The teen age author of a perfect song

"‘I wanted to try cocaine, but Jimi was against it’: Janis Ian on her tough, starlit life in music   Hendrix and Janis Joplin warned her off drugs, she sang for James Brown and Salvador Dalí offered to paint her. Janis Ian’s confessional folk-pop is still sensational – so why is she retiring from recording?" Sarfraz Manzoor

Her opening is breathtaking: 

"I learned the truth at seventeen

That love was meant for beauty queens

And high school girls with clear skinned smiles

Who married young and then retired..."

What if John Prine stayed on for the security of the U.S. Postal Service?

 "John Prine: The debut album that introduced a songwriting master

Music journalist Erin Osmon chronicles the creation of Prine's debut album"

Steve Gotcher

To answer the question posed: we would know what we had missed. It's good John Prine knew.

This is a re-post.

A Shane MacGowan update

"Shane MacGowan: I can’t concentrate on music when I can’t even walk across the room" Mark Yarm

A sampling from Jeff Emery's January 2 KZSC show

A few of the highlights from Jeff Emery's January 2 KZSC Backroads" show:

• Louden Wainwright III "This Year"
• Al Grierson "'Til The Circle Is Complete"
• Slaid Cleaves "New Year's Day"
• Mary Chapin Carpenter "New Years Day"
• Bobby Watt "Auld Lang Syne"
• Richard Shindell "Hazel's House"
• Scott Dameron & Jay Ladd V "New Year's Day"

Bill Staines passes

"Folk singer Bill Staines has died at age 74" Luke Taylor

Mary Gauthier's new book "Saved by a Song"

"Book explores the healing power of music  In her book "Saved by a Song," author and musician Mary Gauthier shares why anyone and everyone should look into writing a song!" Joseph Suttner

Digging into "Murder Most Foul"

"What Bob Dylan Does—Or Doesn’t—Know About the Assassination of JFK   Jefferson Morley Revisits the Nobel Laureate’s Recent No. 1, “Murder Most Foul”"

I need to give it another listen but my initial take was the song just petered out.