Copperhead Road - Steve Earle

I've never been a big Steve Earle fan. I've tried! I want to like him! I love the intent behind 'F the CC' but DAMN I don't like the song. Several cross country car rides soundtracked to nothing but Earle albums cemented it for me: Steve and my love just wasn't meant to be. Nothing personal, but I needed to listen to other people.

A few years later I'm at an open mic night in London, and up steps a mandolinist. I love mandolins. Probably too much. I'm willing to forgive a lot if a song has a sweet ass mandolin solo. He begins strumming out a simple country chime, boots pounding on the floor, and starts growling out Copperhead Road.

It was stuck in my head for days. Finally I went to look up the song, and it's God Damn Steve Earle. Not just that- it's Awesome God Damn Steve Earle.  So with shuffling feet and my face red, I listened to the song on repeat for an hour.

Copperhead Road is from the album of the same name, and has been described by Earle as the first cross between metal and country- a sound Rolling Stone dubbed Power Twang. The song blends a myriad of styles- a bit country, a bit heavy, a bit celtic. Mandolins (YES!) shimmy over drums that sound like they're cannoning out of the Grand Canyon before being dissected by fiery guitar licks. And there's bagpipe! It's got Vietnam, bootleggers, moonshine and marijuana! It's got EVERYTHING.

So yeah. Steve and I worked things out. Thank God for second chances.

Mike Compton & David Long - Evening Prayer Blues

Mike Compton is the mandolin. I first became aware of him and his incredible virtuoso flourishes in the Down From the Mountain concert film, which was an evening celebrating and performing the traditional music found in O Brother Where Art Thou.

In 2006 Compton and fellow mandolinist David Long put out an album of traditional blue grass numbers titled Stomp. The album is a celebration of bluegrass music with large sections of the album built out of the duelling instrumental melodies of the two performers. There's a particular focus upon the songs of Bill Monroe, the American musician widely credited with inventing the bluegrass genre (the name of the style comes from Monroe's band the Blue Grass Boys).

And so we have todays Best Song Ever: Compton and Long's powerful reading of Monroe's 'Evening Prayer Blues.'