Feel Bad for 2009 - Side B

This is the follow up post from Monday, January 18: Side B of the first Feel Bad for You comp of 2010. I asked the forum members of AltCountryTab.ca to submit their favorite tracks from 2009 which other members may not have heard. The comments on the songs are from the people who submitted them.

Side B - download the zipped comp for one week only.

1. Stephen Simmons - Hey Shannon.mp3
Buy (CD Baby): Girls (2009)
Comment: This is a song I feel confident that practically all ACT users will like. Heck, I think practically everyone would like the whole album.

2. Rosanne Cash with Jeff Tweedy - "Long Black Veil"
The List (2009)
Comment: Classic song, perfectly rendered. The whole CD is amazing.

3. Delbert McClinton - "Can’t Nobody Say I Didn’t Try"
Acquired Taste (2009)
Comment: A honky-tonk weeper. Belt buckle polishin’ on a saw dust covered floor. This is pure country. George Strait, call your office…

4. Golden Silvers - Magic Touch.mp3
Buy: True Romance (2009)
Comment: Another pop song I tapped my foot to in 2009, because there ain't much country that this board has missed.

5. Tiny Television - "C.R.E.A.M."
Mission Statement (2009)

6. The Shants - "So Strange, These Days"
Russian River Demos (2009)

7. Paul Burch - "Ballad of Henry & Jimmy"
Still Your Man (2009)

8. The Pines - Heart and Bones.mp3
Buy: Tremolo (2009)
Comment: What really makes this such a beautiful album is that Benson Ramsey’s father produced the album. With Bo Ramsey. This album conjures another beautifully produced Ramsey album, 2006’s Jeffrey Foucault’s Ghost Repeater. "Heart and Bones" is the most beautiful 3-verses song you will ever hear. Hauntingly beautiful.

9. Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle - “Too Sober to Sleep”
Let’s Just Stay Here (2009)
Comment: What a great take on Justin Rutledge’s original.

10. Grand Salvo - Brother.mp3
Buy: Soil Creatures (2009)
Comment: A real sad beauty, with a sweet minor drop move make you cry. Haha.

11. Nanci Griffith - “Up Against the Rain”
The Loving Kind (2009)

12. Richmond Fontaine - The Boyfriends.mp3
Buy: We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River (2009)

13. Mos Def - “Quiet Dog”
The Ecstatic (2009)
Comment: The syncopated, vibrant single from Mos Def’s impressive new record marked the welcomed return of an artist whose artistic credibility, while never in jeopardy, had certainly taken a few hits thanks to three years’ worth of questionable film roles and one clearly phoned-in record. Please let that be the last creative hiatus, Mos. We need you.

14. John Doe & The Sadies - "It Just Dawned on Me"
Country Club (2009)
Comment: Great original on an otherwise mediocre album of covers. Written by John Doe and Excene Cervenka, with Kathleen Edwards on background vocals.

15. Phosphorescent - "The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)"
To Willie (2009)
Comment: Love the original by Willie, love this one too -- sounds like it's being sung in the desperation of the current economic meltdown by someone with not much more to lose...

16. The xx - “Islands”
xx (2009)

17. Chris Smither - I Don't Know.mp3
Buy: Time Stands Still (2009)
Comment: Not an outstanding album, but I love this guy’s music... amazing guitar, good turn of phrase, interesting vocals.

18. Buddy and Julie Miller - “A Long, Long Time”
Written in Chalk (2009)
Comment: Julie has a sexy, sultry jazz singer voice.

19. Drew Kennedy - "Cincinnati"
An Audio Guide to Cross Country Travel (2009)

20. Damien Jurado - “Predictive Living”
Caught in the Trees (2008)

21. Micah Schnabel - "American Static"
When The Stage Lights Go Dim (2009)