I have already explained about Single of the Year Candidate Selected for 2022 winnerBut now it’s time to get quietly serious and talk about exceptionally well-constructed songs that have the power to change our lives and our perspectives.
Picking a winner for Saving Country Music Song of the Year was especially excruciating here in 2022. Areas with strong initial candidatesmore than four songs emerged as frontrunners for voting and discussion, with essentially every song receiving similar counts here and in social media comments.
So in some respects, all four of these top contenders should be considered winners. But in order not to completely avoid the difficult decision of who should come out on top in the end, let’s take a look at all the ranks from 4th to his 1st.
#4 Willie Carlyle – “The Last Wizard of Tulsa”
Anyone who has seen this whimsical and enchanting folk-country storyteller from Arkansas firsthand knows the natural showmanship he exudes, the charm of the old traditional songs and tall tales he unearths, and his You will swear by the charm of the original song composed by. Carlyle is like one of the few things you experience in music. His songs are highly literary with rich character and his expressions are very convincing. The soul and authenticity inherent in Willie Carlisle’s music is epitomized in the song “The Last Magician of Tulsa”, which was inspired after spending time with a group of magicians in Florida exploring ideas for a waning profession.
#3 – Ian Noe – “The Ballad of a Retired Man”
It must take a lifetime to compose a song like “The Ballad of a Retired Man.” For Ian Noe, it was his second record in just 30 years. “Ballad of a Retired Man” is a simple, fingerpicking undertone of a story in which a Vietnam veteran and former road worker decides his fate and makes us all think about our own mortality and death. The melody and background are powerful moments that come from his organ. It’s an unavoidably disturbing passage of time, but in a way that’s still weird and gorgeous and charming.
#2 – Adeem the Artist – “Middle of the Heart”
We are all instilled with a set of values (or lack thereof) and different habits through upbringing. They reverberate outward through life’s unfolding like pebbles thrown into still water. . Adeem tells stories, sketches dialogue, and colors the personal lineage and upbringing of individual audience members. Adeem draws a perfect circle. Change people through music.
Saving Country Music’s 2022 Song of the Year
–
Tommy Prine “Ships in the Harbor”
Country music and roots music talk a lot about bloodlines. Because music has often become a family business for many of the most beloved artists and their worthy descendants. But seldom does a transgenerational, circling moment boil down to a song like the song John Prine’s son Tommy perfected on “Ships in the Harbor.”
Even more impressive, this is the first song Tommy Prine has released professionally in his career. Could the debut single really come to be considered the best song written that year? Apparently it could, and it did. Truth be told, you may have to go back many years to find a song that has the emotional impact of a person who listens patiently. Give off the best brilliance.
With a poetic grace that doesn’t require a compelling famous name, Tommy Prine exquisitely encapsulates that all the happiness and grace of life, no matter how delightful, is always fleeting. From the warmth of seeing a blue bird perched on a fence to the unconditional love of a father, the rhythm of life will eventually fade away. “Ships in the Harbor” is both a lament for the inevitable and a lesson for us to enjoy life’s sweet moments in the midst of it all.
One of the biggest indicators of good writing and good singing is that different people mean different things. Tommy Prine wrote “Ship in the Harbor” specifically about his father’s death. But listening to this song sometimes feels like it was written specifically for him when he lost his parents or someone he loved. A notable phenomenon occurred with the release of this song. Whenever it’s shared, listeners are tempted to share their own story of loss and how this song specifically helped them process or come to terms with it.
Tommy Prine is the youngest son of John Prine, who died in 2020 at the age of 73. Tommy learned fingerpicking from his father and picked up his first guitar at the age of 10. But it wasn’t his father’s music that first picked him up on the guitar. It was the work of Jason Isbell that led Tommy to work as a singer-songwriter before his 17th birthday. southeast.
Tommy Prine has released his second single, ‘Turning Stones’, and his debut album is set for release in early 2023. But with this one song of hers, Tommy Prine has already achieved what many musicians and songwriters have spent their entire careers trying to achieve. It creates such an indelible emotional connection with the audience that its influence continues well beyond the present tense. That’s what Tommy is doing to jump-start his career.