Best Albums of 2009 (A Completely Un-Biased Critic’s Opinion)

OK, so I should preface this list by saying, this will not be a “completely un-biased critic’s opinion” list.  In fact, it’s completely biased and in now way a critical, musically educated list.  It’s just music that was released in 2009 that I happened to like.  So here are my favorite albums in order of preference:

10. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies

Steve Earle’s son escapes the umbrella of his father’s shadow with this gem.  With content that covers a lot of ground from parents to girl problems, it makes for a fun honkey tonk ride.  In “Halfway to Jackson,” he forgets about a girl he just left for cheating on him mid-train ride…ha!

Notable Tracks: ‘Halfway to Jackson’ ‘Midnight at the Movies’ ‘Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For That’

9. Lyle Lovett – Natural Forces

I’ve liked Lyle Lovett for a while and he delivers with his latest album.  His return back to country from a jazz-infused hiatus has been welcomed with excitement…and he’s still got it.  All I can say is thank God for Texas country music…without it, we wouldn’t have guys like Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark or Steve Earle.  Yeah, that’s a pretty serious list.

Notable Tracks: ‘Natural Forces’ ‘Empty Blue Shoes’ ‘Sun And Moon And Stars’

8.  The Low Anthem – Oh My God Charlie Darwin

My new go-to mellow folk rock band.  See you later Iron and Wine.  Beautiful melodies and lyrics create dream-like sounds your ears should be listening to if they haven’t already.

Notable Tracks: ‘Charlie Darwin’ ‘Ticket Taker’ ‘To The Ghosts Who Write History Books’

7.  Rosanne Cash – The List

When Rosanne Cash was a teenager her father wasn’t very fond of the direction her music taste had taken.  So he created a list of 100 essential songs everyone should know and love including her.  Rosanne covers 12 of them here and adds her touch to these timeless classics.

Notable Tracks: ‘Sea Of Heartbreak’ ‘Miss The Mississippi and You’ ‘Silver Wings’

6. Wilco – Wilco

Another groovy album from the mega band reminiscent of “Sky Blue Sky.” In expected Wilco style, Tweedy’s lyrics for the most part are completely indecipherable…well…with the exception of this one I guess.. “Is someone twisting a knife in your back, are you being attacked?  Wilco will love you baby.”  Geee…thanks guys!

Notable Tracks: ‘Wilco(the song) ‘One Wing’ ‘Bull Black Nova’

5. Dave Rawlings Machine – A Friend Of A Friend

Dave Rawlings delivers on this solid debut with the help of Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show as a backup band. Rawlings, although he has never released a record under his own name, has produced/written some pretty influential records including Gillian Welch’s Time-The Revelator and Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker.  GO SEE THIS BAND IF YOU HAVEN’T.  They just made it to the top 5 live shows I’ve ever seen.

Notable Tracks – ‘Ruby’ ‘Method Acting’ ‘How’s About You’

4. Brandi Carlile – Give Up The Ghost

I don’t know how I’d never heard of this girl before this year, but man oh man…this album rocked my socks off.  It just shows simple songwriting doesn’t have to be so abstract or hard to understand to be damn good.  Simple concepts can pack a punch and Carlile’s latest delivers.

Notable Tracks: ‘Dying Day’ ‘Dreams’ ‘Caroline’

3.  Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid

Auerbach mixes gospel, blues, rock and roll and any other Americana element you can think of in his latest solo project.  He maintains a bit of that traditional Black Keys sound and experiments with boundaries of new territory.  All this creates an exceptional listen that’s hard to stop when it’s time to get out of your car…not to mention the vinyl probably sounds even better.

Notable Tracks: ‘Trouble Weighs A Ton’ ‘Whispered Words(Pretty Lies)’ ‘When The Night Comes’

2. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Similar to folks like Alejandro Escovedo and Wilco, Neko Case achieved early success making alt. country records…and like Wilco and Escovedo, she has morphed her sound into something all her own. She admitted in an interview she swore to herself she would never make an album about love. For some reason she changed her mind and now we have Middle Cyclone…and boy are we lucky she did.

