As 2018 arrives, I’m full of gratitude. Yes, I’m grateful for you: my friends, fans, readers, and listeners. Thank you!
Listeners = You
As I continue to ponder the calendar year that just was, you are at the top of the list of my thoughts and thankfulness. Though I do my best to approach music with the purest thoughts of sharing my story, there is no art without a witness. You, my listeners, are witnesses to what I share. Wow! You are truly awesome.
Before I give you my top-10 music lists, let me say one more thing: if you’re ready to take our connection to the next level, please consider becoming a VIP. Since losing my day job, I am relying completely on income from music. For a reasonable monthly subscription, you’ll get everything I release, plus early listens to new music and videos; behind-the-scenes previews; and other exclusive content — not to mention my greatest gratitude for supporting me in this way.
Okay, my sales pitch is over. Now, on with the show.
Streaming Top Ten
My favorite streaming and music download service is still BandCamp. That top-10 is coming up, but first…
Spotify has become the de facto streaming platform. If it is your choice as a listener, I’m happy to say that nearly all my music can be heard there. (You can also listen on Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon, or any other major streaming service.) The result is that my songs were played thousands of times on Spotify. Here’s what rose to the top in 2017.
I was so surprised to see what’s on this top-10. There are pieces of music that I had no idea would be popular with listeners. In fact, I had to go listen to number one just to remember what it sounds like.
Angels Suite was one of my first distributions to the streaming services in 2017 (though I originally released it in 2015). If you view the suite on Spotify, you’ll see that I inserted some weird typos in the titles for tracks 4 and 5. Oops! It seems that I’m only human, too.
Holidays and Holy Days
Number one on BandCamp was my holiday release, “Magic”. It was also third in my Spotify charts. Thanks listeners for pushing these plays so high in the last two months of the year!
Another surprise was to see “Breath” from Hope Suite in position two in that same top-10. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one looking for hope in 2017.
Of course, no one can resist a love story. I like to tell mine by improvising on the piano. Here’s number five on BandCamp.
And speaking of holiness, Spotify had two tracks from Old Hymns for a New Age in the top-10 there. “Softly and Tenderly” was at number 4 and “Wayfaring Stranger” at #7.
Dream This
The rest of the songs in both top ten lists came from my first singer-songwriter album: #DreamThis or the accompanying live version, #LiveSongs. Since these are my life story in song, I’m happy that listeners enjoyed them enough to put them here.
Among the Dream This songs you’ll hear “Love Is On Repeat” (#2 on Spotify), “Quake” studio version (#3 on BandCamp), live and studio/rock versions of “Snow Story”, “Dance This” (studio version), “Mountain Rose” (both studio and live versions), “Confession : Reflection”, and more.
The Complete Top-10s
Here are the complete listings of top ten from Spotify and BandCamp with links to the individual songs. Thanks for listening in 2017. Happy new year! May 2018 bring you hope, love, listening ears, and deeply grateful hearts.