I started to write this in December thinking about the good and the bad for the year. then I just started getting a bit busy and now I am only just now getting around to review it
Albums from this year that I am sure I will be listening to in ten year's time.
Best Vinyl Reissues
Best Music Documentary : Muscle Shoals - could I have said anything else?
Best Buys - During the year I spent a bit of time in second hand record stores searching out some lost gems
Best Rediscoveries - stuff I had forgotten about but which I was reminded of for some reason or other and so went back and rediscovered just how good it was....
Albums from this year that I am sure I will be listening to in ten year's time.
- Roseanne Cash : The River and The Thread
- War on Drugs : Lost in the Dream
- Drive By Truckers : English Oceans : While I agree with most that The Big To Do was a low
- Then in the middle of the year I started listening to a string of country tinged singer songwriter albums that all showed great albums can still be made and bend genres
- Robert Ellis : The Lights from The Chemical Plant :
- John Fullbright : Songs
- Patrker Millsap : Parker Millsap : One of those albums where you have to forgiove the preaching because the music is so good.
- Jamestown Revival : Utah
- Sturgill Simpson : Metamodern Sounds in Country Music - it took a few listens but I do like this.
- Pokey Lafarge
- Lake Street Dive's Bad Self Portraits, ooking forward to seeing them at WOMAD next year.
- Hiss Golden Messenger : Lateness of Dancers
- Hurray for the Riff Raff : Small Town Heroes
- The Felice Brothers : Favourite Waitress - a real return to form and nice to see them in New Orleans when we were there.
- Old 97's - Most Messed Up - Another great party album - celebrating 23 years together
- J Mascis : Tied to a Star - while many claimed it to be a step up from his last solo album I have to admit it felt like (confident) treading water to me.
- Dirk Hamilton : More Songs from my cool life - always been a fan and its nice to now be communicating with the odd email - hoping one day we will catch up for that beer. This is is a great reflective collection of well written songs as usual.
- Billy Joe Shaver : Long in the tooth
- Robert Plant : Lullaby and the ceaseless roar
- Damien Jurado : Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son
- John Murry : The Graceless Age - it helped seeing him in Sydney in a small bar. Enjoyed the show and was pleased to finally pick up a copy of the CD. Have even managed to track down one of only 500 slabs of vinyl made!
- Shovels and Rope : O Be Joyful - and it is
- Willie Nile : American Ride
Best Vinyl Reissues
- Bob Carpenter's Silent Passage
- Jim White's The Mysterious Tale of how I shouted wrong eyed Jesus
- Matthew Sweet : Girlfriend
- Steve Earle : Train A Coming
- Blue Note's 75th anniversary series
Biggest Disappointments :
- Ray LaMontagne's new album was a sad let down after consistent quality for the last few years
- The Hold Steady's Teeth Dreams was not a bad album but showed that they need to rethink and grow (but not as much as Ray' please)
- Aimee Mann's album The Both - some raved - but I found this album to be forgettable and after giving it a few tries (especially after reading a positive review) and trying to work out what I was missing I doubt I will play it again. I did pick up a copy of Til Tuesday's Welcome Home album on vinyl and while not up with their final album I know I will play it more than The Both.
Best Buys - During the year I spent a bit of time in second hand record stores searching out some lost gems
- The Youngbloods : Elephant Mountain
- Stan Getz : Jazz Samba and Getz/Gilberto both in Mono
- Billy Joe Shaver's debut album on monument
- Lulu's New Routes - a great muscle shoals album - I can almost forgive her for what she did to Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World and Watch That Man!
- Cher's 3614 Jackson Highway
- The first two Preservation Hall Jazz Band Albums
- Freddie King's Getting Ready - finally on vinyl
Best Rediscoveries - stuff I had forgotten about but which I was reminded of for some reason or other and so went back and rediscovered just how good it was....
- Howlin' Wolf's first two albums
- Nancy and Lee : Nancy and Lee
- Dinosaur Jr's back catalogue (or at least 5 I have)
- Buddy and Julie Miller : Written in Chalk
- Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend - on vinyl (less three tracks sadly)
- Waylon Jennings Dreaming My Dreams and Honky Tonk Heroes - does country get any better?
- Ann Peebles : I Can't Stand The Rain
- Mink DeVille : Cabretta (some call it just Mink Deville
- John Hiatt : That late 80's purple patch - I count this as being everything from Riding with The King through to Perfectly Good Guitar. This year through some astute buying I have managed to get some of these in near perfect condition on Vinyl.
- Shelby Lynne : I am Shelby Lynne - great re-release package with a contemporary DVD of her first live show in LA
- Anders Osborne : His whole back catalogue - oh for some vinyl of it.
- Stan Getz : Getz Gilberto and Jazz Samba (both in mono)
- Grant Green : Green Street
- Jimmy Smith : Dot Com Blues and Back at the Chicken Shack
- Jonathan Crayford : Dark Light - An old school friend's younger brother producing a New Zealand Classic
- Frank Sinatra : Where are you?
- Horace Silver : Song for my father - it was sad to read of Horace Silver's passing but it was a good excuse to drag this out again
- Preservation Hall Jazz Band
And there is nothing like a trip to Memphis and The Crossroads to rekindle a love of the blues and a few obscure fat possum releases;
- Asie Paton
- Rober Belfour,
- Junior Kimbrough
- RL Burnside
All in all a pretty good year but a worry that what I considered the best new material was all pretty much in and around one genre - country soul or country folk.
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