Today’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge question/prompt is…

Q: Album of the year. What’s rocking your world?

A: I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to look back on the recordings I’ve made this year.  You know, the years tend to blur together, so December is a great time to look back and take stock of all the stuff you made.

In rummaging through my CD’s, I was surprised to find out how many recordings I played on in 2009.  I decided to limit these to albums released in 2009, so, in some cases, they may have been recorded in 2008.

I’m excited to share these with you, but I must admit that it’s also a helpful task for me – kinda like getting my stuff together for tax time!

Here are 12 albums 15 albums (see update at the end of this post!) that I’m honoured to have played on in 2009…

• Adam Warner – Sawdust and Sour Apples – I love Adam.  Coincidentally, I just bumped into him at Gayley’s (the best brunch in Toronto) this afternoon.  I miss our Monday night residency at the Cameron House.  Adam is a drummer, but this is his singer/songwriter thing, and I was lucky enough to be his drummer for this record.  Well, we shared drum duties.  I also played some lap steel.

• Amy Millan – Masters Of The Burial - probably the most fun I’ve ever had making a record.  I wrote about it here, when the album was released.  I mostly played lap steel on this one, plus a bit of electric and acoustic guitar….and bass?  She’s busy working on a new record with Stars right now, but I hope we get back on the road soon.

• Colleen and Paul - ok. this one isn’t completely finished yet.  I’m holding in my hand this 6 song EP, and I’m so excited for the full CD to be released.  I rarely play drums on an entire album (it’s not really my main instrument), but I did on this album!  And I LOVE these songs.

• Flashlight Radio -  friends Ben Whiteley and Suzy Wilde put out their self-titled debit this year.  I think I played on 2 tracks.

• Good Lovelies although it’s not their first album, it’s self-titled.  Seriously, Ali was obsessed with this album in 2009, and it stayed in our car stereo for months.  Les Cooper (who co-produced the album with Adam King) called me in really last minute to play some drums on the session, and it turned out to be one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in the studio.  These ladies are hilarious and they sing beautiful music together.  Amazing songwriting and definitely one of my most listened to albums in ‘09.

• Good Lovelies – Under The Mistletoe -  yep. The only Christmas album I played on this year.  I played drums, mostly, and lap steel on their beautiful version of Silent Night.

• Gretchen Peters – “When You Wish Upon A Star” from the compilation Bandaged Together - oh my god… I’m so lucky to be on this track with Gretchen Peters, Barry Walsh, and Victor Krauss.  I played a bit of lap steel in the bridge, and tried to stay out of the way of Gretchen’s gorgeous vocals as much as possible.  Proceeds from this album go to a great charity, so please check it out.

• Hill Williams – Red -  Dave Norris assembled a great cast of musicians for this mellow recording.  I played lap steel on a couple tracks.

• Jory Nash – New Blue Day -  Oh Jory.  You write really great songs.  I loved playing lap steel on this album.  Jory is such  a pleasure to work with/for.

• Josh Cockerill – The Trick with your Heart I’m Learning To Do I happened to be a David Baxter’s house one day, picking up some mixes of a demo I had recorded earlier that week, and Josh was there working on some mixes.  He asked me to lay down some lap steel on “Elvis,” a great tune.  Glad t sneak in on this one, last minute.

• Morgan Doctor – Other Life – I added some atmospheric lap steel to an instrumental track called “Rebel.”  Recorded in an old slaughter house. I’m not kidding.

• Patrick Brealey – Mercury In Songbirds -  The credits say that I played “electric guitar, lap steel and 6 string bass.”  I don’t remeber playing the bass, but it was a long session, so I believe it must be true.

There are others yet to be released (David Woodhead, Rita Chiarelli), and maybe some that I’m missing.  If I played on your record and forgot to include it here…I’m sorry!  I’m a spaz!  Let me know and I’ll add it to this list right away!

Thanks to everyone listed here.  It’s been a good one.

update!

Dec 11th/09

Ah geez.  I knew I would miss something.  That’s what I get for writing so late in the night.  How could I forget Ronley Teper’s Lipliners? This is one of the most unique recordings I’ve ever been a part of. Ronley is one of the best people I know, and also one of the best songwriters.

• Ronley Teper’s Lipliners – I’ve been playing with Ronley for years, and this is the first recording I got to make with her.  I guarantee you haven’t heard anything like Ronley before.  I’m privileged to be on this album (played lap steel, electric guitar, some classical guitar and some xylophone).  And now, I have to show you this video…

and I forgot to add this one…

• Emma-Lee – Never Just A Dream – I played lap steel on one track called “Isn’t It Obvious.”  This may be the only recording I’ve made on lap steel without using my volume pedal.

um, and this one…

• Dean Drouillard – The Bear Lake – this one is going to be available soon for download.  Dean is a mad genius who produced both of my albums, and this is one of his musical experiments that I was lucky enough to participate in.  I think I added just lap steel to this one.

I hope I’m not forgetting any other albums!