recent releases: anything off Ryan Beatty's album Calico. "Hunter" and "Ribbons" are exceptional. all-time: Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," Weyes Blood's "A Lot's Gonna Change"

I Need My Girl by The National has been on my mind lately

purple mountains - nights that wont happen, the entirety of stina nordenstam's album dynamite

I personally nominate "Pet Politics" by Silver Jews, "Red Hawthorn Tree" by Current 93, and "Emily" by Joanna Newsom. Each of them have such visceral imagery and an elusive, soul-stirring profundity.