Heart-wrenching Beauty: Songs to Make You Feel

I get a bit strange this time of year. Call it all Hallow’s Eve closing in, the fact that I’ll be another year older come November, the way the planets are aligning or seasonal affective disorder, as much as I love the fall a blanket of melancholy usually drapes itself over me this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, in some ways I welcome it. The air is cool and the nights just have this indescribable feeling to them…but I digress. I find myself listening to and searching for more music that actually makes me feel something. Personally, for me that feeling or emotion that I seek out is heartbreak, sadness, or longing. So, here are 5 tunes that just do it for me. Songs that evoke such strong emotions that they move me to tears on occasion and I perfectly comfortable saying that…

Haunt the House “Vampyre” – Sure, the song references being of the “undead” persuasion, but if WIll Houlihan’s writing and gut wrenching falsetto don’t give you chills then you may as well be dead yourself. The very first line of the song envokes a whole cluster of emotions ranging from fear to longing to being misunderstood. So, so, so incredibly good.

Ian Fitzgerald “Galveston” – It isn’t often a song can make me feel a ‘color’, but when Fitzgerald exclaims “then she rolled over gently, the whole room felt empty” I have an overwhelming sensation of being embraced and engulfed by something along the lines of Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist”, awashed in gray’s and blues in the dimlight of, well as the song says “in the dimlight of day, when the whole room turns gray”. Incredible how a song can do that, and incredible how a songwriter can create a place that you are pulled into in this fashion.

Annie Lynch “Come On” – Lynch has always had one of those voices that just tears my heart out, and I thank her for doing so immediately after. The cracks and the breaks in how she sings and how delicate and vulnerable she can make you feel just by breaking into song, its no small feat. Its pure beauty. The depth and cavernous feel to this tune is late Autumn, early Winter all over it. With themes of being lost but finding a way out…deep and beautiful.

John Moreland  “Cherokee”: “I guess I’ve got a taste for poison, I’ve given up on ever being well / and I keep mining the horizon, digging for lies I’ve yet to tell”. Moreland’s flavor of self deprecation and sorrow, its unparalleled. The grit on his voice and in his heart, you can feel this man’s pain and the desperation in his songs. Un-f*ckin-real. Almost too good…but I’ll keep on spinning this thing until the record runs out.

Jason Isbell “Elephant”: I know that I try and focus more on the “local” or independent side of things and with the release of Southeastern especially, Isbell has skyrocketed in popularity, but if you are talking sad songs this one needs a mention. I saw Jason play this at Newport Folk 2 years back and he turned to the band saying “you guys can follow along on this” meaning he was just rolling with it, and said to the audience that he normally wouldn’t play this at a festival, but figured this was the type of place where people cared about the songwriting. I cried like 3 year old who had their toy truck ripped from their arms and kicked in the shin. This song…it does things and cemented Isbell as one of “the” greats.

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Give these tunes and the artists full record a spin. There ain’t nothing wrong with feeling a bit of pain in your life, its what keeps you alive and the music of these artists are able to reach a place deep inside of the listener that not many songwriters are able to. For that, we thank you. Keep on keepin’ on…