Introducing a new feature - Song of the Week. Encapsulating seven days (more or less) in a single song.

Been on a bit of a different kick lately. On the evenings when I decide to deactivate the grey matter and mindlessly massacre digitalx peons online, I usually like to throw on a record or playlist I’ve been meaning to listen to. Appreciation through ambient osmosis, I suppose.

Anyway, for whatever reason I threw on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (primarily because it is a phenomenal record, but also because I was really ‘feeling’ Stevie Nicks at that particular moment). I absent-mindedly threw “Rhiannon” (off their self-titled, but you knew that) onto that play queue, and for whatever reason I realized that naming songs after women was a relatively common phenomena. Men? Not quite so much. But women, women appear in song titles surprisingly often. I’m sure there’s some broader sociological implications for this, but for now we’ll just work with what we’ve got.

So while on the “Songs Named After Women” thought train, I immediately turned to Dolly Parton’s classic “Jolene”. Don’t pretend you don’t know. Don’t pretend you can’t hear that tenderly plucked guitar line; the soft swell of a lapsteel; Ms. Parton’s impassioned, forlorn pleas to the eponymous auburn-haired vixen. It’s a song that transcends pretty much every classification besides “great song” (and, I suppose, “Song Named After A Woman”). And it’s been stuck in my head for the whole week. (There are worse songs to keep on repeat.)

The long and short of it is - “Jolene” is a great song, and I’ve begun compiling a playlist of songs titled with women’s names. I’ll post that shortly.