Which song makes you emotional? Why? - Love at the Five and Dime by Nanci Griffith

I miss Nanci Griffith so much. I think she was one of the best song writers of the last half century. Her soft Texas twang, her wit, her intuitive choice of songs to perform are all things that endeared her to me. The first time I played Love at the Five and Dime for my wife, it brought me to tears. The song is a love story, so well written, so believable. Playing it for the love of my own life was an unforgettable moment.

Post one of your favorite sad songs. - She Thinks I Still Care

I first heard this song on James Taylor's live album from the mid-90s. JT's version is great (of course) but George Jones' original is the real tear jerker. This is one of the few tunes I'm able to harmonize, so it's a sing out loud favorite of mine.

A song that you like in multiple versions

Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) was one of the last songs Woody Guthrie ever recorded before he entered the hospital for his long and slow decline from Huntington's disease. It's the story that stresses the dehumanization of immigrant workers. Woody was pretty damn prescient. The song is about current events just as much as it is about a 70-year-old plane crash. I have versions of the tune by Woody, Pete Seeger, Arlo, Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Nanci Griffith and Cisco Houston.

Which lyric always gives you goosebumps

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; / He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; / He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: / His truth is marching on. - This has actually been a top 40 hit twice in its history, for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Andy Williams. It was sung after the deaths of JFJ and RFK, as well as at the funerals of presidents Johnson and Carter.

A song that represents where you live

My high school girlfriend lived in the same neighborhood where Barry Sadler did when he recorded The Ballad of the Green Berets - about a mile from the gate of Ft. Bragg. I've been a soldier or lived among them my entire life. The guys in Special Forces tend to be pretty smart and usually interesting. The training is rigorous, mentally and physically. It's kind of funny how many of them become teachers when they retire - at all grade levels. One of the most decorated men I ever knew (five Purple Hearts, four Bronze Stars, a Silver star) taught third grade.

A song that's largely acoustic

Showing a deeper appreciation for grunge's roots than most, Kurt Cobain's performance of this tune (AKA In the Pines), a Leadbelly song has been one of my favorites.

A song by a band whose merchandise you've bought - what was the merchandise

My last concert was Old Crow Medicine Show in Winston Salem and I bought a t-shirt of course. Wagon Wheel is the unofficial state song of NC. A little known fact - Bob Dylan gets half the royalties and a co-writers credit. Dylan recorded the chorus in 1973 while OCMS added verses 25 years later.

What song would you play to counterbalance the world when it feels like a broken and unrelenting monolith designed to bring terror and tragedy

Bob Dylan is the answer to everything. Yes, times are dark these days, but they've been dark before and we made progress. As long as there are people willing to sacrifice, and there are, there is always hope.

Post one of your favorite relaxing songs.

After we finish our Thanksgiving meal, my family has a tradition dating back to my childhood. We all gather in the living room and listen Alice's Restaurant, the story of Arlo Guthrie's arrest for littering in a Massachusetts small town in the late 1960's.

Post one of your favorite songs that has the name of a color in the title

The Man in Black does a solid version of this sing-along classic. Other worthy versions include performances by The Band and by Mick Jagger with the Chieftains. "Ten years ago, on a cold dark night, a man was killed 'neath the town hall light."