Songs We Love: Cordovas, 'I'm The One Who Needs You Tonight'

Everyone in the East Nashville band Cordovas is a lead vocalist. The country-rock group is committed to the sound of brotherhood — a few voices sharing a feeling. Nowhere is that clearer than on the tender ballad "I'm The One Who Needs You Tonight," off the band's upcoming record That Santa Fe Channel.

"I'm The One Who's , and, like Browne, the band ably splits the difference between a Western ease and a Southern twang. The song sounds practically unproduced by contemporary standards — the quiet, articulated drums sit at the back of the mix in a steady groove with band founder Joe Firstman's bass, a dry pedal steel and a roomy piano. The front of the mix is the province of three of Cordovas' four members, locked into a tight harmony for almost the whole song. Kenneth Pattengale, of , produced the album with an intentional spareness. There is no hiding on this arrangement; it is boldly unadorned and, at under three minutes, bracingly direct. More than any tape machine could, this mix and the aesthetic priorities it telegraphs situate the band squarely in 1970s Southern rock.