My Favorite Music I Discovered This Year
I listened to too much pink noise this year, and not enough new music! But what I did hear, I've been pretty crazy about.
Who did you listen to this past year, when you couldn't go to sleep? How about when you wanted to get down in your own kitchen? Do you make your own music?
What tune do you find yourself belting out when the occasion demanded it? Did any lyrics reduce you to a slobbering wreck?
Tell me everything.... and here's my little list:
Stairway to Heaven (4:44)
Rodrigo and Gabriella
They came to Santa Cruz, from Mexico City via Dublin, to blow our little town's minds, and get some custom-made love from my friend, and master guitar-maker, Rick Turner. Imagine the Ramones taking up Flamenco in the Zona Rosa.
Little Wing (3:16)
James Hill
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James came to play at our monthly Ukulele Club hootenanny, and it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. Not only did he captivate every striving amateur in the room, he also told us about how he's arranged for ukuleles to get into every school kid's hands in Canada. Back in the 70s, when I lived in Edmonton, it was recorders!
Sleepwalk (4:30)
Freddie Roulette
Freddie improvised with a group of steel guitar masters in a "showdown" a few months ago at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, and it was near pandemonium. He's like Roy Rogers meets Jimi Hendrix on a rainy night in Chicago. There's not nearly enough recorded music from him, but this will give you a little taste.
Peter & the Wolf, Beatbox Flute (2:11)
Greg Pattillo and Project
Love City (4:38)
Live Cut from the 1969 Woodstock fest, that isn't on any album I know of!
Sly & the Family Stone
I love everything on the Woodstock albums, but I found this cut on YouTube, exclusively. After seeing the "Family" (without Sly) this summer at the Boardwalk, I was on a "Stone Dance High" for weeks afterwards. I am honored to say I touched the hem of Rose Stone's garment, felt Cynthia Robinson's trumpet-spit fly on my brow beneath the bandstand.
Your Long Journey (3:55)
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss
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Here's my theory: Robert Plant fell in love with Allison Krauss because he heard her voice in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" and realized he couldn't go to his grave without touching her time machine magic. With Allison, he found his lost Everly Brother. He finally got to duet with Elvis, he was able to lie in Kitty Wells' arms. He got to HARMONIZE.
This album received so much hype, but for once, it was worth it. Percy may've got all the publicity for his little Led reunion, but this album is clearly where his heart lies.
Your Long Journey (2:39)
The Doc Watson Family, featuring Rosa Lee Watson
Doc Watson
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I want you to hear Doc and his sister's version of the song that Robert and Allison covered. This music was recorded before Doc blew up in New York and on the west coast. Yes, even before he settled on showcasing his guitar work, back when everyone in the "band" wore every hat. The whole album is incredible.
Single Girl, Married Girl (3:19)
Levon Helm, singing with his daughter and co-producer, Amy
Video of a guy listening to this exact album on a long car ride from Montana to NYC
Levon recovered from throat cancer, and recorded this? He's in finer form than ever, and his daughter sings like an angel. Redemptive!
Got Down Last Saturday Night (2:43)
Lost and Found: The Coleman-Hinton Project
Jim Coleman & Eddie Hinton
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I was intrigued to learn of a documentary that came out this year on the late Eddie Hinton, and I started to learn more about his life as the lead guitarist for the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section from 1967 to 1971. He was a great musician and it seems almost too hard to believe that he died, so young, before breaking out as a solo artist. This album is UNRELEASED material he recorded-- amazing production-- with his best pal Jim Coleman, who's now a doctor. Jim has it all, for free, up on his web site, and it will just stagger you.. why weren't you listening to this on the radio every day of the week? Send Jim a note and tell him how much you appreciate it!
Wake Up Alone (3:42)
Amy Winehouse
When I first wrote about Amy a year ago, we didn't know her sorrow. All we knew was that voice— and those songs she wrote that sounded like the weight of Holliday's ghost, searching for the pipes to burst out of. And they did. Now, I feel like a witness to an execution; I suspect my own culpability. I'll always be able to listen to these songs, while she won't to be able to wake up one day, her heart one junkie gesture away from stopping. Why does her music soothe so many of our wounds, but it doesn't touch her pain? This is a tough one.
Not Fade Away (7:32)
Truth is Stranger than Fishin'
Trout Fishing in America
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You listen to KPIG, and you're just going to end up hearing the best music around.
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor (8:00)
Takacs Quartet
I met the Takacs Quartet during their time in Boulder, CO, where
they were my father and stepmother's favorite musicians— and sometime
boarders!
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