Song of the Day: 'Yvette'

Jason Isbell's best plus his part in friend David Crosby's final performance.

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books and now writer/director of award-winning films. He was also a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy.

Have had some pretty extensive posts for awhile with a half dozen or more related songs/videos to consider. Maybe too much for a “Song of the Day”? Well, the details are ususally interesting. But today, a little simpler, just one tune! My current favorite male artist Jason Isbell with what I consider the finest song of the past decade, his “Yvette.” About a girl in trouble and how a classmate deals with it. I will say no more and let you discover it—if you wish. But he has penned a couple of dozen other terrific songs in recent years, making him (in my view) our current finest songwriter.

Below that: Jason and wife Amanda Shires grew close to David Crosby in his final years, so a link to their tributes this week and clip from Croz’s final live performance last year: with Jason doing “Ohio.” Plus George Saunders interviews Jason. Also, our usual daily political cartoon. Please subscribe if you have not, it’s still free!

“Yvette”

Croz does “Ohio” with Jason and Shawn Colvin in Santa Barbara, 2022.

Speaking of great writers, Saunders interviews Jason here.

Cartoon of the Day

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Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s atomic bomb movie twisted by the White House and Pentagon), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His 2021 film, Atomic Cover-up, drew extraordinary acclaim, and his current one, The First Attack Ads, aired over hundreds of PBS stations this past fall. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.