Here's where I keep an ongoing, ever-evolving list of some of the favorites of the year.

'07 in '08
These were 2007 releases that I first heard in 2008:

Aradhna: Amrit Vani
Jamie Barnes: The Recalibrated Heart
The Cave Singers: Invitation Songs
Gileah and the Ghost Train
Solomon Jabby: Firmly Planted
Dustin Kensrue: Please Come Home
Red Mountain Church: This Breaks My Heart of Stone
Thee, Stranded Horse: Churning Strides
Ohmega Watts: Watts Happening


Others in '08
These were other releases that I first heard in 2008:
Sons Of Korah
Lightheaded: Pure Thoughts

2008 Releases

These are some of my favorite releases of '08:

Anathallo: Canopy Glow
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Calexico: Carried To Dust
Michah Dalton: Pawnshop
Neil Diamond: Home Before Dark
Dr. Dog: Fate
Five O'Clock People: Temper Temper
Fleet Foxes: S/T
Joe Garner: Mourning Birds EP
Hauschka: Ferndorf
Kasai Allstars: In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And A
MUSICMUSICMUSIC: Everybody Digs
Nomo: Ghost Rock
Paavoharju: Laulu Laakson Kukista
Joe Pug: Nation of Heat EP
Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line
She & Him: Volume One
Shearwater: Rook
Sigur Rós: Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Sun Kil Moon: April
The Tallest Man on Earth: Shallow Grave
Unwed Sailor: Little Wars
The Welcome Wagon: Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
Woven Hand: Ten Stones



2008 Misc. Music Thoughts
This is just a rough journal to gather some of my musical thoughts, explorations and discoveries of the year:

Gospel Blues. I am really getting into artists like Blind Willie Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, Reverend Charlie Jackson, Isaiah Owens, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Washington Phillips and others. I love the way that so much of this music, while solid in content, challenges many traditional notions of what is and what is not "Christian" music. There is a sincerity here that is sorely lacking in many other forms of "Christian" music.

Sacred Steel
Sacred Steel is the broad designation given to some worship music that apparently originated in the Jewel Dominion and Keith Dominions (both African-American Holiness-Pentecostal churches). The unique thing was that these churches replaced the traditional organist with the electric lap steel guitar to great effect. Robert Randolph & The Family Band is perhaps the best-known artist to come out of the genre, and he was/is a member one of my favorites, The Word. Others include The Campbell Brothers and the various artist albums on Arhoolie.