Best Music of 2015

Here’s my annual list of favorite songs and albums. I’ll update this post once the results are in from the three radio station polls in which I voted. [DONE]

 

Overall, not the strongest of years, with a few exceptions …

Songs (list I entered on WXPN) 

1. Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson f/ Bruno Mars (#11 WXPN Top 100)
2. All Your Favorite Bands – Dawes (#17 WXPN, #19 WTMD Top 89)
3. Stay Gold – First Aid Kit
4. Believe – Mumford & Sons (#44 WXPN, #85 WTMD)
5. Ship To Wreck – Florence + The Machine (#2 WXPN, #8 WTMD)
6. Kansas City – New Basement Tapes
7. Restless – New Order (#74 WTMD)
8. Make You Better – Decemberists (#84 WXPN)
9. Satisfy Me – Anderson East
10. Simple Machine – Guster 

Other Favorite Songs (not played on WXPN) 

1. Lips Are Movin’ – Meghan Trainor
2. Lean On – Major Lazer
3. I Don’t Like It, I Love It – Flo Rida
4. Cheyenne – Jason Derulo
5. Marvin Gaye – Charlie Puth f/ Meghan Trainor 

Favorite Albums 

1. All Your Favorite Bands – Dawes (#3 mvyradio Top 25)
2. Title – Meghan Trainor
3. Delilah – Anderson East
4. One Lost Day – Indigo Girls
5. Still – Richard Thompson
6. 25 – Adele

 

LP #3 David + David – Boomtown (1986)

David Baerwald and David Ricketts came seemingly out of nowhere to record this masterpiece, and seemingly disappeared almost as quickly. Baerwald subsequently released several solo albums, none of which met with much commercial success; Ricketts never released an album under his name. Both stayed in the music biz, however, writing and producing material for other artists. Baerwald is credited with co-founding the “Tuesday Music Club” that launched Sheryl Crow’s career and provided the title for her Tuesday Night Music Club album, for which both Baerwald and Ricketts co-wrote several songs.

 

Boomtown is the album that Daryl Hall & John Oates might have made had they grown up in L.A. and been heavily influenced by Tom Waits and the Police. Most of the tracks depict the seamy side of life in L.A. (or any big city), with characters who are “Being Alone Together” as they are “Swallowed By The Cracks”; the most upbeat track musically (“Ain’t So Easy”) is written from the perspective of a domestic abuser. (No, this is not the CD to put on during your next party.) “River’s Gonna Rise” has broader socio-political implications; it’s apocalyptically brutal, but redemption comes in the chorus (especially for those at all familiar with Greek mythology.)

 

Favorite tracks:

River’s Gonna Rise

A Rock For The Forgotten

Welcome To The Boomtown

Swallowed By The Cracks

Serendipity #53

Used To Rule The World – Bonnie Raitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjdMEwYO2rg

Heard 12/7/2015 around 11:50, at Zoe’s Kitchen (Kentlands)

Serendipity #52

Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) – Simply Red

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUB0g8Vjgg

Heard 11/28/2015 around 2:00, in the cafeteria at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Serendipity #51

The Bottle – Gil Scott-Heron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkSFBcjOKHY

Heard 11/23/2015 around 12:00, at Zoe’s Kitchen (Kentlands)

Serendipity #50

Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCEexG9xjw

Heard 11/18/2015 around 6:00, at Jerry’s Subs (Fallsgrove)

Madeleine Peyroux, The Barns at Wolf Trap, 11/17/2015

Row L, Seat 106 (further back than usual, but dead center)

 

Nice show! Main level was pretty full (did have 3 empty seats next to me). Slightly smaller combo on stage even than I had expected, just Madeleine, plus two other wonderful musicians on guitar and upright bass, who also contributed harmony vocals on a few songs. (Sort of thought they might have someone on keyboards.)

