Most bluegrass love songs are about losing love. These are the other kind — the songs where love is going well, or at least going. Flatt and Scruggs’s “Cabin in Caroline” is set inside an actual happy home. Jimmy Martin sings about hopeful love in “Hit Parade of Love.” Keith Whitley wrote “When You Say Nothing at All” and Alison Krauss brought it into the bluegrass repertoire. Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You,” John Prine’s “In Spite of Ourselves” — each takes a different angle on what love looks like when it’s working.

Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history.