Music Faves of 'Ought Two'

Jack Vaughan's Radio Weblog :

Music Faves of 'Ought Two'

Even though the journal is the working metaphor here, being 'of the year' is not the object of this weblog. I try to look at this time and place from the broader perspective that the World Wide Web avails. Add to that I am still digging through the Secret Museum of Mankind* that is the vinyl legacy. All of good stuff from the '30s still for me to discover.

But why not pick my Top Albums of 2002 --tempted to call them 'records' - though it is already mid-January 2003. Damn, everything on the list is quite from 2002. The year it weren't so bad. So here we go in our own version of the Golden Globes. Katy bar the doors of perception!

1. Harried, no more! George Harrison, Brainwashed. Hanging in and singing when the grim reaper's reaping gets big points. Being true to your muse gets you more. But who is counting? George went out on a spiritual note, and the goodness of the vibes on this record could come from no other source. That that source's time has passed adds a blue note to the proceedings. But it's a brilliant blue note. Favorites: Any Road. Looking form my Life. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Marwa Blues.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006LSM3/

2. Trilled! Nora Jones, Come Go with Me. Record is damn perfect, certainly Arif Mardin had a hand in that. Each note is in it's place. Which is sometimes scary. No saliva flies on the pop of a 'p.' Still Nora Jones can bend notes - bend them seriously - but not break them with the overdramatic style of this star-spangled, American idol day. But she doesn't go to the other laid-back darvon-dragging extreme either. She effectively walks the line. We thought it would never happen again. Favorites: Don't Know Why. Cold Cold Heart. Lonestar. One Flight Down.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005YW4H/

3.B'doop-adoo! B'doop-adoo! Johnny Cash, The Essential Johnny Cash. It's here. Not all of it. But a lot in one place. On the CD media of the day. Most of the greatest stuff. Without an encumbering boxed presentation. What a mystic hillbilly hipster. But you knew that. Bought in Times Square. Favorites: Big River. Ira Hayes. I Still Miss Someone [At my window the leaves are falling], Tennessee Flattop Box, Sunday Morning [Coming Down].
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005Y1M2/

*Learned Reference: To world music series on disc.