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Selvidge's 'Rain' is best of top locals
By Bill Ellis
December 27, 2003

Always a difficult but enjoyable prospect, a Best Records of the Year list gives this writer a chance to look back over music that made the deepest impression. As is often the case, especially in looking at local records, much of it wasn't commercial (fortunately there's more to a great album than how many copies it sells).

Such a list also allows me to reassess records I might have overlooked, forgotten about or simply misjudged. My opinions tend to slide around throughout the year, and whereas I might have felt one way (good or bad) about a certain album months ago, time has a way of altering things (the North Mississippi Allstars' Polaris, for example, has only grown on me since I first heard it). Should you ask in another few months, I'm sure this list will change even more.

So herewith is a very subjective pecking order (this week is local recordings, next week will be national) of albums that made me smile, made me sing and made me move. It was a good year, it turns out, especially for Memphians tapping into their art - it didn't get much better than booming the Three 6 Mafia hit "Ridin Spinners" from a car stereo. From folk to rap to jazz to rock, there was plenty to savor at home beyond the meteoric rise of an 'N Sync-less Justin Timberlake.

It was tough scaling back the list to 10, which is why a second list of 25 exists, as does a short list of the best reissues and vintage recordings.

1) Sid Selvidge, A Little Bit of Rain (Archer Records): All it took was a simple acoustic guitar and lone voice to craft the year's best album. But veteran singer-songwriter Sid Selvidge did it. Produced by Mud Boy & the Neutrons compadre Jim Dickinson, the 12 tracks on this stunningly intimate record not only rivaled anything in Selvidge's back catalog, it loomed well above any of the so-called "Americana" competition nationally. When people outside of Memphis finally discover this one, Selvidge's chapter may just have to be re-written.

2) G-Style, Ghetto Prophecy (G-Style Entertainment/Chilmark Music): Why this didn't come out on Puff Daddy's label, Bad Boy, the way it was originally intended only the main players know, but with more madly crafted hip-hop hooks and deftly delivered raps than you could shake a tail feather at, it should have. Enter the G.

3) Kavious, Empty Shelves (Nuclear Records): The year's biggest surprise was this local rapper who will have none of the stereotypical gangsta scene. Instead, Kavious eschewed trends to make a record that felt deliriously unique. It may not have sold a lot, but where else could you find a cameo by OutKast associate Killer Mike aside a sample of world music great Manu Chao?

4) Candice Ivory, Path - Undefined (self-released): The year's second-biggest surprise, jazz/neo-soul artist Ivory did it all here - sing, compose, play, arrange - and made the results get so under your skin they're likely to resonate forever.

5) Various artists, Makeshift #3 (Makeshift Music): Other than Archer, no local label this year had as consistently good a slate of releases as did Makeshift, which also gave us excellent records by the Glass, Blair Combest and label front person Brad Postlethwaite. This compilation said it all, however, a sterling summation of the current, highly diverse Memphis underground music scene.

6) Yo Gotti, Life (TVT Records): What up, gangsta? Yes, rapper Yo Gotti bling blings his way through moves you've heard before. Chances are, however, you've rarely heard them this good. A major star in the making.

7) The Gamble Brothers Band, Back to the Bottom (Archer Records): The second winner from upstart label Archer, this platter of funky jazz-rock couldn't be beat note for note in the chops department. When the songs matched, it couldn't be beat, period.

8) Skillet, Collide (Ardent Records): Hopefully by the spring we'll be talking about this album again as it takes its bow in the major label arena. Certainly, nothing regionally (not even by Evanescence) had such sonic fury and soul-saving intent. A good four hit singles are in the wings waiting.

9) The North Mississippi Allstars, Polaris (Tone-Cool Records) and Tate County Hill Country Blues (Delta Experimental Projects): Prismatic bookends of where the Allstars have been and where they're headed, these two albums dive into the blues from different directions and come out the same place: that liberating 61 Highway of rock.

10) The Porch Ghouls, Bluff City Ruckus (Roman/Columbia): I give them credit just for pulling off an opening slot on the Kiss/Aerosmith tour. I give them even more credit for this slab of gutbucket punk-blues, one of the few "garage rock" records that didn't smack of a trendy gimmick.

25 more: The Glass, Concorde (Makeshift Music); Toshia Shaw, Open Book (One Truth Music); Vending Machine, 5 Piece Kit (self-released); Easy Way, Easy Way (Clivus Records); The Jazz Orchestra of the Delta, Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter (Summit Records); Brandon McGovern, Pala-Dora (self-released); Voodoo Village, Funk Soup (40 West Records); Lucero, That Much Further West (Tiger Style Records); Kelley Hurt, Raindance (Archer Records); Blair Combest, Prettier Than Ugly (Makeshift Music); Three 6 Mafia, Da Unbreakables (Columbia); the Bo-Keys, The Royal Sessions (Yellow Dog Records); the New Olivet Sanctuary Choir, 4 God 2 God: 2nd Chances (Olive Record Co.); Kenny Brown, Stingray (Fat Possum); the X-Camp, Generation X: Level One (XVI/16 Levels Records); Poizon, Holding On (Strict 9 Records); Brad Postlethwaite, Welcome to the Occupation (Makeshift Music); Todd Agnew, Grace Like Rain (Ardent Records); Rev. T. L. James, My Living Testimony (Victorian Records); Andy Grooms, Grateful to Burn (self-released); Nancy Apple, Shoulda Lied About That (Ringo Records); the Tennessee Boltsmokers, Songs From The Floor (MADJACK Records); Billy Lee Riley, Hillbilly Rockin' Man (Reba Records); Mercy's Web, Callasa (Callasa Music); Lil Wyte, Doubt Me Now (Hypnotize Minds).


Six reissues, compilations and/or vintage recordings:

1) Rock City, Rock City (Lucky Seven Records): Finally available through musician/studio pro Terry Manning on his own label, these revealing tracks by Big Star band precursor Rock City are the glam pop-rock blueprint that Alex Chilton and Co. would build on, though this earlier incarnation feels darn near perfect as it is. Classic, classic stuff.

2) Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes at Wattstax (Stax/Fantasy): The Stax star celebrated his 30th birthday the same day he took the stage at Wattstax in 1972, and nothing could have been more empowering, sexy or downright Shaft cool.

3) Joe Callicott, Ain't a Gonna Lie To You (Fat Possum): Out of all of folklorist George Mitchell's seminal field recordings from the 1960s, these final sessions on under-recognized Nesbit country blues great Joe Callicott just may be the best and most important.

3) Howlin' Wolf, Moanin' At Midnight: The Memphis Recordings (Fuel 2000): The other side of the Wolf's legacy while recording in the Bluff City, these non-Sam Phillips tunes for Modern/RPM are equally raw and potent.

4) Rufus Thomas, Funkiest Man Alive: The Stax Funk Sessions 1967-1975 (Stax/Fantasy): Funk is right, and no one did it with a more playful, gambol-loving style than the World's Oldest Teenager in his prime. So good, it rivals at times his definitive Rhino collection, The Best of Rufus Thomas: Do the Funky Somethin'.

6) Various artists, A History of Memphis Garage Rock: The '90s (Shangri-la Projects): On which the Oblivians and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans get their rightful place in local and national punk/garage rock history.