Notable Tracks: ‘This Tornado Loves You’ ‘People Gotta Lot Of Nerve’ ‘Magpie To The Morning’

1. The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You

This wasn’t a hard decision.  The most anticipated album of 2009 didn’t let me down.  With the help of Rick Rubin, the Brothers took a step forward with their latest.  I don’t care what the cynics are saying…about it being too poppy or selling out their old sound.  Music must change and evolve.  And I And Love And You is the perfect example of that.  This record is so honest and relevant.  The best art always is.  Keep it up guys.

Notable Tracks: Ever song on this freakin’ thing

‘Tonight I’ll burn the lyrics, cause every chorus was your name…I am a breathing time machine, I’ll take you all for a ride.”

Honorable Mentions:

Buddy and Julie Miller – Written In Chalk

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

U2 – No Line On The Horizon

Langhorne Slim – Be Set Free

Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

The Dead Weather – Horehound

Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

We beat Ole Miss!

Super pumped about the big win yesterday…#4 in the nation??!!!  What??!!  Haven’t done that since like 1980!  Let’s keep it going Gamecocks!  Tough road schedule ahead…according to ESPN we have the toughest schedule in the nation this year…but you know what they say…if you want to be the best, you gotta beat the best!  Let’s go COCKS!!

New Small Group book

“…Here’s what struck me: all this comes at precisely the time when our culture is growing weary of slick production and whatever’s new and is growing hungry for authentic presence and historical rootedness.  Younger generations don’t want trendy engagement from the church; in fact, they’re suspicious of it.  Instead they want truthfulness engagement with historical and theological solidity that enables meaningful interaction with transcendent reality.  They want desperately to invest their lives in something worth dying for, not some here-today-gone-tomorrow fad.”  -Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable

So…we are starting our church-wide small group off this week where all respective small groups will be going through the same book study…something we haven’t done since I’ve been going to Eternal Church…I’m pretty excited about it…there’s something about doing something together at a large level that interests me…I guess it’s the sense of community I feel while we are all doing the same thing…anywho…

We are going through a book called “Unfashionable” by Tullian Tchividjian.  The main theme is about as Christians, we should live a life that’s countercultural, not trying to adapt to the world but in fact do the opposite.  “Live against the world, for the world” is how Tchividjian puts it.  It looks promising and hopefully as a church we will benefit from the study.  

But Skip (our pastor) got me thinking about how we should approach “Christian” books…specifically to Unfashionable… he said, if there’s anything we disagree on, we should re-look Scriptures in order to sharpen our beliefs.  He said books should never be treated as a substitute from The Bible in any way.  

Something else that got me thinking about this was a video I recently watched of Mark Driscoll criticizing the book, “The Shack”. Now I haven’t read the book so I can’t speak one way or another on whether I find it Scripturally sound or even if that’s what the book’s intention was in the first place.  However, all this has reminded me that sometimes as members of a Christian culture, we read/see/experience/preach about things that seem benevolent and beneficial without ever seriously considering the subject matter and whether it’s theologically and biblically sound.  If “Christian” messages (Worship, Messages, Books, Christian Music) we digest aren’t articulating Scripture, we need to question it and find out what the Scripture says about it.

Truth always wins out…and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we are all searching for in life anyway, truth?

RIP The Everybodyfields…Hello Jill Andrews

So..one of my favorite bands broke up not too long ago.  They were called The Everybodyfields.  Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews were both part of that band and are now working on solo projects.  

Recently I stumbled across this video on Jill Andrews’ website of her covering Lucinda Williams‘ “Sharp Cutting Wings.”  I love her and Lucinda Williams’ music so much, if I were trapped on a desert island and was forced to listen to them both forever, I’d be just fine with that.  

After a two minute introduction of what she’s doing now, the song begins…so don’t go anywhere.

Cool New Movie Alert

So…this is an interesting new venture for Patton Oswalt considering he’s historically associated with comedy…but his new movie “Big Fan” appears more dramatic than anything I’ve ever seen him do…and looks really awesome…Here’s the trailer…

It’s written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, which if you have your movie trivia cap on, is the same guy who wrote “The Wrestler” ( and who’s slowly becoming my favorite writer/director if he keeps this up).  All this ‘Wrestler’ talk has made me think of my favorite music video since Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”.   Bruce Springsteen wrote the song “The Wrestler” for the movie.  Here’s the video, and if you haven’t seen it, enjoy.

