I don’t buy enough music to do a real ‘top 10 albums’ list for the year, so I’ll just call this list what it is, my favorites from what I heard and watched this year.
In the spring, I absolutely wore out the South Memphis String Band’s album, Home Sweet Home . I remember many spring afternoons with the doors and windows of my apartment open and Jimbo, Luther, and Alvin strumming and serenading.
For the second half of the year, I listened to Mumford and Sons’ Sigh No More the most. They’ve got such amazing harmony, which I love. There’s a little bit of Avett in there. I really want to see them live soon.
I Netflixed a lot in 2010. I’ve gone cable-less and like it. I Netflix a lot of music DVDs and TV shows. I marathoned all seasons of Mad Men and Breaking Bad this year and am now working on Arrested Development and Dexter.
The two music DVDs I enjoyed the most in 2010 were not released in 2010. I was mesmerized (and still am) by Bob Dylan: The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 (video clip). It was first released 40 years ago. This DVD has a great bonus feature, an interview with Murray Lerner who was behind the camera for a lot of the footage and produced the documentary. I think Netfixing a DVD twice and having a hard time sending it back both times is a surefire sign that it’s time to buy it.
I had seen Neil Young: Heart of Gold before but was reminded of how cool it is and ended up Netflixing it twice in the year as well. It was released in 2006, is 1 hour and 43 minutes long, and features a really cool set at the Ryman in Nashville by Neil and a few of his friends (Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith, his wife Pegi, his band, and others). It’s really cool visually, lots of colors, and the music is superb. No great extra features on the DVD, but the intro to the main show has some nice interviews with Neil, his band and Emmylou as they’re driving to the Ryman.
This is part one in a series. (Part 2) More things I enjoyed in 2010…
