11. Noah & The Whale – Last Night On Earth 
The first English musician to make the list (and not the last).  This is just infectious indie pop music.

10. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
Texas native that is making big waves every time she puts out a new album.

09. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials
The next English musician on my chart. From the first album I was hooked and Ceremonials drew me even further in.

08. Fleet Foxes –  Helpless Blues
In 2008 Fleet Foxes had the best album of the year and in 2011 they put out another instant classic. This whole albums just dances in your ears.

07. Feist – Metals
The only Canadian to make my chart (as far as I know) Feist is another one of those artists that seems to do no wrong. Just great music.

06. Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
I knew about the Civil Wars long before they had the mainstream success of the past year. Joy Williams has such an amazing voice and mixed with the stylings of John Paul White is pure magic.

05. Josh Garrels: Love & War & The Sea In Between
This album took a little while to grow on me. I kept reading blog’s and tweets about how great this album was. I kept listening and then one day it sunk in and has been a constant repeat.

04. Over The Rhine – The  Long Surrender
My first introduction to this band was in college when I saw them in a small barn at Belmont University. I have been a fan ever since and have to say this new album is an instant classic. Haunting vocals and those lyrics…oh those lyrics.

03. Gungor – Ghosts Upon The Earth
To say I was excited about this album would be an understatement. When Beautiful Things came out in 2010 I listened to it non-stop for almost a month on end. Ghosts Upon The Earth was about the same play level. This album is a piece of art and should be listened to in order the build is amazing.

02. All Sons & Daughters – Brokenness Aside EP
Worship music is not really my thing but this EP just blew me away and humbled me. Amazingly raw lyrics and vocals with stripped down music makes this a pure masterpiece.

01. Katie Herzig – The Waking Sleep
When I started this countdown I knew this album would be number 1 on my list. There is no other place it could be. Quite simply the best album of 2011 in my opinion. From indie pop to orchestrated choirs — it has it all. Did I mention that she can write songs? Real songs that have meaning and wow just wow. This is my one must buy album of 2011.

Honorable Mentions English Musicians:

I listen to a lot of English musicians. So my chart would not be complete without a few of my favorites that did not make the list.

Birdy – Birdy
15 year old English singer – she is one to watch out for. Watch the video below and tell me she is not amazing…15 or not.

Adele -21
Everyone knows about Adele and the only reason this amazing album did not make my top 11.

Slow Moving Millie –  Renditions
Another English singer who is absolutely amazing. I found this album later in the year or it would have been in my top 11.

Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
Amazing album but such a huge mainstream success! But a 2011 list without this album would be incomplete.

Olly Murs – In Case You Didn’t Know
INFECTIOUS pop…not to mention he is very easy on the eyes to look at…very easy!

Honorable Mentions American:

Amy Stroup – The Other Side of Love Sessions

Switchfoot –  Vice Verses

Need To Breathe – The Reckoning

Ellie Holcomb – Magnolia

Honorable Honorable Mentions:

These are albums that would have made the list any other year and they are amazing but just did not rank in my top 11.

• Lori McKenna – Lorraine
• The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh
• Sara Groves – Invisible Empires
• Mat Kearney- Young Love
• Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Did I miss any? Would you add anything?

Cover photo of author Sigmund Brouwer. (photography only, not artwork)

Buy book from amazon.com

Jumping from points in time Kit Livingstone uses Ley Lines to jump through points in time chased by the people who just killed his grandfather. Kit is saved by his girlfriend, Mina, from London who has been living in the past, quite happily. Mina has mastered ley travel and sends Kit on an adventure to find a part of the Skin Map. The Skin map is the ultimate refrence to Ley lines and if Kit does not find it then Burleigh (bag guy) will.

My only complaint about this book is that I have to wait till next year for the story to end. When I first read Skin Map last year I was sucked into this series and looking forward to seeing it end and where the adventure takes Kit and Mina next.

Buy it: amazon.com

“Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.” - Twyla Tharp

What does it take to step out in faith and do what scares us? For me, I feel like I live in fear. I want to be safe and I want to know there is something to catch me, but that is not faith. Living in certainty is the opposite of what we are called to do as Christian, as creators. Everything in our lives are just raw materials waiting to be created into something.

Painting, scrapbooking, photography, drawing, exercise, eating healthy, jogging….what have you started and never followed through because it got hard? If you are feeling resistance then push through. I am currently pushing myself to better health and with each step I take – I get stronger both physically and emotionally. I am pushing myself to do something I do not want to do and seeing the benefits of that. I am taking raw material (me) and molding it, using it and preparing it for more. But am I willing to take the same step with my art?

Push back….the resistance will become stronger. We have to be willing to push through everything to reach our goals. Pushing back is not something that comes easy and not something we can do by ourselves. With training I have the support of others in the group and my trainer. Maybe its time to see a creative trainer that can help encourage us when we need it and yell at us when we need it.

Steps – it is all about the steps we keep taking. Keep pushing through. Fight for what we want. It is how we grow.

What steps do you need to take to step out into creativity?

“Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box”
Twyla Tharp (The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life)

Creativity inside a box. That is what my life has become. A conventional way to be creative. A way that fits a quick and easy mold. Thought and process have left the way and filled with quick and easy. But thanks to Twyla Tharp I know can say that inside a box is better than not having a box. At least inside a box I have a starting place. A place to grow and explore dark caverns of growth.

Sunday I was listening to Thomas (my pastor) speak on walking between chaos and death and how this is where we, as Christians, are supposed to walk. When we walk in the middle of chaos and death then we are exactly where God wants us – in a place of complete need and realizing that we can’t do it alone.

The Israelites learned about Chaos and Death with the crossing of the Red Sea. They had just escaped Pharaoh and came to the sea. Israelites were scared of water, they equated it with death, so God decides to make them walk through what they feared and gave them no option to turn around (by sending Pharaoh’s army on the other side). God wanted them to walk through chaos and face death and know that they were helpless and needed God to save them.

In that balance of chaos and death we find God — we find our creative center. We are called to live and do what we are most terrified of. Living in the space between chaos and death we come to God our creator and that is the only place to find our true creative nature. Trust God to be our box, our starting point. When we have the true starting point anything is possible.