Tag Archives: 30 at 30 musical artists

30 at 30

20. Eminem

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 20 is Eminem.

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Marshall Mathers. Slim Shady. Eminem. Whatever you want to call him, he is certainly the most controversial inclusion on my countdown so far and arguably will be the most polarizing selection on the entire list.

When I first heard Eminem I was 14 years old and in 8th grade. It was around that time that I convinced my parents to allow me to purchase CDs with the parental advisory: explicit lyrics sticker on them. Eminem’s lyrics earned that label and then some. However, I never adopted the foul-mouthed act that Eminem and most of my peers did. To this day, my curse words are few and far between.

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30 at 30

21. The Farewell Drifters

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 21 is The Farewell Drifters.

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I feel like I have a personal connection with every band/artist on my 30 at 30 countdown, but even more so with The Farewell Drifters. When I first discovered The Farewell Drifters, my high school classmate (Cathedral Prep Class of 2003!) Christian Sedelmyer was playing fiddle in the band.

In addition to purchasing their 2010 album Yellow Tag Mondays, we were fortunate enough to see the band play live in Erie. Yellow Tag Mondays landed six tracks on my compilation. From a sweet love song like “Love Me Good & Plain” to the storytelling of “Sunnyside Drive” to the feel-good “River Song” featuring a trademark Sedelmyer solo at the 1:50 mark, there is a lot to love about Yellow Tag Mondays.

Yet as good as Yellow Tag Mondays was, the band’s 2011 follow-up Echo Boom was even better. In my opinion, Echo Boom was the group at its absolute best. With tight vocal harmonies and amazing musicianship, the Farewell Drifters blended elements of folk, bluegrass, and melodic pop to create a masterpiece of an album—one of my all-time favorites. Getting the opportunity to see them showcase songs off the album in Erie and Buffalo further cemented its and their legacy.

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30 at 30

22. Gavin DeGraw

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 22 is Gavin DeGraw.

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Gavin DeGraw released his debut album Chariot in 2003. That was an influential year for me. I graduated high school and began college in 2003. I attended my first ever concert (Counting Crows) in 2003. I also met my future wife in 2003.  We worked together at Giant Eagle. Discussing our musical interests was one of the first connections we ever made.

In 2004, DeGraw re-released Chariot with a bonus disc called Chariot Stripped, featuring “stripped-down” studio recordings of all of the original songs. When I purchased Stripped, I was left with an extra copy of Chariot, which I gave to Jessie. Even before we had romantic chemistry, we shared a friendship built, at least in part, over a shared love for music. That Gavin DeGraw CD was one of the first of many musical gifts we would exchange over the years. 

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30 at 30

23. Howie Day

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 23 is Howie Day.

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Howie Day hasn’t released any music since his 2011 Ceasefire EP, and 2009’s Sound the Alarm offers the most recent of his music to make the cut for my compilation. However, his early work, 2002’s Australia and 2004’s Stop All the World Now, was influential enough to earn him this spot on the countdown.

Day fits comfortably into the singer/songwriter mold. Aside from the live rendition of “Ghost” there is not a whole lot that stands out musically, but lyrically his songs resonated. If I could make singability a word, the tracks listed at the bottom of would rate very high in terms of being singable.  That’s important to me.

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30 at 30

24. Ben Gibbard

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 24 is Ben Gibbard.

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If you only know Ben Gibbard as the ex-husband of Zooey Deschanel, you’re missing out. Musically, Gibbard is best known as the lead man of Death Cab For Cutie, although he has been associated with other groups including The Postal Service. I had to cheat the system a bit and combined Gibbard’s acts to compile the ultimate 30 at 30 compilation. Seventeen tracks come from Death Cab For Cute, three come from The Postal Service, and one comes from his 2012 Former Lives album simply released as Benjamin Gibbard. The tracks are all united by Gibbard’s unique voice.

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30 at 30

25. Jill Scott

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 25 is Jill Scott.

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Although modern day R&B is probably the most fitting category for Jill Scott, any one classification of her musical style is an oversimplification. She borrows from and incorporates elements of jazz, hip hop, soul, spoken word poetry, and more into her music.

Scott actually first began performing as a spoken word poet. In addition to the stylistic carryover into some of her music, the title of her first album reflected this facet of her career. Her 2000 debut album was titled Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1. Three tracks from that album made it onto my 30 at 30 compilation. Her follow-up was 2004’s Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2, which had six tracks make the cut. In 2007, Scott released both Collaborations (six tracks on my compilation) and The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (three tracks). Her most recent album was 2011’s The Light of the Sun, which landed two tracks on the compilation.

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30 at 30

26. Sufjan Stevens

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 26 is Sufjan Stevens.

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The 30 at 30 project has nothing on Sufjan Stevens’ purported 50 states project. Unfortunately, after Stevens’ magnificent musical takes on the states of Michigan (Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State) and Illinois (Come on Feel the Illinoise), follow-ups from the other 48 states never surfaced. It turns out the ambitious concept was too good to be true.

Those two albums remain at the core of the Stevens that I have grown to love over the past several years, and so it is no surprise that 60 percent of the tracks that made the cut for this CD come from the state-themed albums.

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30 at 30

27. The Decemberists

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 27 is The Decemberists.

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The Decemberists are great storytellers. The fact that they tell their stories via folksy, rootsy rock songs is a bonus. Unlike the majority of the bands and songs that have and will find their way onto my countdown, The Decemberists’ best work comes when there is considerable distance between narrator and subject matter in their songs.

Take,  for example, “The Crane Wife 1 & 2” and “The Crane Wife 3” from the band’s 2006 album The Crane Wife. The songs are based on an old Japanese folktale. I had never heard of the tale before, but I could not imagine a more beautiful retelling than The Decemberists’ interpretation, which mixes lyrics and instrumentation flawlessly.  “The Crane Wife 1 & 2” is the less popular of the two tracks. Clocking in at 11:20 it feels like parts one and two of an emotionally stirring epic tale. Cue the opening guitar of “The Crane Wife 3.” Although this track curiously leads off The Decemberist’s album, I find it more fittingly (surprise!) as the direct follow-up to “The Crane Wife 1 & 2.”

If you’ve never heard of The Decemberists, “The Crane Wife 3” is the place to start. I have yet to find a time when I have heard this song pop up on shuffle—whether working at home, at the gym, hosting a party—when I felt inclined to skip it.  It’s a song for all situations, a song for all seasons.

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30 at 30

28. Ben Lee

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 28 is Ben Lee.

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When I think of Ben Lee, I think happy thoughts. Ben Lee’s music is full of optimism. He sings about messages of hope, togetherness, and the promise of the future. The Australian-born Lee, who shares a September birthday, is six years my elder. Although started a solo music career at the ripe young age of 16, it wasn’t until he released Awake is the New Sleep in 2005 that I was introduced to his music. Immediately, I was hooked.

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30 at 30

29. The Fray

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In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 29 is The Fray.

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I have to give credit to my wife here. In November of 2005, before anyone—or at least anyone we knew—had ever heard of The Fray, Jessie was standing front row at a concert singing along word-for-word to the likes of “She Is”, “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and the rest of their songs from their How to Save a Life album, which hadn’t even been out for two months. I was standing by her side and loved what I heard—both from her and them.

That all took place at Allegheny College. The Fray were opening for Ben Folds (Spoiler Alert! You’ll hear more from him later in the MM 30 at 30 Countdown). There was no way The Fray were going to steal a show headlined by Ben Folds, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only new fan they gained that night.

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