Welcome to RedEye’s “Song of the Day,” an ongoing feature where music reporter Josh Terry or another RedEye staff member highlights something they’re listening to. Some days the track will be new, and some days it will be old. No matter what, each offering is something you should check out. Check back every weekday for a new song and subscribe to the Spotify playlist below.
Ever since I’ve lived in Chicago I haven’t owned a car, and that’s kind of a bummer. Driving is awesome, and the only time I get to be behind the wheel is on holidays when I’m home with family (or “Speed”-style emergencies, god forbid). While public transportation is really convenient, I still miss going on late-night rides with nothing but an arsenal of CDs to pass the time.
Though I totally could have picked a ton of songs from my short-lived driving career, I’m going to go with Cotton Jones’ “I Am the Changer.” It’s from the band’s 2009 effort “Paranoid Cocoon,” which was the last album wedged in the console of my long-sold Honda Civic. I bought the CD on a trip home from college (shout out to the Midwest’s best record store, Grand Rapids’ Vertigo Music) and loved every second. While it’s not the kind of thing that reinvents any wheels, it’s one of those overlooked, hidden gems featuring some of the homiest folk songs that are so inviting and mellow you can almost curl up with them.
“I Am the Changer,” which closes the album, is a good example of this. The best way to describe it is “ambling,” as it moves along at a leisurely pace but, amazingly, never bores. It’s incredibly simple too, boasting just a slow drum beat, a slight guitar lead, deceptively mundane lyrics (“Everything has turned around/I was standing by the passing train/Might’ve coughed in the rain/Dropped a dollar down the gutter drain” are sample lines) and some lovely paired vocals from husband and wife duo Michael Nau (of now-defunct aughts band Page France) and Whitney McGraw. Somehow all these pieces came together to make something completely mesmerizing. I can’t really explain it, but sometimes a song just has to feel right during a late-night drive home to hit me hard. Listen below.
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