My Year in Music

I didn’t hear every album this year. That’s a 30-year streak I have intact. Same for seeing every concert, even the ones in my town/city/region. It’s a shame. There were so many albums and shows that I missed. Good ones, even. For instance, I’ve still never heard Deerhunter. I also didn’t see the Fleet Foxes when they came though town.

But this post is not my occasion to lament. The fact is, between 23 shows and 36 albums, I’ve had a year filled with music. So without further ado, here’s my list of bests.

5 Best Albums:

1. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
3. Jamey Johnson – That Lonesome Song
4. Counting Crows – Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings
5. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

5 Tracks:

1. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band w. Tom Morello – “The Ghost of Tom Joad”
2. The Ting Tings – “That’s Not My Name”
3. Fleet Foxes – “Oliver James”
4. Jamey Johnson – “In Color”
5. Old Crow Medicine Show – "Methanphetamine"

5 Best Shows:

1. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Giants Stadium – 7/27
2. My Morning Jacket – Radio City Music Hall – 6/20
3. Okkervil River – Webster Hall – 10/6
4. Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s Revue – Avery Fisher Hall – 7/12
5. David Crosby and Graham Nash – William Paterson University – 10/11

5 Memorable Live Experiences:

1. Hearing Crosby & Nash sing “Cathedral,” while sitting next to my parents
2. Standing in the first row for Bruce Springsteen
3. Death Cab for Cutie fleeing the stage during a crazy lightning storm
4. Jim James climbing to the rafters at Radio City
5. The communal spirit of Damon Albarn’s Revue, where eight groups sat on stage and played along with each other, regardless of whether they came from London, Mali or Chicago.

Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song

I'll admit, I'd never heard of this guy until I saw him on Letterman the other night. Considering his album has been lauded from Nashville to New York, I guess I'm a little late to the game. Anyway, I've got to tell you, this is easily the best of the four albums I've picked up this week.

Once upon a time, there were a lot of country singers who sounded like this. His voice is deep and grizzled. Like Jennings and Jones before him (as he references in one song), he doesn't sound like a guy who set out to be a star. He sounds like an outlaw from the road with war stories to tell. In his case, these are the stories of drug abuse, a dissolved marriage being dropped by his first label.

So what is it about this guy that hits me just right? I think it's that his traditional sound and familiar stories actually sound legitimate. This isn't some guy approximating the old-time country sound. Rather, he's an actual old-soul who knows intimately of the pain he sings. When he tells me "the high cost of living ain't nothing like the cost of living high," I don't imagine him smiling at his desk for having turned a clever phrase. Rather, I see a man lamenting his life and hoping that the act of bearing his soul might unburden his heart. Or at least open the door for better days ahead.