I Just Dropped By To Say Hello by Johnny Hartman (Slow Jam of the Month)

• Johnny Hartman has the smoothest voice you’ve never heard.
• It’s a slow burner, but worth the investment.

Well don’t let me bore you anymore
I’m not quite as lonely as I was before
I didn’t want a thing, you know
I just dropped by to say hello

Johnny Hartman on Wikipedia | I Just Dropped By… on Amazon mp3

Distant Lover by Marvin Gaye (Slow Jam of the Month)

• I’m not entirely sure why this song is so awesome, besides the fact that Marvin kills it.
• I dig that somehow it’s urgent yet low key.

Distant lover, lover
(lover, lover, lover)

Distant Lover on Wikipedia | Distant Lover Amazon mp3

Pretty Girl at the Airport by The Avett Brothers (Slow Jam of the Month)

• This song reminds me of “Woman of Heart and Mind” by Joni Mitchell; in both songs the sonic landscape is this solid, constant thing that the vocals float on top of. 
• Weirdly enough, this song feels like being in a car that’s driving away from somewhere and watching trees blur by the car window.  Or something.
• The vocals and the music work well to amplify the mood of the song and the lyrics.

Wish me luck I know you think I’ll need it
For all the hardest roads we have to walk alone
And you don’t have to tell me that you love me
For all the words I’ve never understood
I know, I know

Wikipedia | Amazon mp3

You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) - Burt Bacharach and Hal David (Slow Jam of the Month)

Continuing my current Burt/Hal geekery is this jam by the Stylistics.  A friend once noted there’s something nice about a group of guys sweetly singing a love song.

• A lot of people try to write complicated music really well; more people should try writing non-complicated music really well.  This song doesn’t jump out at you as overly complex - it’s just kinda pretty.
• While I wasn’t able to confirm this, let’s just assume the horns in this song are flugelhorns; apparently that was Bacharach’s jam back in the day.

You’ll never get to heaven if you break my heart.
so be very careful not to make us part.

Amazon mp3 | Burt on Wikipedia

Travelin’ Soldier by Dixie Chicks

Because I’m obsessive, I will mention yet again that Home, the album from which “Travelin Soldier” hails, should have won the Album of the Year Grammy in 2003, not Norah Jones’ vastly blander album, which shall remain nameless because I can’t remember the name, I’m too lazy to look it up, and, most importantly, because I’m a hater.

• “Travelin’ Soldier” was written by Bruce Robison; recorded once in 1996 and recomposed in 1999.  The Dixie Chicks version is the version I fell in love with, but the original(s) are also awesome.
• It’s easy to fall into this song.  The story telling is clear and compelling.

So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart - It might be love
and all of the things he was so scared of

Travelin’ Soldier on Wikipedia | Travelin’ Soldier on Amazon mp3