I’ve been glamoured. For five solid seasons I’ve been hooked harder than a V addict on Alan Ball’s HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse mystery vampire novels – True Blood. With every crushing season finale I’ve been left craving more, MORE I tell you. I’ve gone back and re-watched the entire series from start to finish, twice. I have read all of the novels, including the short story collection and companion novel. I enjoy, with more pleasure than normal – explaining to anyone who will listen the main subtleties between the books and the show, and explaining where exactly the writers of the HBO television drama have taken liberties with the characters and plots. While some hard core Truebies would scoff at my noob-like devotion, (pfft, but do you have the official Sookie Stackhouse Merlotte’s waitress uniform?!- to which I answer: Not yet!) I promise you it’s a pure love.

Now, music, as we all know – is an essential and vital element to great television, but f@#! does True Blood do it well! Two Grammy Nominations for Best Soundtrack ain’t too shabby a way of proving that fact. And the influences of the show are being felt far and wide. Don’t believe me? Check out Snoop Dogg’s tribute to Sookie Stackhouse.

One small part of this brilliant cocktail of writing, acting, directing and production is the music production for the show, supervised by Gary Calamar – who was also the music supervisor on Alan Ball’s Six Feet Under.

Each episode is titled after a song featured in the episode and the end credits and the titles are pretty darn indicative of exactly what’s happening in the episode.: ”Evil is Going On”, “Burning Down the House”, “She’s Not There”,”You Smell Like Dinner”,”Spellbound” – Not very subtle,eh? However, brilliant none the less, with almost every episode featuring at least one song that seems to have had the scene built around it.

“I wanted a swampy, bluesy, spookey, feel for the show”. Calamar.                                                                       (WaterTowerWB)

The music selection that varies from country to pop to grunge to industrial and back again does exactly that. Even the subtleties are brilliant – playing “Howlin’ Wolf” as Sookie enters a Werewolf bar? It’s details like that that make me love and adore this show. Enough talk though, it’s time for what ya’ll came here for: The music. Read on for what are my favourite musical moments of True Blood, thus far. I’ve narrowed these down from every song ever played on the show to my top moments from each season.