Music for "Tough Times"

Joni Mitchell--"Both Sides Now"--especially the first version from "Clouds" (1969)and her whole first album "Song to a Seagull."

Bob Dylan--"Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" from Blonde on Blonde and the whole album.

Bach-Goldberg Variations especially by Rosalyn Turek or, secondly, Murray Perahia.

Beethoven--String Quartet in F Major op 135 (he was totally deaf). Ninth Symphony--Roger Norrington--how could you not be moved.

Any Mozart piano sonata by Daniel Barenboim, but Andras
Schiff is very lyrical and Mitsuko Uchida is feminine and precise.

Debussy--String Quartet in G minor--one of the great lesser known quartets, Guarneri or Budapest.

Katie Webster--"Swamp Boogie Queen"--great Delta blues singer and piano player!

Jon

Keith Jarret's piano solo records.

Like the PJ and Nick Cave references... Flaming Lips after midnight on Sundays works for me. The Harder They Come and Jackie Brown. Are soundtracks too lame? Junior Murvin and Desmond Decker always make me feel better. Bob Mould. Jayhawks. Yo La Tengo can also work wonders. Too eclectic?

Ian Anderson's Divinities.

Ditto Tudordennis: anything by Elliott Smith, one of the few musical geniuses to have walked the Earth in our time, suffered greatly, but left an amazing and definitive musical statement quite unlike others of his kind.