| 1 | The Starry Eyed | The Belle Sounds |
| 2 | Rockingham Lane | The Belle Sounds |
| 3 | Until You Were Gone | John Fullbright |
| 4 | Company of Friends | Carrie Elkin & Danny Schmidt |
| 5 | Never Cry Again | John Fullbright |
| 6 | When We Were Young | The Belle Sounds |
| 7 | 100 Different Ways of Being Alone | BettySoo |
| 8 | Early Days | Paul McCartney |
| 9 | Just In Case | K.C. Clifford |
| 10 | Get In Line | Ron Sexsmith |
| 11 | Sleeping Dogs | C. Daniel Boling |
| 12 | Little Aches and Pains | Paul Kelly |
| 13 | Not Dark Yet | Jimmy LaFave |
| 14 | White Light | Gene Clark |
| 15 | Im On Your Side | Paul Kelly |
| 16 | Highway to Hell | Bruce Springsteen |
| 17 | Pacing the Cage | Bruce Cockburn |
| 18 | If I Was a River | Willie Nile |
| 19 | Sweet Marie | Hangdog |
| 20 | Odds and Ends alt take 1 | Bob Dylan & The Band |
Your questions preemptively answered:
1. Why 20 songs? Fits on one CD.
2. Are these the best 20 songs of 2014? Some of them aren’t even from 2014. No, these are the 20 songs we played the most, which means they’re mostly our favorites. But “Sleeping Dogs” was on this list in 2012, though with a live version, and “Just in Case” is a repeat from 2012 just because we like it a lot, especially in this year we lost so many Austin friends. “Get in Line” is on for the second year in a row.
3. Where’s Christine Albert’s fine new album? Didn’t get it until too late in the year to make an impact on this year’s rankings. Look for 2015.
4. How much music do you listen to in a year? This year, over 7,000 individual songs. We listen less to CDs these days than IPod/ITunes where we dump everything and then edit out what we don’t like or want to hear anymore.
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.
*one caveat: We don’t count CDs played (because there’s no easy way to do it) and we don’t listen to CDs themselves that much anyway). But if we had, Bettysoo’s Little Tiny Secrets, from several albums ago would have been at the top, all of the songs, because for about six months that’s all Sherry listened to in her car.
Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus 