The Best of 2009

I know most Best of the Years are out before the year is even over, but we here at the stately Voices mansion wanted to take our time and make sure that someone didn't slip a great album in at the last minute.  (In other words we're scrambling to try and not be too late in getting this thing up.)

A caveat about this list and best of lists in general.  We can pretend that we think this is the best music of the last year, but what we really mean is that this is the music we liked the most.  Another site or magazine will definitely have a different list, everyone's thoughts are different.  That doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of other good music out there, there was, this was what we found to be the music we listened to the most, that kept finding its way back to our cd players or kept getting hit on our Ipods.

Also we should point out that the point of this site is to highlight those artists that you normally don't see a lot of press for, so our Best of list is going to reflect that.  We run a thin line here between who we think should be featured here and those who appear in the mainstream mags such as Rolling Stone.  We don't want to ignore someone that is making great music just because they had a write up or review in the Stone or Spin, good music is good music.  But you won't see any mention of any acts like Geen Day or U2 who put out music that deserves to be on a Best of list themselves, they will undoubtly find themselves on plenty of such lists for the year.   We want to feature what we consider the Best of that may not get as much attention as we think they deserve.

We'll count down backwards to what we thought the best of the year, just to keep you in suspense.

10.  Some Assembly Required by Assembly of Dust:  A group that has been together for over a decade this roots rock group plays without a lot of flash, but its songs are heartfelt and its emotions sincere.  On this album they gather together a collection of friends and idols such as Bela Fleck, Martin Sexton and Theresa Andersson to help perform the music.

9. Time Stands Still by Chris Smither:  Chris has been performing since the mid-sixties, starting in the New York fold scene with such greats as Eric Von Schmidt.  This is his 13th release and is a stripped down affair, relying on mostly his voice and guitar with quiet help from his bandmates.  This is folk blues at the best.

8.  Middle Cyclone by Neko Case:  This is where the line becomes thin, some people might think Neko has had more than her share of attention.  This album debuted at number three on the charts.  But we love Neko and while she is probably one of the artists here with more recongntion she is still a far cry from being a sure thing.  (We're not sure that makes sense but like we've said before good music is good music and that's the end point of this site.)  Neko has  voice unlike anyone else out there and her writing continues to amaze.  She's moved away from her americana style and is creating her own style.

7.  I and Love and You by Avett Brothers:  This is the major lable debut from the North Carolina brothers.  Rick Rubin produces and while he cleans up their style they still put out a great disc of music.  Pop, bluegrass, punk, whatever the term you want to put to them they put out a great album.

6.  Golden Apples of the Sun by Caroline Herring:  Another singer that's been around for more than a few albums.  She moves away from her country influenced sound to more of a modern feel.  She contributes great original tunes such at "The Dozens" and others about her childhood and upbringing as well as covering songs you wouldn't expect like Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" but making it her own in doing so.

5. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: In a band of great song writers like the Drive by Truckers Jason still stood out.  This is his release and is better than his solo debut. He writes great story songs and continues the streak here with songs about everday people and their lives.

4. Live at Jazz Fest by John Boutte:  This album is only available through the New Orleans Jazz Fest web page, but is more than worth seeking out.  John has a voice that reminds me of Sam Cooke and is best heard live.  He takes "City of New Orleans" and makes it his song, after hearing his version I can't imagine anyone else doing it as well.  He does a version of Paul Simon's "American Tune" with just Paul Sanchez on guitar that is haunting and beautiful.

3. Written In Chalk by Buddy and Julie Miller:  One of my favorite albums of the year.  Anything this husband and wife does I'm there to listen to.  The song opens with "Ellis County" a song written by Julie about her childhood.  From country to folk to rocking out this song covers it all.

2. Coldwater by Shannon McNally:  This album contains parts of Shannon's unreleased Windswept Moon which we called the best album of the year that it never appeared in but was supposed to.  Like the number one album this is an album made for adult relationships and features her own songs as well as some covers by Bob Dylan and others.  The centerpiece of the album is her own song "Bohemian Wedding Song".  "The battles that you've lost/Are as beautiufl as your victories to me" sums it up for me.

1. The Wreckage by Will Hoge:  Just a little over a year ago Will was seriously injured when a van hit him while driving home from a late night recording session.  Besides just learning how to play again he's had to learn how to walk again.  With the title of this album a lot of people might have assumed it was going to reflect on the accident, but he stays clear of that subject.  What he focuses on here is how two adults can try to live together, love together and what happens when that doesn't happen.  This is most mature work to date and just a remarkable album from the cover to the music itself.

Video Wednesday:

Keeping the theme of the Miller's we present Buddy Miller on our episode of Video Wednesday. This is about Buddy and Julie's latest Written In Chalk.

