In the Arena

Election Road Trip, Day 3: Happy Birthday Aimee Mann

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She’s fifty…and so I thought I’d concentrate on some of the great songs by women singers I heard today:

1. Save Me–Aimee Mann (from her shimmering, transcendent contribution to the movie Magnolia)

2. Insult to Injury–Linda Thompson (imagine the decades of great music if she and Richard had stayed together; just a luscious, rich, resonant  voice.)

3. Drunken Angel–Lucinda Williams (who would probably make a prohibitively wild traveling companion on a trip like this.)

4. 100 Days–Sharon Jones (best live performer I’ve seen this year; her version of “This Land is Your Land” would have done Woody proud.)

5.Irma Jackson–Merle Haggard (yes, yes, he’s a guy…but this is an astonishing mainline country song about an interracial love.)

And furthermore: Going Driftless, which features various women singers covering Greg Brown’s songs, is the best tribute album of the past five or so years. Last I heard, he was living with the incredible Iris Dement, who also sings on the album.

This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.