The Best of the Worst The music year that was 1999 is over … thank God. by Mark Jordan Robbie Williams, Fiona Apple, the Dixie Chicks, Eminem, Kid Rock, the Backstreet Boys. What is this crap? If you believe a lot of music critics, these are among the best artists of 1999. If that is so, then 1999 will be remembered as the year popular music finally died after a decade long illness. The fact is that almost no artists are making music of any weight anymore, exciting, groundbreaking music that actually means something beyond sales figures. All of the artists listed above — and most of the others who have been popping up on “best of” lists — are little more than genre-tailored pop stars, except maybe for Eminem and Kid Rock who are basically Vanilla Ice. There have been a few albums of heft this year; Tom Waits’ Mule Variations and Beck’s Midnight Variations come to mind. But the only significant music breakthrough of the year has been America’s discovery of Hispanic people, best personified not by the slightly syncopated disco of Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, but by old schoolers like Santana and Cuban crooner Ibrahim Ferrer. The rest has gone pop and vanished. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the ephemeral but sweet pleasures of a catchy pop song, too (the best of the year, by the way, was Len’s “Steal My Sunshine”), but man cannot live on candy alone. Where’s the meat? Sadly, on the local front things have not been much better. There have been a number of fine CDs released in the past year, and I probably haven’t heard everything that’s been released. But of what I have heard nothing really stands out and grabs me, nothing that threatens to burn out the laser in the CD player the way the Oblivians … Play Nine Songs with Mr. Quintron or Neilson Hubbard’s The Slide Project did in years past. Nevertheless, there are a number of releases worth noting, so here, in no particular order, are my choices for the best local records of ’99: * Di Anne Price’s To Hell With Love: This woman should be a star. Her sultry vocals, subtle touch at the keyboard, and impeccable taste for material all combine to make her a formidable talent. And the all-star trio that backs her up, the Boyfriends, is one of the best performing units in town. Miles beyond any young blues artist around. * Willie Mitchell’s Soul Serenade: the Best of Willie Mitchell: Though a slew of Memphis-related re-releases, anthologies, and compilations has hit us this year, this collection of singles from the man best known for turning Al Green and Hi Records into hit machines, this is the only album of re-issue material to make the list. It’s a prized favorite for a couple of reasons: 1. Only true record hounds have been able to find most of this material before now. 2. It exposes the largely forgotten career of a bandleader whose legacy can still be heard in every band that strives to play with soul. * Tommy Hohen and Van Duren’s Hailstone Holiday: Other albums pack much more of an emotional wallop, but you can’t deny the charms of this Beatlesesque garage pop effort. * Little Milton’s Welcome to Little Milton: Usually these kinds of guest star records fail miserably. But Milton has always seemed to shy from the spotlight, and teaming up with the likes of Keb’ Mo’ and Susan Tedeschi really seems to loosen him up. * Lily Afshar’s A Jug of Wine and Thou: Lush, exotic classical guitar album from the head of the University of Memphis guitar program. The artistry lies as much in the mood and emotions she summons up as with the technical brilliance of her performance. * Those Bastard Souls’ Debt & Departure: We all know Souls [and Grifters] frontman Dave Shouse can pen great songs, but now he’s come up with an album of devestating music to compliment them. Debt & Departure lacks the chutzpah of the Grifters, but this is one of those records that I keep gravitating back toward and, delightfully, keep finding new pleasures in each time I do. * Will Roy Sanders’ The Last Living Bluesman: Long loved locally as a member of the legendary Fieldstones, Sanders had made only a handful of recordings before this disc. A companion CD to the book and documentary of the same name, it collects a few rare recordings of the Fieldstones and Binghampton Blues Boys with new material that finds Sanders in an unlikely acoustic setting. * Jetty Webb’s “Stays the Same” b/w the Satyr’s “We Are One” — This split single is nothing but a tease. Webb’s raucous rocker and especially the Satyr’s moody and sophisticated drone-pop make you long for full-length CDs from both of these young bands. * the Neckbones The Lights are Getting Dim: Short of the return of the Oblivians, this is my favorite local punk-rock. Cool songs on a record that sounds like it was a heckuva lot of fun to record. * the junkyardmen’s Keep on Workin: Another local blues group that deserves national recognition over a lot of posers out there today. They are certainly not the flashiest band or, live, necessarily the most entertaining. But they do what they do well, and what they do is write intelligent, well-crafted blues songs and play them with precision and feeling. Music Notes by Mark Jordan Obit: Last Snow Country musician Hank Snow died on December 20th of heart failure in Nashville. He was 85. Snow was an early influence and later a mentor to the young Elvis Presley. Snow’s background was unlikely for a country artist. He was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Brutally abused by his stepfather, he ran away at the age of 12. While working as a cabin boy on a freighter, he scraped up $30 to buy a guitar and began to learn how to pick and yodel in the style of his favorite performer, the “Singin’ Brakeman” Jimmie Rodgers. He soon, however, developed his own style that mixed country and blues and presaged rock-and-roll. In 1954, Snow was one of the biggest country acts around, thanks in large part to his manager Col. Tom Parker. That year, Snow introduced Parker’s latest artist, Elvis Presley, on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Naturally aloof, Snow was initially cold to the young Memphis singer. Elvis, for his part, openly adored the elder Snow and quickly befriended his only son, Jimmie Rodgers Snow, also a performer by that time. Eventually, Snow took Elvis under his wing, giving him advice on his career. It’s thought that Elvis’ flamboyant costumes of his latter years were largely inspired by Snow’s own rhinestone-studded suits. Obit: 1999 Songwriter/performer Hoyt Axton (61), best known for writing “Joy to the World”; R&B performer Charles Brown (76); jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd (74); Band bassist Rick Danko (56); lyricist Thomas Durden (79), who penned the words to Elvis’ hit “Heartbreak Hotel”; jazz trumpeter “Sweets” Harry Edison (83), a featured member of the Count Basie Orchestra; Memphis saxophonist Fred Ford (69), who played with Little Richard, Big “Mama” Thornton, Charlie Pride, and others; Mississippi blueman Frank Frost (63); R&B singer Gwen Guthrie (42); jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson (76), a founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet; Irish tenor Josef Locke (82), whose life inspired the film Hear My Song; rockabilly singer Buddy Wayne Knox (54), best known for his hit “Party Doll”; jazz pioneer Red Norvo (91), introduced the xylophone as a serious jazz instrument; French jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani (26); Doug Sahm (58), lead singer for the Grammy-winning Tejano supergroup the Texas Tornados; English hit maker Dusty Springfield (59), whose classic album Dusty in Memphis was recorded here; Jesse Stone (97), tunesmith behind “Shake, Rattle, & Roll”; jazz vocalist Mel Torme (73), also author of the holiday classic “A Christmas Song”; jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. (52); blues singer and piano player Katie Webster (59)