Your questions preemptively answered:
1. q. Why 20 songs? a. Fits on one CD.
2. q. I’m an artist on your playlist. Where are my royalties? a. You have our heartfelt thanks.
3. q. How do you know these were last year’s most played songs? a. ITunes does all the work for us. It’s a play count, not an arbitrary favorites list. We added up my office ITunes (13000 songs and counting), my IPhone, Sherry’s IPhone, our netbook, and our living room Jukebox (with our 3000 favorite songs and another 700 or so worthy of consideration). These are the songs we played the most.
4. q. It’s almost the middle of 2012, why is this so late? a. As you can see, some of us are inconsistent bloggers.
5. q. What’s 2012 look like? a. John Lilly’s Cold Comfort has pretty much dominated the airwaves at Jim & Sherry’s so far but real good albums like Rj Cowdery’s In This Light and Brian Kalinec’s The Fence have gotten a lot of play too. Not to mention Bill Wence’s Analog Man in a Digital World, which we would have loved even if it didn’t have Fortunate Man on it. And while we always knew Paul Edward Sanchez was a good songwriter, a conversation with Jeff Talmadge in upstate New York convinced us that he was a great one, and we’ve been studying his collected works ever since.
6. q. Why is there only one song from Michael Fracasso’s great Saint Monday on your list. a. Because we had an advance copy in the Fall of 2010, which meant his play was split over two years.
If you don’t have any of these incredible songs or CDs, we’ll be glad to point you in the right direction. Obviously we can listen them over and over.
| song | artist | album | |
| 1 | Fireworks | The Fabulous Ginn Sisters | You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home |
| 2 | eyes front | Jaime Michaels | the man with the time machine |
| 3 | haunted | Jaime Michaels | the man with the time machine |
| 4 | Hey Doll | The Fabulous Ginn Sisters | You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home |
| 5 | Dreams | The Fabulous Ginn Sisters | You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home |
| 6 | Driving To Blissville | Jeff Talmadge | Ein Abend Unter Freunden |
| 7 | Bad Connection | Jules Shear | Dreams Don’t Count |
| 8 | (I’ll Still) Love You Forever | Mary Cutrufello | 35 |
| 9 | California | Eric Hisaw | Ghost Stories |
| 10 | Used To It | Jules Shear | Dreams Don’t Count |
| 11 | Black Rose Of Texas | Dave Alvin | Eleven Eleven |
| 12 | Ghost Stories | Eric Hisaw | Ghost Stories |
| 13 | Lie To Me | BettySoo | Across the Borderline: Lie To Me |
| 14 | It’ll Sure Be Cold Tonight | Jeff Talmadge | Kind Of Everything |
| 15 | Don’t Live There Anymore | Eric Hisaw | Ghost Stories |
| 16 | Dreams Don’t Count | Jules Shear | Dreams Don’t Count |
| 17 | Gary, Indiana 1959 | Dave Alvin | Eleven Eleven |
| 18 | High Atmosphere | Diana Jones | High Atmosphere |
| 19 | The Time of Your Life | Little Steven | Nine Months |
| 20 | Eloise | Michael Fracasso | Saint Monday |
Our Top 10 Most Played CDs of 2011:
| album | artist | |
| 1 | You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home | The Fabulous Ginn Sisters |
| 2 | Ein Abend Unter Freunden | Jeff Talmadge |
| 3 | the man with the time machine | Jaime Michaels |
| 4 | Dreams Don’t Count | Jules Shear |
| 5 | Ghost Stories | Eric Hisaw |
| 6 | Mr. Lucky | Chris Isaak |
| 7 | Eleven Eleven | Dave Alvin |
| 8 | Saint Monday | Michael Fracasso |
| 9 | Live At The Blue Door | John Fullbright |
| 10 | Gladly Would We Anchor | Little Pink;Mary Battiata |
Our Top 30 Most Played Artists of 2011:
| artist | |
| 1 | The Beatles |
| 2 | Neil Young |
| 3 | Bruce Springsteen |
| 4 | Bob Dylan |
| 5 | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers |
| 6 | The Fabulous Ginn Sisters |
| 7 | Michael Fracasso |
| 8 | The Rolling Stones |
| 9 | Chris Isaak |
| 10 | Jules Shear |
| 11 | Eric Hisaw |
| 12 | Jon Dee Graham |
| 13 | Mary Cutrufello |
| 14 | The Who |
| 15 | The Byrds |
| 16 | Van Morrison |
| 17 | Dave Alvin |
| 18 | Little Pink;Mary Battiata |
| 19 | Ron Flynt |
| 20 | Elliott Murphy |
| 21 | Matt Harlan |
| 22 | Ian Hunter |
| 23 | John Hiatt |
| 24 | Paul Kelly |
| 25 | Chuck Berry |
| 26 | John Wort Hannam |
| 27 | Warren Zevon |
| 28 | James McMurtry |
| 29 | K.C. Clifford |
| 30 | BettySoo |
Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus 