Holiday at the Sea's Favorite 2019 Music Mix (Volume 03)

As I’ve explained, rather than just give a context-less list, I’ve made a four-volume playlist of some of my favorite music of 2019. Each mix is as close to an hour as I could get it.

Today we dive in to Volume 03. Also, just to review again: there are 50 songs, but only 49 albums represented, since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single. After lots of finagling, I just decided to leave it alone and enjoy the music. It is what it is and it is all great. I hope you enjoy this third installment.

Volume 03:

Volume 03 Tracklisting:

1. ‘Shadow Conductor’ by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society from the album Mandatory Reality

2. ‘Ptah, The El Daoud’ by Sunwatchers from the album Illegal Moves

3. ‘Spider Web Pt. 1’ by The Budos Band from the album V

4. ‘One Step Behind’ by Garcia Peoples from the album One Step Behind

5. ‘Water Bearing One by Dire Wolves from the album Grow Towards The Light

6. ‘Telephone Song’ by Xylouris White from the album The Sisypheans

7. ‘Love Is Everywhere’ by Wilco from the album Ode To Joy

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• Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Holiday at the Sea's Favorite 2019 Music Mix (Volume 02)

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re doing something different this year with my year-end list of my favorite music of 2019. I’ve made four different playlists so you can hear a representative song from each album I picked.

Today we dive in to Volume 02. Each mix is as close to an hour as I could get them. And as I already mentioned, there are 50 songs, but only 49 albums represented, since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single and I’ll present the complete list at the end of the week. I hope you enjoy this second installment.

Volume 02:

Volume 02 Tracklisting:

1. ‘Shepherd’s Welcome’ by Bill Callahan from the album Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest

2. ‘Miri’ by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba from the album Miri

3. ‘Autobiography Of The Upsetter’ by Lee “Scratch” Perry from the album Rainford

4. ‘Vagabond’ by Steve Gunn from the album The Unseen In Between

5. ‘U (Man Like)’ by Bon Iver from the album i,i

6. 1 Milli by Davido from the album A Good Time

7. ‘Three Chords and the Truth’ by Van Morrison from the album Three Chords and the Truth

8. ‘Anybody’ by Burna Boy from the album African Giant

9. ‘To See Darkness’ by Elkhorn from the album Sun Cycle / Elk Jam

10. ‘Hot Potato Soup’ by One Eleven Heavy from the album Desire Path

11. ‘Out of Darkness’ by Some Dark Hollow from the album Out of Darkness

12. ‘Comeback Kid’ by Sharon Van Etten from the album Remind Me Tomorrow

13. ‘Carrier 32’ by Eluvium from the album Pianoworks

14. ‘Bloom’ by Joe Henry from the album The Gospel According to Water

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• Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Holiday at the Sea's Favorite 2019 Music Mix (Volume 01)

I love year-end lists.

I love to see what other people loved. Especially people I respect who can introduce me to new music (and to a lesser extent, have my tastes validated by people cooler than me). But I don’t dig ranking everything. After all, it’s all subjective in the first place. You may not like what I like, and I probably don’t like what you do, and that’s OK. The past couple of years, I’ve done unranked, alphabetical lists. But this year I’d doing something different. (though there will still be an unranked, alphabetical list at the end).

Over the next several days, I’ll post four different playlists of some of my favorite music of 2019; selections from my favorite albums. Each mix is as close to an hour as I could get it. There are 50 songs, but if you want to be specific, there are only 49 albums represented since ‘Sideways’ by Seryn was released as a single and not part of an album. After lots of finagling, I just decided to leave it that way. It is what it is and it is all great. I hope you enjoy. Here’s the first installment.

