I will begin my look at the year in books beginning tomorrow but first I want to take a look back at 2009. I’m glad it is over.
As I began this post I thought I would look back at all the highs and mostly lows of 2009. It was a difficult year to say the least.
But I don’t want to rehash that. In less than 3 hours 2009 will not be able to inflict any more damage on me and my family. Good riddance.
Number 11 was inexplicably omitted from yesterday’s posting. That should have been Elvis Costello with Secret, Profane and Sugarcane.
10. Pierce Pettis–That Kind of Love
Springsteen is the only artist on this list that I have been a fan of longer than Pierce Pettis. I first discovered a CD of his in a bargain bin back in the late 80s. I still look back with tremendous fondness for the number of times I was able to go see him at the historic Bluebird during my Nashville years. Although his voice has dropped to a level that is often too deep for me, his songwriting is still masterful.
9. Kelly Clarkson–All I Ever Wanted
Make fun of me all you want for having two AI offerings in my top 10 but Clarkson returned to the pop confection of her 2004 smash Breakaway with this offering. Girl has some pipes.
8. The Avett Brothers–I and Love and You
This album is one that must percolate. At first blush it is a disappointment. But the best artists always take you where you are not prepared to go. That is what happens here:
7. Alice Peacock–Love Remains
The voice of an angel searching for God. Peacock writes beautiful ballads rife with the spiritual longing and insight of a preacher’s kid. This album was my pleasant surprise of the year.
6. Spinal Tap–Back From the Dead
TAP! The most important metal recording since Smell The Glove. I don’t usually list best of material but this is a career spanning retrospective that should be on every true music lover’s shelf.
5. Bruce Springsteen–Working On a Dream
The Boss churns out another album chock full of gems. What makes this stand out was the inclusion of my favorite album track of his in 25+ years.
4. Brooke White–High Hopes and Heartbreak
As my dawg Randy Jackson would say, “she could sing the phone book and I would love it.” Her voice and style are such a picture perfect remembrance of vintage Carly Simon.
3. Neko Case–Middle Cyclone
Simply.Stunning
2. The Swell Season–Strict Joy
I wasn’t sure if they would be able to repeat the sheer beauty and transcendence of their self-titled debut and the music recorded for Once. In my opinion, however, they have surpassed that with this outing.
1. Michael McDermott–Hey La Hey
I know this comes as no surprise to anyone that I would place this number 1. I have been an indefatigable cheerleader and supporter of Michael’s for 18 years now. I have introduced him to a large number of people and consider him a friend and a hell of a guy.
However, when this first came out I was conflicted. The album was not what I expected. There was something missing. Or better said, there was something different: hope and optimism that is the true hallmark of maturity. With Hey La Hey we have the consummate tortured artist emerging on the other side, scarred and weary but intact. And finally and firmly acquainted with love.
“The Year It All Went Wrong” serves as a beautiful cap to those darkened years. It is after that year of everything going wrong that he is able to emerge singing “I’m falling in love.”
I would have been content to spend the rest of my days listening to the plaintive cries of Michael’s heart. However, I would have missed out on what comes next: a grown man who has experienced all that life has to offer only to rise up again and again and embrace the possibility of redemption, reconciliation and love.
20. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit–Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
19. M. Ward–Hold Time
18. Slaid Cleaves–Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
17. Rickie Lee Jones–Balm in Gilead
16. Mountain Goats–The Life of the World to Come
15. Steve Earle–Townes
14. John Wesley Harding–Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
13. U2–No Line On the Horizon
12. Indigo Girls–Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
In yeas past I have labored heavily over my year end music list. I plan to provide my top releases tomorrow night but it will probably be contained in one list rather than a multi-part series. To be honest, I am much more interested in my year end book lists coming up next week.
I think there were a couple of factors that contributed to a less than enthusiastic desire to share my musical picks of the year:
1) eMusic opted for big name back catalog rather than quality new releases. I am not a fan of the new eMusic. Sure it was great to be able to add back a few older recordings I had not converted to MP4. However, the change meant that there was less appeal to Tuesday new releases. There just were not as many. I canceled my subscription as of tonight.
2) My available time to listen to music declined rapidly the second half of the year. I no longer sit before a computer in an office by myself all day. I also had less discriminatory funds to purchase music outside of eMusic.
That does not mean that I have no opinions. I do and will get to those in due course.
I can state right now the two biggest disappointments of the year:
Monsters of Folk–Rather than four times the greatness it was four times the suckitude.
