PATTERSON HOOD'S TOP TEN NEW ALBUMS (+REISSUES / UNRELEASES / DISQUALIFIERS and honorable mentions) Every year I find myself compiling a list of my favorite albums and other things. Compared to 06, this year was a little bit anti-climactic, only because last year had such a bounty of amazing albums and even better films. That said, the albums, movies and other things on this list would make for a stellar year at any point in my memory. Apologies to the better movies I haven't yet seen or better albums I haven't yet heard. I bought a lot of music and saw a good number of films, but there's only so many hours in a day. I always revise my lists later and that could surely happen again this year. Stay Tuned. PATTERSON HOOD - TOP TEN (new releases) 2007 1. IRON AND WINE - THE SHEPHERDS DOG - An incredible album that rewards multiple listens and my pick for the best album of the year. 2. RADIOHEAD - IN RAINBOWS - My close pick for second favorite. After all the hype of how it was released (or not), the album stands on its own as their best work since Kid A, maybe better. 3. WILCO - SKY BLUE SKY - Their best studio album. Even better when played live. Possibly the best band in America. 4. VIC CHESNUTT - NORTH STAR DESERTER - I've been saying this is his finest since West of Rome (1992) but upon further listening, this is his best album ever. 5. SPOON -GA GA GA GA GA - My vote for most fun album of year. Great live act also. 6. WHITE STRIPES - ICKY THUMP - Their finest album yet. inventive and a total blast. 7. RICKIE LEE JONES - THE SERMON ON EXPOSITION AVE. - Her finest album since 1981's masterpiece Pirates. Beautiful and inspiring. 8. PORTER WAGONER - WAGONMASTER - Thank God, he got to make this album before his sad departure this year. Kudos to Anti Records and Marty Stuart for making this happen. 9. BO BEDDINGFIELD AND THE WYDELLES - CLEARGREEN - Hard to find, self released EP from Athens GA. Well worth seeking out for great writing, singing and playing. 10. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - MAGIC - Best Springsteen album since Nebraska, his best Rock album since The River. A little over-produced, but still essential. REISSUES / UNRELEASES / DISQUALIFIERS and honorable mentions SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE - THERE'S A RIOT GOING ON (reissue) - My most listened to album of year and a revelation. DEXATEENS - SINGLEWIDE - (unreleased) Not the one I co-produced. This one is newer, better and still unreleased (produced by Mark Nevers). A total departure and fantastic. Look for it in 08. BIG STAR - 3RD - (vinyl reissue, correct sequence) Finally, the correct order, or at least the best sequence I've ever heard. A masterpiece that sounds MUCH better on vinyl. PATTI GRIFFIN - CHILDREN RUNNING THROUGH - An amazing artist at her best. The duet w/ Emmylou sends chills at every listen. PJ HARVEY - WHITE CHALK - A quiet subdued beautiful work of art. Her best in 7 years. ECCENTRIC SOUL vol. 7 - HOME SCHOOLED (The ABC's of Kid Soul) - This is exactly what it says, the kid groups that didn't hit it big like the Jacksons. Incredible. BETTYE LAVETTE - THE SCENE OF THE CRIME - I couldn't really put this in my top ten, as my band and my Dad played on it and I co-produced it, but it really deserves special mention and "Talking Old Soldiers" would have put it in my top ten had I not been in any way involved. MOVIES / LIVE SHOWS / BOOKS and WHATNOTS SCHULZ AND PEANUTS by David Michaelis Great book on the creator of Charlie Brown. A fine glimpse into the relationship between a life and art. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Film by Joel and Ethan Coen / Novel by Cormac McCarthy)- My fave film of year and an incredible timeless read by one of the best living authors. EASTERN PROMISES (film by David Cronenberg) - Terrifying and suspenseful movie. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E. STREET BAND - United Center, Chicago IL 10/21/07 Still the best arena rock show in the world. NEKO CASE (w/ Jon Rauhouse and Kelly Hogan) - Hi Tone, Memphis TN Friday 4/13/07 My favorite album last year and favorite club show this year. Can't wait til next year. THE WAR - Documentary by Ken Burns 16+ hours of WW2 through the eyes of 4 American towns. TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS - Documentary DVD by Peter Bogdonovich (Director's Cut) 4 hr. documentary on an American treasure. A reminder of how great he's always been. WILCO - Austin City Limits Taping , Austin TX 9/15/07 As fine as their new album is, they're even better live.

NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND TO BE JOINED BY POCO AND JIM MESSINA FOR PARTY IN THE DIRT TOUR PARTY IN THE DIRT TOUR to Hit the Road in 2008 with Exclusive Booking Representation by AGENCY FOR PERFORMING ARTS (APA) Nashville, TN – 2007 marked the historic 40th Anniversary of the Grammy award-winning NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND, and the fun has only begun! The band that is known world-wide for "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," and their #1 hits "Fishin' In The Dark," and "Baby's Got A Hold On Me," will be taking these hits and some close friends on tour in 2008 to 'Party In The Dirt'. Joining the NGDB, will be POCO and JIM MESSINA. In 2008, POCO will be sharing a common celebration as the members of NGDB once did, marking their own 40th Anniversary as a band. Today POCO consists of Rusty Young, playing an impressive array of stringed instruments including mandolin, and Paul Cotton with longtime bassist/singer Jack Sundrud, and drummer George Lawrence. Their set consists mostly of material from the 1970s, including hits such as "Crazy Love," and "Heart of the Night." Young and Cotton also throw in a few of their own numbers from the early Epic Records era. Jim Messina formed POCO after serving as the recording engineer, producer, and eventually bass player for Buffalo Springfield. He played lead guitar and supplied vocals and some songwriting to the band. After recording two albums, Messina met Kenny Loggins, where they united in the duo Loggins and Messina releasing a number of popular albums. After a 29-year spilt, they reconnected and decided to hit the road as a duo again touring nation-wide.

