Ah yes it is that time of year again. It is the time of year when critics put out their best of lists. There will be more lists this year with the new decade thing going on (shameless plug for my next article).  Here is what I came up with for this year, enjoy.

Top 5 Albums that I listened to in 2009

1. Rural Alberta Advantage –  Hometowns

2. Modest Mouse – No One is First and You’re Next

3. Peter Bjorn and John – Living Things

4. Gomez – A New Tide

No instrument has spoken in more voices to more people than the guitar, and over the past decade no festival has sought out the modulations in those voices and the range of the guitar's cultural expressions than the New York Guitar Festival.

Following its success since 1999 (with rave reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Jazz Times as well as sister festivals in Urbana, Illinois and Adelaide Australia), the New York Guitar Festival announces its tenth season of concert performances, January 8 though February 4, 2010.

While Phish was ending its musically-epic fall tour at John Paul Jones Arena, in Charlottesville, and while the world was being introduced to The Naked Guy, a new music venue prepared to greet guests for the ‘Official Phish Aftershow, with Toubab Krewe.”

Thanksgiving is a glorious time, here in Central Virginia.  The tourist-laden leaf season is over, yet plenty of post-peak autumnal glory hangs around to be enjoyed, for a little while longer.  Days can still be quite warm, and nights are deliciously cool and refreshing. Thanksgiving, football, and the coming Christmas season beckon.  And suddenly there are also lots of indoor bluegrass shows, especially in Charlottesville.

2009 has been one helluva year, hasn’t it?

We all started out in January, with the electric energy of a pending Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.  And we also had the knowledge that Phish was gonna tour again.  I for one, recall standing outside on NYE, and holding my hands wide to embrace what was ‘next.’