'Sweetie,' Josh Rouse From 2007's 'Country Mouse, City Mouse' In the great McCartney/Lennon "Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs" debate of the early 1970s, color me a McCartneyist. (Lennon, God bless him, came around before his disciples, like me, did). In fact, listening to Philly Soul architects Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff wax ...

"Y'all think I'm nuts," said a smiling Lucinda Williams between the many starts, stops, configurations and monologues of her Wednesday night Town Hall show. "Welcome to the rehearsal." In the fourth of her five-night, reverse-chronological, album-by-album stand, Williams and band journeyed through the past darkly, tackling 1992's death-minded ...

Singer-songwriter Joe Pernice is losing the "singer-song" portion of his job description for his next project: a novel. The Pernice Brothers frontman already has a novella, 2003's 'Meat Is Murder' (inspired by the Smiths album of the same name), and a book of poetry, 'Two Blind Pigeons,' to his credit. His debut novel will be published by ...

To witness Paul McCartney in his native habitat, the small club, is to understand why his old band imploded all those years ago. This shamelessly charismatic, world-class showman could never have been content hunkered down in a studio laying down distorted bass lines over backwards vocals. "Evenin', all," he greeted the faithful gathered for his ...

'Call an Ambulance,' Albert Hammond Jr. From 2007's 'Yours to Keep' New Yorkers enjoy unpleasantness. They rattle off daily nuisances to illustrate how their city is more real and thus cooler than yours. Same with their music: Grittiness is often valued above all else. That Patti Smith spits onstage and Sonic Youth sometime make a Times Square ...

The Pernice Brothers' debut album may be titled 'Overcome by Happiness,' but the band's singer-songwriter, Joe Pernice, works best with tragedy. In his sweet-sounding ballads, cars roll into ditches and love affairs blossom on crashing planes. Of course, in 'Chicken Wire,' Spinner's Most Exquisitely Sad Song in the Whole World, a woman ends her ...

'Live to Tell,' Madonna From 1986's 'True Blue' I remember hearing British folkie John Wesley Harding credit Madonna with being a good folk songwriter. I laughed ... until he blew me away with his acoustic version of her 'Like a Prayer.' And Harding didn't even pick the woman's best folk song. That distinction belongs to 'Live to Tell,' the ...