Lots of great records come out every year but so very few of them are perfect. Lots of great artists go a whole career without ever even coming close to touching the sun. Perfect means you wouldn't change the songs, the order, the arrangement, the players or anything else about the record. There's something else, something transcendent about the records on this list. After one or a dozen or a hundred listens, the record is still as fresh and brilliant and perfect as when you unwrapped it from the plastic.
Here's the list of alt512's Thirteen Perfect Records Of The Last Ten Years (1999-2008).
In no particular order other than almost alphabetical:
1 Adam Carroll -- Live At Cheatham Street Warehouse
2 Scott Miller -- Citation
3 Corb Lund -- Five Dollar Bill
4 Daddy -- At The Women's Club
5 Danny Schmidt -- Little Grey Sheep
6 Fred Eaglesmith -- Balin'
7 Guy Clark -- Cold Dog Soup
8 Mike McClure -- Twelve Pieces
9 Reckless Kelly -- Wicked Twisted Road
10 The Stillwater Pioneers -- Let's Go Pioneering
11 Verlon Thompson -- Everywhere...Yet
12 Brian Keane -- I Ain't Even Lonely
13 Deadstring Brothers -- Starving Winter Report
**The two records in bold are, as far as we can tell, the debut offerings from these artists.
Some would argue for Slaid's Broke Down or Wishbones or Bingham's Mescalito or Hayes' Flowers and Liquor or the Gourds Blood Of The Ram. Alas, great records all. Perfect...close.
