Bingham and producer T Bone Burnett — who together won an Oscar for co-writing "The Weary Kind" for Crazy Heart — reconvened for Bingham's Junky Star LP. The first single is about a jobless romantic who refuses to crack: "I'd rather lay down in a pine box," Bingham croaks, "than sell my heart to a fucking wasteland." Call it a modern Dust Bowl ballad — raw-boned heartache that's just right for these times.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."