As ever, with features of this type, a great deal more time was spent reflecting, taking notes and re-listening to a huge number of great songs than was actually spent on the writing. Like most of my fellow writers, I started with some questions about what we were really looking for. I believe that these songs have influenced other artists or, perhaps, will provide such inspiration for the musicians of the future.

I know, I know, everybody knows this song and a million versions of it, but I had never seen this live version from the Americana Awards night in 2012, where everybody seems progressively to blow the previous singer out of the water, culminating in the sublime Bonnie Raitt. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. 'The Weight' is probably one of the most iconic songs in the americana genre, even though it was not considered as such at the time, as the genre had not yet been named.