 

Started with “Take These Chains From My Heart” (popularized by both Hank Williams and Ray Charles) and “Between The Bars”. Several songs in, paid tribute to the late Allen Toussaint with a politely funky version of “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (From Now On)”, followed by a few songs with just Madeleine and her acoustic guitar. Other highlights included “Don’t Cry Baby” and Randy Newman’s “Guilty”.

 

Really kicked it into gear at the end, concluding with three tracks from her breakthrough Careless Love album: Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love”, “Don’t Wait Too Long”, and the title track. They then encored with the final cut from that CD, “This Is Heaven To Me”. No intermission – whole show ran just under 90 minutes, meaning that I actually made it home around 10:00.

The Brothers Four, Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club, 11/12/2015

1960s folk legends the Brothers Four, still with one original member, had done a nice set in an area church a few years back; this time they occupied the much larger Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club for an enjoyable performance, with a two-hour show divided into two sets. Most of the tables were filled, although the theater-style seats in the rear were empty (as they don’t go on sale until the table seats have sold out).

 

The group’s trademark vocal harmonies worked well on such slow tunes as “Try To Remember” and two of their best-known hits, “Green Leaves Of Summer” and “Greenfields” (their next-to-last pre-encore number). The most enthusiastic crowd reactions, however, seemed to come on the uptempo numbers where Mark Pearson pulled out his banjo, such as their four-song “bluegrass medley”. Their two encores were a stunning version of “Shenandoah” and finally “Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore” (a personal favorite of mine from my childhood).

 

The previous time I saw them, they did a great, sad song about the end of an old family farm – I hadn’t heard it before, and they didn’t do any kind of introduction. Based on the lyrics, I was finally able to chase it down (I thought) on the Internet: “Time To Be Planting Again” by Leslie Eliel. They started into the song Thursday night, but once they got into the chorus, I wondered about whether I had found the correct song, despite the many similarities. Apparently Mark and Leslie wrote the song together but decided to go in different directions with the chorus, as the Brothers Four title their version “Heart Of The Heartland”.

Allen Toussaint

Legendary New Orleans songwriter, producer, and pianist Allen Toussaint died November 9 at the age of 77. Although a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Toussaint was certainly not a household word, although most folks would recognize some of the biggest hit songs he wrote – “Mother-In-Law”, “Southern Nights”, and “Yes We Can Can”, among others.

 

My favorite Allen Toussaint songs and versions:

On Your Way Down – Trombone Shorty (with Toussaint on piano)

A Certain Girl – Warren Zevon

All These Things – The Uniques

Working In A Coal Mine – Lee Dorsey

I Like It Like That – The Dave Clark Five

Freedom For The Stallion – The Hues Corporation

LP #4 The Beat Farmers – Tales Of The New West (1985)

While the Beat Farmers did a number of great songs after their debut album – most notably “Riverside”, “Road To Ruin”, and a great cover of Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” – they never put together an entire studio album nearly as great as this one. In addition to “Reason To Believe” (one of the few covers of a Springsteen song that completely surpasses the Boss’s original), the band also did nice versions of Lou Reed’s “There She Goes Again” and John Stewart’s “Never Going Back”. What really makes the album work, however, are the originals, written by current band members Buddy Blue and Jerry Raney, and close associate (and future member) Paul Kamanski. The production by Steve Berlin (of Los Lobos) and Mark Linett is also impeccable.

 

The Beat Farmers are one of the best exemplars of the 1980s “cowpunk” movement, although unlike bands such as the Long Ryders their music steered clear of political overtones. Allmusic.com probably summarized their sound best:  “country, rockabilly, and roots rock with punk energy and a raucous sense of humor.” While “Lost Weekend” is probably the song that best summarizes these elements, their best-known track is probably the short-and-strange “Happy Boy”, which was popularized by Dr. Demento and still gets some airplay today.

 

Favorite tracks:

Lost Weekend

Goldmine

Reason To Believe

Bigger Stones

Selfish Heart

California Kid