You'll definitely have to check it out sometime. Patty Hurst Shifter will be at the Pour House on 1-18, that may be one you'd find well worth attending. I just picked up their new EP Friday night at Chris & Marc's (of PHS) acoustic show at Slim's but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. Jack Ketner (of Scearce & Ketner) recently did an editorial cartoon that ran in the Tideland News depicting Emerald Isle's oceanfront as being full of condos except for Bogue Inlet Pier, the date was set somewhere in the not too distant future. If you had a chance to pick it up I hope you're enjoying it. I hope y'all had a very nice weekend as well. Mine was very busy and I even ended up staying one more night just to see the VibeKillers do a late night show at Slim's on Sunday. I'm gettin' too old for this shit.

Very good but I found it a bit hard to follow at times since I'm not so up on Dylan's personal life. Then again, there's a lot of moments of pure fiction. It's definitely worth viewing for it's unique approach to Dylan's many different personas over the years.

He has an album out called Chrome Dreams II and is presently on tour. The long awaited archives are due for release (again) next year.

A thin one in some cases but I'd say music where the subject matter is killing your mother and the vocalist sounds like someone is strangling a cat in a blender would be a good couple of deciding factors.

Not "all at once" but from over the weekend.

Needham's Neighbor Friday, December 7th Sadlack's Heroes Raleigh, NC Chris & Marc Smith of Patty Hurst Shifter Friday, December 7th Slim's Downtown Distillery Raleigh, NC The Backsliders w/ Jeffery Dean Foster and the Birds of Prey Friday, December 7th Pour House Music Hall Raleigh, NC The ViBeKiLLeRs Sunday, December 9th Slim's Downtown Distillery Raleigh, NC

That isn't what I meant. Everything you list in this thread has a YouTube link.

I was never too big on their first big hit, Popular but they got me hook, line and sinker with The Weight Is A Gift a couple years ago. Can't wait for their new album in 2008. I hate I've also missed them live the last couple of times they were through here (NC). Maybe next year.

Cool to see the Gore Gore Girls mentioned here. I wasn't in attendance but they just opened a show for Southern Culture on the Skids in Carrboro, NC over the weekend.

Funny you should say that as he made a very similar observation that garnered a lot of press either this year or last. It may be true to a degree but I don't believe it's true across the board. The worst offenders are those discs that claimed to be "remastered" but all that's been done is cranking up the original volume a notch or two in the studio while no actual remastering has even taken place. Otherwise the sound quality of CDs themselves has come a long since their infancy when many were nothing more than cheaply done recordings of the original vinyl just to get them on the market. Nowadays compact discs a lot come closer to capturing the sound of the original recordings than ever before. That was one of the reasons Neil Young has held up his long awaited box set for so very long, the limitations of modern sound technology. That he has it prepared for release in the new year (maybe) is a good sign that even Neil has found a sound he's happy with.

I've mentioned the Four Horsemen before but it was one of your recent posts that reminded me of them. Definitely a group well worth looking into.

I'm just stating an opinion as to why some of those bands have become so hated and none of it has to do with actual talent (or lack thereof), it usually boils down to listener burnout thanks to Classic Rock radio. It's kinda the same case as "hair metal", I don't recall any of those bands being so hated back in their heyday but once some years were put between then and now, perspectives changed. I was never a big fan of any of them to start with but there's no denying their presence as they were all over the radio back then.

The post Berry songs always came off much better live. I think this is another thing that finally dawned on them. Thus, the return to a more stripped down approach to the songs and the Dublin rehearsals.

I love the last few albums. That's the funny thing, there's no usually no shortage of Dylan fans on "classic rock" oriented boards like this but some aren't even aware that he's still recording. I've been a Dylan fan since the mid-70s but never got into him bigtime until The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 and Time Out of Mind.

http://countryhound.com/News/Article.aspx?...CookieSupport=1 Loretta Lynn is reportedly in the recording studio working on a new album. Loretta, 72, has been writing songs with British rocker Elvis Costello and alt-country singer-songwriter Todd Snider, but also plans to include some of her well-known hits for the project. The album is being produced by John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny Cash and June Carter. No release date has been set.

Like vinyl records, hair metal and Ricky Martin, the world of rock art - album covers, posters and the like -- just doesn't score as much attention as it once did. These days, the few non-video visuals that remain part of the music experience usually get shrunk down to fit on an iPod screen, if they show up at all. One holdout that's not only still alive, but thriving, however, is the custom designed concert poster. So many shows, so little time? Here's a look at the 25 coolest posters in rock history. And yes, it's undeniable: San Francisco figures prominently. To see the posters click here: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/posters/rock.html

Just the Royal Albert Hall portion from 1970. I'm still just as mesmerized (if not more so) by Bonzo's solo during Moby Dick as I was the first time I saw it when I purchased the DVD back in 2003.

Boston may be a victim of overplay by classic rock radio but their debut was considered very innovative for the time and the production values even inspired future artists such as Smashing Pumpkins. They may be one of the most hated artists in Classic Rock land but even I'm not so quick to dismiss them (or Kansas, Styx, REO, etc.)

Just curious. If you're listening to something you can't find on YouTube, what'd you do?