10 Classic Album Covers That Heighten the Story of the Music Inside

Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits and more

You can add so much atmosphere with a good album cover. They can help explain the stuff that language isn’t always good at explaining. I’ve been pretty happy with my own album covers over the years. I always hope they can serve as good visual reminders of the albums in people’s minds. The sleeves that I picked as my Top 10 are in no particular order. But I think they all add a lot to the music they represent.

Abe Partridge

Love In The Dark (2023)

Abe Partridge is one of my favorite songwriters. His music is so raw, powerful and meaningful. This cover perfectly encapsulates his art. Abe also paints and makes visual art. The album cover art is a collaboration between Abe and Ronny Criss.

Emmylou Harris

Quarter Moon In a Ten Cent Town (1978)

I’ve always loved this cover. It was painted by Susanna Clark, who you may know as the wife of singer Guy Clark (see below). Susanna also co-wrote “Easy From Now O” with Carlene Carter, which is the song that gives the album its name.

Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt (1969)

This is such a classic album. It’s probably my favorite Townes Van Zandt album. It captures Townes and his songs so well. The cover is absolutely perfect. It’s serious but nonchalant.

Steve Poltz

Stardust And Satellites (2022)

Produced by Oliver Wood and Jano Rix of the Wood Brothers, this album is such a good mix of the different sides of Steve Poltz. He’s one of the most talented and magical people out there. Listen to his albums, look him up on YouTube and do everything in your ability to see him live.

Scott Nolan

The Suburb Beautiful (2022)

As a musician, I listen to albums in a weird way. I want to enjoy the songs, but I’m probably more critical than most people. When you learn about something enough, you inevitably become a bit of a snob. But I’m also trying to learn from the experience and think about what’s working and what’s not, what I would do differently or keep the same. The Suburb Beautiful by Scott Nolan is one of the albums where I can mostly turn that part of my brain off, because I don’t really have any critiques. As for the cover, it just feels right. I’m not sure how to explain it.

Guy Clark

Old No. 1 (1975)

Of course, I had to add Old No. 1 to the list. It’s a classic album and cover. The painting on the wall is by Susanna Clark. It shows Guy’s trademark denim shirt. This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and the cover uniquely represents Guy and his music.

Tom Waits

Swordfishtrombones (1983)

Swordfishtrombones was a defining album that was innovative, unorthodox and unexpected. Even for Tom Waits. His voice sounds great since he quit smoking in the early ’80s, though I don’t know how long that lasted. You can tell he has control of his vocal range on this album—not just note-wise but timbre-wise, and style-wise, too. Swordfishtrombones was the beginning of a lifelong creative partnership with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. She was a huge part of how this album and a new direction for Tom’s music came to be. The cover is so cool and eclectic and captures the essence of the album and that new direction so well.

Willie Nelson

Stardust (1978)

Another Susanna Clark painting. It might be weird to include so much from her on this list. But those covers have stuck with me. Stardust shows how talented and multifaceted Willie is. He has such a good ear that it doesn’t really matter what genre or style he’s playing, because he can make it all sound great.

Leonard Cohen

Recent Songs (1979)

This is a very under-appreciated Leonard Cohen album. It’s a great work that came out of Leonar’’s late-’70s/early-’80s transition period. His relationship with Suzanne Elrod was ending, his voice and style were changing, the music scene and the world were changing—a lot was happening. Here, he is more straightforward with his language and his message, but still masterful. I found a vinyl version recently, and the cover looks so much cooler in person, on a large sleeve.

Phil Ochs

Greatest Hits (1970)

This might be the most unique album and cover on the list. It’s not an actual greatest hits album. Phil Ochs is, of course, known for his topical and political songs and was a big part of the ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene. At the end of 1968, with the outcome of the election and the beginning of the end of the counterculture movement, Phil was dejected and depressed. It caused him to write the devastating album, Rehearsals for Retirement. During the aftermath of 1968, Phil began to rethink his approach to music, social and political movements, etc. He came up with this new personality that he said was a mix between Elvis Presley and Che Guevara. He embraced country music and rock ‘n roll and began wearing a gold suit, playing electric guitar and writing less overtly topical songs. He wanted to make everybody feel included and still make his political ideas part of the show, but far from the whole show. He made an album with this new concept and called it Greatest Hits. The cover captures his new persona. The whole thing, sadly, ended up being sort of a failed experiment because a lot of his fans were deeply entrenched in the ’60s folk-counterculture movement. Eventually, he abandoned the whole thing and fell into a heavy writer’s block and alcoholism. Unfortunately, he never really recovered from the whole ordeal.

The 2026 Clio Music Awards are open! Enter your most creative work HERE by Oct. 3.