I have enjoy taking time this year and sharing my musical discoveries and likes with my friends, Ryan and Jen Ozawa, over at their podcast Popspotting. I will continue to do my “Music Cues for Popspotting” next year. But Faith McQuinn said I should do a list. So I sat down and tried to choose the ones that have been on my play list this year.
Listed in no particular order:
Hillsong United Unidos Permancemos
I have a heart for a mission in Colombia. So I’m listening to a little more Christian music in Spanish. I bought Hillsong United’s Live and Unidos Permancemos (sames songs performed in Spanish). I prefer the Spanish language one. Beautiful worship!
Mumford & Sons Sigh No More
I love bluegrass music, I love people who play instruments and are talented at it. Mumford & Sons took folk rock using traditional instruments and brought it to the masses. They and Steve Martin have taken the banjo back to mainstream audiences. I love Mumford & Sons’ songs and writing.
Bison Quill
The Last Bison is a group from the Tidewater area of Virginia. The describe their music as Folkestral (blending Folk with Classical). They have a unique sound and write their own songs. I found them thanks to some of their family members with whom I go to church. You should really check them out! Their first album Quill is out on iTunes and Amazon.
AKUS Paper Airplane
Continuing with the solid instrumental artists, Allison Krauss & Union Station are wonderful. Each member of the band are gifted and talented musicians and write songs. Their album Paper Airplane came out this year. It is a very solid album. I had the pleasure of seeing them live in Cary this year. I have wanted to see them live for years. It was WELL worth the cost and I would love to see them again.
Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers Rare Bird Alert
Steve Martin is very good on the banjo and you add in the Steep Canyon Rangers and you have a very good group. Their album Rare Bird Alert, has a good mix of songs and can be listened to again and again.
The Civil Wars Barton Hollow
The Civil Wars again goes with the roots style of my music this year. Ryan calls it “stompy” music. This duo has haunting harmonies and solid musical talents.
The Wailin’ Jennys Bright Morning Stars
I love Pandora for many reasons. One is discovering new (to me) artists. I was listening to my AKUS station and started hearing tracks from the Canadian group called The Wailin’ Jennys. I love the Bright Morning Stars for its’ harmonies and style but I fell in love with the thanks to their live album.
Sojourn The Water and The Blood
Sojourn is a group of musicians out of the Nashville area. They have several albums. The Water and The Blood is an album of Isaac Watts hymns. They took the hymns and put them to new music. The album mixes styles all with a southern feel (country, blues, bluegrass, rock, etc.).
Soveregin Grace Music Risen
Sovereign Grace Music is one of the best sources of Christian Praise & Worship music. They write solid biblical lyrics and put good music to them. They also take old hymns and make them new. They released two albums this year. Both are very good. The first is Risen. It celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus. The second was recorded live at a conference (WorshipGod11) called The Gathering.
Bear McCreary BSG S1
This year I have grown to appreciate the composer Bear McCreary. He composes music for television series. The puts a great deal of thought in to what is trying to be conveyed in the scene. He uses all types of instruments and uses them in different ways. I bought both, seasons one and two of Battlestar Galactica’s sound tracks.
Adele 21
Well to bring this (non-exhaustive) list to a close is Adele. She is honest in her lyrics and feelings. She has said she makes music for the ears not the eyes. She is not model thin and does not want to be. 21 is a great album.
BSG and Steve Martin? Great list! Thanks for writing this up, and can’t wait for more “Music Cues” in 2012! Thanks for being part of the ohana, Geoff!
@hawaii I enjoy it and I am glad for the movie/music/TV picks you send my way too!
Great list! Now I’ve got to get myself to Freegal Music and find some of these albums.
@fmcquinn Enjoy!
@Dhara Mistry Adele is great. On the Livefyre side thanks! But question, I edited your comment in the WP admin side to change something but it does not appear on the site live. I changed one word and added something in the comments section of WP but it does not show up on the livefyre section of the my post. Help!
@xforce11 Hey Geoff, at the moment, we do not sync any changes made in the WordPress backend to Livefyre. However, our dev team is currently working on our own comment editing feature that should be available in the near future! I’ll be sure to reach out and let you know when we release it 🙂
@Dhara Mistry Great. I like to keep a family friendly site and want the ability to edit out stuff with out totally deleting comments. Thanks!
@xforce11 I understand what you’re saying here Geoff. In such situations, our flagging as well as banning features are very helpful.
Here are the links to our FAQs that will throw some more light on them:
Ban Users
http://support.livefyre.com/customer/portal/articles/138903
Flagging comments
http://support.livefyre.com/customer/portal/articles/21705
@Dhara Mistry I understand but for example if I just wanted to change a word in your original post to “heck” and leave the rest of the post 😀
@xforce11 I realized that after you pointed that out! Sincere apologies Geoff! Promise won’t do it again! 🙂
But yes, that will be possible soon.
@Dhara Mistry Great, thanks!
Love Adele! She just drives through and steals your heart with her voice! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I wanted to reach out and welcome you to Livefyre! Hope you’re liking it so far! And, please don’t hesitate to let us know if you need anything from us. We’ll be happy to assist 🙂
Can’t say that I’m into bluegrass or gospel but I’m a big fan of Bear McCreary and Adele. It’s always nice to see the little areas where the Venn diagrams of our lives overlaps or intersect – in this way everything is connected to everything else – by degrees. Nice list