BEST OF 2012 - TIE FOR #11

There were a lot of great albums that came out this year, and I'm not going to write an entry about each one that barely missed the top 10, but here's a roundup of what other records I liked in 2012. 

Bettye LaVette - Thankful N' Thoughtful: I've enjoyed everything she's done since her amazing 2005 comeback I've Got My Own Hell To Raise, which I thought was one of the most underrated albums of the '00s. Her label, Anti- Records, gives her room to make great records, and she's done it again.  There's lots of great songs here, including Dylan's "Everything Is Broken," The Black Keys' "I'm Not The One" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again: I talked and wrote about him early in 2012, and I was really looking forward to this record.  It doesn't disappoint, although I would say that it could use a few more upbeat songs.  Like Gary Clark Jr, the Grammys totally slept on Michael Kiwanuka.

Jamey Johnson - Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran: Jamey's last album, The Guitar Song, was my third favorite album of 2010.  This one didn't hit me quite as hard, but it's a bummer that it didn't get much attention in the press. Maybe because it's a tribute, and because it's all duets (Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson are all on the album).  But it's a really cool album, and has made me want to pick up a Hank Cochran collection.

ZZ Top - La Futura: Why didn't they work with Rick Rubin before this? It's a really really great album, easily their best since Eliminator.  The first single, "I Gotsta Get Paid" is a sort of cover of a obscure '90s hip-hop tune by DJ DMD (I'd never heard of him).  It doesn't come off gimmicky at all.  And it sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album.  It's such a shame that this didn't get too much lip service this year.

Green Day - Uno, Dos y Tre: Essentially a triple album released in three parts.  There's a little bit of fat, but not much.  This kind of has everything they do from punk rock raveups to over the top Broadway-like productions to ballads.

Soundgarden - King Animal: A really great comeback/reunion album... but not quite as good as their pre-breakup material.  Still, there are some amazing songs here, like "Non-State Actor" and "Taree."  But the best might be the weirdest:  "Rowing," which sounds like something that may have been born, oddly enough, in Chris Cornell's ill-fated collaboration with Timbaland on Scream: the song is built around a loop of Chris singing, and a very funky bassline by Ben Shepherd. It's actually become one of my favorite Soundgarden songs ever.

Alabama Shakes - Boys And Girls: They got a lot of buzz this year (and, I'm glad to say, a nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammys)... it's good to see a rock band getting that kind of hype, and these guys deserve it.  I like their album, I don't love it, but wow they have lots of potential.  And they were rockin' when they opened for Jack White earlier this year.

The xx - Coexist: a cool album to chill out to. I was turned on to it by a colleague from work.

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...: A lot of people put this high up in their year-end countdowns.  I liked it, but didn't love it.  Her last album, Extraordinary Machine, was probably my favorite album of 2005, and I thought it was one of the most underrated albums of the '00s.

ROBERT JOHNSON AT 100 - THE BLUES LIVE ON

After months of not going to concerts, last night I went to my first show since the fall, and boy did I pick a good one.  The Robert Johnson tribute concert at the Apollo Theater, celebrating what would have been his 100th birthday. As you can see by the image to the left, it was a pretty great bill, with lots of my favorite acts there.

I already wrote a review, which you can read here: but it was very classic rock-oriented, as I wrote it for that format. But to reiterate, Living Colour killed it. They kind of reminded everyone just how exciting, explosive and vibrant it can be when the blues is brought to life with LOUD electric guitars.  But I have to ask how it is that Corey Glover seems to age in reverse?  His voice is amazing, and he seems to have more control of it now than he did two decades ago. Vernon Reid is just a monster on guitar. Their performance by themselves was great, as were their collaborations with Shemekia Copeland and Sarah Dash.

The Roots were amazing as always: Black Thought wasn't with them. Instead, guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas took the vocals on "Milkcow's Calf Blues."  I love Black Thought, but they could have a parallel career as a rock band if they wanted to. Macy Gray did a great take on "Come On In My Kitchen." Taj Majal and Bettye Lavette were commanding presences every time they hit the stage, and what a treat to get to see both Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) and Allen Toussaint perform.  Most of these artists wouldn't be who you'd expect at a Robert Johnson tribute, but that's what made it cool. It showed that his influence extends far beyond "blues rock" artists.

It was also nice to see some younger artists:  The Dough Rollers are a traditional country blues-ish duo who were amazing, and The Pedrito Martinez Group were pretty exciting also.  I plan on checking them both out. Proof that, as I often say, the blues is alive and well.

NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE AT CARNEGIE HALL

So, tonight I went to the Neil Young tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. This is part of a series of annual tribute concerts organized by promoter Michael Dorf, they are fundraisers for a number of great organizations that you can read about here.

The show was pretty good, not great. Admittedly, it's tough to get momentum for a show when every artist plays just one song. The source material was great, obviously, and most of the artists selected songs that really worked well.  But it was a bit like live band karoke night.

Not to say there weren't highlights, the easy #1 being The Roots' performance of "Down By The River." Supposedly, they stole the show a few years ago when the concert paid tribute to Bob Dylan with "Masters Of War," and tonight was their amazing return. Black Thought wasn't with them, guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas sang lead, with the ladies from Dirty Projectors (who guested on The Roots' How I Got Over) singing backup vocals. They also went into "Hey Joe," (another song about "taking out" your woman).  Incredible.

The other highlights for me was the Cowboy Junkies' performance of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" and Bettye Lavette's "Heart Of Gold," which she actually recorded in the '70s. Other cool moments came courtesy of Joan Osborne ("Old Man"), Aaron Neville ("Helpless") and Pete Yorn (the acoustic "Rockin' In The Free World").

A lot of the performances were very polite and reverent, but didn't really stand out. Throughout the show I was thinking that it would be so much cooler to see Neil performing these songs. To be fair, most of the performers would probably agree with me on that one.

I wonder when I'll get to see Neil perform these songs.  But the good news is that Neil's next tour is rumored to be a Buffalo Springfield reunion. Neil, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay performed as the Springfield at the Bridge School Benefit concert a few months back, and now word is they're going to tour next fall, which is awesome news: they broke up before I was born!

GRAMMY WATCH: BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES ALBUM

I had the hardest time voting in the Americana field, but Best Contemporary Blues Album was difficult also.

I was glad to see Solomon Burke's Nothing's Impossible nominated. It's a tribute to two great artists who are no longer with us: Solomon and also produced Willie Mitchell (who produced most of Al Green's greatest records). Willie died before the album was released, Solomon shortly after. This was one of my favorites of 2010, I was even kind of OK with his cover of Anne Murray's "You Needed Me." But what is most haunting about the album is the last song, "I'm Leavin'." I'm glad that the Grammys are paying tribute to Solomon at the ceremony (via a performance by Mick Jagger and Raphael Saadiq).

Dr. John is having a good year: he's getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month, and he has Grammy nominations for his contribution to The Princess and The Frog... in this category though, he is nominated for his album Tribal. I've got to check it out a bit more, but I love the song, "Manoovas," which features Derek Trucks (the Dr. digs The Allman Brothers Band I guess: he's the piano player on Gregg Allmans'great Low Country Blues album).

Buddy Guy's Living Proof was another of my favorite albums of 2010. The man is just badass. There's no cute hook or big name producer on the album. There's guest spots by Carlos Santana and B.B. King, but other than that, it's just Buddy and his band and they cook.

Talk about badases: Bettye Lavette is as bad as they come. Her album Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook shows her taking a lot of iconic songs and making them her own. I don't mean to sound all "American Idol," but it's true. My favorite track on the album is her cover of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy," and she would know!

The last nominee is Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who I am not as familiar with. I know he's an incredible guitar player, and I'm glad he is one of the guys out there really bringing the traditional blues to younger fans. But I haven't heard his album so I can't comment on it.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: THE BRITISH INVASION AND R&B

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ and talk about music on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. This week and next week, however, I am moving to Thursdays.  In three weeks, I'll be back to Wednesday.

I'm going to talk about what I was supposed to talk about last week: the British invasion of the early '60s, and the American R&B of the era: how they influenced each other, and how that influence manifests itself today.  I'm adding one recent release that I didn't originally plan on: Otis Redding's Live On The Sunset Strip. It's a two CD collection of a few sets that he did over the course of a multi-night stand at the Sunset Strip in April of 1966, backed by his own band (as opposed to Booker T & The MGs) at the point where the dude was blowing up.  It is hot, and worth checking out. I've talked about Otis on the show before, but as far as I'm concerned, you can't talk about him too much.

