Normally, any year seeing a Tom Waits release is a special one. Orphans is a fabulous collection.
But who am I kidding? Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions was stunning in its vision, execution and passion. Naysayers fell back on the lazy "vanity project" label. Nonsense. The Seeger Sessions band in concert was as serious as your life, putting on white hot shows that celebrated the music of Pete Seeger, filtered through a Springsteen-tinted Americana lens. I tell ya, that last chord of "Buffalo Gals" is still ringing in my head.
Over the course of the year, I discovered a number of new bands that I enjoyed, but the album with the greatest impact on me was Johnny Cash’s posthumous American V: A Hundred Highways. With the guiding hand of producer Rick Rubin, Cash created a concept album that stripped away his legend to reveal the man underneath, and in doing so, augmented his legend.
Like other albums in the “American” series, A Hundred Highways combines Cash’s songs with covers of other artists and material revisited. This time around, the concept is the story of Cash in his final days. He is no longer the young tough from “Folsom Prison Blues” fifty years ago. We now find him as one of “the sick and lonely old” he used to stand up for in “Man in Black,” prepared for the inevitable.
Towards the end, Cash suffered a number of ailments and was confined to a wheelchair, and though his death was attributed to diabetes, the death of his wife June is just as much a factor. “Rose of My Heart” expresses his devotion to her. Hank William’s “On The Evening Train” finds her body taken away, but he won’t let go. He seeks solace from the Lord in Larry Gatlin’s “Help Me.”
When I reviewed the album in July 2006, I wrote, “Like all great art, American V entertains, enlightens and inspires. Cash opens up with such frankness and humility that he makes me want to become a better person.” No other album came close.
Indie Round-Up's Artist of the Year for 2006 is Mofro, who, conveniently for my critical credibility, was just signed to the prestigious blues label Alligator Records. Lead vocalist JJ Grey and his band evoke all at once the gritty funk of James Brown, the blue-eyed soul of Beck or Leon Russell, the bayou twinkle of Dr. John, and the shamanistic stage presence of Jim Morrison. The latest CD is a good one, but in concert is the only way to fully appreciate the spell woven by Grey, guitarist Daryl Hance, and whoever else happens to be on their stage at the moment.
![Orphans [Fold-out Digipak with 24-page booklet]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F78WSPECL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
hey, great job and almost happy new year everybody.
2 - handyguy
Deserving of some kind of mention:
Love, by The Beatles
and
The Avalanche, by Sufjan Stevens, as well as Sufjan's Songs for Christmas boxed set
3 - Glen Boyd
Looks like a pretty decent list from here. Yeah, I think we all did okay with this. Round of drinks for the house I say. I'll also join Sir Mark in wishing all a happy new year.
-Glen
4 - zingzing
oi. you guys missed it on this one. taste is taste, i suppose, but you people sound ooooollllddd.
in the year of the hold steady, wolf eyes, scott walker (old, i know), the knife, clipse, junior boys, joanna newsom, grizzly bear, liars, excepter, destroyer, current 93, coil, ekkhard ehlers, swan lake, ooioo, herbert, subtle...
meh. it was a long year. things happened.
5 - manny hernandez
Dear Blogcritics colleagues:
Here's my list of Top 10 albums for 2006.
Happy New Year, everybody!
6 - Tom Johnson
No, not old (I'm 33,) zingzing, it was just a good year for old musicians. The problem with a lot of the newer musicians' albums this year is that I didn't find that a lot of them had that ring of "classic" to them that I've found in previous years. I've seen a lot of lists already this year that are putting a lot of names on your list there, zingzing, and for a certain subset of people I'm sure those are great albums, but I've also heard a number of those and I don't see those being albums that have the mark of being classics - that's what it takes to be a best of the year.
I chose Tom Waits' box because it will be something that I will and people in general will return to in 5, 10, 15 years and it will continue to be as fresh and relevant as it is today. The best should be timeless. Maybe some of your list qualifies as timeless because they are so unique - I think maybe Grizzly Bear is close, maybe Liars, and while I don't particularly like him, Scott Walker has certainly earned his keep. But I have my doubts that most of the other names on your list will be considered classics worthy of being named albums of the year many years down the line. At least that's how I look at this - maybe I take this a lot more seriously than most listeners.
7 - El Bicho
If it had been which album rocked my socks off, it would have been Wolfmother; however, I'll stand by my pick and somehow find a way to live with myself.
8 - Triniman
From Vancouver, "Destroyer's Rubies" by Destroyer stands as one of my favorite albums of the year. It's always tough to pick just one, but I will stop at Destroyer. The songs, vocals and the guitar playing are distinctive and appealing.
Destroyer is essentially Dan Bejar, one of the members of The New Pornographers, one of Canada's top indie-pop groups. Canada's new national anthem? A Letter To An Occupant.
9 - DJRadiohead
I gotta say, I think we got a nice cross section of musical genres and styles. I also think it says at least as much about the state of music as it does the writers that so many of these selections come from "classic" artists as opposed to contemporary artists.
I can't wait to do my Top 10. I am surprised Thom Yorke's great solo album got no mentions.
10 - Glen Boyd
DJR --
Thom Yorke's album would probably make a personal top ten, possibly even a top five. However, I admit it took me quite awhile to warm to it. In my original review, I didn't quite dismiss it, but I did bemoan it's general lack (at least on the first few listens) lack of melody (in the traditional sense) or memorable songs.
I've since come around to it. I think it was about the time I realized I couldn't get "this is fucked up...fucked up" outta my head that I realized hooks can indeed come in many different shades.
-Glen
11 - Mark Saleski
old? how dare you! ok, i'm old.
but still, i enjoyed both Joanna Newsome's Ys and the record by The Decemberists. the thing is, if i'd have picked one of them, somebody would have accused me of leaning too far towards the Pitchfork crowd.
besides, tom johnson drove down the average age both by being young and by picking John Ma.....
12 - Matthew T. Sussman
What's music?
Anywho, it just needs to be said once more that I was using "big bowl of wrong" long before Mr. Head was using it -- months before, really -- although I never used it as religiously as he.
13 - Steve C.
Work having swallowed me up, I don't think I'll be posting a Top 10 for music this year. Best album of the year? In my more contemplative moods, it's Destroyer's Rubies; at all other times, it's Young Machetes by the Blood Brothers.
However, when we get around to the top films of the year, somebody give me a holler.
14 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
No offense to Mr. Beaumont, because I usually like his reviews,But his pick for the best of '06 in the metal catagory just shows that the watered down sing alongs of Hardcore along with the dull & drudging drop-D of Nu-Metal are still the favorite taste of the oh-so boring Metal scene here in the US!! Unfortunately, Killswitch Engage sounds like a poor rip from an old God Forbid album though their lastest effort is rather catchy. BUT,catchiness is not the criteria for a brilliant Metal album...
As for my pick, it would come to us all the way from France. Gorod Leading Vision was a breath of fresh air pumped into a genre that hasn't seen much since Opeth's latest release which wasn't their best effort. Though, Arsis United in Regret is a close second and deserves a listen by anyone claiming to be a metal fan!!
Happy New Year BC...
Peace!
15 - A.L. Harper
Knowing that DJRadiohead lives in the arse of Guster I decided to write my own Guster free list and dedicate it to the memory of you DJRadiohead. But I know you won't approve!
16 - Brian
Sparks' "Hello Young Lovers" and Man Man's "Six Demon Bag" were both tragically overlooked!