2011 was an exceptional year for music and I am so happy I was able to listen to so much of it. I can’t do ‘Best of’ list since I just can’t chose which was the best but I do have a few favorites I want to toss out before the year is done.

- Favorite Albums -

Closer to You by The Coronas

Mergers and Aquisitions by Have Gun Will Travel

Keep Your Devils Around by American Scarecrows

Revelator by the Tedeschi Trucks Band

 - Favorite New (to me) Band(s) -

 The Amends, Arliss Nancy and Gypsy and the Wolf

- Favorite New Singer(s) -

Jake Smith (aka The White Buffalo), Charlie Spraggs and Leslie Craig

- Favorite Song(s) -

Shook Up by Viv and the Revival, Wild Hearts by American Scarecrows and Break Me by Steve Carlson

Favorite Music Vid – This was so, so very hard to pick.

Also check out:

Here Comes the Sun by Steve Carlson 

 Good Man by Gypsy and the Wolf 

All You Need is Now by Duran Duran

High points (music-blog-wise) for me in 2011 include Twitter (how did I live without for so long?), Daniel Logan and Jack Moore (again, how did I live without for so long), StageIt and Reverbnation, Ninebullets Radio and the daily posts, pics and videos from The Coronas while they recorded their new album in LA.

No list of mine would be complete without a quiet ‘thank you’ to Virgil Dickerson of Suburban Home Records. In May of 2007 he put up a free sampler cd of SHR bands on eMusic and I snagged some tracks. I had already moved to mostly blues and some indie in my music but finding those bands tipped the scales for me. Nearly five years later almost all the music I enjoy comes from small labels like SHR.

Got a 2011 list of your own?  Toss it in the comments section as I am always looking for new bands to squee over. 

- Kit