SONG OF THE DAY

Yesterday we highlighted Julie Miller, today we're going to hear a song from her album last year with her husband Buddy Miller. The album was Written in Chalk and the song is "Gasoline and Matches."

SONG OF THE DAY

Today's song is from 1999's album Broken Things by Julie Miller. Julie is one of my favorite singers, unfortunately she doesn't record much. She did release an album with her husband, Buddy Miller, last year. The song is "I Know Why The River Runs."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Americana Music Association Executive Director Jed Hilly Is On A Mission (the9513.com)
• Buddy Miller Is King at 2009 Americana Music Awards (cmt.com)

SONG OF THE WEEK

This week's song is "Orphan Train" by Julie Miller. Julie makes music on her own and with her husband Buddy, but she doesn't make enough of it. It's been a long time since she's done a solo album, but luckily she did work with Buddy on their recent album Written In Chalk.

Related articles by Zemanta

• I Can't Get Enough of Buddy and Julie Miller's Written in Chalk (cmt.com)
• Buddy & Julie Miller - Written In Chalk (idiomag.com)
• CD Review: Buddy and Julie Miller, "Written in Chalk" (popdose.com)
• Listen Up: Buddy and Julie Miller (twangville.com)

CDs vs. Digital

Image via Wikipedia

Maybe it's my age, I've from the pre-digital age, but I prefer to have the actual CD. I like looking at the cover, reading the linear notes, holding the cd in my hand. Of course it shouldn't surprise anyone that I like vinyl albums even more, but you can't listen to a vinyl album in your car.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Luddite. I don't hate technology. I love technology. My Ipod is one of my favorite items that I own. Where else can I store 15,000 plus and counting songs in one tiny device and have it with me where ever I go. Yes, I would be devastated if I lost all my CDs and Vinyl Albums to a hurricane (can you tell I'm from New Orleans, our first thought of a natural disaster is a hurricane) or other natural disaster, but at least I would have the music and in the end that's what counts.

But there's something about holding the music in your hands. Opening that cd case (if you can get it opened, they make them about as impermeable as Fort Knox) and pulling it out and marveling at the fact that this tiny little disc holds some great music. I'm one of those people that read all the linear notes too. I want to see who the artist thanks, who helped them, where they recorded the songs...I know kind of dorky, but that's just me.

The music industry is losing sales as if it was the Titanic trying to bail water out with a kids play bucket. Everyday you read the gloomy news about how bad sales on CDs are down. More and more big box stores are either closing, Tower anyone, or cutting back on the amount of music they carry. Most big box stores like Best Buy and Walmart basically carried music more of a device to just pull people into their stores with the hope that they would buy more once they got there. The music wasn't really there to make that much of a profit. But these stores are realizing that the music doesn't have that much of a draw on people now days.

I have to ask though, is it a tail wagging the dog type thing? If they cut back on the selections they carry than they're going to cause people not to venture in looking for the music. I know it's not that simple, but it's definitely not helping.

It's making it where you almost have to buy the music digitally. As you can tell from this site I'm a fan of music that's not considered mainstream or artists that aren't in the top 20, heck they aren't even in the top 200. It used to be I could go to Borders or a few other places and find a lot of these artists. Now when I want to find something that isn't a Big Name or being pushed by the Record Companies in the hope of becoming a Big Name I can't. No matter how hard I search I simply can't find the physical album.

Before I continue I have to say that I don't hate digital music. And I'm talking about legal digital music, not downloading songs off the internet and not paying for them, that's another whole post. I'm talking about getting the music from I Tunes or E Music or someplace like that. I enjoy the fact that I can download a song from somewhere and have it right that moment. But I like the option of having the choice of buying the album if I want.

Nowdays that choice is being taken away. As it gets harder and harder to find the album, or if you do the album is so expensive, it just gets so much easier to buy it as a digital download. From I Tunes you can buy almost any album for $9.99 (and I've read that the record companies have finally gotten them to offer albums for sell for more)and when I find that album I've been looking for somewhere and it's going to cost me close to twenty dollars, what choice do I have? I'll pay some more for the actual album, I just Buddy and Julie Miller's Written in Chalk for twelve dollars at Best Buy when I could have bought it off I Tunes for ten dollars and I don't mind. If I had bought it as a download I wouldn't have had the nice package it came in and the cool booklet in the cd. But when the price starts almost doubling I'm going towards digital.

I've been looking for Kelly Hogan cds for I don't know how long. I never can seem to find them. I went to I Tunes and they had both of them just waiting for me to purchase them. There are mail order sites, and some good ones with reasonable prices. I used to oder from Miles of Music but they went under. CD Baby is a really good one, with lots of great music with good prices and one I would recommend. But when you start adding postage and handling in to some of the prices from mail order, again the price starts to go up compared to the digital version. For under twenty dollars a month I get to download fifty songs from E Music.

