5 Great Music Finds in 2011, by Nate

Nate is a music junkie. He has 15,000 songs in his iTunes collection and yet his favorite thing to shop for is still more music. I asked him to write a post for the blog about something that mattered to him, and he chose to write about this, the music that grabbed him in 2011.

I am not current enough, or cool enough to choose only from albums released in 2011, but these are the five best albums I discovered last year.

5. Clouds Echo in Blue: Clouds Echo in Blue

Derri Daugherty from The Choir (one of my (many) favorite bands) with a solo project of wonderful and wonderfully relaxing instrumental music.  I gifted this album to my sister, and while she was listening to it one day, my mother apparently asked her when the song would begin.  So, while I recognize that this album may not be for everybody, I love the dreamy music he has created.

4. Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma: The Goat Rodeo Sessions

A hybrid bluegrass-classical exploration from Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma, and Edgar Meyer.  This is simply excellent and beautiful.  I just love hearing gifted musicians making great music.

3. Sleeping at Last: Yearbook – November

This one-man band released a 3-song EP for 12 straight months.  While much of Ryan O’Neal’s music is excellent, this particular EP from November makes the list pretty much based on one song I simply love.  I love the music, the poetry of the lyrics, and the meaning of the song “Emphasis.”  I just can’t get enough.

2. Andrew Peterson: The Far Country

OK – so this one was released in 2005.  I’m not sure why I had to wait until 2011 to discover it, because it is excellent.  I hear echoes of Rich Mullins’ meaningful songwriting in Andrew’s music.  He writes with a combination of faith and wonder that is contagious.  I love great Christian art, and on this album Andrew is creating just that.  His music moves me in ways that most artists don’t.  If you haven’t yet discovered Andrew Peterson, I highly recommend this album as a great place to start.

1. Josh Garrels: Love & War & The Sea In Between

This album is top of the list as one of the best out-of-nowhere completely-blew-me-away-with-how-good-it-is albums I’ve come across for a while.  Within a few days I had seen two people from different walks of life give him high praise on Facebook, and he was featured on www.noisetrade.com (if you haven’t checked out Noisetrade, you need to.  I discovered both Andrew Peterson and Josh Garrels’ albums on Noisetrade, and you can still get both albums there at a price of your choosing – including for free. But I assure you that each album is worth giving the artists a tip for).

This album is so good it’s hard for me to put it into words.  I clearly have a soft spot for Christian artists – 4 out of 5 of the artists on this list might be labeled as Christian.  I find that funny as I would guess that less than 50% of the music I acquire and listen to is classified as ‘Christian’.  But I think that it does show that I form a special connection to music created by Christians who are excellent in both musical skill and artistic expression.  Josh Garrels embodies this.  His musicianship is fantastic – his songs and sounds vary, and don’t get tiring.  His lyrics are artistic and expressive.  And none of it is formulaic.  The album is chock full of great songs, but my clear favorite is “Ulysses.”  And I really, really LOVE it:

“Ulysses” – Josh Garrels 2010 from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Do yourself a favor and go find some Josh Garrels to listen to.

Honorable Mentions:

Coldplay – I love me some Coldplay.  Mylo Xyloto may not be groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.  Love the track “Charlie Brown.”

The Hawk in Paris - Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay released a side project with another guy or two.  It’s another 3-song EP, and two of the three songs are fantastically catchy and pleasing.

The Civil Wars – Seemingly everyone loved The Civil Wars in 2011.  And it’s because they are really arresting and engaging.  It’s good music.

UPDATE: Because I didn’t get the digital booklet when I downloaded Josh Garrels’ album off of Noisetrade, I never knew that our friends, Tim and Laurie Thornton of The Blackthorn Project, played strings on it. Tim and Laurie put out great music of their own and are well worth a listen, especially the songs “Reckless” and “Mud Song” on their latest album.

 

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