Gary Whitehouse's Music Picks

My favorite music of 2007 came in two very different albums, one by a folk-rock icon and one by a garage band from the Midwest. They share honest, from-the-heart songwriting, and a commitment to making music even when it sometimes hurts. 

Topping my list is Linda Thompson's Versatile Heart. Linda has one of the great voices of the era, and she uses it on a near-perfect set of songs on this, her second "solo" album after 17 years of silence. Co-produced and largely co-written with son Teddy, Versatile Heart touches her whole range of "folk" styles, from the jaunty folk-rock of the title track to an encomium for the first family of English folk music, "Whiskey, Bob Copper and Me"; from the honky-tonk of "Do Your Best for Rock 'n' Roll" to a dead-on cover of Tom Waits' "Day After Tomorrow." 

Just as impressive in its own way is Three by Two Cow Garage. This quartet of garage-rockers from Ohio plays and sings with a level of passion that's rarely seen these days. For their third album, the band's two singer-songwriters -- guitarist Micah Schnabel and bassist Shane Sweeney -- return over and over to the theme of following your muse come hell or high water. The punk intensity of "Camo Jacket," the anthemic "No Shame," the barroom swagger of "Mediocre" and the elegiac album closer "Postcards and Apologies" all examine the wreckage that can be wrought by life in a rock 'n' roll band. As someone near and dear to their hearts and mine sang over a decade ago, "what a life a mess can be!"