I played more music this year than last, thanks primarily to Spotify streaming…and having spare time between jobs last winter…and spending the holidays by my lonesome. Mostly, though, because there was simply a LOT of good Americana-ish music released this year. I track my music plays on the London-based last.fm and their Scrobbler app, 2015 is now over. Stats served over-easy.
Top 25 Artists scrobbled (mostly via Spotify) in 2015
Johnny Cash has ruled my charts since I’ve had charts, but Corb Lund ruled my charts in 2015. Overall, though I just had a LOT more plays among all artists, but in particular from the Americana Radio Chart toppers. I was playing both Jason Isbell and Gretchen Peters‘ previous strong albums when their current releases came out. I also revisited Audrey Auld/Audrey Auld Mazera‘s catalog upon her death this summer. RIP Audrey, you brought such happiness and joy to many, many lives.
Top Albums I played in 2015
Yes, did I mention Corb Lund ruled my charts this year? I overplayed his late-year release, Things That Can’t Be Undone. Yes, overplayed it like a Top 40 radio station. My bad, but it is that good. If he had released it earlier in the year I’m sure it would have reached more Best Of lists. While I wasn’t as impressed with Jason Isbell‘s Something More Than Free as I was with his previous release, Southeastern, NoDepression website gave him their Top Album of 2015. There’s also several Grammy nominees lurking in here, which is a big change for me.
For the most part, my album chart forms the backbone of my own Best Of lists for 2015 (Top 10, and 10 More).
Top Tracks I played in 2015
My Top Tracks tracks my Top Albums a bit more closely this year. I did a Spotify list of albums as they entered the Top 10 of the Americana Radio Chart (with some help from friends), then picked a favorite track after playing thru the album a few tries (which also increased my Scrobble rate considerably). Lund, Giddens, McMurtry, Bingham, Peters, Isbell, you get the drill. Interestingly, I ended up giving my favorite tracks about the same number of spins this year as last, though the top 20 or so are more closely clustered. Too much good music to choose from!
That, my friends, is the 2015 edition of JC’s last.fm statistics. Some serious navel gazing here. Thanks for listening. The upcoming Grammy awards have some interesting nominees, and I hear there’s some more top-notch Americana productions scheduled for 2016 release. Yeah, roots music.
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