Johnny Cash listened to John Prine songs for inspiration; Bob Dylan called them "Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree." Letting loose a new generation of rock-folk-country misfits like My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Deer Tick is a great idea. The tunes are personalized with minor mutations, capturing the sort of signature life-affirming darkness epitomized in a couplet from "Six O'Clock News" (covered by Lambchop): "His brains were on the sidewalk and blood was on his shoes/C'mon, baby, spend the night with me."

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.