Honestly, I should be watching the boy. But after 2.5 days of constant engagement, I think he's sick of me. He's playing in his room.
My list of my Top 10 favorite CDs of the decade is a little off, I'm sure. First, as always, it's based on a rather cursory search through my CDs. Really, I could spend all day going through each CD, listening to them, putting them in little stacks, etc. … but the boy wouldn't allow that.
Second, my list is skewed toward the first half of the decade. In 2000 and 2001 I heard almost every CD that came out that I had any interest in. I even got some for free because of my gig in San Angelo. In 2002 up through 2005, I bought most of the CDs I wanted to. Then … we bought a house and Shannon was pregnant and the kid came along … in fact, I'm pretty sure I only own two CDs that came out in 2009 (though I'm hoping to get a few more for Christmas, so this list could change).
So, this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, just my personal favorites among the ones I own …
Favorite re-issue: Townes Van Zandt, "Live at the Old Quarter." 2002. Twenty-seven songs from Townes when he was at his best.
Favorite box set: Willie Nelson, "One Hell of a Ride." 2008. One hell of a set.
Circling the pack: Hayes Carll, "Trouble in Mind." 2008. And Max Stalling, "Sellout: Live at Dan's Sliver Leaf." 2005.
TEN: Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Snake Farm." 2006. I'm sorry, I'm a guy. And I dig it.
NINE: Robert Earl Keen, "Gravitational Forces." 2001. Still digging this over "The Rose Hotel."
EIGHT: NDC, "Blame it on Blaine's." 2001? (those dorks didn't put a date on it.) If the measure of an album is how often you're drawn to listen to it, then my friends in San Angelo had a damn good one.
SEVEN: Todd Snider, "Peace, Love and Anarchy: Rarities, B-Sides and Demos, Vol. 1." 2007. Snider put out seven albums in the 2000s, all of them were about 50% sheer brilliance. So I don't know what it means that my favorite of the bunch is this throwaway for fans who will buy anything.
SIX: James McMurtry, "Childish Things." 2005. The protest song "We Can't Make it Here" is such a good song that McMurtry wrote a couple of bad ones for the next album, just trying to match it. And "Six-Year Drought" is just as good.
FIVE: Shaver, "The Earth Rolls On." 2001. The last album to feature Billy Joe and Eddy Shaver, it was released after Eddy died. Billy Joe hasn't reached this level since.
FOUR: Bruce Robison, "Country Sunshine." 2001. You know, I got to thinking about how pitch-perfect this whole album is, when I realized I hadn't bought a Bruce album since. Damn. He's had four CDs since then. They might all be this good.
THREE: Steve Earle, "Transcendental Blues." 2000. One song after another is fantastic. It's kinda a chick album — not much getting drunk or killing people — but so damn cool, that it hardly matters.
TWO: Mark David Manders, "Chili Pepper Sunset." 2000. I was in on the party, so maybe I'm just biased, but nothing has so ever perfectly captured a town and a time like Manders, this album and San Angelo in 2000. This CD was lightning in a bottle and why it didn't make him a bigger star, I'll never quite know.
ONE: James McMurtry, "Live in Aught-Three." 2004. I've praised this CD on my blog recently. I'll just say, yeah, it hasn't left my vehicle since I bought it. I know every note on this one.
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