Hey '19! Here are 18 from '18!

(The first eight, anyway. I'm gonna split this baby more or less in half. I'm also getting rid of the embedded videos, because for some reason they're cutting off not only themselves but the surrounding text. Click the links and you'll see them.)

A longtime friend posted his Spotify list of favorite songs from the past year. I was struck by how much overlap there was in the selections with songs (or at least artists) I've gotten to know through public radio- either our local (well, Rochester) programs or NPR's World Cafe. Two of Andy's tracks came to me by way of Scott or Michael or David or Talia spinning them.  So I'll steal those two for my own list of 18 from the year (embedding  linking to them here, because I don't do Spotify, and neither do at least one or two of these artists):

Elvis Costello's "Under Lime," from his new band's latest, Look Now. (We'll return to this collection later in this countdown.)

Elvis Costello-Under Lime


And the Jayhawks' '"Backwards Women," from Back Roads and Abandoned Motels :

Jayhawks- Backwards Women


Now, mines all mines.

Just arrived in popular compact disk format was Jen Chapin's latest crowdfunded effort Desert or Sea, for which I'm proud to have been in the crowd.  The title track is one I found on a Youtube that goes back to 2012, and "Desert or Sea" I've set the link to kick in where this song starts:

Jen Chapin- Desert or Sea

Back to Declan, Elvis, whoever: When Talia had him on a while back, they talked about his "fourth song" theory: that track four on an album is usually where the artist has gotten the preliminaries out of the way and is ready to get down to the serious business.  Fourth song on Look Now is this one, "Stripping Paper," a moving song from a woman's point of view about discovering infidelity and all the wall-marked memories it undoes:

Elvis Costello- Stripping Paper

Next, one of several here I was blessed to hear perform live by the original artist. Well, one of them. We also supported Lucy Kaplansky's latest self-produced effort, Everyday Street, and the first song on the record recounts her friendship with Shawn Colvin, who also came in to do background vocals on "Old Friends" (but not this live version, captured a few weeks after I heard her perform it):

Lucy Kaplansky- Old Friends

Lucy knows the next song, too- her cover of it goes way back with us. Elvis, likewise, from having written it. But Nick Lowe, who made the biggest hit out of it back in the day, returned to World Cafe a few months ago to perform an updated version of it with his newest backers, Los Straitjackets:

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets- What's So Funny....

One of the few here I discovered on commercial radio, Alt Buffalo 107.7: this is the version of "Hunger" that Florence and the Machine did on Fallon earlier in 2018. This is one that has to be watched, not just listened to:

Florence and the Machine- Hunger

Another I got to hear live: Chris Barron, the coolest (heh) song on his solo album from this past year, Angels and One-Armed Jugglers, titled "In a Cold Kind of Way."

Chris Barron- In A Cold Kind of Way

Oops. I think I'm only making it to eight this half. Just made a date for the dog park. Mores laters.

And now, the other ten songs from 2018:

Another I got to hear done live. A few years ago, Lake Street Dive broke through with a Youtube cover of "I Want You Back" and an album called Bad Self Portaits; this one's from Free Yourself Up, and Rachael blew the roof off the Eastman Dump with a live rendition of "Good Kisser" (if not this actual one):

"Lake Street Dive - Good Kisser [Live Performance]" (Watch on YouTube)

I can't find the Tyler Westcott song I know I heard live back in February- "Pot Farmer's Daughter"- but I'm pretty sure he also played this one; here's a 2015 recording of it with Folkfaces:

"Tyler Westcott of Folkfaces plays The People's Climate March" (Watch on YouTube)

On the way to see Tyler in East Aurora from Rochester, I stopped in Geneseo and worshiped at the musical altar of Buzzo. His music and record shop is legendary in these parts. I picked up a CD of songs from a local band, of which this one likely carries the most local, um, color:

"Cow Tipping" (Watch on YouTube)

Meanwhile, in Canada eh?: Great Big Sea is now still great and big but unseen; Sean and Bob have their own projects, but Alan Doyle probably carries the Carbonear torch most closely, and this was the prerelease off his solo album from 2018:

"Alan Doyle - Summer Summer Night" (Watch on YouTube)

Christopher Brown opened for Lucy when I saw her back in October; this song predates the year, but 2018 was the year I discovered it, and him:

"CHRISTOPHER BROWN -- "CYRANO & JULIET"" (Watch on YouTube)

This next one, I can't find a Youtube or other embeddable for. Sue me. It came as a moment of joy, when I discovered this year that Stephanie Brooks Goddard had done a song about her dog Jazz. I know Jazz. Jazz is a friend of mine. Until Jazz's legs got too hinky, she joined Ursula and Ebony almost every Sunday at the dog park. So when I found out that she'd done a CD of songs including a tribute to her puppy, I was thrilled. It was even more thrilling to realize that this Stephanie was THE Stephanie who did music classes with Emily at the JCC in Amherst for some of her formative years here. I may upload the song to a Youtube myself; then you'll see it here.



Another World Cafe find: we've loved Lucinda for ages, but who knew she'd paired with jazz legend Charles Lloyd and his band for a new album? We did, and now you do. This isn't on Vanished Gardens, but who cares?

"Charles Lloyd and Lucinda Williams - There's a Place in My Heart" (Watch on YouTube)

That was them at Not The Rochester International Jazz Festival. This is one I discovered at said Festival: Gwyneth Herbert. The "Sea Theme" from Sea Cabinet:

"Gwyneth Herbert - Sea Theme" (Watch on YouTube)

Janelle Monáe acts. She also sings. Damn well. I've seen Dirty Computer on any number of best-of lists for 2018, and it's no surprise that she also makes mine for "I Got the Juice."

"Janelle Monáe - I Got The Juice (feat. Pharrell Williams)" (Watch on YouTube)

And I end with the find that just came over the World Cafe threshold last week. Amos Lee, doing this song he wrote for a young disease survivor. It's way more upbeat than anything else on the 2018 album My New Moon, but he insisted on it being included. Because how could you not?

"Amos Lee - "Little Light" Official Performance & Meaning | Vevo" (Watch on YouTube)

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Hope you agree, or enjoy if you don't know, and for those of you reading this who made some of these songs special for me in 2018, much love. Studios open tomorrow morning; pens and iPads are available tonight. Let's make 2019 even better{{{{}}}}