"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" by Kate Rusby.

"The Last Leviathan," mentioned above.

"How Will I Ever Be Simple Again?" by Richard Thompson.

"Love Don't Need a Reason," a show-tuney one whose author I can't remember but which became an anthem in the gay community and which I sang with a friend who is HIV positive and whose days are exceedingly numbered. Also "Ballad of the Sad Young Men," ditto.

"Cornflower Blue," by Kate Wolf for supremely personal reasons: It reminds me of when the kids dad and I fell in love back in our hippie-dippie days and I thought I'd have that love forever.

"Sonny's Dream" on the Mary Black CD because it represents letting life go by because we're too fearful and dominated by others to step outside a world that constricts us.

"Martha" by Tom Waits. Sometimes love never is requited, but the memory of its tenderness never leaves us.

And of course, "All Quiet Along the Potomac."

Now I want to learn about a dozen of the songs mentioned above. I adore gut-wrenching songs, musical drama queen that I am.

WW