The record companies don't help the situation when they continue to raise the price of cds and put out albums that people only want a couple songs off. It makes it easier for someone to want to just download the songs they want. Whatever happened to wanting to put out "albums", not just a collection of songs. Artists used to worry about all the songs on an album, what order to put them in, which ones to include, how the whole album sounded. Now too many just are content to make sure there are a couple good hits on the album. It doesn't help the sales of albums.

If these trends continue I can see a time when cds are almost non existence. If you want to buy music you're going to have to want to buy it in a digital format. Which in the long run, it's all about the music, and I have to appluad the fact that digital does make it easier to find stuff and getting the music is what's important. It's just that I'll feel a little sadder not to have the album itself sitting on my shelf.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Report: 17 million people stopped buying CDs in 2008 (arstechnica.com)
• Tony Sachs: The Top Five Boneheaded Music Industry Moves Of 2008 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Vinyl records making a comeback (financialpost.com)
• Mike McCready: The Future of the Music Industry (huffingtonpost.com)
• Books of The Times: When Labels Fought the Digital, and the Digital Won (nytimes.com)
• If the CD Isn't Already Dead, How Long Will It Be on Life Support? (cmt.com)
• How Do You Obtain Music After Watching YouTube? (beatcrave.com)

Buddy Miller

(Buddy Miller on tour with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant)

This week’s voice to hear is Buddy Miller. Buddy calls Nashville home and is an in demand session player and producer as well as a superb songwriter and singer. He also records with his wife Julie. Besides country music Buddy considers himself a Christian singer, though it might not be quite the church music you’re used to.

Buddy started out playing in a bluegrass band in high school. After traveling the country playing his guitar he ended up in New York with the Buddy Miller Band with a young Shawn Colvin singing and playing guitar. After a few years of this he ended up moving to Nashville. Along the way he met and fell in love and eventually married Julie.

Buddy is the leader of Emmylou Harris’ band and has helped produce her more recent albums. She has called Buddy one of the best guitar players of all time. He has gained fame as a songwriter, with artists such as the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack and Brooks and Dunn covering his songs.

Buddy is not just a behind the scenes person though. He has stepped out front to write and sing his own songs, as a solo act and with his wife Julie. He has released 7 albums between his solo career and with Julie.

His most recent disc is Universal United House of Prayer. It’s a country album that rocks, a protest album, a gospel album…there are many things this album could be called, among them I would call it great. This is a theme album and the theme is the soul. He writes of the problems the word is facing today and their impact it has on the soul. The centerpiece of the album is his covering the Bob Dylan classic “With God on Our Side.”

Even more recent Buddy has produced a new album for soul great Solomon Burke called Nashville. His album Universal United House of Prayer won the 2005 Album of the Year award from the Americana Music Awards. Currently he's touring with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant. The final issue of the great Americana Magazine No Depression named him the Artist of the Decade.

Buddy is widely sought after for his musical skills and knowledge, both as a guitar player and a producer in Nashville. He continues to tour with Emmylou Harris and record with others as well as put out his own music and record with his wife Julie. It’s been a few years since he put out his last album so hopefully he has something new coming out soon.

Buddy Miller

This week’s voice to hear is Buddy Miller. Buddy calls Nashville home and is an in demand session player and producer as well as a superb songwriter and singer. He also records with his wife Julie. Besides country music Buddy considers himself a Christian singer, though it might not be quite the church music you’re used to.

Buddy started out playing in a bluegrass band in high school. After traveling the country playing his guitar he ended up in New York with the Buddy Miller Band with a young Shawn Colvin singing and playing guitar. After a few years of this he ended up moving to Nashville. Along the way he met and fell in love and eventually married Julie.

Buddy is the leader of Emmylou Harris’ band and has helped produce her more recent albums. She has called Buddy one of the best guitar players of all time. He has gained fame as a songwriter, with artists such as the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack and Brooks and Dunn covering his songs.

Buddy is not just a behind the scenes person though. He has stepped out front to write and sing his own songs, as a solo act and with his wife Julie. He has released 7 albums between his solo career and with Julie.

His most recent disc is Universal United House of Prayer. It’s a country album that rocks, a protest album, a gospel album…there are many things this album could be called, among them I would call it great. This is a theme album and the theme is the soul. He writes of the problems the word is facing today and their impact it has on the soul. The centerpiece of the album is his covering the Bob Dylan classic “With God on Our Side.”

Even more recent Buddy has produced a new album for soul great Solomon Burke called Nashville. His album Universal United House of Prayer won the 2005 Album of the Year award from the Americana Music Awards.

Buddy is widely sought after for his musical skills and knowledge, both as a guitar player and a producer in Nashville. He continues to tour with Emmylou Harris and record with others as well as put out his own music and record with his wife Julie. It’s been a few years since he put out his last album so hopefully he has something new coming out soon.