For this night of country and western songs, we had Jen, Louise, WendySue, Ken, Bounce, Larry, Karen, Scott, Sam, Suzan, and one new guy, Dave. Dave is a guitar player. He has owned his ukulele for one week and we are the first people he's played with.

1. Jolene, D. Parton, 1973 (Karen)

Lots of people have covered this song, including Miley Cyrus, Olivia Newton-John, and the White Stripes. I heard it because Jeanne, the lovely and talented Mrs. T., is crazy about this a capella group from Texas called Pentatonix. They did a version with Dolly Parton and got a Grammy for their trouble.

2. Thanksgiving Prayer, Johnny Cash (Karen)

People seem to know this because he sang it on an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the nineties.

3. Hey Good Lookin', Hank Williams, 1951 (WendySue)

Dead easy.

4. Walkin' After Midnight, Patsy Cline, 1956 (WendySue)

5. Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn, 1969 (WendySue)

This was a really good movie, with Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, about the life of Loretta Lynn, based on her autobiography.

6. Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks, 1998 (Ken)

Lots of YPs want to leave home, get their own apartment, travel, not be under the thumb of their parents, experiment and dabble in odd things, have no one to answer to. It's scary for a parent to let go but exhilarating for the young person (YP). "She needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes."

7. Coat of Many Colors, Dolly Parton, 1971 (Ken)

What a lovely thing her poor ma did: making a coat for her out of donated rags. But all the kids at school mocked her. The little beasts! Children can be so cruel. I'm glad I'm 57 and no longer in third grade.

8. The Most Beautiful Girl, Charlie Rich, 1973 (Dan)

This had one tough part, with a Gm, Gm aug 7 and Gm7 in quick succession. Though the Gm aug 7 and Gm7 are not difficult when you look at the diagrams, I couldn't change fast enough and had to listen as Ken played it. Very pretty. For you Seinfeld fans, George irritated Jerry by singing this about his girlfriend, Susan. After he begins the chorus for a second time, an exasperated Jerry says, "George, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

9. I'll Fly Away, the Kossoy Sisters, 1956 (Jen)

I know this from the George Clooney movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Great soundtrack.

10. The First Cut Is the Deepest, Sheryl Crow (Jen)

I thought this was a hit for her alone, but Rod Stewart had a hit with it in the seventies. The biggest surprise was finding out that Cat Stevens wrote it in the sixties.

11. I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash, 1956 (Erin/absent)

This seemed like it would be easy. The chords were not difficult, but the key changed for every verse. You'd really have to concentrate to get this right.

12. Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash, 1963 (Erin)

Straightforward. Much easier. Why all this crazy changing of keys in the previous song? There should be a rule: only one modulation per song.

13. I Fought the Law, Bobby Fuller Four, 1966 (Dan)

I first knew this by The Clash. They played it a lot on the radio in the early eighties. We had some trouble with the intro (which was the same bit played between verses) but nothing a little practice wouldn't straighten out.

14. Goodbye Earl, Dixie Chicks, 1999 (Scott)

The Dixie Chicks do a good job in getting us to cheer on murderers. This was one of Sam's earliest musical memories.

15. El Paso, Marty Robbins, 1959 (Larry)

At our last session, when trying to come up with a theme for this session, Larry suggested the songs of Marty Robbins. Thinking that might be too narrow, we expanded it to a general country/western theme. But no one suggested a Marty Robbins song in the Next Club Jam on the website, so it was a last minute suggestion. This is the song that even people who are not country music fans would know, his biggest crossover hit. I partially messed it up by changing speeds between lines, sometimes jumping right in and other times dragging it out. I thought I knew this better. (I have no trouble when I sing with the record.)

16. Wagon Wheel, Old Crow Medicine Show, 2004 (Karen)

This was our closer. We sneaked this in with seconds to spare. I cannot stand this song, I guess because the L.I.U.S.C. has played it 74 times in the past two years. But it was our closer, and, gee whiz, it did go well, as usual, and almost everyone seemed to like it (again!), so who am I to be a wet blanket?

What a struggle it was to come up with a new theme for next time. We have done everything you could think of, except songs about invertebrates and Norman Greenbaum's greatest hits. Sam rescued us by suggesting songs that mention company brands in the lyrics, such as Coca Cola (in a popular Kinks number) and Chevy (in a Don McLean song). This might be a tough one, folks. Search your memories for commercial brands mentioned in songs, and that's what we'll play at seven o'clock (remember the new time-----not 7:30 anymore) on August 4th.

-- Dan.