Best of 2020

And so we usher out of the door the year that no-one saw coming... Roll on 2021.

Looking back, I find that I started my round-up post 12 months ago by saying:

I've been to fewer concerts again this year and I fear that I'm listening more to people I know I like, rather than breaking new ground on your behalf.

Might I be getting older?

Well, plus ca change. I managed a grand total of one concert in 2020 before lockdown bit. Transatlantic Sessions at the Dome in February, since you ask. I have no hesitation in crowning it as my gig of the year, with Aly Bain, Jerry Douglas and a bunch of young contenders on excellent form.

Fewer records bought too, and, once again, no huge new discoveries to share. 

That said, I have read about twice as many books as in previous years - aided by a lockdown project to work my way through all of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels in order. I'm about two thirds of the way through and enjoying them greatly. And since they're all under 200 pages it's quite easy to generate a record-breaking year of reading.

I'm going to limit myself to 5 records of the year this time. Drum roll, please:

5. Cornershop - England is a Garden

4. Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease

3. Nadia Reid - Out of My Province

2. Braden Gates - Kitchen Days

1. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Letter to You

All well worthy of your attention.

Bruce's offering was quite well received by the critics, but with some damning with faint praise for it sounding too typically like the E Street Band. To me, that was an important part of the point: after all these years they can turn up and turn it on as powerfully as ever. As always, Max Weinberg seems about to thrash his way through the speakers, the guitars chime, and Bruce has some telling reflections on life, death, and why he does what he does. Yes, it's one for the fans - but fans should not miss it.

Braden and Nadia at 2 and 3 are the relatively young guns, still learning and developing, singing and arranging with more confidence and skill, album by album. The art of song writing continues.

I've put together a playlist of 2020 acquisitions, with a selsction of this year's releases bolstered by some older stuff that is new to vinyl - I'd been waiting 20 years for Josh Rouse's classic debut album Dressed Up Like Nebraska to find its way to the classic format...

 https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/2020-acquisitions/pl.u-2aoqXVLfBNyYW

You'll notice that a certain Nobel laureate does not feature. I fear that Rough and Rowdy Ways was my biggest musical disappointment of the year - and I can't understand why it is being hailed as a masterpiece in others' end-of-year lists. I fear that he is now finally past it, and can't distinguish good lines from bad...