“Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” The New Pornographers
Another delightful, nonsensical, there’s-no-way-this-is-not-the-single track from some of my favorite purveyors of modern harmonies.
“Happy New Year (Prince Can’t Die Again),” Mac McCaughan
Written and released at the end of 2016, this captures where we all were then, and maybe where we are now, too.
“The Man Who Sold The World (ChangesNowBowie Version),” David Bowie
According to the NME, this is a 1996 track that was released in 2020 for what would have been Bowie’s 73rd birthday. I don’t know if he went into the recording session and said “let’s make this sound like Nirvana’s Unplugged version” in exactly those words, but that’s how it came out.
“After The Gold Rush,” Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris
The recent documentary on Linda Ronstadt, The Sound of My Voice, showed footage of Parton, Ronstadt, and Harris singing this song. It also showed how Ronstadt befriended Harris; it seems she realized she’d need all the real allies and friends she could get in the music business. I’m glad she did.