WHILE SHE'S BEEN in Nashville for some 20 years now, a songwriter of real talent for dozens of stars who also happens to have two superb albums of her own, Brandy Clark is from a small town in Washington state, Morton: population in 2017 of 1,159. No, that number is not missing another digit: one thousand, one hundred and fifty nine. It’s exactly the kind of place – with all the contradictions and myths and pleasures and horrors of the tiny, tidy places away from the citie

The best songs of the year were all over the shop as numbers 11-20 showed, and numbers 1 to 10 are no different. Brandy Clark tops the...

The best songs of the year? Quite possibly. The songs I played the most, sang the most, enjoyed the most this year? Definitely. Many of...

First, but not last, end of year thing from this pen/keyboard. A summation of a year dominated by people who won't be making music again...