I always play records when I’m drafting on the typewriter, and the music rarely has anything to do with what I’m writing. While writing Lives We Might Have Lived, I mostly listened to Big Thief, Ratboys, Runnner, and the medley of artists from Run for Cover Records who collaborated on an album of Jason Molina covers in tribute to the late great songwriter (the cover of “The Lioness” by Hand Habits is absurdly good).

The playlist here features none of these artists. Instead, it’s the final evolution of a playlist I’ve been listening to for a year and change that helped inspire the novel. In turn, I believe it can give you a sense of what this novel feels like.

I will write more about what this album is and isn’t, but for now I’ll let the music set the tone.

“Now That This Old World is Ending” – Dan Romer. Romer has gotten his breakout with the score for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a daunting assignment coming after the work done by Ramin Djawadi on Thrones. This track is the theme for the video game Far Cry 5.

“Nasty Letter” – Otis Taylor. Taylor’s folksy blues came to my attention with his thrilling track “Ten Million Slaves” which was featured in the trailer and soundtrack for Michael Mann’s film Public Enemies. “Nasty Letter” also features in that film.

“The Darkest Part” – Danger Mouse, Black Thought, Raekwon, Kid Sister. Black Thought is a genius and this song rules.

“Prologue” – Chris Remo. Atmospheric theme from the video game Firewatch.

“Time” – Pink Floyd. Edited for time because the original’s intro goes on a long time, which isn’t bad, just not practical for my purposes. Typically I would discourage reading too much into the lyrics of these songs and how they might relate to the novel, but this is one that after listening to it I was like “oh, wow, that kinda matches perfectly.”

“Scarecrow in the Garden” – Chris Stapleton. I don’t know why I don’t like Chris Stapleton more than I do because I love this song and I’m planning on using it in a trailer of sorts…

“Jamie” – Zach Bryan and Charles Wesley Godwin. Two men, five first names…but this is not a true crime documentary – it’s a ballad of devastating beauty. Thanks, Tim, for introducing me to this obssession of mine.

“Walk with Me” – Lecrae and Novel. Lecrae’s has in his prolific career shown proficiency in a variety of hip-hop styles, but I think this might be my favorite version of him – soulful, southern, relentless, soaked in tears and sweat in equal measure.

“Ain’t No Grave” – Johnny Cash. I still don’t know if I picked the right Cash song – could’ve gone with “God’s Gonna Cut you Down” or “Redemption Day” – but then I hear the way the song uses chains on the 2’s and 4’s and I feel good about my choice.

“Crown,” – Gigi Perez. The worst thing about this playlist is that it is male-dominated. I guess I’ll let the reader decide if this book is “masculine” – whatever that does or doesn’t mean – and to what extent. Many great female songwriters and performers have been in the soup as I’ve worked on this novel, but the one song that has stood the test of time as saying something about this book is Gigi Perez’s “Crown,” a standout track from her fantastic debut album.

“Manic,” – Wage War. I very rarely listen to metal and metal-adjacent music, but this song just works really well with the angrier, darker, more anxious aspects of the novel.

“The Thrill is Gone,” B.B. King. The blues are appropriate for this novel, though typically when inflecting folk and country rather than rock, funk, or jazz, but this piece comes out of the late Vietnam War era, and without explaining further I’ll just say there is a throughline between the Vietnam War and the events of the novel. But I also as an amateur cultural critic think the Vietnam War may be the most important event in the cultural imagination of the United States post-Depression.

“Best Friend,” Yelawolf and Eminem. I love Eminem’s verse so much and any song that threatens to run up on you with the strap out while saying a prayer is compelling.

“Song for Jesse,” Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Relaxing an anxiety-inducing in equal measure, in this playlist for many the same reasons as Remo’s “Prologue.”

“Keep the Wolves Away,” Uncle Lucius. I have detested country music most of my life but I’ve finally come to see that was largely because I was listening to the wrong country music (which I still detest with all the hate in my heart). This type of country music? I love this. I keep listening to this playlist on Spotify I’ve got called “cowboys or whatever” and this one never gets skipped.

“Call Your Mom,” Noah Kahan. Noah Kahan is one of the artists who best represents this novel, and this song might end up in a trailer, too.

“Longing (Redemptions),” Gustavo Santaolalla. From The Last of Us Part II soundtrack. I love this style of finger-picked guitar music. And I listened to this soundtrack while I wrote THE scene. You’ll know it when you read it.

“Stand By Me,” Stephen Wilson Jr. Most covers of Ben E. King’s all-timer are drivel. And with a song that good, I kinda reject the proposition of a cover outright. But this? Dear me.

“You’re Gonna Go Far,” Noah Kahan. I didn’t want to have two songs by one artist but both this and “Call Your Mom” fit the novel too well. I could’ve chosen a few others. Fwiw, his best song is “Orange Juice” and I actually don’t think it’s close.

“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” Bob Dylan. There are few songs better suited to a coda.

If you like this playlist, please share it with a friend and tell them who sent you 🙂

Happy listening, and stay tuned! But for now:

Forth now, and fear no darkness.

Soli Deo Gloria

Peter