Rolling Fork, our introduction

Five months ago, I decided that to celebrate the close of the decade I would make a comprehensive list of my 50 favorite albums from the years 2000-2009. But I soon realized that there were probably going to be lots of other people making similar types of lists. I didn’t want my list to blend in, and more importantly, I wanted my list to offer those whom I was sharing it with credibility – a truly representative look at ALL of the best music that’s been released in the past ten years.

I love music. I write, play, sing, rap, produce, and listen to it. It is a huge part of my life. However, I will admit that I do not own an unlimited supply of it. As an aspiring musician, I am a firm practitioner of purchasing all of the music I have out of respect to the artists. I am not sharing this information to boast about my personal ethics; I am sharing it because I want my readers to know that I rely on specific sources to help me determine which artists I listen to (but NOT which ones I think are good).

For me, the most significant sources I turn to are mainstream music publications – Rolling Stone, Spin, Blender, Source, etc. I use these magazines as guides to help me narrow down my purchasing choices so I can feel as confident as possible that what I buy is going to be good. But because of this, my list of the decade’s 50 best albums is nearly devoid of independent music. If I were to have simply released it all by itself, it would have really bothered me. One could argue that this decade has seen the influence and quality of independent musicians reach an all-time high; to present a list which does not equally represent these artists would be, in my opinion, insubstantial. Thus, I turned to my good friends Ryan Carr and Steve Rosborough for help.

Ryan and Steve have been friends since high school…about the start of this decade. One of the strongest bonds they share is their love for listening to music, particularly independent artists. For years they have exchanged albums they discover with one another and have each collected hundreds of records in the process. Their knowledge base regarding music is something to behold. I asked them if they would be interested in joining me in this endeavor to count down our 50 most prized albums of the 2000s. Not only did they say “yes,” but they also agreed to work together to create one list which represents what they both feel are the decade’s true cream of the crop.

Each day until December 31^st we will be counting down our lists with brief descriptions of the albums as well as reviews of what we think of each other’s picks (we all agreed ahead of time to listen to every album on each other’s list). What happens when a mainstream music fanatic and two independent music fanatics agree to rank their favorite albums of the decade? What kind of reviews do they give each other’s picks? Will there be any albums that show up on BOTH of their lists? We’re about to find out!