Eighth Annual Jaybee-bies: The Best of 2018

Well, the old bell curve was bit flatter this year.  

During 2017, I heard a lot of very good records but just a few that were great. 2018 had more great stuff but also more disappointments. (How can I be such a pessimist and still manage to get disappointed by things?)

But before getting into the music, let’s see how I did with my 2018 resolutions, broken down by category:

General Classiness:

• Cutting down on saying “Awesome”: A-, but 
• I still say “Let's get on the same page” way too much. B-

Health:

• 10,000 steps in a day: C+ (It’s more like 7500.)
• 1,000 words per day. D (It’s more like 75, unless you count talking.)
• More Exercise: B- (Hey, I like to walk but anything else requires too much...exercise.)
• More Vegetables: B- (Do eggplant parmigiana heroes count?)
• Fewer Sweets: B+ 
• Less Drinking: B+ (Yeah, I'm just a barrel of laughs now.)

Music:

• Fewer CDs, and more mp3s: A- (It’s going great, but I miss CDs! Vinyl, too.)
• Getting current year music: C  (Not so good, but then current year music wasn’t so good, either.)
• Guitar: A  I got a guitar!  And I practice, too! (C- for that, though.)

2019 Resolutions: 

• All of the above. 
• Oh, and impeachment.

Top Ten Albums:

1. Beach House: Bloom (2012) A lotta beauty here. Irridescent  
2. Superchunk: Majesty Shredding (2010) A lotta joy here. Irresistible 
3. Beach House: Teen Dream: (2012) Super dreamy, and healing. 
4. Max Richter: Infra (2010) A modern requiem. Heart wrenchingly sad, but never sappy 
5. Waxahatchee: Out From the Storm (2017) Tight and tuneful. 
6. Lori Mckenna: The Bird and the Rifle  (2016)  Simple, direct. A female, country Neil Young.
7. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (2017) Jason Isbell bares his soul, with a great band to watch his back. Keep going Jason! We’re all rooting for you.
8. Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (2008): So modest you could ignore it, so generous it just chips away at your resistance. They combine the sound of the Stones with genuine country, and excellent songwriting. 
9. Amadou and Mariam: Welcome to Mali (2008) African music but with rock n' roll guitar. 
10. Mount Eerie: A Crow Looked at Me (2017) Even more devestating than Intra.

Honorable Mentions: 

Wes Montgomery, Oneohtrix Point Never, The Wailers, Robyn 

Favorite Songs: can be found here.  

Most Work (But Worth it): Drive By Truckers 

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): Speedy Ortiz  

Most Surprising: Beach House 

Most Disappointing: Superchunk 

Best Artist: Beach House

Best Books:

So if you think I missed out on 2018 music-wise, wait until you get a load of this, thanks mostly to the World History Project:

1. Hamilton by Ron Chernow: An amazing book. An amazing guy. He makes the biggest workaholic you know sound like a slacker. He should have written a book on productivity.
2. Burr by Gore Vidal: A delight, as always, and in the context of the WHP, Vidal clearly worked his ass off.
3. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen: It’s been a long time since I read a “good old novel” that kept me involved all the way through to the end. Brainy, but more importantly, lots of heart.
4. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon: Dark, and yet funny as hell.
5. Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar: Eloquent, beautifully written
6. Washington: Ron Chernow: Great history.
7. The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendahl:Funny, cynical, kind of nuts. Very refreshing.
8. Thomas Jefferson by Christopher Hitchens: Okay, Tom, Vidal and Chernow - not to mention Hamilton and Washington - think you’re an asshole. So who but Christopher Hitchens could rise to your defense?
9. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Zoet by David Mitchell: History and love.
10. The Life of Johnson by Boswell: Even the smartest guys have their blind spots.

Observations:

Like I said, 2018 itself - at least what I heard of it, was less than great. But I’ll be working on the stuff I missed, because I suspect it was a much better year than my ears heard.

Up Next:

Ludvig Van and the 2010s.

Message from the Country

“I didn’t know you liked country music so much,” says Mrs. Jaybee.

Which translates into “If I knew you liked country music so much…”

But I don’t. I really don’t.

I’m just another holdover from that time when rock 'n roll did Nashville one better by subtracting the glitz and making better country music. Yeah, I know that’s not fair or true, but we had Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, so we didn’t think we needed George Jones, Merle Haggard or Dolly Parton.

But these days, unless you’re into Alt-Country, you take your rock 'n roll, hold the country thank you very much.

So I don’t even try to get Son-and-guitar-player Michael into it. Forget about Daughter-and-Broadway-Baby Tess. (See above for Mrs. Jaybee.)

I was even beginning to think I didn’t like it either. When I dipped into it, I got very mixed results. I really liked Kacey Musgroves, I was left unimpressed by Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley.

Or rather, their omnipresent pedal steel guitars put me off for years. They pour it on like ketchup (and I like ketchup). It’s only now when I play those records (at work, of course) that I enjoy their energy and smarts.

So I waited a good long while before dipping my toe back in the pool. But I finally did and it seems the water’s fine.



Jason Isbell: The Nashville Sound (2017)

Yet another singer-songwriter, I thought. When I’m just not feeling it, it’s because I’m mistaking my own tired and limited imagination for what I should be happy to encounter - someone else’s. So I waited a while.

But a singer-songwriter would be better than a country music singer, right? How about an ex-member of the Drive-by Truckers?  Now we’re talking.

Since leaving the Truckers, he’s put out a few solo records. And now he’s got a band - The 400 Unit - to help put his songs across. His voice isn’t particularly strong, but his emotional delivery and empathetic lyrics really hit the mark.

I grudgingly admitted that this was a (just another) good record, ho-hum. But when I actually put it on I find I’m impressed by every single song, every single time.

Isbell confronts the world and his own part in it and doesn’t always love what he sees. But he doesn’t whine about it. He’s mature enough to know he owes something to his fellow man and woman.  Imperfect as he is, he’s going to try.

And he likes to rock, too. So what if on “Anxiety” he tries to sound like the Beatles (I Want You) and fails? That’s forgivable. I’m anxious, too. On “Cumberland Gap” he tries to sound like Springsteen and succeeds.

A

“Cumberland Gap”



Lori McKenna: The Bird and the Rifle (2016)

Unlike Isbell, McKenna lands pretty squarely on country, but she leaves the pedal steel at the door.

Like Isbell, she doesn’t limit herself to the personal, but she does keep to her hometown and finds the universal there.

There’s maybe one song that isn’t slow to mid-tempo. And that’s okay because McKenna uses the time to nail her vocals, lyrics and melodies.

It’s a relief that her ripe quavering voice isn’t the incoming missile we’ve come to expect from country divas. It’s just perfectly built to put these songs across.

And what songs they are! She makes every word count, dissecting doomed relationships or guiding younger women away from her own mistakes.

The melodies aren’t innovative or spectacular but they never settle for the ordinary. They always find another turn, either down or up or sideways that gives you more than you expected.

And when you put all this together it’s even better than Kacey Musgraves, and maybe even Jason Isbell.

A

“Halfway Home”


I'm happy to report there is nothing on either of these records I have to try to like. They are unmistakably country, but not tied down by it.

Which is kind of what made the country music by Dylan, the Dead and the Burritos so great.

Jason and Lori, welcome to the club.