My Top 100, No. 24: "Valentine" by Old 97's

When I think of songs to be played acoustically and in a circle, I think of this song, "Valley Winter Song" and "Decatur" by Sufjan Stevens.

Because the beauty of "Valentine" is in its simplicity--there are three verses, all musically the same--and a chorus, and it's just one guitar and one bass. You need either two or three guys to pull this off, depending on how many of them can hum and play bass at the same time. And I'd say the beauty of the song is in its simplicity, but I'm not sure that's the whole story.

That's probably part of the appeal for me, because when I listen to a song, I usually try to deconstruct the score in my head and visualize each part while I'm listening, and because there's really only four things going on here, it's really easy to do. But I also got into Old 97s in the first wave of discovering country through folk rock and alt-country, and "Valentine" was just another step into purer country than The Lumineers. "Valentine" can't be sung without a twang, and it was one of the first such songs that I loved non-ironically.

Beyond that, the chorus has a great harmony line. It's on the same rhythm as the melody, so it can't really be called a countermelody, but it's one of those harmony lines that's so strong you find yourself singing along with the backing vocals instead of the lead. 

And I don't really have much else to say. There's no profound musical or emotional reason to like this song so much. It's just that simple.