I have Filth & Fire and what I believe is a boot of a live performance in some club in Germany (I think) called Live At The Tom Tom Club, if anyone's interested. I like both of them.

Billy, I had some initial trepidations when I fired up up Mary Gauthier. I guess I have a few "quiet" albums in my collection, but it's not something I typically like to hear these days. As such, I nearly gave up on her after the one-two punch of 'The Foundling' and 'Mama Here, Mama Gone' but then it really jumped up a notch. 'Sideshow' was great and 'Blood is Blood' is up there with the best songs I've heard in 2010.

Update #2: Saved the Gauthier for today because I knew I'd be working alone with headphones for most of the day and my preview told me that headphones might be a good way to appreciate it...

It's pretty fucking good. I like the funeral dirge-y instrumentation on some songs and the sort of melancholy throughout, even on the upbeat numbers. Her voice is good, sounds a little like Lucinda in places but mostly has its own thing.

Maybe because I was freezing my ass off, but it feels like a good cold weather record.

Just to clarify - Late, Great Golden State was penned by Stinson years ago and covered by several including Dwight.

Oh my bad, I shoulda looked that up to clarify--it is country music after all.

Eh, no worries. Great record nonetheless.

The last couple of years I've been shying away from this type of singer/songwriter fare only because, for lack of a better phrase, they're not writing'em like they used to. That said, I wish I had more time with this cos it really is f**king good. I'm trying to keep my EOY to twenty entries. I may have to sneak this one in. Sorry, "need" to get it in.

picked up the stinson the gauthier. looking forward to hearing them.

Glad to see some more people enjoying the Mary Gauthier. I completely get the "theydon'twrite'emliketheyusedto" attitude but it's a really special album. I love the whole thing.

I'm thinking if there's one other album here that others probably wouldn't hear but should it's the Steve Dawson album. I'll circulate a link sometime after the holidays.

yeah, me either


is it new material?

Looks like I need to hear this Stinson album. I know Gauthier's not going to be my thing, and that 500 miles to Memphis I would buy based on the cover alone.

Mary certainly doesn't fall into the aforementioned category.
For what it's worth it's been in constant rotation for the last 10 days or so, and thus, moved up about 10 slots on my EOY list. Great record.

It is, and quite disappointing.


Loogs - Stinson record is right in your wheelhouse me thinks. Top Fiver for me.

somebody wanna up this? don't think i've seen the link as of yet.

Found it Bobbo. It was posted by Contradiction quite a while ago and hopefully still working.

I was watching one vH1's latest "Rock Docs", Let's Spend The Night Together: Confessions of Rock's Greatest Groupies.

It features several but one of the main one is Pamela Des Barres.

At the very end they put up some little blurb about her boyfriend writing songs about her.

The boyfriend is none other than Mike Stinson:

That is a seriously frightening looking humanoid.

I am surprised that the Free Energy album's selling point is that it is a "fun rock record." It is neither particularly fun, nor particularly rocky. Discuss amongst yourselves.

I like The Hold Steady album a lot more than I remembered, and The Walkmen album is really good.

I'm having trouble getting to Ten Albums, so I may do my 10 album and favorite Rap Singles.

This was my take as well. I should like it, but I couldn't digest it.

This Mark "Tommy" Stinson record is not Country and Westerberg, it's fucking country. Good country, but it's like a half step to the left of a George Strait record. Me likey.

there is so much music i missed out on this year... there are a bunch in your list i never found time to try, esp. your #1. :-\