The Greatest Generation…

 

So…my grandmother (we all call her Mimi) passed away Sunday night; and having had a close relationship with her, I’ve been feeling very sad and also nostalgic.  Growing up just through the woods (I literally walked through the woods down the “path” to get to her house) made for the majority of my memories from childhood.  Summers (and sick days) were filled with mornings at Mimi’s eating cereal and bananas and watching Price is Right at 11 a.m.  By the way, nothing is more medicinal than Mimi, Price is Right and chicken noodle soup when you’re sick.  She gave me unlimited access to the sugar for the breakfast bran flakes, for which I am forever grateful.  Her excuse for over-serving us kids with food was “they’re growing  boys” (even though I was a chubby kid who could use a stint with the Atkins Diet).  

But, as I’ve gotten older, my perception of Mimi has changed from a woman who cooked me some of my most memorable meals and who tolerated the grandkids’ perpetual mischievousness to something more substantive.  Although those are great things and most of what my memory of her from childhood is, it just touched the surface of what kind of person she was.

She believed in values, character, family and tolerance over everything else in life. She was a soft-spoken woman (outside of the family of course!) who didn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve.  She was a strong Christian woman who didn’t talk about her faith much, but she didn’t have to.  She lived it.  That’s more than most of us can say about ourselves.  

Her generation amazes me in their toughness, both emotionally and physically.  I’m embarrassed to admit I come from the MTV generation.  Instead of out plowing the fields, we’re inside watching The Hills.  Hopefully we can turn it around though.  If we have even a fraction of the drive and character this WWII generation did, including Mimi, I think we’d be doing alright.  I hope I make Mimi proud.  I love you always.

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

So, I saw Start Trek the other day with a friend (and it’s awesome by the way)…she will remain nameless…who on the way to the movie said in all seriousness, “I’m glad I’ll finally be able to now tell my friends I’ve seen a Star Wars movie.”  Haha…

This made me think of a video I watched a while back of a girl retelling the Star Wars story based on bits of information she’s gathered about the movies without ever having seen any of them.  Hilariousness ensues.  Here’s the link to the video.  Enjoy.

http://www.vimeo.com/2809991

Another edition of new music you should be listening to….

well…if you want my opinion anyway.

 

So, I haven’t posted on here in a while because I’ve been crazy busy with house stuff, but while I have a lull here goes.

 

The first band I’ll throw out there is Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers.  They just released their first full-length album titled “Songs in the Night”.  Her sound likens itself to this new folk (if you can call it that) movement that’s surfaced, similar to what we’ve seen with The Avett Brothers and Langhorne Slim.  I’m not sure how you would describe that collective sound, but all I know is it’s daggum good.  Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers are signed with Ramseur Records, home to the likes of The Avett Brothers and The Everybodyfields.  On May 22nd, Ramseur will be showcasing many of its great artists at the Visulite Theater in Charlotte including Samantha Crain, Jim Avett, Paleface and Bombadil.  Come out and show some support for this great local record company if you can.  I’ll be there!

 

 

 

Next, I’ll throw out The Lovell Sisters.  If you don’t like bluegrass, you may want to sit this one out.  I first saw The Lovell Sisters at Merlefest (the biggest bluegrass festival in the southeast…i think) last year.  Their new album entitled “Time To Grow” is their latest since 2005!!??  What took yall so long?!!  Anyway, these girls are seriously one song away from becoming the next big thing in country music.  However, the Sisters maintain an uncompromising approach to writing and playing their music.  They won’t be swayed by big label executives who have tried to steer them in a very Nashville direction in the past and failed.  

From thebluegrassblog.com  :

“We were working with a manager who was shopping us to labels in Nashville, and we had met with five of them who were serious about signing us. After a lot of thought and discussion, we decided to sign with Lyric Street Records, which is a division of Disney.

They had paired us up with producer Mark Bright, and everything seemed perfect. Mark had just finished producing Carrie Underwood, so we knew he could work well with female artists, and he had previously produced Mountain Heart, so we knew he was great with bluegrass and acoustic instruments.”

