Well, it’s not really me doing the soliciting, I’m just asking for a friend. Really I am! What? You don’t believe me? Oh shush! Here, I’ve copied Tim’s email request exactly:

“November is almost upon us again, so it’s time to think about the Contrast Podcast Festive 50. This year it will be on episodes 194, 195 & 196 from the 15th to the 29th of December. So here is what I need you, your friends, the readers of your blog, your milkman and anyone else you know to do:

Now this little project is not just for those of us who’ve contributed to the Contrast Podcast, which if you’re not familiar with you should just hop over there and get cozy right now because it’s a very, very, cool place/thing/space in the internet. No, all you regular shy people can/should participate in this list making too because it’s kind of like statistics… the larger the sample size the better the result (except in statistics it’s not really about the size of the sample but the methodology used to select the sample, but that’s beside the point here, so forget the truth and just go with my little analogy, ok?) Point being, the more people participate the better result Tim gets at the end and the upcoming podcasts are very much more fun! So, make your lists and send them out to Tim. It doesn’t matter if he knows you, if I know you, if anyone knows you at all.

No, it’s not about what you think the BEST songs are, what you think you should choose to look COOL or what band should make it or anything, really; it’s about what songs turn you on, what you like, which, by the way, is the whole point of this blog, ya know? (Well, that’s some first-class writing right there, isn’t it just?!) And by the way, the whole festive fifty idea comes from here, (hint, it has to do with the late, great John Peel.)

Here’s my list. The top 10 are in order; the remaining 40 are kinda sorta from best to least but not really because how can I possibly judge what is my 40th least, best, favorite song??? These are 50 songs that right now I’m crazy about that were released in 2009. Let me know what yours are, eh?  (scroll all the way down because you really need to know who Withered Hand is and I’m gonna tell you!)

1. Love in The Time of Ecstasy mp3 – Withered Hand …. buy it here
2. Snake – One Hundred Hurricanes
3. William Henry Miller, Pt. 1 – Meursault
4. I became a Prostitute – Twilight Sad
5. Magicfish – Birdlips
6. White Blank Page – Mumford and Sons
7. Earthly Bodies – J. Tillman
8. Devils Tower – Ice Palace
9. Send Me An Angel Down – Kill It Kid
10. In Your Heart – A Place To Bury Strangers
11. Les Malheurs – Pure Reason Revolution
12. Violet Eyes – My Gold Mask
13. Let’s Go Expo – Cancel The Astronauts
14. Propeller Jet – Phil and the Osophers
15. Pastel – Still Life Still I had to include this new video for this great song, if only because I’m not exactly sure they’re even playing their instruments in it! They sure cleaned up good, hehehe. No really, good for them!
16. Red Candle Bulb – Meursault
17. Religious Songs – Withered Hand
18. Gorilla Meat – Jogger
19. IOWEEOW – The Soil and The Sun
20. Phonebook Pillow – Ice Palace
21. Vampire Lake – The Builders and The Butchers
22. Beard of Bees – Clem Snide
23. The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid – The Decemberists
24. No More Sorry Songs – Greenland is Melting
25. The Sunset – The Bony King of Nowhere
26. Honeymoon – Bombadil
27. Already Gone – Greenland is Melting
28. Outside the Gates – Ice Palace
29. Barcelona – The Builders and The Butchers
30. Clouds – Hudson Branch
31. Hum – Clem Snide
32. Songs in The Night – Samantha Crain
33. Don’t Take Me To Space (Man) – Brakes
34. Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time – Fanfarlo
35. Alas My Love – The Bony King of Nowhere
36. Sad Birthday – Bombadil
37. The Rake’s Song – The Decemberists
38. Some Kind of Death – Birdlips
39. A Train Still Makes A Lonely Sound – Black Crowes
40. The Lie – Bad Veins
41. Atrophy – The Antlers
42. Gold and Warm – Bad Veins
43. Dream About Me – The Depreciation Guild
44. T-Shirts – Still Life Still
45. Look Out For Your Wife – Lord Cut Glass
46. Two – The Antlers
47. Flashlight – Super 400
48. Deus Ex Machina – Pure Reason Revolution
49. Crush on You – Brakes
50. Exploding Head – A Place To Bury Strangers

So, who is this Withered Hand? I’m sure you’re all asking, because I’ve not mentioned this band on this blog yet and now I’m telling you it’s my favorite song. What a sneaky bitch I am! Well, ya know sometimes the things that are closest to us are the hardest to share, the hardest to talk about. That’s the only reason I can think of for why I’ve not reviewed this album as well as Meursault’s EP yet even though I listen to each of them at least a few times each week.

