At my old magazine, my editor and mentor Jocelyn Hoppa had a column called “Best Song Ever Wednesday” where she wrote about (YOU GUESSED IT!) her favorite songs. I’ve been wanting to borrow (read: steal) this column for some time, and as Crawdaddy! is now RIP, I feel pretty ok about it. This isn’t meant to be a list or catalog of my favorite songs, rather a place for me to write about a classic song that means something to me that feels relevant.

Cass McCombs
“County Line”
WIT’S END (Domino, 2011)

The centerpiece to nomadic singer/songwriter Cass McCombs’ fifth LP seems a strange place to start this column, as I don’t regard the artist, nor the album as one of my favorites. That said, there is something about this song that has just stuck with me. The prolific, freewheeling drifter penned this stunning gallows ode to his hometown, and though it doesn’t mirror my feelings about mine — I quite like where I’m from — the song brilliantly sums up a common, conflicted feeling had by so many: simultaneously hating where you are from and having a deep-seeded affinity for it.

It also goes a long way to explaining the notoriously hermetic vocalist’s decision to live on the road, and it offers a rare slice of direct insight into McCombs’ complicated character. More than anything, though, it captures the complicated feelings surrounding going home in raw, simple terms — which is quite the achievement. It’s my “My Hometown,” and it’ll always remind me of both why I left home and what I miss about it.