60

If Robert Cray can call an LP 20 (what does it mean?), then I can title a post 60.

Recently I put together a CD of great tunes from 1949 to 2009--get it? 60 years. I started with my Artist of the Year, and then picked a song associated with that artist and from approximately the time frame of when they were AoY. The song had to be something in my collection, as the goal was to make a CD.

Here are my picks as Artist of the Year 1949-2009.

1949 Louis Jordan
1950 Johnny Otis
1951 Lefty Frizzell
1952 Hank Williams
1953 Hank Williams 2
1954 Elvis Presley
1955 Ray Charles
1956 Elvis Presley 2
1957 Everly Brothers
1958 Chuck Berry
1959 Bobby Darin

1960 Sam Cooke
1961 Patsy Cline
1962 Ray Charles 2
1963 Beach Boys
1964 Beatles
1965 Bob Dylan
1966 Beach Boys 2
1967 Beatles 2
1968 Jimi Hendrix
1969 Peter Green

1970 Eric Clapton
1971 Jimmy Page
1972 Ian Anderson
1973 Bruce Springsteen
1974 Bruce Springsteen 2
1975 Frank Zappa
1976 John Hall (Orleans)
1977 Billy Joel
1978 Bob Dylan 2
1979 Frank Zappa 2

1980 Roger Waters
1981 David Byrne
1982 Pat Metheny
1983 Prince
1984 David Byrne 2
1985 Mark Knopfler
1986 Paul Simon
1987 Bruce Springsteen 3
1988 Bruce Cockburn
1989 Bonnie Raitt

1990 Bela Fleck
1991 Jennifer Warnes
1992 k.d. lang
1993 Leonard Cohen
1994 Van Morrison
1995 John Prine
1996 Iris DeMent
1997 Shawn Colvin
1998 Peter Green 2
1999 Jeff Tweedy

2000 Aimee Mann
2001 Bill Frisell
2002 Caitlin Cary
2003 The Flaming Lips
2004 Tift Merritt
2005 Conor Oberst
2006 Halloween, Alaska
2007 Scott Yoho
2008 Rufus Wainwright
2009 Craig Finn

Just for the record, here is how the list would continue:

2010 Win Butler
2011 Dan Auerbach
2012 (so far) Iris DeMent 2

Here is 1) the top song by the Artist of the Year and 2) the song of the year if different from 1).

1949 Saturday Night Fish Fry--Louis Jordan
1950 Cry Baby--Johnny Otis and I'm Movin' On--Hank Snow
1951 I Want to Be With You Always--Lefty Frizzell
1952 Your Cheatin' Heart--Hank Williams
1953 Take These Chains from My Heart--Hank Williams
1954 That's All Right Mama--Elvis Presley
1955--Drown in My Own Tears--Ray Charles and The Great Pretender--The Platters
1956--Don't Be Cruel--Elvis Presley and Why Do Fools Fall in Love--Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers
1957--Bye Bye Love--The Everly Brothers and You Send Me--Sam Cooke
1958--Sweet Little Sixteen--Chuck Berry and It's All in the Game--Tommy Edwards
1959--Mack the Knife--Bobby Darin and Kansas City--Wilbert Harrison

1960--Wonderful World--Sam Cooke and El Paso--Marty Robbins
1961--I Fall to Pieces--Patsy Cline
1962--I Can't Stop Lovin' You--Ray Charles
1963--All Summer Long--The Beach Boys and Da Do Ron Ron--The Crystals
1964--All My Lovin'--The Beatles and When I Grow Up to Be a Man--The Beach Boys
1965--Desolation Row--Bob Dylan
1966--Good Vibrations--The Beach Boys
1967--A Day in the Life--The Beatles
1968--All Along the Watchtower--Jimi Hendrix
1969--Closing My Eyes--Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

1970--Layla--Derek and the Dominoes
1971--When the Levee Breaks--Led Zeppelin and Echoes--Pink Floyd
1972--Thick As A Brick--Jethro Tull and Blue Sky--Allman Brothers
1973--Hard to Be A Saint in the City--Bruce Springsteen and Us and Them--Pink Floyd
1974--Rosalita--Bruce Springsteen and Pamela Brown--Leo Kottke
1975--Sofa No. 2--Frank Zappa
1976--Spring Fever--Orleans
1977--Only the Good Die Young--Billy Joel
1978--Changing of the Guard--Bob Dylan and Crazy Love--Poco
1979--Yo' Mama--Frank Zappa and I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine--Ry Cooder

1980--Comfortably Numb--Pink Floyd
1981--The Great Curve--Talking Heads
1982--Do You Want to Go with Me?--Pat Metheny and It Never Rains--Dire Straits
1983--Little Red Corvette--Prince
1984--What A Day That Was--Talking Heads and Irish Love--Mark Knopfler
1985--Your Latest Trick--Dire Straits
1986--Graceland--Paul Simon and Down the Road Tonight--Bruce Hornsby and the Range
1987--Valentine's Day--Bruce Springsteen and Across the Borderline--Ry Cooder
1988--Waiting for a Miracle--Bruce Cockburn and (The Other End of the) Telescope--Til Tuesday
1989--Have A Heart--Bonnie Raitt and Painting by Numbers--James McMurtry

