"Best of 2006" Holiday Mix CD

I recently mentioned that I was going to be giving away my version of a "Best of 2006" mix cd to family and friends as holiday presents, and I have finally finished it. After 3 revisions I have come up with, what I believe to be, either my favorite or the best songs of all of the CD's that I bought from 2006. Now, these are only albums that were published this year, and obviously I could not get every single pop/rock, jazz, country, etc. album that came out. But, as I have pointed out before, my musical taste runs from hard rock to jazz to country, so I guess you could say this cd could be considered "eclectic" for lack of a better word.

So here it is, the tracklisting with notes to jamfreeks "Best of 2006 Holiday Mix CD":

Songname - Artist - ALBUM

1. East Nashville Easter - Yonder Mountain String Band - YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND
We start things off with a little "jam-grass". Bluegrasses younger sister. YMSB is maybe one of the greatest progressive bluegrass bands to come out since New Grass Revival (Sam Bush, Bela' Fleck, etc.). I really love how this song speaks about the atmosphere at one of their concerts. The differences in the population of the crowd at a show and that "crazy young man standing out in the crowd, going up and down, down and out".

2. Yell Fire - Michael Franti & Spearhead - YELL FIRE
We move from bluegrass to a mix of politically fueled hip-hop/rock/reggae that is Michael Franti. This guy is a religion! Everyone who likes a good concert should go out as soon as he comes to town and see a KILLER show. Whether you are a democrat, republican, libertarian or scientologist, you can not deny that this guy speaks the truth with whatever he writes about. This song, and album of the same title, really is politically fueled. Franti also released an excellent documentary titled "I Know I'm Not Alone" where the viewer follows him around Iraq, Afghanistan and occupied Palestine. Franti speaks about peace and love like a hippy from the '60's, except he is a 6'6" African-American that raps. The first verse of this song is sooooo good!

3. Xmas Curtain - My Morning Jacket - OKONOKOS
My favorite band this year. Another great live act. This live album covers just about every song from their last two albums ("Z", "It Still Moves"), with a little bit of older material thrown around. Many people might hear an influence of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, even a little bit of country. The fact of the matter is, Jim James has a very distinctive voice and writes incredible songs.

4. Vultures - John Mayer - CONTINUUM
Will John Mayer be a lasting artist? That is the question I ask myself from time to time when listening to his latest album. It's hard to say really. For one thing, you have the teeny-bopper pop of his first two albums. Ok, his second album really spoke to that Room For Squares crowd that was searching for a replacement for their Dave Matthews Band. Then he releases a very underrated live album ("Trio") with guys like Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan that is much closer to blues then anything he has done in the past. I like this. So the question remains, will this new direction take on a life of it's own and will his following...well...follow? This album almost has a Steely Dan feel. Very jazzy and bluesy. I'm not a huge fan of every single song on the album, but I can listen to it from start to finish without wishing a song was over.

5. If You're Walking - Trey Anastasio - BAR 17
Here's the way I see things with Trey. I believe he is really trying to follow Eric Clapton's career and model himself after him. This isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you. At first listen to this song you could close your eyes and think you're listening to "Pilgrim" (Claptons "adult-contemporary" release from 1998). But the thing is, that album was absolutely horrendous. "Bar 17" is not, it's actually quite good, brilliant at times. Probably not as accessible as his previous solo release "Shine", but many of the songs are a throwback to those Phish days, that really were not that long ago.

6. Gone - Pearl Jam - PEARL JAM
This might be, in my opinion, close to the best album of the year. Probably the best PJ has done since "Ten" really. I usually can't take Eddie Vedder's politics that much, and would prefer him to just sing and rock out. He does it quite well this time around. Plus, usually the songs I end up liking the most on PJ albums always seem to be written by McCready or Gossard or a mix of all of them. I always thought that as soon as Vedder started playing guitar on stage and writing not just the lyrics but the music as well, was really the down-fall of PJ...well that and kicking Dave Abbruzese out of the band. The lyrics "When the gas in my tank, feels like money in the bank, gonna blow it all this time, take me one last ride..." speaks volumes about the state of the country we live in.

7. Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down - ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) - FLY BETWEEN FALLS
If you like Jack Johnson, you will absolutely love this band, and I am not really that big of a fan of him. In fact he's the bands old college buddy that really got them in front of the right audience (he's also on this particular track). These guys have a very distinct "California-Surfer-Funk" vibe that is really a joy to listen to. The band uses everything from bongos to ukulele's to create a brilliant blend of funk and soul.

8. Cellphone's Dead - Beck - THE INFORMATION
"One by one i'll knock you out..." Beck returns to form on this release that harkens back to his "two turntables and a microphone" days. The thing is, I believe his best release "Sea Change" may stand the test of time, but will never be remembered as his "go-to album", which I believe this may be. Forlorn folky songs like those could only work as a full release, as he could never intersperse those throughout this album or it's fraternal twin "Guero". What I love about that is Beck actually makes it work here by piecing together each song with bits and pieces of that soft crooner voice that made that album so popular. It's a great mix of everything that Beck has done without it being a greatest hits type album. In other words, as you move through this record "one by one", Beck literally "knocks you out" with each track. As soon as you think "oh this is just like "Odelay" you get a whole new perspective of the song. Great album, and one of the best this year on most anybodys list.

9. Intentions Clear - Umphrey's McGee - SAFETY IN NUMBERS
A couple years ago, UM did a short tour with Joshua Redman (saxophone). Luckily I was able to catch one of the shows at The Funk Box (now back to it's original name "8x10 Club"). During that performance, Joel Cummins commented "maybe we should add a sax player full-time". While they didn't do that with this album, they did have Redman come in and do a brilliant job on this song. This album is much darker than their previous releases, but to me, is much more coherent. Also, on a personal level, it speaks volumes to me as when this album was released, we lost our dear friend David to cancer. This song is really a transitional song for the mix cd as the very end has a nice extended moog section that is almost like a bookend to the first half of this "Best of" cd.

10. Little Walter Rides Again - Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood - OUT LOUDER
While the first half of this cd is made up of mostly pop-oriented music, we move along to a jazz song. There were probably hundreds, maybe thousands of jazz albums that came out this year, and this is one of the best. Back in the mid 90's MMW collaborated with John Scofield, one of the last remaining jazz-guitar legends...hell he worked with Miles, that's got to mean something right. Anyway, that exceptional album "A Go Go" was more of a John Scofield album with MMW as backing band. This time around, they actually wrote songs together, which created a dynamic that seems to be more MMW fueled than Scofield. This song is the opening track of the album and even though it was written and performed around ten years later, I could've said it was from "A Go Go" and you wouldn't even know.

11. High On A Mountain - Ollabelle - RIVERSIDE BATTLE SONGS
At first listen you might think this band was from Tennessee or somewhere in the south. Believe it or not, they are straight out of Manhattan. One must wonder how they can sound so smooth and rootsy in that big ole' city. This band makes these old time songs sound just as they should, which is refreshing when some other bands like to fuse weirdness into songs, in essence trying to make them "their own". That just isn't the case with Ollabelle (the name taken from an old songwriter Olla Belle Reed who apparently now resides in Maryland). This song is really a traditional or "standard" that puts the listener in the singers mindset of introspection and spirituality.

12. Luckiest Man - The Wood Brothers - WAYS NOT TO LOSE
Chris Wood, most well known as the "W" in MMW (or Medeski, Martin and Wood) teams up with his brother Oliver for a very intimate blend of blues, americana folk and roots rock. Apparently these guys had performed together only at family parties before putting these songs down on tape to sell to the masses. C. Wood's bass grooves are very distinctive, and his brother's voice while raw and raspy at times meshes well with these great songs. Another one of those records that is hard to find a weak song throughout.

