Wall of Tears & Other Songs I Didn't Write

Master songwriter Owen Ashworth (formerly Casiotone for the Painfully Alone) calls this covers album "an album-length karaoke performance," done with his characteristcally spare and poignant arrangements for keyboard and drum machine. (Fun fact: Ashworth regularly listened to KZSU when he was a teenager in Redwood City.) Here he interprets several country-folk songs, including three by John Prine, as well as a few tunes by artists on the label Orindal Records, which he runs. Charming, earnest, smart, cozy. Favorites: 3, 4, 5, 6. No FCCs detected.

1. (3:27)—Written by Richard Leigh and Peter McCann. Medium-slow, with thick low-end.
2. (4:05)—Written by Lucinda Williams. Medium-slow. Slow dance to close out the disco.
3. *(4:26)—Written by Nanci Griffith. Mid-tempo. Endearing story song about a couple's ups and downs, lovely pedal steel solo.
4. *(2:49)—Written by Karla Matana Hartzman of the band Wednesday. Slow, with synth wobbles. Music for a slo-mo walk.
5. *(4:35)—Written by Iris Dement, with superb lyrics about a languishing life. Very slow, devastating, the standout. So well done that Iris Dement bought it on Bandcamp herself.
6. *(2:16)—Written by John Prine. Spare, just slow and peaceful keyboard chords for accompaniment. "Probably wouldn't believe you if you told me / what I never knew and never will forget."
7. (3:36)—Written by John Prine. Slow, with gentle keyboard.
8. (3:49)—Written by John Prine. Slow, watery beat and organ. "If heartaches were commercials, we'd all be on TV."
9. (3:35)—Written by Dan Wriggins of the band Friendship. Medium-slow, somewhere between grand and weary.
10. (3:44)—Written by Gia Margaret. Another end-of-the-night slow dance.