I'll also be talking about The Kinks, in honor of the late Pete Quaife. I'll be talking about a newly released live Jackson 5 album. And new albums by Paul Weller and Bettye Lavette. But the main thing will be the recently released DVD version of The TAMI Show. I was talking with a friend of mine, we said it may be the best music DVD ever. And I never say that kind of stuff.  But it is a well shot concert from 1964 featuring a legendary performance by James Brown (see part of it here). Plus, The Rolling Stones (here), Marvin Gaye (here), Diana Ross & The Supremes (also here), The Beach Boys and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. Check out below, I've posted a joint performance by Chuck Berry with Gerry & The Pacemakers, and also Lesley Gore. This is incredible stuff.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: THE BRITISH INVASION AND R&B

UPDATE: I'm not going to be on OutQ today, due to a number of other guests. So I'll do an extended version of my weekly thing next week. Sorry everyone, I just found out! Tomorrow night, however, I will be on The Catholic Channel, and I'll post more about that later on.

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET, I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ to talk about music on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I will talk about the "British Invasion" of the early 1960's, and the American R&B of that era, and the effects they still have today. It's something I love to talk about: how music can bring together different cultures, and that was definitely happening in the early '60s. 

First, I'll talk about The Kinks' late founding bass player Pete Quaife. He passed away last week. The Kinks were kind of seen as the quintessential British band, and they were. But on their first album, they were covering Chuck Berry and blues and R&B artists. It's still amazing to me: there was no internet in the early '60s: the fact that white British kids were going crazy over American artists like Chuck and Muddy Waters - who many American kids didn't know about, or didn't appreciate, it's pretty amazing.

After that, I'm going to talk about The TAMI Show DVD. The TAMI Show was a concert film recorded October 28 and 29 of 1964 and was released in December of that year. The concert featured performances by James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Chuck Berry and The Beach Boys among others. It was when desegregation was still a relatively new concept. The show was mainly attended by white kids, but there were black kids too, and I bet this made lots of people nervous. You can hear the white girls going crazy throughout the entire performance, especially when James Brown is on. Brown's TAMI performance is legendary, he blew everyone away. The Rolling Stones were pretty badass, and the Motown artists were excellent, but James was by far the best. Anyway, this DVD costs like $15 and it's one of the best things I've ever seen. I can't say enough about how awesome it is, just trust me.

It's been a year since Michael Jackson died. Before he was The King Of Pop, he was the star of a great Motown band, The Jackson 5. A newly released live album, Live At The Forum, recorded at the L.A. Forum in 1970 and 1972. I brought in their cover of Traffic's "Feelin' Alright."

One British rocker who was profoundly influenced by the music of 1964 is Paul Weller. In the late '70s and early '80s, he fronted a legendary band called The Jam, who were influenced by The Who and The Kinks, but only through their mod periods. Not only The Who and The Kinks, but their American R&B influences, and when they moved away from that, I think he moved on. In the '80s, he formed a new band, Style Council, who were very influenced by the very synth-heavy American R&B of that era. He's been solo since the '90s, and done some of the best music of his career in that time. Some say that his latest album, Wake Up The Nation, is his finest. Larry Flick has already said that it is his favorite album of 2010.

Finally, Bettye Lavette. Last year, I said that her 2005 album I've Got My Own Hell To Raise was one of the most underrated albums of the '00s. I'll stand by that: the album saw her covering classic songs from great female songwriters. Her new album, Interpretations, sees her covering Britsh rock artists, most of whom started in the '60s, including The Beatles (individually and collectively), The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. It's good, I don't love it as much as I've Got My Own Hell To Raise, but it's a cool album.

One album that I wanted to discuss, but I just won't have time, is the newly released Otis Redding collection Live On The Sunset Strip. If I don't talk about it on OutQ at some point, I will at least write about it here.

40 REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT MUSIC

So, as promised, I'm posting my "40 Reasons To Get Exicted About Music," in response to Rolling Stone magazine's recent cover story. It turns out that I agree with half of theirs.  Here, then, are twenty of my reasons to be excited.

Bob Dylan. Not including his recent Christmas album, he has released four classic albums in a row: 1997's Time Out Of Mind, 2001's "Love & Theft," 2006's Modern Times and last year's Together Through Life, which was my favorite album of 2009. Plus, his concerts are getting good again. It's just inspiring how great he is, as he approaches the big seven-oh. Plus, he's been allowing Sony Legacy to put out great releases from his vault.

Speaking of approaching the big seven-oh, there's also the legend, Solomon Burke.Two weeks ago, I talked about Solomon's latest album, Nothing's Impossible, on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on SIRIUS XM OutQ, and people loved it. The man still makes incredible albums, and has been doing so since his 2002 record, Don't Give Up On Me.

