Being not important to be validated by a CD compiled, designed and delivered by one Elliott, James, but most sought after and eagerly anticipated each Xmas none the less, I thought it important to share my results, as that, after all, is one of the most interesting aspects, being, as it were, talking and discussing with our peers what musical delights have set our fancy a-fire this year.
America has provided some distractions and delights in its previously described nooks and crannies. I've said it before, but sometimes you've got to do a little digging to find the gems.
Lots of the old Lesser's choices this year come from the long distance of time having been enraptured by one Robert Palmer's (No... not that guy) book, Deep Blues about the beginnings of blues. For me it was the deep attention to detailed musical theory that caught my noggin in it's twelve bar bliss. I started out by listening to the things he was talking about in the artists he mentioned and then started to see some of that in my own music - What better way to appreciate something than it sounding a little like yourself!
First on my non ordered list has to be Bye Bye Bird by the embodied embouchement of Sonny Boy Williamson - The fact that I was able to go on to YouTube and watch him make that warbled and muffled harmonica noise by placing the whole thing in his mouth sideways and still play a tune, played no part in my new admiration for the song!
Next discovery was the 2004 album, Before And After by the Wannadies. Not much needs to be said of the Wannadies, because they play music that almost sounds like it was written for the express purpose of being on one of James' Xmas Pop Poll CD's! The songs Piss On You, Little By Little and the blissful Love Letter are stand-outs.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss? Are you kidding me? Who the hell told them that would be a good match? I'm not quite sure, but if I used the word genius it wouldn't be too far off the mark. Do I hate revisits to a musical past? No, not really, but in a modern world, without the modern twist it can seem a little pretentious (please don't mention the grating - if useable - Seeger Sessions), but there's just something about Raising Sand, and especially the track Fortune Teller. I can also honestly say that listening to Polly Come Home makes me want to reach out and lick Roberts chest in much the much vaunted Led Zep groupie stylee.
Joan Coffey did break my heart, make me cry, give up and sigh in a heap. Struggles And Lulls is probably the best female singer/songwriter album I've ever heard. A Little Deeper and Don't Tell Me will make many thirty-something's rip open their AM radio searching for the little Irish Pixie Minx living within, enchanting like Atargatis from the murky waters of death, drink and love, but it is the track Nearly Was that tells the most truth and ruptures parts in your chest that you didn't know you had, while King Of The Drink, which should really be performed by a mid American punk band at the same ponderous pace, brings the wrinkles out in her face that makes us love her all the more.
Anna Nalick also tickled a fancy or two, and not just because she's a stunningly pretty twenty-four year old American singer/songwriter, but mostly because of the acoustic versions of her overly produced album, Wreck Of The Day, tear down the prissy decoration applied by producers Brad Smith and Christopher Thorn (Originally from Blind Melon - I've never liked melons) and show the songs for the investments they should be.
Much praise should also be lauded on my cat for singing the best version of "Oh My God, There's A Bug On The Light And I Want To Eat It (Get It For Me Please)" just now!Discovering what made 1500 people stand in the Minnesota night to see DeVotchKa made an incredible impact on my imminently musical 2009. Their blend of Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero and Mariachi is infectious and not at all the psuedo folk roots dance music for the sake of filling First Avenue that you'd imagine. In fact I'm pretty sure that listening to Dearly Departed wedged tightly between a sweatily enamoured "Kate" and "Josh" in the packed Main Room was probably the most painful, embarrassing and blissful experience since a first kiss. I own the album How It Ends, but have also been coddled on dark evenings by their cover of the Siouxsie and the Banshee's song, The Last Beat Of My Heart, which manages to evoke the pain of the original in a wood splintering, folk/punk way. This - if anything, would be my high scorer in my Pop Poll list.
The infuriating Jose Gonzales and the cover Heartbeats comes a close second. Infuriating by his severe lack of stretch in his musicality, song to song, but beautiful in his unquestionable taste in performing "bath" music. He has Almost drowned me on too many occasions, but has also made me inexplicably clean!
Lets not take a paragraph break and bare our crack at old ladies out the window for the glorious ORIGINAL version of Heartbeats by The Knife
Guitar picking you say? Why of course... Lets tie the dirty mess of dreadlocked hair, (much envied) Boheme attire, white boy funk and twelve stringed blues wood chipping of John Butler Trio. Better Than gave me enough distraction to run a red light (It was in a stupid place anyway) and then the video for Funky Tonight made me break fingernails since in an attempt to pull some fingerpicking drive out of my own, and many cover, tunes.
Oh... and then in a astounding oversight, I left Dick Gaughan somewhere in my past and rediscovered, and covered, him recently. Outstanding tunes are The World Turned Upside Down (Almost outshone by The Great Billy Bragg's own version) and Pound A Week Rise about Lord Robens' promises to the miners before he tore their, albeit fading, industry apart.
Please consider my entries for the Minnesota region.
Leslie Rich
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