13. Spirit On The Water - Bob Dylan - MODERN TIMES
This might be it. The BEST record all year. I've heard people say that this recording is really the third of a trilogy of albums (Time Out Of Mind, and Love And Theft being the other two). Sure enough, they all do seem to resemble each other closely, but I think this one is a bit better. Maybe it's the material Bob had to work with (Katrina) that really does it for me, or maybe it's his backing band that may be the some of the best musicians he's ever worked with. Regardless, there is not an artist out there whose work spans five decades AND changed modern music in such a way that everyone else had to jump on board. Aside from mentions of "Alicia Keys", you could listen to this album and at times be transported back to the days with "The Band" and his work in the 70's on an album like "Desire". When I heard this album all the way through for the first time, I really wished my friend David was still alive, because this is the type of album he would absolutely love. These songs make me miss him every time I here them.

14. Crazy - Widespread Panic - EARTH TO AMERICA
The great thing about this album, and more specifically this song that I chose here, is that these guys didn't try to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak. Sure, their founding guitarist (Michael Houser) passed away, but he wanted the band to go on without him. And that's just it, they did, and this song is vintage WSP. Domingo Ortiz's afro-cuban percussion on "Crazy" represents that trippy, laid back atmosphere that helped make these guys the darling of the post-Grateful Dead- jam era. And, Mikey's replacement, George McConnell does an excellent job of filling those impossible to fill shoes that were left behind, unfortunately he has since left the band. Who knows where the band is headed.

15. Local - Keller Williams and The Keels - GRASS
One of my favorite artists. This album is chock-full of "campy" bluegrass music that at times may seem so silly it's brilliant. But that's Keller's 'shtick. The album includes only three Keller originals (Goofballs, Crater in the Backyard, and Local), all of which have become live staples over the years, only now being re-invented in a more progressive bluegrass style. The rest of the album includes covers from Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Jerry Garcia, etc. If only he had released his forth-coming album sooner (it's scheduled for an early Feb.07 release), it easily would've made this mix cd. I know this because he is a genius songwriter and guitar player. Technically, throughout this album Keller mainly sticks to his "banji-tar" which is essentially a custom made banjo-guitar hybrid. The husband and wife duo of Larry and Jenny Keel (Keller's longtime Virginia friends) have great interplay with Keller's voice and compliment him well. Larry's raspy, backwoods singing and down-home flatpicking is a joy to see live as well. I was lucky enough to see an up-close and personal show from the front row of The Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis that was very fun and intimate.

16. Roly Poly - The Little Willies - THE LITTLE WILLIES
The Little Willies are essentially a group of guys that are all friends with the star of the band Norah Jones. That's not to say that the rest of the players don't have any 'chops. It's just that none of them topped the billboard 100 at number 1 nor did any of them win 8 grammy awards. Richard Julian who appears on this album with Jones may have released one of the most underrated and underappreciatted albums of 2005 (Slow New York) and this album features one of his songs. He is a great singer/songwriter in the same vain as someone like James Taylor. But for the most part, this album features covers of familiar country/rock, and americana tunes that move from mellow to playful at the drop of a hat. The guitar lines are jumpy and bright on this track, and the song itself has such fun lyrics.

17. Not That I Care - Willie Nelson - YOU DON'T KNOW ME: THE SONGS OF CINDY WALKER
I debated with myself for weeks whether to put this track on this cd or not. While I am not a huge fan of country music, this album intrigued me because it is so pure and relaxed it's hard not to like it. I don't know much about Cindy Walker, but what I do know is that she was an extremely gifted songwriter whose songs became standards in the western swing genre. Regardless, Willie's laid back voice works well as we head towards the end of this cd, like a lullaby in a way.

18. Minor Swing - Jay Geils, Gerry Beaudoin and The Kings of Strings - JAY GEILS, GERRY BEAUDOIN AND THE KINGS OF STRINGS
The "find" of the year! While browsing my favorite local record store (Joe's Record Paradise), this album came on and I was mesmerized from start to finish. The last time I had such an epiphany was when I heard the Smashing Pumpkins for the first time. You know when you hear music and you really don't care who it is, but you just have to have it. Well this was it. The album is all acoustic "gypsy music" from the 30's and 40's. That's right, this is old time swing tunes from the likes of Django Reinhart, Stephane Grappelli, Duke Ellington, etc. It is so jazzy and upbeat, but relaxed as well. The perfect end to in my opinion a perfect mix cd!