Ed. Note: Update, 1/27/10 – Thanks to Steve Coopat for pointing out to me that Jennifer Nettles is infact from Douglas County, rather than Douglas, Ga. (with Douglas County being in South Georgia). Nonetheless, still a Georgia connection we can root for. Also, thanks to Jeff Capurso over at Chase Park Transduction, for pointing out that Patton Oswalt’s “My Weakness Is Strong” was mixed, edited and mastered right here in Athens. The connections keep growing!
 
There’s no way I’m not going to watch the Grammy Awards, though I really don’t want …

Six or seven years ago my at-the-time girlfriend and I took ourselves to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home outside Charlottesville, Va. And what a home: the dome, the windows, the books and books and books, the doors strung with weights and pulleys that allowed pairs of them to open simultaneously. The land, the views, the headstone that, per his instruction, makes no mention of the fact that he’d been president—it’s quite a place the man made for himself.

“Music people” are torn when it comes to end of the year “best of” coverage. On the one hand, is it possible to compare this year’s top Swedish polka record to that of a garage trio from Fort Worth, saying that A is “better” than B? On the other, should both be ignored for the sake of not comparing either?
I’m a fan of “best of” lists when done comprehensively and collectively — traits I believe the one you’ll find in these pages (page 42-43, if you’re keeping score) possesses. …

A few weeks ago I got the call of a lifetime. It was midday on a Saturday. Unending, cold, autumn rain dousing the concrete outside. Later that night, two great friends of mine would celebrate their birthdays in one big bash. It was one of those friends on the phone.

“I have a favor to ask,” he said. “Would you put together the music for tonight?”

I have yet to be asked to be a godfather — friends who have say it’s one of life’s big moments. I’ve met a handful of Pulitzer winners, but I’ve never asked them about the call. Also probably a big deal. But this? If a party’s a book, your songs are the paper. Nautically speaking, they are the hearty wind when conversation hits the doldrums. They get people moving, dancing and trading e-mails and numbers. They’ve got to perform the way I imagine an experienced butler would attend to the guests: always there to help, to serve, but never in the way. The wrong songs (too grating, too weird, too predictable, too aggressive, too weak) and, well, party’s over. Think pushy butler.

Twenty-seven years ago Bruce Springsteen released the most daring, revolutionary and rock ’n’ roll record of his career and, perhaps, of the era. He did it without drums, bass, saxophone or pretty back-up singers and recorded it in his bedroom on a four-track tape machine. Then he went and named it Nebraska.