough pedal steel to make it work for me.

We’ll be back with five more next week. Until then, remember the immortal words…
“Songs are really just interesting things to be doing with the air.” Tom Waits