Best Music of 2006: The Runners-Up
I’ve composed a list of “Bear’s Top 10 CD’s of 2006,” but there were quite a few albums left over when I finished the list. So here, below, are the runners-up, my “honorable mentions” for 2006, in no particular order. Some of these albums are downloadable at emusic (30 song downloads per month for $9.99, or 50 for $14.99).
Jam Music
Phil Lesh & Friends: Live at the Warfield
Not the Dead, but a great jam band nonetheless, especially since one of the “friends” is the always-soulful Joan Osborne. (available at emusic)
Zilla: all iZ
Extended drum-based jams from Michael Travis (from The String Cheese Incident). Sounds like Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum with a touch of electronica. (available at emusic)
Rock
The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers
Jack White’s new garage-rock band – not as quirky as his White Stripes stuff, but still great. (available at emusic)
Bonnie Raitt & Friends Live
A great blues/rock concert. Highlights: the defiant “[Let’s Give ‘em] Something to Talk About” and the earthy/spiritual “God Was in the Water” (God was in the water that day/casting out a line/but no one was biting).
Pop/Rock
Elton John: The Captain and the Kid
Sir Elton returns to his pop/rock roots. It’s amazing how beautifully he plays the piano, even when he’s singing a song about Richard Nixon.
The Beatles: Love
An extended 78-minute mix developed for Cirque de Soleil. Not quite seamless (there’s no way to segue smoothly into “Revolution”!), it covers the range of Beatles classics, from their early pop years to their psychedelic/spiritual songs like “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Roots/Americana
Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways
The last album recorded by the Man in Black before his death. I’m glad they didn’t “pretty it up” but left it raw, so you can hear the emotion in his aged voice.
Nickel Creek: Reasons Why (The Very Best)
A great collection. Buy the CD, which includes a DVD of seven Nickel Creek videos.
Jonah Smith
Debut recording from a talented singer/songwriter on the “blues-y” end of the Roots/Americana spectrum. (available at emusic)
Christian
Randy Stonehill: Edge of the World
Brings back memories of my teenage years. Stonehill gets better, the older he gets. Highlights: “That’s the Way it Goes,” a duet with Phil Keaggy, and “We Were All So Young,” a trip down memory lane featuring several “Jesus Music” pioneers: Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, Russ Taff, Barry McGuire, Noel Paul Stookey, Anne Herring, and Love Song. (available at emusic)
David Crowder Band: B Collision
An acoustic-oriented followup to last year’s “A Collision” from the most quirky and talented singer/songwriter in Christian music today. Get it at iTunes so you can get the bonus track, “Do Not Move.”
Soundtracks
The Da Vinci Code
OK, so the movie was a let-down after all the hype, but hey, it was still a good movie and it had a good soundtrack. Highlight: the hauntingly beautiful “Kyrie for the Magdalene.”
A Prairie Home Companion
I was blown away at how beautifully Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin can sing! I got the soundtrack long before I saw the movie because I knew the movie would make me cry. I was right.
Those are the runners-up. I’ll post the Top 10 in a couple of days. What are your favorites for 2006?
Jam Music
Phil Lesh & Friends: Live at the Warfield
Not the Dead, but a great jam band nonetheless, especially since one of the “friends” is the always-soulful Joan Osborne. (available at emusic)
Zilla: all iZ
Extended drum-based jams from Michael Travis (from The String Cheese Incident). Sounds like Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum with a touch of electronica. (available at emusic)
Rock
The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers
Jack White’s new garage-rock band – not as quirky as his White Stripes stuff, but still great. (available at emusic)
Bonnie Raitt & Friends Live
A great blues/rock concert. Highlights: the defiant “[Let’s Give ‘em] Something to Talk About” and the earthy/spiritual “God Was in the Water” (God was in the water that day/casting out a line/but no one was biting).
Pop/Rock
Elton John: The Captain and the Kid
Sir Elton returns to his pop/rock roots. It’s amazing how beautifully he plays the piano, even when he’s singing a song about Richard Nixon.
The Beatles: Love
An extended 78-minute mix developed for Cirque de Soleil. Not quite seamless (there’s no way to segue smoothly into “Revolution”!), it covers the range of Beatles classics, from their early pop years to their psychedelic/spiritual songs like “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Roots/Americana
Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways
The last album recorded by the Man in Black before his death. I’m glad they didn’t “pretty it up” but left it raw, so you can hear the emotion in his aged voice.
Nickel Creek: Reasons Why (The Very Best)
A great collection. Buy the CD, which includes a DVD of seven Nickel Creek videos.
Jonah Smith
Debut recording from a talented singer/songwriter on the “blues-y” end of the Roots/Americana spectrum. (available at emusic)
Christian
Randy Stonehill: Edge of the World
Brings back memories of my teenage years. Stonehill gets better, the older he gets. Highlights: “That’s the Way it Goes,” a duet with Phil Keaggy, and “We Were All So Young,” a trip down memory lane featuring several “Jesus Music” pioneers: Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, Russ Taff, Barry McGuire, Noel Paul Stookey, Anne Herring, and Love Song. (available at emusic)
David Crowder Band: B Collision
An acoustic-oriented followup to last year’s “A Collision” from the most quirky and talented singer/songwriter in Christian music today. Get it at iTunes so you can get the bonus track, “Do Not Move.”
Soundtracks
The Da Vinci Code
OK, so the movie was a let-down after all the hype, but hey, it was still a good movie and it had a good soundtrack. Highlight: the hauntingly beautiful “Kyrie for the Magdalene.”
A Prairie Home Companion
I was blown away at how beautifully Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin can sing! I got the soundtrack long before I saw the movie because I knew the movie would make me cry. I was right.
Those are the runners-up. I’ll post the Top 10 in a couple of days. What are your favorites for 2006?
posted by Darrell Grizzle | 10:16 PM
6 Comments:
On the Nickel Creek note, did you listen to the Chris Thile album (How To Grow a Woman from the Ground) or the Sean Watkins album (Blinder On)? They are the mandolinist and guitarist for Nickel Creek, respectively. Both of those CDs are wonderful. Definitely give them a listen.
I'm such a narrow-minded consumer of music. I think my favorite CD had to be the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack and the Rob Thomas CD "Something to Be."
U2's CD was from 2005 but it won the Grammy this year and of course tops all my lists every year. :)
I own Sting's new CD but it takes some getting used to.
And I purchased Genesis' compilation of their work over the years and obsessed on it for about three months and then haven't touched it since.
Favorite single: "One" as a duet between U2 and Mary J Blige.
Julie
Zach, I've heard some of the earlier solo work by both Chris and Sean, but I haven't heard their latest. I'll have to check 'em out.
Julie, I agree about the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack! It was released in November 2005, though, so I didn't include in my list for 2006.
I haven't included any jazz in my "Best of 2006" list because most of the jazz Kato and I listen to is from the 1950's. :o)
Good list!
I enjoyed John Mayer's new disc... very, very "chill" and bluesy.
Apart from that, the only other "released in 2006" disc I think I purchased is the new Sting (John Dowland). Again, good stuff.
I look forward to checking out some of your suggestions.
I'm doing my own "best of '06" series over on my own blog... I'm the opposite of Julie in this area: absurdly eclectic and all over the place in my musical tastes and interests.
I also want to mention my interest in the Randy Stonehill CD. I've kept up with Phil Keaggy over the years and have a rather thorough collection of his CDs. He released two in 2006 that my wife just got for Christmas so I've only heard them each one time. Of course they are "quality!" I just might check out that Stonehill release now that I know about it. It would be fun to hear that old-timers reunion!
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