Top Ten of 2013...#8 Emmylou

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It's that time of the year. Time for a plethora of Top Ten lists. Many produce them and guess what, they're utterly unabashed, subjective filler. Something to plug into copy space so that the writer can take time off to finish his/her holiday errands. So here are My Top Ten Favorite Things of 2013. Some have been around awhile, I generally discover things later than most. I'm going to dribble them out one day at a time, many are completely frivolous because remember: they're filler so that I can do Christmas things. (Repeated intro from yesterday, more filler.)

My Favorite Older CDs Discovered in 2013. Scratching my head, looking around the front seat and console, under the floormats, I realized that the two CDs I discovered this year that I play most often in the car are both by Emmylou Harris, and both have been around awhile. But, like a good Chardonnay, it doesn't matter when it's uncorked. The cover alone of stumble into grace (2003) makes me feel better about the silver starting to stumble into my own hair. If my infiltrating gray becomes only a smidgen as comely as the silver in Emmylou's mane—Wait, do girls have mane? Perhaps coiffure is better—then 2014 cannot be that bad. If you are a man, as long as you have hair, then that's half the battle.

The 18-year-old Wrecking Ball (1995) is even longer in the tooth, but since the subtext of this post is aging, it's most apropos. Produced by Daniel Lanois who did the same on four other albums I've bought/liked: U2's "Joshua Tree," Peter Gabriel's "So," Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind" and even his own "Belladonna," why I missed "Wrecking Ball," I'm not sure. I don't seem to have a clear memory of 1995, other than President Clinton was in office and times were good, but as I said, my hair is starting to stumble into silver and as memories fade, pleasant discoveries are made all the time.

Here's my favorite track. Merry Christmas Eve!

BACK STORY: If you are curious about producer/performer Daniel Lanois, here's a second gift on Christmas:

 
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