Late December and January are always the time for countdowns and lists of the top “things” of the past year. You know, we have the Bluegrass Today top 30 songs of the year, the top 10 movies no one cares about, the top 5 broken New Year’s resolutions, etc.
What I’ve never seen is a list of the top year-end lists for the past year. I’ve attempted to compile such a list of lists, and rank them last to first. It’s been a banner year for bluegrass lists and countdowns, so here are my top choices for 2018:
10. Top 20 completely predictable band personnel changes
(including “Jason Mallet to Muscle Creek”)
9. Top 10 surprising foods that were served deep-fried at a bluegrass festival
(including Caesar salad)
8. Top 5 new bluegrass songs about bread
(including Two Loaves of Bread, and Give Me All the Toast You’ve Got)
7. Most used adjectives in bluegrass press releases
(including “powerhouse,” a noun)
6. Top 5 bluegrass songs about female inventors
(including Girl Who Invented the Wheel)
5. Top 10 botching of bluegrass artists’ names by festival MCs
(including “Sierra Hill” and “Special Consignment”)
4. Top 10 press releases about bluegrass artists’ medical procedures
(including . . . never mind—TMI)
3. Top 5 bluegrass urban legends circulated in 2018
(including the one about Bill Monroe riding a white buffalo through downtown Hendersonville)
2. Top 10 bluegrass musician day jobs
(including palm reader and Nashville ticket scalper)
1. Top 10 bluegrass songs about modes of transportation using old school fuels
(including Coal Fed Train and Wood-burning Bus)
