I'd like to wish everyone who subscribes to, follows, or regularly visits this blog a very happy new year and best wishes for 2010. Last year was an interesting one in many ways, and one of the interesting things was making new musical discoveries. So to follow up on last year's post on the same topic, it's time for my Top 5 Music Picks of 2009.
Unfortunately coming up with a Top 5 list this year hasn't been easy. Using iTunes has resulted in a lot of one-off purchases and incomplete albums, and I want to include complete albums in the list. My choices here are limited to complete albums that are not necessarily new releases but are "new to me" this year.
John Martyn - Solid Air
I've like Nick Drake since I heard his music playing over a candle-lit plate of pasta and a bottle of spicy shiraz in a tiny cabin in the woods along the Bow Valley corridor late one moonlit summer night with a couple of old friends. But I'd never heard of his label-mate …