Nashville Scene

Just to make clear:

I also vote in this Poll as well,

Nashville Scene Country Poll 2010

Year End Sales

Only 4 albums in 2010 went over 2 million (Eminem, Taylor Swift over 3 million and at 2 million were Lady Antebellum and Justin Bieber, with Susan Boyle just under 2 million).

Album sales were down 12.7%, which means that people would still much rather buy singles than albums.

Katy Perry had the biggest selling single, but her album has sold less than Kesha's (1.3 million). She's a singles artist, perfectly made for the Itunes generation.

When I subscribed to Billboard years ago, I used to love to read the monthly RIAA certifications, especially the multi-platinum section. The RIAA used to make a big deal about Diamond certs (10 million), but now I wonder if any new releases will ever reach that number, even years down the road.

Nostalgia

Do you wish you could go back and re-buy your old catalog titles that you either gave away or discarded. Albums you bought on cassette that no longer played? LP's that didn't withstand a move or just got beaten up?

I sometimes find myself, when looking around at my collection, missing some of these things. Mostly they are albums that weren't that great, and that I let go. But sometimes, when scouring a music forum, I'll see a title pop up and think that "I used to have that one."

Good news is the feeling only lasts for a short time, and I then have no intention of buying it again.

But music can be instant nostalgia.

Playlist for 1/24

Concert for George

Eric Benet - Lost In Time

Peter, Paul & Mary - s/t

Andrew Lloyd Weber - Very Best of

Dandy Warhols - Best of

Seger

This U.K. writer is right in his article

Why Bob Seger deserves to be heard | Music | guardian.co.uk

I've often wondered why Seger doesn't get mentioned with the great Heartland rockers. In fact mention his name to some critics and he gets dismissed as a lightweight. But he wasn't.

2010's Most Disappointing Album

I forgot to post this last month, but the most disappointing album I heard in 2010 was Kings of Leon's Come Around Sundown. This is a band I really like, have since their first album in 2003, but this was a thud of a release. One of those dreaded "how do we follow our big breakthrough?" types of albums. Lacking many of the hooks of 2008's Only By The Night, what I heard was a band that was tired and just going through the motions. What a letdown. But like I said, they are still a band that I like, but this time they struck out.

Village Voice 2010 Pazz & Jop

I vote in this, so I thought I would link it. The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critic's Poll. Albums & Singles.

New York Pazz and Jop

and my ballot for 2010

Tom Lane Village Voice

Don Kirshner

Don Kirshner felt underappreciated by Rock historians. Kirshner was the first "Man with the Golden Ear" before Clive Davis seemingly took the title from him in the 70's. But Kirshner's greatest contribution to Rock history was pushing Brill Building writers' work onto the charts. Sure, it was bubblegum, and that cost him with the Rock-crit history books. But who says Bubblegum was bad for you?

His 70's Rock Concert TV show is also fondly remembered.

Kirshner may not have gotten all the accolades he thought he deserved (although he did get a Songwriters Hall of Fame nod) , but he should at least know that some of us fondly remember him.

More Phil

A followup on my post about Phil Collins/Daryl Hall. Hall's Live From Daryl's House which is online will now be syndicated. Check this out, it's excellent.

And as for Collins, for the sake of completism, I just bought his Motown tribute Going Back. It's okay, not great, but okay.

Still, is it possible to fill sorry for a multi-millionaire like Collins? His music has outlived naysaying critics, but in the end those same critics have won, haven't they? Collins is miserable, and it's the stigma of being "Phil Collins" which was perpetrated by critics in the 80's that is doing him in.

Playlist for 1/17

George Jones -Still The Same Ole Me

Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday

Tallest Man In The World - Wild Hunt

These New Puritans - Hidden

Jason Moran - Ten

80's Icons

How odd that 2 80's icons are embracing their past, but in different ways. Did you read Phil Collins' November Rolling Stone article? The man sees "Phil Collins" as a blight on his soul, and it all has to do with his 80's heyday.

On the other hand, Daryl Hall has come to terms with his and Oates' 80's MTV run. Admitting, in a recent New Yorker article, that he cringed at his 80's image, he now says that, thanks to a resurgence in popularity among young acts, he's a peace with what their image became in that oft-ridiculed decade.

Collins always played the happy-go-lucky role during his great run, but like Smokey sang, "Tears of A Clown."

Wings

Dropped my son off at the Airport for a 4 month apprenticeship at Disney World. On the way up the radio played Carole King's "So Far Away". On the way back Michael Johnson's "Give Me Wing".......sigh.

Playlist for 1/10

Ashford & Simpson - Send It

Ashford & Simpson - So So Satisfied

R. Kelly - Love Letter

Grascals - & Friends Country Classics With Bluegrass Spin

Dylan LeBlanc - Paupers Field

Elvis at 76

Elvis Presley born 76 years ago today.

Favorite forgotten Elvis track as of this moment:

"Fool" 1973 (b-side of "Steamroller Blues")

New Year

There's going to be lots of good stuff coming out in 2011. Whether they will end up being any good is always the question. It used to be that labels didn't put out much in Jan/Feb, but that changed once the Internet came around. Besides, its best to get out of the gate first then get lost in the Holiday rush. There were albums put out last month that I didn't even know were coming.

Gerry Rafferty

Am I the only who thinks "Baker Street" was the ultimate Yacht Rock song. It has it all really: Adult Contemporary music, mild vocals and the greatest Sax solo in soft-rock history.

For that and "Stuck In The Middle" and other fine gems of that era, I can safely say thank you Gerry Rafferty.

Guitar Hell

So, what was the worst album I heard in 2010. Thought I'd start the new year off by getting rid of the one I hated the most from the previous one.

The loser is Santana's Guitar Heaven. In which Carlos, with the help of Clive Davis, gives us dreadful paint-by-number reinditions of well-worn standards. Cream, Beatles, Led Zep, Van Halen, Def Leppard. All rendered as if Carlos and his group were now the house band on American Idol.

Here's the deal for older artists who sign up with Clive. Don't expect to do anything but covers and duet albums. As someone who has a soft spot for covers, I don't mind. But when the final result is this, then I run for the hills.

Clive doesn't believe vets can sell albums with new music. He may have a point, because Clive is about selling copies. And Santana and Rod Stewart are happy to go along.

But this time I'll pass.