As they got closer to start recording, they started to get nervous about the direction things were taking. It was becoming clear that the label had chosen a path and a sound for the Lovells, and that the artist’s input wasn’t a high priority.

“It really hit me when Mark Bright mentioned one day that when he worked with Rascal Flatts, the biggest problem he had was convincing them not to record any of their original material. That hit me hard, as we wanted to do exactly that!

I don’t mean any disrespect to Mark or Lyric Street. They were great to us and treated us very fairly. It just started to look like we were heading into a place where we would lose control over our music.”

The Lovells consulted with their attorney, who was able to negotiate a release from their contract with Lyric Street in December of 2007, something not many young artists would consider. Turning down a major label and an established producer?

“People were telling us we were crazy! But to me, selling out means doing music you don’t believe in, and we didn’t want to start out like that.”

And this ladies and gentlemen is just one of many reasons I love them.

 

 

 

So, one more ought to be enough huh?

I know I’ve talked about him before on here, but I can never say enough about this guy.  In my humble opinion, he’s the most underrated rock and roll musician out there.  Seriously, why is he not selling out huge venues across the country.  His name is Alejandro Escovedo and he changed my life.  Well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but this guy is good.  And just listening to his albums doesn’t do him justice.  You MUST go see him live if you get the chance.  I’ve had the pleasure of doing that twice now.  I’ve never really connected to songs like I have with Escovedo’s.  It’s something about the man.  He kind of embodies the idea of rock and roll.  He’s been there and he’s lived it….not like a bunch of these hipster indie wanna-be rock and rollers.  He was at the Chelsea Hotel when Sid killed Nancy for crying out loud!!  His latest album is “Real Animal”.  Seriously, go check it out!

 

Here’s him and the Boss singing Escovedo’s “Always A Friend”…

 

 

So, there it is…I could go on and on, but I’ll hold off for another time…until then….go see some music yo!!

The new place!!

So, I’m closing on my house Monday…exciting and scary all in one emotion.  Definitely the most adult thing I’ve ever done.  Rockin’ the suburbs yo!!

Good Books Alert…

Wow…I haven’t put anything up here since Valentines Day…that’s crazy…I’m sure my vast fan base will be in an uproar soon…

 

But until then, I figured I would share some good books I’ve been reading…

 

I just got through reading John Stott‘s “Basic Christianity”.  This book floored me with its simplicity yet uncompromising intellectual description of what it means to be a Christian.   It’s a great book if you are like me, and kind of missed a lot of the more important concepts of Christianity growing up in church.  It really gets back to the “basics” while offering up fresh ideas I had not yet wrapped my mind around as a Christian.  I recommend giving  it a read especially if you are curious about the gospel. Stott really simplifies the gospel, Jesus’ message and what it means to be a believer all in this book;  something the church has tried to over-complicate for years.

 

Next, I just started reading Tim Keller‘s “The Reason For God: Belief In An Age of Skepticism”.  As a skeptic sometimes myself, I have really enjoyed this book so far.  Keller started a church in New York City called Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  

Redeemer is a church in Manhattan and continues to grow and influence church planters from around the country.  What’s unique about Redeemer is its location which doesn’t seem to be the best location for growing church membership; especially a church with a very traditional worship service.  Manhattan isn’t necessarily the bible belt, but Keller’s honest and rational take on Christianity provides a general curiosity for  people who may have never given Christianity a second look.  It’s a relief to me that  just by being inviting, tolerant and disciplined to the gospel message can be enough to attract non-believers to church without having to have elaborate aesthetic worship tools to get people interested in coming (not that there’s anything wrong with that).   

 

Back to the book.  It reminds me a lot of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.  He’s speaking to skeptics here and counters a lot of the arguments we all here about the reasons why God can’t exist.  He exposes a lot of the hypocrisy that comes with challenging God’s existence and really makes an intellectually credible case for God.  The most popular argument non-believers make seems to be this perceived intellectual sacrifice they feel you must make to believe in God.  Keller does a good job countering this argument throughout the book in a respectable and honest way. Go read it mm’kay..

 

Til next time…