1990--Sanctuary--Bela Fleck
1991--First We Take Manhattan--Jennifer Warnes
1992--Constant Craving--k.d. lang and My Beautiful Reward--Bruce Springsteen
1993--Light As A Breeze--Leonard Cohen
1994--In the Garden (medley)--Van Morrison and Great Season Waltz--Sally Van Meter
1995--New Train--John Prine and Secret Garden--Bruce Springsteen
1996--The Way I Should--Iris DeMent
1997--Nothin' on Me--Shawn Colvin and Let Down--Radiohead
1998--Albatross--Paul Jones, Bobby Tench, Max Middleton (The Music of Peter Green) and Shenendoah--Van Morrison and Paddy Moloney and the Chieftans
1999--A Shot in the Arm--Wilco and High Fashion Queen--Chris Hillman and Steve Earle

2000--You Do--Aimee Mann and Waiting for the Federals--Aly Bain
2001--Again--Bill Frisell
2002--I Ain't Found Nobody Yet--Caitlin Cary and Tear Stained Eye--Kasey Chambers
2003--In the Morning of the Magicians--Flaming Lips and Caballo Viejo--Ry Cooder
2004--The Plainest Thing--Tift Merritt and Shelter--Ray LaMontagne
2005--Another Traveling Song--Bright Eyes and Best Kept Secret--Jerry Douglas Band
2006--Call It Clear--Halloween Alaska and No Man's Land--Sufjan Stevens
2007--Australia--The Shins* (* Scott Yoho of Auto Body Experience is Artist of the Year based on live performance, but there is no new Yoho or Auto Body music during 2007.)
2008--Trouble on Alum--Jerry Douglas (Rufus Wainwright is Artist of the Year based on live performance, but there is no new Rufus music during 2008.)
2009--Sequestered in Memphis--The Hold Steady

2010--Modern Man--Arcade Fire and Conversation 16--The National
2011--Lonely Boy--The Black Keys and Towers--Bon Iver
2012 (so far)--Sing the Delta--Iris DeMent

The Shins Are Not Gonna Change Your Life

The truth can now be told. The Shins are not gonna change your life. And, as a live-in-concert band, well,  they are not good at all.

The Shins played at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis on Friday night June 1 and, first, their volume level was about what you'd expect from a bunch of head-bangers, not a poppy, melodic, Beatlesque group. Their signature attribute, James Mercer's wonderfully creative vocal melodies, were buried beneath a thick layer of grunge.

And the vocals themselves left much to be desired. Mercer can no longer sing much of his older material (from the terrific Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away). I would expect to hear better vocals on, say, "Australia" at your local karaoke emporium. He just can't hit those high notes anymore. And, speaking of "Australia," the Shins' new guitarist (was it Yuuki Matthews or Robert Swift?) was unable to play the inspired guitar solo, petering out after more or less hitting the first four bars.

So all in all, The Shins were a huge disappointment, as is their new release Port of Morrow. Overall the recording and the concert, in comparison to The Shins' best work, features a notably slower pace, and is less melodic and more atmospheric. Brooding, you might say, versus Wincing's carefree and uplifting character.

One cannot but infer that Port of Morrow has been a "troubled" project. Mercer announced in 2009 that keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval had left the band, to be replaced by Ron Lewis (from Grand Archives), Eric D. Johnson (from the Fruit Bats) and Joe Plummer (of Modest Mouse). And, he added, the new recording would be released the following year.

But Port of Morrow was in fact released only in 2012, and Greg Kurstin proved to the be featured musician, playing on 9 of the 10 tunes. Drummer Plummer played on 5, Lewis on 5 and Johnson on 3. Kurstin and Mercer are listed as co-producers.

The title track, Mercer says, is named after the port authority in the city of Boardman, OR, on the Columbia River. "There’s a sign by the side of the road that says 'Port of Morrow' and I always just wondered about it, I guess. When writing that song it popped into my head and I was thinking of it as death, like what’s beyond the exit point, the 'port of morrow,' the port into tomorrow? [...] Everyone’s future is death. That’s a very dark way to look at it, but in the song it just happened to fit in with that thing. Like the ace of spades, port of morrow, life is death, death is life." (From an interview in Drowned in Sound, March 23, 2012)


So you can say that the brooding tone of the record is what was required by the material. But why would Mercer choose to leave his brilliantly poppy style behind to write dirges to death? It's like Kenneth Branagh giving up Shakespeare or Albert Pujols deciding to hit singles. A curious decision, and Mercer's loss as well as our own.


If it's brooding you want, The Antlers did it better as one of two opening acts for The Shins. First came Deep Sea Diver, featuring Shins' guitarist Jessica Dobson on guitars, keyboards and vocals. To describe her and them as mediocre would be kind.


The Antlers, on the other hand, successfully created a series of atmospheres or soundscapes. Add in Peter Silberman's high-pitched vocals, and the band proved to be highly evocative of Radiohead, which is not a bad thing to evoke.