Withered Hand is Dan Willson of Edinburgh and a few of his friends supporting him: Neil Pennycook (of Meursault), who plays banjo and sings beautiful backup harmonies, Alan Thomas (from The Leg), and Hannah Shepherd. Dan often plays solo around Edinburgh, and it seems just as often various and assorted musicians play with him. It’s all a rather incestuous little musical community over there as far as I can tell! Either way, Withered Hand is a project I’ve been following for about a year now because Dan’s songs speak to me. His voice is high and sometimes creaky and trembling and you guess that he feels like maybe he can’t sing very well but that’s the key to the charm of Withered Hand. It’s not put on; I can’t imagine his producer saying, “No, we need less confidence in that third verse there!” (or if it is, he’s fooled the fuck outta me! Bravo, Dan!) But more than his voice and what I think of it, there are his songs and the melodies that capture your attention. At first glance you might think they’re simple, but listen how choruses hesitate just enough to appear not exactly when you want them to, how verses go on one stanza too long or end all together too quickly. Then again, tracks like “Religious Songs” are built like old fashioned folk tunes… with convoluted, sometimes filthy lyrics, of course. I am no expert on this thing they call anti-folk, but maybe this is why Withered Hand is in this category. All I know for sure is that it captivates me. I never grow tired of hearing it.

As folk songs go, these tell some great stories. Of course, if you know me you know I totally relate to Dan’s references to religion throughout Good News and to the sort of scars that it leaves on those of us who’ve been raised in it strictly, may I say, (for me at least) terrifyingly? His humor, (”How does he really expect to be happy when he listens to death metal bands?”) and equal parts sarcasm delivered with such bittersweet delivery makes this record my favorite. No, strike that. You have to add all the bits about love, of course. Nobody can win me over with lyrics that are just about surviving hellfire and damnation (and evangelists, in my case). There’s love, memory, longing, and oh so much melancholy desire. “For The Maudlin” is a heart-rending tune that if you’ve ever been in a relationship, I think you’ll understand. But even when he sings about what I assume to be happiness, I still hear a melancholy desire. Maybe that’s me, I’ll grant you that. But I also think it’s him, ….his voice, his guitar, the way it all sounds is as if it’s pleading with the universe to be happy, to stay happy. And yet, I wouldn’t be surprised to meet him and find him to be a pleasant person. That’s the way it goes with musicians ya know. They write it all out of their system sometimes. I never read other reviews of an album before writing mine. What you get is my view, my opinion on it. There’s plenty out there of this album and many of them from folks who know Dan, so I encourage you to go read them all. From all accounts, I’m betting he’s a lovely person.

Good News is a gem. It’s an album that I listen to over and over because I hear in it all the things I’ve mentioned, as well as so many little phrases that make me smile, “And you’ll lose your looks, I’ll lose my religion, we’ll be God’s tiny carrier pigeons, and never return” “I don’t really know what the wine is for, cause if it was Jesus’ blood wouldn’t there be more?,” and “Did they teach you shit at school like we’re all wonderful?” And for all the quips, Dan also lays out some honest truths – things we all feel, all of us, at times, sharing that self-deprecating way of explaining our world. Beyond the lyrics, Good News has beautiful instrumentation, full of banjo that is top-notch and both acoustic and electric guitar and at times drums. Don’t forget those melodies, well actually you can’t. The reason that “Love in the Time of Ecstasy” is my #1 song is because of that melody. It is pure genius, repetitive and when you hear it you think to yourself, “haven’t I heard this before somewhere?” It’s immediately familiar but entirely new. What a gifted man Dan Willson is. And it bears mentioning that for what I guess most folks will call an “emo” record (god I hate that distinction) this is certainly not all morose and slow. On the contrary, the music is nicely paced and listening to it over and over does anything but depress me. Do I need to spell it out for you any more clearly? Obviously you need this record if you want to continue to unlock the secrets of Tart’s psyche, xoxo

And yes, I do believe with all my heart that the answer is YES when Dan asks, “Isn’t gray hair just the first light of a new dawn?”