A Quick and Dirty Listen Back at 2011

We're approaching the very end of 2011, and there's no better time than now to examine what has survived as the soundtrack of our lives via checking what's still playing in our cars. This is as pertinent as any question posed to an Angeleno this time of year, and as we approach the end of 2011, my six-disc changer is still rotating between the following:

1. Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker

     2. Darius Rucker’s Learn to Live

  

3. Nellie McKay’s Normal as Blueberry Pie

4. Fiona Apple's When the Pawn... 

5. Pistol Annies' Hell on Heels

    6. The Secret Sisters (Self-titled)

      That’s at least 50% country, kiddies! (Ryan Adams’ penchant for collaborating with country queens like Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch counts as the “at least” in that one).  Not too shabby for my first year as a country snob if I do say so myself! Country snob--now there's an oxymoron if I've ever written one. 
 
Anyway, what music did y'all play the hell out of this year?  And more importantly, what are we going to play the hell out of next year?  After all, as the Italian-Phrase-a-Day calendar Santa so kindly left in my stocking this year says for January 1st, "Anno nuovo, vita nuova!"  For the country bumpkins out there who don't happen to be as cosmopolitan and worldly as yours truly, that translates to “New year, new life!"

STAGECOACH ITINERARY: Day 1

i've come to terms with the fact that coachella (aka brochella) is pretty over. gone are the days when legitimate music fans would save up their money then agonize over pro/con lists to select which day of the festival to buy a ticket for. enter stagecoach, which is basically the country music coachella (coincidence that both names have "coach" in them? looking into it.). it also happens at the empire polo field in indio just a couple weeks after the coachella stank has melted away. i'm still coping with the fact that i can't go because of finals (law school begrudgingly leaving my life with a vengeance!), but now that set times have been announced, i can at least share my imaginary stage-hopping schedule here, then tune in to go country 105 all weekend to listen in live.

SATURDAY APRIL 30th.
2 pm: THE CLEVERLYS. nothing like some banjo and bluegrass straight out of the ozarks to start your day.
3 pm: LUKAS NELSON & promise of the real. they made it on to both leno and letterman, so that's good enough for me.
3:30 pm: STEALING ANGELS. let's just say the first line of one of their songs is "i texted him 21 times and still my phone don't ring," and the song is called "he better be dead."

4:05 pm: PHOSPHORESCENT. this band is the most indie rock/emo friendly of all the stagecoach performers. "wolves" makes me feel like i'm watching a particularly sentimental episode of scrubs.

EARLY DINNER BREAK.
5:15 pm: THE SECRET SISTERS. one of my new absolute favorites!!

6:15 pm: CHRIS YOUNG. his single "tomorrow" is one of the SEXIEST songs i've ever heard.

7:45 pm: DARIUS RUCKER (aka hootie of blowfish fame). he is my favorite male country artist. i love every single song of his i've heard and i would purchase a stagecoach ticket just to see him.
8:30 pm: KRIS KRISTOFFERSON. i will admit, the only thing this name meant to me was it was my nickname for my brother-in-law chris. but lo and behold, this man is responsible for writing "me and my bobby mcgee," my favorite janis joplin song. having kris kristofferson at stagecoach is like having leonard cohen at coachella, which i can say from personal experience was breathtaking.
9:30 pm: KENNY CHESNEY. to be honest with you, i'm not a big fan of "the boys of fall." i was a high school cheerleader and i attended both ucla and usc, so i GET how important football is to americans, but how did this single overshadow "live a little" so much? now THAT song is country music at its finest.