Volume 01:

Volume 01 Tracklisting:

1. ‘Out Of The Blue’ by Bruno Bavota from the album RE_CORDIS

2. ‘Cuatro Proverbios’ by Aziza Brahim from the album Sahari

3. ‘Tetuzi Akiyama’ by 75 Dollar Bill from the album I Was Real

4. ‘All My Relations’ by Cochemea from the album All My Relations

5. ‘Family and Loyalty’ by Gang Starr from the album One Of The Best Yet

6. ‘Harmony Hall’ by Vampire Weekend from the album Father of the Bride

7. ‘Taqkal Tarha’ by Tinariwen from the album Amadjar

8. ‘Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today’ by Chris Forsyth from the album All Time Present

9. ‘Wiwasharnine’ by Mdou Moctar from the album Ilana (The Creator)

10. ‘Slabs of the Sunburnt West’ by Hemlock Ernst and Kenny Segal from the album Back At The House

11. ‘Fall in Your Love’ by Moon Duo from the album Stars Are The Light

12. ‘I Need a Teacher’ by Hiss Golden Messenger from the album Terms of Surrender

13. ‘Gold Past Life’ by Fruit Bats from the album Gold Past Life

14. ‘Sideways’ by Seryn // Released as a single

15. ‘Afous Dafous’ by Tartit from the album Amankor / The Exile

16. ‘Fear Song’ by Rose City Band from the album Rose City Band

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• Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Joyful Sounds: An Introduction to Sacred Steel

If you’re not familiar, “Sacred Steel” music is a subset of Gospel music originating with the House of God churches, particularly the Keith and Jewell Dominion sects. Brothers Troman and Willie Eason are credited with the introduction of lap steel guitar in worship services, replacing the more traditional organ.

According to Chuck Campbell (of the Campbell Brothers), in an interview with The New Yorker:

“Sacred Steel started in Philadelphia, in the nineteen-thirties: “A man named Willie Eason was the first. His brother, Troman, had a lap steel because of the Hawaiian-guitar craze. Behind his brother’s back, Willie would take it to the church and mimic the voices.”

Sacred Steel music can be found in many states but was first brought to a wider audience with Arhoolie’s 1997 compilation ‘Sacred Steel: Traditional Sacred African-American Steel Guitar Music in Florida.” The music’s best-known guitarist is probably Robert Randolph who has garnered crossover success.

I put together an hour-long mix introducing you to some of the key players. Enjoy.

Tracklisting:

1. Joyful Sounds by Glenn Lee

2. Praise Music by Aubrey Ghent

3. Jewell Praise by Amazing Grace Praise Band

4. Without God by Robert Randolph

5. Since I Laid My Burden Down by  Calvin Cooke

6. Jesus Will Fix It For You by Sonny Treadway

7. Come On Help Me Lift Him Up by The Lee Boys

8. Sit Down If You Can by  Elwood Haygood With The Campbell Brothers

9. Blood On That Rock by The Word

10. All God’s Children by Elton Noble

11. Something's Got A Hold Of Me by Dante Harmon

12. Good All The Time by The Campbell Brothers

If you’re interested in listening to more Sacred Steel music, here are the albums each of these songs are a part of. Click through for purchase links. Albums are pictured in the order they appear on the mix.

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• Download jewel case art as a PDF file.

Daily Driver Summer 2019

Daily Driver: Summer 2019

This mix is exactly what it says it is. This has been the soundtrack to most of my commutes for most of Summer 2019. I hope you enjoy. There may be more installments in the Daily Driver series. We’ll see. For now, let’s just enjoy what we’ve got, alright? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Download the jewel case art as a PDF file.

Stream and/or download the mix below.

1. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine by CCR

2. “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango

3. “Sunflower” by Post Malone

4. “Funky Kingston” by Toots & The Maytals

5. “Rosa Parks” by Outkast

6. “Emampondweni” by Batsumi

7. “Truckin’” by Grateful Dead

8. “Rosalee” by Chris Robinson Brotherhood

9. “Roots Train” by Junior Murvin

10. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” by Rolling Stones

11. “Thank You for Talkin' to Me Africa” by Sly Stone