best albums of 2014: #11

 ryan joseph anderson – the weaver’s broom  (self-released)

i picked this album up in even more of a serendipitous manner than any other of the top 14 albums. anderson appeared with kory quinn and the comrades in an early december, for a sweaty party of a concert. anderson did his own opening set, and it was hard to gauge him. he only had about fifteen minutes to perform solo in the terrible acoustic venue, though he smoked some lead guitar parts with the comrades. he did approach taboo waters by trying to cover tom waits, though he picked a most excellent choice, cold water, that was lost on the audience.  two swing dancers found that song their reason to finally get off their feet, which seemed as odd then as it does thinking about it. anderson said that fans of tom waits would be pleased with his new record. covering tom waits is one thing, but it is audacious for a young artist to compare themselves to such a legend. it takes a confident person and anderson surely delivered the promise without hesitation.

i paid the $20 and took anderson at his word, only to be damned to find out he wasn’t pulling any punches. side one is certainly worth the price of the record alone. the first song, crooked heart, did have a sort of heart of saturday night/blue valentine vibe and song two, when the bees went mad, probably would fit on an album like black rider or mule variations, but beyond fruitless tom waits comparisons, each song has a it’s own persona seemingly matching a different 70s acoustic superstar stylistically. not that this sounds remotely close to some k-tel late night infomercial compilation album, and i certainly don’t want to take away from the conceptual efforts, but it does present as though it could be someone’s greatest hits album. whether that sounds like a compliment, i don't know, but it should.

side two is a bit sleepier than the rock tempos of side one. that’s not a bad thing, and seems to be the intent. it’s an interesting choice of sequencing that has not been the norm on albums this year. though it was released in april, my find is new, and experience with it so brief that i haven’t nearly been able to digest it. they are great stories from gifted songwriter and instrumentalist.

the more amazing this is that this album is self-released. i am not sure there was a better album out of nashville this year, except for maybe that country legend that appears a few spots higher on the list. the nashville music industry has made its net worth known many times over, and i have to give this guy credit to trying to survive the cutthroat bs of it all, but he is a chicagoan with some real bravado. nonetheless, some nationwide record label should be paying this guy money to make music.