Hmmmm...Music 2006

Every year for the past few years now I have compiled my favorite songs of the year onto a cd and given them to friends for Christmas. I have found this to be a fun, personalized, and cheap gift. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room on the cd jacket to go into why I like all these songs, so I'm going to to that here. These are all songs that I enjoyed most throughout 2006 (though not necessarily released then):

1. Roly-Poly, Little Willies, from The Little Willies: Norah Jones sings. I go to my happy place. That is all.
2. Love From A Scar, Will Hoge, from The Man Who Killed Love: Hoge is a Nashville guy, and I was introduced to his music through some friends who are fans (understatement) of his. Big horns, guitars, gospelly back up singers. Good stuff.
3. This Is Us, Emmylou Harris + Mark Knopfler, from All The Roadrunning: Not a Nashville guy, but a Nashville girl. This is one of my favorite discs of the year. Their vocal styles and sensibilities mesh perfectly together. Good solid fortifying music.
4. All That Matters, Todd Snider, from The Devil You Know: Another Nashville guy. Originally the Snider song pick was to be "Sunshine", from the earlier excellent East Nashville Skyline, a neat little ditty about a botched suicide. Then "All That Matters" came in at the end of the year and beat it out. A nice, simple love song.
5. Quiet Town, Josh Rouse, from Subtitulo: Still considered a Nashville guy, though he no longer lives here. This song reflects his new homeland, Spain. Also contains the only whistling solo in the list.
6. The Captain, Guster, from Ganging Up On The Sun: 1/4 of the band's from Nashville, continuing a theme. Once or twice a year a disc comes out where I love every single song, and Ganging was one of them. Bonus points for a great Ryman concert.
7. The Funnest Game, Katharine Whalen, from Dirty Little Secret: There are 3 primary ways I discover new music. One, where this song came from, is via Paste Magazine, a tragically hip music magazine that sends a cd sampler with each issue. Whalen was formerly with the Squirrel Nut Zippers. It seems with all the dischordant horns and the driving percussion that the song is about the go off the tracks.
8. Casimir Pulaski Day, Sufjan Stevens, from Come On Feel The Illinoise!: I don't care much for Stevens in large doses, but individual songs, like this one, are brilliant. This one concerns a teenage crush, bone cancer, Christian faith, and doubt, and its my nomination for saddest song of the year.
9. Mindy Smith, Tennessee, Long Island Shores: Happy: We got to play with Mindy Smith's dog for quite awhile at a music festival last autumn. Sad: It was old and smelled. Happy: I always had a little celebrity crush on Mindy. Sad: Up close, she is sickly sickly thin (and this day more than a little drunk), so the dream died. Happy: This is a beautiful simple song about my adopted home state. Bonus points for the lyric: "Your daytime sings like Cash and Patsy Cline," my second favorite lyric of the year.
10. Three More Days, Ray LaMontagne, from Til The Sun Turns Black: Another disc where I liked most every song, which balances out his breathtakingly whiny meltdown at the Ryman last summer.
11. I Don't Feel Like Dancin', The Scissor Sisters, from Ta-Dah!: The guilty pleasure song of the set. Listening to it makes me not want to be on a dance floor, but a roller-skating rink, complete with disco ball and strobe lights.
12. Beautiful Son, Without Gravity, from Tenderfoot: The second way to find new music: surfing through the wonderful world of iTunes. This is an achingly beautiful song from an Americana band from Iceland.
13. Seems Like You're Gonna Take Me Back, Solomon Burke, from Nashville: Soul legend Burke came to Buddy Miller's living room here in Nashville (hence the cd name), holed up with Miller, Dolly Parton, Emmylou, Patty Griffin, and others, and made this terrific disc.
14. Turn Out The Light, The New Amsterdams, from Story Like A Scar: Third new way to find new music, off of the satellite. Otherwise, I don't have anything to say about this one, other than I like it.
15. Conventional Wisdom, Built To Spill, from You In Reverse: Another Paste find. The cd version of this song is all this plus a five minute guitar solo, way too long to fit on this disc.
16. If Its Just For Today, Allison Moorer, from Getting Somewhere: Shared a plane last summer with her and her husband Steve Earle (and a bunch of anonymous strangers). She is way too hot for him. Seriously.
17. Thank You, Glen Phillips, from Mr. Lemons: The former lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket does a little gospel smackdown.
18. Bisbee Blue, Calexico, from Garden Ruin: I'm 18 songs in and tired of thinking stuff up. Good song. Good cd. Third and final song on the disc to use a banjo. Strangely, none of the banjo pickin' comes from a song from a Nashville artist.
19. Steady As She Goes, The Ranconteurs, from Broken Boy Soldiers: More Nashville folk. Lots of distorted guitars and 70's style synth.
20. Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol, from Eyes Open: Yes, its a hugely sappy song. Yes, you could call the lyrics inane and not get an argument. No, I don't care what you think. I would love to hear them perform this song live and loud in a huge arena. It would almost be on par with Coldplay performing "Fix You". Almost.
21. Girl In The War (acoustic demo), Josh Ritter, from Girl In The War EP: We end with a guy who is one of my favorite songwriters and who put on the best club show of the year. I prefer this stripped down version of the song (the original is from the disc The Animal Years) because the quiet intensity of the vocal, sometimes just a whisper over the guitar, barely conceals the sadness and anger underneath. Closes with my favorite line of the year: "...her eyes are like champange: They sparkle, bubble over, and in the morning all you got is rain."