The Underground Garage. Anyone who reads No Expiration, anyone who listens to me on OutQ, or anyone who talks to me about music ever, knows my love for the Underground Garage, which I write about often. As someone who has not been interested in music radio for decades, the Underground Garage got me back into it. You can hear new and old music, famous bands, obscure bands, brand new bands that haven't gotten to the pop culture radar yet, well know songs, rare tracks, and it doesn't discriminate by race or sex. In fact, I don't think you'll hear more female fronted bands, or all girl groups, anywhere else. The Underground Garage, in fact, introduced me to one of my favorite bands, The Cocktail Slippers. Other bands it turned me on to: The Boss Martians, The Hawaii Mud Bombers, The Jessica Fletchers, The Woggles, The Chesterfield Kings, The Charms, The Contrast, The Grip Weeds, and more. These are some of the best bands you haven't heard of. I hear tons of great new music on this channel all the time.

I need to mention The Cocktail Slippers again. Their last album, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was one of my favorite albums of last year. I can't wait to hear what they will do next.

Everyone knows that Little Steven Van Zandt runs The Underground Garage, but he is also the force behind Outlaw Country, a truly awesome channel, that combines every generation of country music, with a sort of rock and roll spirit. It seems pretty crazy that there aren't radio stations that play Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams in high rotation. Luckily, Outlaw Country does. They've also introduced me to some great artists, including Reckless Kelly, (DJ) Elizabeth Cook and one of my favorite bands, The Drive-By Truckers.

The Drive-By Truckers deserve their own entry! Their new album, The Big To-Do, is my favorite album of 2010 so far. They've been doing their thing for over a decade now, and I'm glad that people are starting to notice.

Speaking of the Truckers, they played on Bettye Lavette's last album, The Scene Of The Crime. What an inspiring story this lady has. She's been working for decades, almost having breaks a few times over the years, and finally in the mid-00's, Anti- Records (owned by Epitaph, they have also put out records by Tom Waits, Solomon Burke and Joe Henry) gave her a deal, and now the world is starting to get to know her. Better late than never: what a voice. She is a great song interpreter.

Another great singer/song interpreter with an inspiring story is Miss Sharon Jones. She started getting her first break in her 50s! Her new album I Learned The Hard Way is really great. She loves old-school sounds so much, it's like the last few decades haven't happened, but her songs are great, so it's cool (the same could be said of Jack White).

And yet another great singer/interpreter with a great story is former Band drummer/singer/mandolin player Levon Helm. A couple of years ago, Levon was on the brink of bankruptcy, foreclosure and was staring down cancer. Today, he is healthy, does really popular concerts at his home (which wasn't foreclosed), tours, and has made two great albums.

The Stooges. One of the best bands of all time. They are finally getting the credit they deserve. And they are touring. They will destroy bands one third of their age.

Robert Plant. For years, his ambition seems to outreach what he was capable of as a solo artist. Then he let go of a bit of control, worked with Alison Krauss (and, it must be said, producer T-Bone Burnett)and put out a true classic with Raising Sand. Now he's working on a solo album (he doesn't rule out another album with Alison though) but he's sticking in the Americana vein: he's got Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin in his touring band, and Buddy is producing his next album.

Bruce Springsteen. Although I didn't love his latest album, Working On A Dream, I thought that Magic was a classic. I think Bruce still has classics in him. His latest tour was maybe his best yet. The E Street Band is one of the best combos in the world. And Bruce can still turn around and so something great with his other group, The (Seeger) Sessions Band or as a solo acoustic artist.

Talib Kweli. I think he is one of the best MCs around, I like his solo music, I like what he does with Hi-Tek in Reflection Eternal, and I hope that he and Mos Def do another Black Star album that lives up to the first one. Honestly, I don't care if Jay-Z retires, I hope Kweli makes music for a long time.

Two more reasons together: Aimee Mann and Ben Harper. Two of the best songwwriters in the world. They are always honest, make no concessions to anyone, and keep putting out great albums. Actually, I'll add Steve Earle to that.

Jack White: I write about him often, and it is a running joke on Larry Flick's show that I keep coming up with ways to play his music on the show (Larry isn't a Jack White fan). For all three of his bands, and for his great label, Third Man Records. Jack was my "Artist of the '00s."

Kanye West: he is a commerical hip-hop artist whose music I sometimes like and he keeps things interesting!

Roger Waters taking The Wall on tour. I wasn't old enough to go to concerts when Pink Floyd toured for The Wall!

Green Day: because they can rock Broadway, do a guitar hero game, tour stadiums and still do club shows as Foxboro Hot Tubs.

Those are my reasons: here are the Rolling Stone reasons that I was down with: U2's tour, LCD Soundsystem, concerts sound better than ever today, Them Crooked Vultures, Chuck Berry still performing, concert tickets are sometimes under $50 (I have to look for more sales like that!), T.I. is out of jail, M.I.A., "cloud based music," Tom Morello still fights the power, great tribute bands (I'm kind of iffy on this, I don't really see too many tribute bands, although I kind of want to check out The Fab Faux), Keith Richards is writing an autobiography, Mike Campbell rocks out on the new Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album, The Gaslight Anthem (cool young punk rock band), The Roots, country newcomer Jamey Johnson, vinyl sales tripled since 2006, R-Bone Burnett's productions and artist vaults with lots of great stuff in them (Dylan, Springsteen, Young).

THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: SOUL! SOLOMON, SHARON, BETTYE, ERYKAH

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. This week, I'm going to be talking about soul music.

First off, Solomon Burke, one of my favorite artists of the '00s. His comeback following his 2001 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was really inspiring. More important than that, it yielded a bunch of really great records, each different from the one before, largely due to the producers he worked with on each. This time, he worked with Willie Mitchell, who produced all of Al Green's '70s classics. Apparently, Willie and Solmon always wanted to work together, and it finally happened on this album. Willie passed away a few months ago, but this album is a great tribute to him. Not there aren't missteps: the cover of "You Needed Me"... I'm not really into it, but Solomon just about sells it. But a really solid album.

Sharon Jones and The Dapkings have a new album, The Game Gets Old. They are really into a vintage '60s soul sound, and some great songs also. The thing that sounds different about this album is that there's backing singers. I'm surprised that I haven't written about Sharon more: her last album 100 Days, 100 Nights was great (especially the title track). She did a great cover of "This Land Is Your Land" from the Up In The Air soundtrack as well.

Last year, I said that Bettye Lavette 's I've Got My Own Hell To Raise was one of the most underrated albums of the '00s. I think she's just a force of nature. Next month, she releases Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. The only song I have is her cover of The Stones' "Salt Of The Earth." She does a great job. I think the album was prompted by her version of The Who 's "Love Reign O'er Me" from the December 2008 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.

Finally, Erykah Badu's "Window Seat" from her new album New Amerykah Part 2: Return Of The Ankh. This song is the one she caused a stir over, since she got naked in the video. I like Badu, but I wish she had more catchy songs like "Window Seat."

BEST OF THE 00s: THE DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS (and a thank you to Outlaw Country)

I remember listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd years ago, and wondering if southern rock would ever rise again. Well, there may never be a southern rock band (or any rock band) as big as Skynyrd ever again. But I have to think that the late, great Ronnie Van Zant is smiling somewhere when he hears The Drive-By Truckers.

They are not "the next Lynyrd Skynyrd" any more than anyone else is "the next Bob Dylan" or "the next Jimi Hendrix" or... well, you get the idea. But they are a great rock band from the south, who sings about being from the south. One of the crimes of so-called "classic rock" radio is that they don't play groups like this. I'm not sure where else they fit: I'm sure country music folks (who claim to be Skynyrd fans) don't like them, they aren't "alternative rock," or hard rock and they sure as hell ain't what passes for "indie rock." So, thank goodness for Outlaw Country, who plays them often. It's thanks to that channel (executive produced by Little Steven Van Zandt) that I became aware of the band, and I've been slowly making my way through their catalog.

The band have two great singer/songwriter/guitarists in Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (and they used to have three, but Jason Isbell left in 2007, and now is a solo artist) .  They tell great stories about what it is like to be southern, and they tell it with pride but not without self-awareness. To use their lyric, "the duality of the southern thing." They got their start in the '90s, but most of thier music has been released in the '00s, and I would recommend starting off with their 2001 classic The Southern Rock Opera.

By the way, they've not just a great band, they're a great backing band.  They played on the great Bettye LaVette's 2007 album Scene Of The Crime and also on Booker T.'s album from last year, Potato Hole.

It's hard to find new(ish) bands to really believe in these days, and I probably don't help matters much by concentrating on so many "legacy" groups. But take my word for it, if you check these guys out, you won't regret it. And I'm grateful for Outlaw Country for turning me on to them.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: MORE OVERLOOKED ALBUMS OF THE '00S

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ on the show The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick. Tomorrow I will continue a theme a discussed a few weeks ago: great, overlooked albums from the past decade.

