Top 20 of 2009: #10-1
Posted on | December 31, 2009 | 1 Comment
Here is some of the music that struck me in 2009. In case you missed it, read the manifesto for this site. It might help you understand where I am coming from. If you didn’t see the Bird List, now might be a good time to check it out.
This music should be kept in museums. The finale of his trilogy on grace and forgiveness, and not a bit cheesy. Read the original review.
The only American member of the band continues to show people around his homeplace, 40 years and counting. Read the original review.
Building on what he started with his first record, JTE’s pen gets deeper and wiser. Read a single review.
One of the best young voices in country harnesses his rocking sound with a little 60’s touch. Read a single review.
Rollicking good time from an indie rocker exploring the music he grew up on.
Most of the time we hear stories from the big cities of America. These are stories from the areas in between. Read a single review.
Don Was strips Todd down, pulls him together, and puts out his most consistent record yet. Read the original review.
Lovett uses his keen eye for songs and delicate touch, as always to great effect. Read the original review.
Cowboy beat poet ruminates on the American west and the history that lies beneath. Read the original review.
Rawlings proves that quality always trumps quantity, with a 9-song record that stuns from beginning to end. Read the original review.
Top 20 of 2009: #20-11
Posted on | December 30, 2009 | 2 Comments
Here is some of the music that struck me in 2009. In case you missed it, read the manifesto for this site. It might help you understand where I am coming from. If you didn’t see the Bird List, now might be a good time to check it out.
#20: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women
Dave continues a great late-career run. Come to think of it, his “run” has never stopped, or really even slowed. Read a single review.
Reverent enough to know when to leave the song alone, but restless enough to know when to shake things up.
There is country music that is funny outside of “She Left Me For Jesus”. Most of it is here.
Mining that Canadiana sound, BoH comes up with something fresh. Good songs and great voices. Read a single review.
This should probably be filed under “educational” rather than “country”. Read a single review.
Wry humor and stripped down execution from the Great White North. Read a single review.
A beautiful sounding record, with great songs to back it up. Possibly his most consistent. Read the original review.
This sounds old, worn in, and gorgeous. I don’t think people are used to quality of this level anymore.
#12: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
His departure didn’t kill the Drive-By Truckers, but gave us double the output. DBT also put out a rarities record, and Isbell had the best song (”TVA”) on it. Read the original review.
One thing you can say about Robert Keen is that he always sounds like he is having fun. Read the original review.
Adam Carroll – “Highway Prayer”
Posted on | December 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
1. Ryan Bingham has made sure to let everyone know that the traveling life of a musician is not for the faint of heart. I covered “The Weary Kind” a few weeks back, and it does an able job of warning would-be musicians about the hardships of his occupation. “Highway Prayer”, originally from Adam Carroll’s 2008 release Old Town Rock and Roll, is an inversion of that — offering encouragement and support to those who might find themselves trapped in such a life. The upcoming release Hard Times has Michael O’Connor taking over vocals, with his rasp adding a good bit of weariness to the song.
2. “Highway Prayer” begins by specifying the groups to whom the song is written: those who “the road is all that matters”, that “live on borrowed time”, whose “seeds in life are scattered”. It takes a subtle personal turn, as Carroll dedicates the song to “those who have lived on next to nothing/ playing in a bar in Jacksonville”, a town just down the road from his home of Tyler. The chorus warns such people not to “stay too late” or “cry too long”, for soon they will be back home, regaling friends and family with stories of their travel.
3. When Carroll identifies himself with those weary travelers in the second verse, the song gains another layer, functioning as a support message for travelers and an internal mantra, repeated over and over again as the white lines fly by. Gabe Rhodes’ harmonium gives this song the appropriate hymnal feel, as it salutes traveling musicians that have gone by and ones to come. “Highway Prayer” is a stunning song, delivered simply enough for everyone to understand it, but with implied weight well beyond its verses.
Michael O’Connor – Highway Prayer
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