More or less. In some kind of vagueish order for the first quarter then much of a muchness after. I'll do a relevant 8tracks for it too. Large Hearted Boy has the definitive list of end of year lists.

The Good Life -- Justin Townes Earle
Rattlin' Bones -- Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Gurrumul -- Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Virtual Landslide -- Pete Molinari (will talk about later)
Just a Little Lovin' -- Shelby Lynne
One Kind Favour -- BB King
Little Honey -- Lucinda Williams
Crossing the Field -- Jenny Scheinman
Trouble in Mind -- Hayes Carll
Harps and Angels -- Randy Newman
Waylon Forever -- Waylon Jennings (last recordings, classic songs, produced by son Shooter)
Same Old Man -- John Hiatt
Venus on Earth -- Dengue Fever (Cambodian-Californian psychadelic south east Asian surf rock)
All is Yes -- The Blessing
Como Now: The Voices of Panola County, MS -- Various (acapella gospel from the Daptone label)
Backwoods Barbie -- Dolly Parton
Recovery -- Loudon Wainwright III
Honky Tonks and Cheap Hotels -- Whitey Morgan and the 78s (outlaw country)
The C.P.T Theorem -- Greydon Square
Recapturing the Banjo -- Otis Taylor
Modern Hymns -- Darrell Scott
Seeing Things -- Jakob Dylan (it grew on me very slowly)
Honey Songs -- Jim Lauderdale
Akh Issudar -- Terakaft (Tourareg "desert rock")
Umalali -- The Garifuna Women's Collective (Afro-Belizean)
Mother Earth! Father Sky! -- Huun-Huur-Tu (alt.tuvan Like many people I find the whole throat singing thing pretty fascinating without actually wanting to listen to it while nursing a Strongbow out on the balcony at a summer's dusk. This one I would. Very jaunty! Turkic bluegrass! And they have a girl singer who breaks up the throaty stuff.)

Additional list: some more 2008 jazz I liked in addition to the Jenny Scheinman and The Blessing above.
Treat Me Gently -- Dale Barlow, George Coleman, Mark Fitzgibbon, Sam Anning This is Australian. John Shand just happened to review it in the Herald last week, and it just happened to be on eMusic and it just happened to have seven tracks and I just happened to have seven credits left so I got it. And I liked it a lot.
De Cuba y de Panamá -- Billy Cobham and Asere
The Coalition of the Willing -- Bobby Previte
Roll With It -- Corey Christiansen

So like the rest of the world I am pondering my Best of 2008 albums list; revisiting some early faves to see how they stack up, trying to squeeze in some late comers and generally obsessing. These are a couple of songs from albums which prob won't make the list, but I really like these songs.

In fact, I really love this song, "Acid Tongue" by Jenny Lewis. One of those put on repeat for half an hour or so songs. The rest of the album didn't grab me like her previous one Rabbit Fur Coat did.

Another good one is "Arrowhead" from Grayson Capp's Rott 'n' Roll:

This is a jazzy, funky, rocky one. No country because my country Chrissie songs are in a format not supported by 8 tracks so I'll do a twangy one when I've done some conversion.

Here or here:

White Christmas -- Bobby Timmons
You're a Mean One Mr Grinch -- Aimee Mann
Christmas is Coming -- John Denver and the Muppets
Do You Hear What I Hear -- Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
Stone Soul Christmas -- Binky Gripite & The Dee-Kays
A Christmas Duel -- Cyndi Lauper and the Hives (a bit NSF kiddies)
Pretty Paper -- Roy Orbison
Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow -- Jethro Tull
Santa Claus is Coming to Town -- Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
I Need a Man Down my Chimney -- Barbara Carr
Christmas Now is Drawing Near -- Sneak's Noyse
Angels We Have Heard on High -- The Brian Setzer Orchestra
God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman -- Los Straitjackets
Darlin' (Christmas is Coming) -- Over the Rhine
We Wish You a Merry Christmas -- John Denver and the Muppets
O Come All Ye Faithful -- Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
Jingle Bells -- Ed Calle, Arturo Sandoval and Jim Gasior
Auld Lang Syne -- Martin Sexton

The Oxford American music issue is out. Always worth it, if you can find it here. If you can. tell me where. If not, or until you do, there are some free articles on this here website.

15 songs, one hour. Stuff from the November eMu list plus a couple of ring-ins.

Listen here or here:

Townes Van Zandt; Utah Phillips; Ray Wylie Hubbard; Hopeton Lewis; Miriam Makeba; Babatunde Lea, Greg Landau and John Greenham; Irene Kral; Jenny Scheinman; Asha Bhosle, Rahul Dev Burman; Pete Molinari; Anita O'Day; The Dirty Dozen Blues Band; Jakob Dylan

"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognise time"
- Maya Angelou

Really, where on earth would you even start? Odetta constantly surprised me, I'd turn up a new record and it'd be something I'd never heard before -- not just the individual songs, but she must have covered just about every musical style in the American vernacular book.

If they put this stupid net filter through they might have to filter out this. Pretty hot.