Well, I guess it’s my turn. Kasey and RSV have already dropped their faves of the year (here and here) on y’all, so there’s just no avoiding it for me now. This year was particularly difficult due to the sheer amount of great music that came out, and had I made this list tomorrow it would certainly change. That said, you can edit forever but eventually you have to settle on something and call it your list. So, with out further ado I am gonna steal RSV’s formatting and get this show on the road:

20. Eilen Jewell – Sea of Tears
19. Those Darlins – Those Darlins
18. Strawfoot – How We Prospered
17. Justin Townes Earl – Midnight at The Movies
16. Malcolm Holcombe – For The Mission Baby
15. Jon Snodgrass – Visitor’s Band
14. Ben Nichols – The Last Pale Light In The West
13. Cam Penner – Trouble and Mercy
12. The Fox Hunt – America’s Working So We Don’t Have To
11. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark

Top 10 (with mp3s) are under the cut…

(more…)

Last month Evan Phillips from The Whipsaws reached out to me about a local (to him) musician he’d been working with that he thought I’d like.

That musician was Matthew Dean Herman, and Evan was right. Matthew emailed me soon thereafter, and after exchanging a few niceties a copy of his debut cd was Florida bound.

The day that Blackbird arrived I had to take a trip out to my parents house, which is a 40 minute drive, so I decided to take that chance to give the cd a listen. It’s now two weeks later and the cd has not come out of the stereo.  I’ve been avoiding writing about the cd since that inevitably means I have to take it out of the cd player to rip it, but other albums are in need of being listened to, so here we are…

I really don’t know too much about Matthew Dean Herman and there is little to be found about him on the internets. He’s an musician from Anchorage, Alaska who also plays with The Jack River Kings (or MDH has morphed into The Jack River Kings…I can’t really tell). Judging from his music, he’s influenced by The Drive-By Truckers and even goes as far as to name drop them in the DBT-esque track, “Soule Lake Hotel” (Hey Matt, “Bulldozers and Dirt” is one of my wife’s favorite tracks as well). Other than that I can’t tell you anything else about the man behind the music, so let’s just talk about the music itself.

The cd opens with one of its strongest tracks, “Blackbird”, a somber acoustic ballad with full band accompaniment. It’s a song about a girl whose father abuses her and the slide guitar in the song does a great job setting the mood and backing Matthew’s vocals. Following “Blackbird” is a more Southern-rock inspired track, “Southern Belle”, which also features the backing vocals of Laura Lee Bishop. The rest of the cd plays out in soundscapes between these two tracks with the only letdown (imo) being “Miryea’s Song”. I feel like an asshole for saying that because I believe the song is for an ex-girlfriend’s daughter, but it’s true.

If you’re a fan of The Whipsaws, The Drive-By Truckers, Centro-matic and music of that ilk (which you are or you wouldn’t be here), then you need to check this cd out. It’s undoubtedly Essential Listening and very well may be a ninebullets Top 10 album of the year.

Matthew Dean Herman – Black Bird
Matthew Dean Herman – Southern Belle
Matthew Dean Herman – Soule Lake Hotel

Matthew Dean Herman on myspace, Buy Blackbird