People are posting their best of the year, and it highlights just how hard it is to keep up with everything that is coming at us these days. Here is a fan-generated Top 500 from No Depression. Instead of looking at just this last year, last night I did a search for some tasty nuggets from the way back machine in my brain to see if I could find a few titles digitized, or even on CD. There is a soundtrack that I would love to get my hands on again, from the film Steelyard Blues, with Nick Gravenites and friends. But I ain't gonna buy the vinyl for $500, or CD for $450. And then there is an amazing record from 1970 by Kathi McDonald (with Sly Stone!) called Insane Asylum that I need on my iPod! I love the mental trips down the cobwebbed synapses to find some of the music through the years that was especially meaningful. Recently I had a snippet of chorus in my head for a month before I figured out what it was, and then located it. Hate when you get a song stuck like that, but it sure feels good when the AHA moment comes!

Photo Credit: Vicki FarmerAs Music Fog gets ready for the new year, including our imminent trip to MusicFest at Steamboat and beyond, I am looking around at the new acts we want to bring you in 2011. Yes, of course we will have returning friends in for more video sessions. It is with anticipation that I think about getting introduced to new artists that, as I write this, we have not yet heard of, though. And when I think back on this year, one of the people I am most happy to have brought you is John Fullbright. I had been hearing the whispers from music biz people about him, long before I saw him play, and months before we had him visit us on the Music Fog bus. Our first encounter was at Folk Alliance in Memphis this past February. It was an abbreviated affair, as he had to run to perform at a showcase. Then we had the pleasure of a visit during the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May. I am attaching his upcoming tour dates, though you might just have to make it to The Blue Door in Oklahoma City if you are near there or passing though, as he plays there often. We can hardly wait to see what the future holds; may his star burn bright in the coming year. Here's a new, unreleased song from our Cherokee sessions on the Music Fog bus with John. We're not sure if this is the working title, or the one that will stick, but he calls it "The Flower Song."

- Jessie Scott