Brandon's Buzz

Patty Loveless — “You Can Feel Bad”
(from The Trouble With the Truth) —

First of all, dreadful sorry for the erratic posting over the past few weeks; I have been battling a nasty sinus infection for what feels like years now, and the 875mg antibiotics-slash-horse-pills that my doctor prescribed ended up making me even sicker. (Blessedly, I seem now to be on the road to recovery, but if you see fit to pray for me anyhow, I’ll certainly take it.) Secondly, my online buddy Blake — a Nashville-based journalist who is as rabidly (and admirably) stubborn in the defense of his opinions as I am in mine, and with whom I have come to quite enjoy playfully sparring over music and more on this very website — has recently carved out his own acre of real estate in the blogosphere, and I heartily encourage you to check out his musings; he’s a very sharp writer, and his marvelous interviews often make me seethingly jealous (both because of the subjects with whom he gets to chat, and because of the smart questions that he thinks to ask them). (And if you require more incentive to steal a peek at Blake’s new baby: according to Blake himself, Brandon’s Buzz has apparently proven to be quite inspirational in the creation of certain features of his own site. (Color me honored, sir!)) Anyhoo, Blake requested some time ago that the Hive blast some Patty Loveless from its in-house boombox, and with this terrifically sassy tune — a colorfully canny twist on the classic he-done-me-wrong tale, written by the magnificently peerless Matraca Berg — I am at last happy to oblige. Welcome to your own comfy corner of cyberspace, Blake, and may you have every bit as much fun as I have over the past three years. (Incidentally, do you think Blake truly understands how lucky he is to have been born in what will most probably always stand as the single greatest year for music in the history of recorded sound? Who else thinks that he and I need to trade 1984 playlists, stat?)