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!"

COUNTRY BADASS: emmylous harris.

emmylou harris has been winning grammies since 1976 and is one of those legendary musicians like bob dylan and patti smith who seem to be artistically relevant forever. like so many of us, she learned to play guitar in college. but unlike so many of us, she pursued her musical aspirations by leaving the university of north carolina for new york, where she lived the romantic life of waitressing/folk-singing in greenwich village (i'm telling you, i was born in the wrong decade). emmylou really found her country groove when the uber-influential gram parsons (former member of the byrds who met an untimely death from a drug overdose) teamed up with her for his first solo album in 1973. in fact, emmylou still graciously lends her hauntingly pretty backup vocals to male leads, like one of my faves, ryan adams, singing one of the best songs ever written, "oh my sweet carolina" (video below).


emmylou wrote most of the songs on "hard bargain" (nonesuch records), which released a couple days ago. it's kind of a quiet, even languid, album, and not just because it opens with "the road," an ode to the late gram parsons. but even on the livelier songs, like "six white cadillacs," it's like she's breathing a big sigh of relief for finally getting this record out into the world. in fact, you can check out the video for that single at garden & gun (yes, garden & gun).