I don’t have much to say about these selections. Cicero wrote that literature “faithfully comforts us through the night, in the farthest lands and darkest woods.” Wise words, to be sure, but I have trouble reading in the dark, and in the car, so songs like these have, more than once, served in a pinch and served beautifully. Listening to them, I’ve also learned I’m prone to air banjo and singing full bore into the wall. If that isn’t joy, I don’t know what is.
1. Stephen Stills – Old Times Good Times
2. Arthur Crudup – Rock Me Mama
3. Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
4. Old Crow Medicine Show – Don’t Ride That Horse
5. Jackson Browne – Cocaine
6. Elliott Smith – Miss Misery
7. Dave Rawlings Machine – Monkey and the Engineer
8. Gillian Welch – Red Clay Halo
9. Patty Griffin – Moses
10. Nick Drake – Things Behind the Sun
11. Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town
12. Mumford and Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
13. The Rolling Stones – Factory Girl
14. Simon and Garfunkel – Blues Run the Game
15. Punch Brothers – Next to the Trash
16. John Prine – Christmas in Prison
17. Grateful Dead – New Speedway Boogie
18. Jimi Hendrix – It’s Too Bad
19. Brandi Carlisle – Have You Ever
20. Belle and Sebastian – Like Dylan in the Movies
21. Bob Dylan – Dirt Road Blues
22. Sam Cooke – Bring it on Home to Me
Listen to Garrett’s playlist here: Songs to Listen to in the Dark
Garrett Faulkner is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Arizona.
