You can hear a track from Allison Moorer's new album Crows (due Feb. 9 on Ryko). The song is called "The Broken Girl" and, to my ears, seems to fully realize Allison's more pop-oriented ambitions from Miss Fortune and Getting Somewhere. I believe in the press materials, she calls this track the best pop song she's ever written.
You can go here to check out the new song.
Well, Josh Hurst is busily compiling his list, which means I better get started since I expect some overlap (and know that Josh will have infinitely more incisive things to say about his selections). Christianity Today has published their list (to which both Josh and Andy Whitman contributed), and in what has to be a first, there are a couple of albums on their list that will show up near or at the top of my list.
In fact, this year will probably have one of the biggest disparities I ever recall between my #1 and #2 slots and the rest of my list. I simply lived inside these two records for months at time and have continually found new angles to my appreciation of them. So I'll make every effort to make it seem like I'm not blowing through the list just to get to the Top Two, but I can't promise anything. Who knows - I might even feel differently after making my way through the Top 10.
With that out of the way, how about some Honorable Mentions for 2009 (in no particular order)?
If you sign up for Sam Phillips' newsletter by Dec. 31, you will receive a link to download the new holiday track "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas".
Of course, if you're already a member of Phillips' digital download club The LP, you already have a copy of the entire Cold Dark Night EP, which features a duet with Joe Henry (!) on "Silent Night".
It has become quite the fashion lately to mark the end of the decade with obligatory 'Best Of' lists. Though I'm a slave to fashion, I have far too many doubts in my critical opinion to trim my favorite albums into such a list. But in keeping with the spirit, I've compiled a rather extensive list of my favorite albums from the past 10 years, all of which sit comfortably in my Top 100 of All Time.
I can dust off any of these albums pretty any moment of any day and marvel at its greatness. In no particular order...
Well, my year-end list is nearly complete. There were, as always, some real gems in 2009, but on the whole, I'd say fewer keepers than usual. 2010, on the other hand, looks to be full of promise, primarily on the female singer-songwriter front, which - let's face it - pretty much makes or breaks my music year.
First, comes word that Tift Merritt is in the studio with producer Tucker Martine, who has produced a whole slew of great albums, not the least of which was the 2007 album from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter. Speaking of whom, Sykes & Co. should have a new release in 2010 as well.
On Jan. 26, Patty Griffin will release the delayed Downtown Church, produced by Buddy Miller (whose heart problems likely delayed the project). Allison Moorer will release Crows on Feb. 9. The album reteams her with producer R.S. Field, who also produced her best record The Duel. Grace Potter has a new album due in the spring, but unfortunately it appears that the sessions with T-Bone Burnett were scrapped. I'm extremely interested but also a little worried about the direction of that project.
The Drive-By Truckers supposedly have not one, but two, new albums in the can, and those will presumably be released by ATO Records in the near future. Spoon unexpectedly announced the release of a new album Transference, due Jan. 26 on Merge.
Sam Phillips will continue to release new work with her self-released digital project The LP, including three more EP's and a full-length album.
What else in 2010? Might we hear the anticipated reteaming of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant? Will Gillian Welch follow David Rawlings' 2009 lead and drop a new album after almost seven years of waiting? Aren't Over The Rhine long overdue for a new studio album?
Note the wording above - I am in no way qualified to render a comprehensive "Best" Films of the Decade list. For that, I refer you to Josh Hurst's ongoing series, which includes quite a few films that I'll list here. In no particular order, with no particular criteria for inclusion...
I'm sure I missed something. Most of the above films would probably find a spot in my Top 50 Films of All Time. Interestingly, there's not much in the way of arthouse fare to be found in this list. Maybe my tastes have mainstreamed too much, or perhaps the finer elements of arthouse films of the '90's have made their way into the mainstream.
The new album from Allison Moorer will be released on February 9. Sticking with a tried and true formula (i.e. Allison's face = really nice picture), Crows now has an album cover...
If you can get past the hopes for the Dave Rawlings Machine - presumably that it would fill the void left by the six-year drought since the last Gillian Welch album - you might (like me) be pleasantly surprised by the first album under Rawlings' name, A Friend of a Friend.
My first listen was consumed by what I didn't hear - not enough of Rawlings' elegant guitar work, too few narcotically gothic folk songs. Rawlings' voice, by his own admission, is a slight instrument on which to hang a full album. To compensate, the arrangements are less sparse and more upbeat than those on Welch's records. Only the medley of Bright Eyes' "Method Acting" and Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" sounds as if it could be lifted from those previous albums. Heck, there are even string arrangements that bookend the album.
Elsewhere, Rawlings and Welch get help from their buddies in Old Crow Medicine Show, lending the record a ramshackle charm that is decidedly less mannered and meticulous than Welch's albums. Those distinctive qualities ultimately make A Friend of a Friend a thoroughly worthwhile - and sometimes enlightening - effort.
So even if the Dave Rawlings Machine fails to fill the void left by Gillian Welch's absence - what could, after all? - it does reveal more facets of the duo's considerable talents. That's probably not exactly what you were hoping for in 2009, but it'll do nicely in the meantime.
The new Dave Rawlings Machine album is out, and Paste has a great interview with Rawlings, probably the most revealing information we've read yet about the long-gestating new Gillian Welch album.
For my part, I really like the Machine album. It is distinct enough from a Welch album to justify its existence, but it doesn't quite fill the void I've been feeling for the six-plus years since the last Gillian album.
I don't know if you've been following Beck's Record Club project, but the latest installment is a set of songs from Skip Spence's cult classic Oar. And this time, he was joined in the studio by Wilco, Feist and Jamie Liddell.
The first track (of eight) is "Little Hands"...
Record Club: Skip Spence "Little Hands" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.