First is actually not one of my picks, but one from OutQ listener and No Expiration reader (and he leaves nice comments, flattery will get you somewhere around here) Mel Beavers II, who does his own blog, Pop Goes The Culture. He suggested Cyndi Lauper's 2008 album Bring Ya To The Brink. I definitely enjoy Cyndi -- She's So Unusual is a classic, and I had a great time interviewing her when I wrote her record label bio for her 2003 covers album At Last. Bring Ya To The Brink is a dance music album, which I think makes sense for her, as lots of her songs have been remixed for the dance floor. I downloaded a few songs, but some of them (I felt) could have been anyone, it sort of lost her disctintive identity. I did enjoy "Into The Nightlife." My favorite song on the album is a ballad called "Rain On Me."

Everyone who reads No Expiration knows what a huge Ben Harper fan I am. I discussed his latest album, White Lies For Dark Times on the show a few months back, and Larry nearly knocked me out of my seat by saying that he mixes up Ben Harper with Counting Crows (of all things!). But the album I am bringing in tomorrow is his 2004 collaboraton with legendary gospel group The Blind Boys Of Alabama, There Will Be A Light. After hearing this, he won't mix up Ben with Counting Crows anymore. This is probably my second favorite album of the decade, after Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2. This album just makes me feel great. Ben says that he is a "god-fearing agnostic," a great term.

It may be odd to refer to anything that Bruce Springsteen does as "underrated" (particularly the day after The Kennedy Center Honors aired on TV), and Bruce certainly doesn't need any extra acclaim from me. But I think that his 2006 album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, was unfairly ignored by many. I think they heard "Bruce Springsteen... Pete Seeger songs" and "tuned out" right there. I get that: he was coming off of a fairly dry album, Devils and Dust, and I guess people didn't like The Ghost Of Tom Joad either. But the fact is, We Shall Overcome is garage-rock, 1930s style. It's party music, if the party is in a barn with no electrity, and I mean that in the best possible way. I think it is one of the best things he's ever done.

Larry had a great time (and so did I) when he made fun of Fiona Apple when I bought her up a few weeks ago. I get it, she's a wreck. But I think her songwriting is redeemed when her songs are sung by other artists. Meet Bettye Lavette, who put out an incredible album in 2005, I've Got My Own Hell To Raise. Produced by the great Joe Henry, it's all covers of songs written by women, including Fiona's "Sleep To Dream."

I can't think of any artist who had such a huge career revival after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as Solomon Burke. After being inducted in 2001, he hooked up with Joe Henry (him again!) for an incredible comeback album, Don't Give Up On Me. Dylan, Waits and Costello were just some of the people who wrote songs for the album. It is really great. And he's done three great albums since then.

One of my favorite artists of all time is the late, great Chris Whitley. He is totally underrated, which is partially his own fault, because he seemed to sabotage his career more than once. But that's the way he was. However, if you're reading this, you only care about an artist's artistry, not their marketing acumen, so do yourself and get some Chris Whitley records. I'll do a post about him soon. The record I choose for tomorrow's show is Perfect Day, a covers album that is stunningly beautiful. I have it in my mind that he recorded the album in one day, but I may be remembering that wrong.

It may be tough to argue that George Harrison is underrated, but lots of people missed his final album, Brainwashed, released in 2002, a few months after his death. The song "Any Road" is one of my favorite George songs, I've talked about this one recently when I guested on The Catholic Channel 's Busted Halo Show. He has always had a unique way of looking at death and spirituality. I don't share his religious beliefs, but I'm moved by his songs about spirituality all the same.

I'm sure that we won't get to all of the albums that I've mentioned, and there's many more underrated albums that I didn't include. What are some that you think I missed?

THE WHO GET SOME "SWEET-ASS RECOGNISH" FROM THE KENNEDY CENTER!

At this year's Kennedy Center Honors, The Who were one of the artists who were, well, honored. George Jones, Twyla Tharp, Morgan Freeman and Barbra Streisand were also honored. (I would have loved to have seen Babs being congratulated by Bush; I heard she said that it would have been nice to get the honor next year).

The Who were paid tribute with a lineup worthy of this summer's VH1 Rock Honors: Chris Cornell sang "Won't Get Fooled Again," Bettye LaVette did "Love Reign O'er Me," Joss Stone did "My Generation" and Dave Grohl sang many "fucks" in "Who Are You." Plus Jack Black did the speech about the group, saying that "It's about time they get some sweet-ass recognish." Apparently, some folks were offended by the whole thing. That's fine: I'm glad The Who and thier followers can still stir up "the man."