That Derek Webb album–I will be the one to say it: his music stinks. I like the lyrics and appreciate a good controversy but I will pass. I can’t pretend to be a fan any longer.
From time to time, I will share a snippet of the current book I am reading that really grabs my attention. This one is from the National Book Award Winner Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann.
Corrigan told me once that Christ was quite easy to understand. He went where He was supposed to go. He stayed where He was needed. He took little or nothing along, a pair of sandals, a bit of a shirt, a few odds and ends to stave off the loneliness. He never rejected the world. If He had rejected it, He would have been rejecting mystery. He would have been rejecting faith.
What Corrigan wanted was a fully believable God, one you could find in the grime of the everyday. The comfort he got from the hard, cold truth–the filth, the war, the poverty–was that life could be capable of small beauties. He wasn’t interested in the glorious tales of the afterlife or the notions of a honey-soaked heaven. To him that was a dressing room for hell. Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same. He wanted, quite simply, for the world to be a better place, and he was in the habit of hoping for it. Out of that came some sort of triumph that went beyond theological proof, a cause for optimism against all the evidence.
“Someday the meek might actually want it,” he said.
If there was any question that I was asked most often during my ministry career, that was it. It was hard to explain how study, preparation and the other day to day activities could consume so much time.
I didn’t realize that moving into the library field I would still be asked that question. Granted, if you had asked me two years ago what a librarian did during the work day I would have been hard pressed to fill out an 8 hours slate.
But now I know. There is a lot that comprises my week.
I spend 23 out of my 40 hours each week at The Help Desk. I am the guy that people go to for any questions that they might have. Most of the time those questions are computer related or regarding services that the library offers. However, there is more to it than that.
I am the answer man. At the help desk people come to me with all kinds of questions. I have helped people with research papers, find long lost relatives, find arcane pieces of trivia and other pieces of information that they might need. Over the last few months I have become very familiar with reliable databases that can help me find information that Google alone cannot reach.
My favorite part of the desk time, however, is my Readers Advisory role. If you are looking for a recommendation for a book I am your guy. I love being able to point people in the direction of a good read that meets their tastes and interests. Looking for a Nick Hornby readalike? Here you go. Want a good book about the end of the world? I can hook you up.
The rest of my week is spent “off desk.” During this time I am fulfilling my other responsibilities which include:
–I do all book ordering for 200s, 500s and Inspirational Fiction. 200s is religion and 500s is science. I have a passion for both of those so that has been somewhat easy to get up to speed on. Inspirational Fiction? Not so much. The genre is so series oriented that there is a lot of familiarization that I have to do.
–I am the tax guy. I am responsible for procuring, stocking and keeping readily available all the tax forms that we supply.
–I handle donations. Our library gets a ton of materials that people leave behind. I sift through all of that and determine what we want to add to our collection.
–I will be hosting a book club that begins meeting in January. The flier we used to promote that is above. I likely will be starting at least one more because the first group is full.
–I plan and pull off monthly adult programming. For example, in January we will be doing a Madden Tournament the weekend before the Super Bowl and in February we will be doing an Academy Award Film Series.
That is just a taste of what I do all day. I absolutely love it.
It has been so long since I blogged for a general audience that I scarcely know where to begin. So much has happened over the past year that I have yet to fully process it all. Some bullet points might be the way to go:
–I retired after 20 years of full-time active ministry
–I began work as a part-time circulation clerk for the Ponca City Public Library
–I got a part-time job as a campus minister for the Northern Oklahoma College Wesley House
–We moved into a new house in Ponca City
–I lost my oldest brother suddenly to a heart attack
–I got a job as a full time Reference Librarian at the Stillwater Oklahoma Public Library (of course I quit at the Ponca City library when that began)
–We moved to Stillwater
–During all of this I was taking 9 hours towards my Masters in Library and Information Sciences
Needless to say it has been a time of overwhelming stress and chaos. There were days I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Working two jobs that involved a commute and driving 1-2 times a week to Tulsa for class made September and October absolutely exhausting.
My retiring from ministry has been in the making for a while. However, my departure was hastened for a number of reasons. None of those reasons are really important right now. Suffice it to say I made the right decision at just the right time despite the difficult that ensued.
I look forward to blogging again. It won’t be a place of controversy or pushing the envelope like it might have been at one point. However, this will be a place to talk about the world of libraries, books and information.
I hope that you will consider being a part of this discussion.
