M Ward – Slow driving man (from the album More rain, Bella Union)

M Ward has produced some of the most sublime songs over his career which reference the roots of rock and roll – country, blues, swing, soul, a touch of lounge, orchestral – and here’s another beauty for the collection.

With consoling back of the room strings, cavern reverb guitar and a devastating hushed croon, he creates a memorable atmosphere of dreamy late night intrigue.

That the song turns out to be an epitaph to a friend who died in a car crash only confirms what a grade A songwriter Ward is.

*Doo wop gets a run out on the equally lovely ‘Little baby’, as if Buddy Holly started a barbershop quartet and grew a falsetto.

Track 11 in this playlist

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