Earlier this year, while the Hold Steady were on vacation, their workaholic frontman, Craig Finn, decamped to Austin to record a low-key solo LP steeped in the literate roots rock of his native Midwest. This seven-inch single is our first glimpse: "Honolulu Blues" is an artfully shambling Seventies boogie with plenty of dust on its mudflaps and loads of Catholic guilt tearing at its transmission, while "Rented Room" is a post-breakup blues on which Finn rolls out elegantly frayed guitar majesty that suggests he's more than just a brilliant lyricist.

Listen to "Honolulu Blues":

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• Review: Craig Finn, 'Rented Room' – Three and a Half Stars
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“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.