Top releases for 2010 (Page 1 of 3)

Only 5 Curby?! Tough to winnow down the list. I'll throw down the gauntlet.
No order except #1, too many I love. There might be some surprises here.

Sondra Radvanovsky/Verdi Arias. I love opera, especially Verdi, and this emerging star's voice made my hair stand up and tears well. Timbre, range, power and emotion with total control. Stunning!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eNvAFXz7WY

Joe Bonamassa/Black Rock. Why I'm here. 

Burhan and McMurray/Walled Gardens. Violin and Guitar. Rock meets the classics. edit(Sorry, I missed that it is not this year so I DQ it, new to me. But check it out.)

Black Country Communion/Self titled. I loved them in Riverside, the release was even better.

Brooklyn River/Dominant Curve. Chamber music from left field, hauntingly beautiful and oh so different.

I'll throw in Jeff Beck/Emotion and Commotion to replace the DQ. Love his take on new ways to make the guitar sing. Great guest vocalists too. And it has an opera aria!

Hehe,  I grew up with classical music. A long hair of the older variety. 
Rick
edit to toss in the video link 'cause most of ya are saying Huh?? . To say she sings like an angel is an understatement. The voice of a generation IMHO. I've heard Callas and Price. Grab a hanky girls, you're going to cry.

Obviously Joe's Black Rock and BCC are on here. Nuff said.

Buddy Guy's Living Proof - Buddy shows he's still the man and aging like fine wine.

Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer - In case you guys don't know who Cee Lo is, he is the singer for Gnarls Barkley, the group who hit it big with Crazy a few years ago. Not blues or rock, but dang fine singing and some great rnb/pop songs. Namely the big hit F*** You is riding high right now, and I really like it a lot. Also really enjoy Bright Lights Bigger City. I have other guitar playing friends that absolutely love Cee Lo. One of the best voices in the music business today.

Eric Clapton's self-titled release - Some people are critical of EC, but I really enjoy this album. Very laid-back, tasty choices here. His voice is in great form. Really like River Runs Deep along with Diamonds Made From Rain

Jimi Hendrix's Valleys Of Neptune - I was really skeptical of this going in. The Hendrix estate is cashing in, I thought. But I'm glad to be wrong. I really enjoyed this. It is worth the price of admission for Bleeding Heart alone.

Jimmie Vaughan Plays Blues Ballads & Favorites - I love Jimmie, so I was glad to see him come back with a new album for the first time in 9 years. Very old school sounding stuff, but that's Jimmie Vaughan isn't it? Roll Roll Roll, Comin' & Goin', and The Pleasure's All Mine are favorites of mine.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Live! In Chicago - KWS back to doing the blues/rock thing. King Bee cooks. Get the Amazon mp3 edition, it has extra tracks including Voodoo Child (Slight Return). And we finally get Deja Voodoo with Noah Hunt on vocals.

Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More - Again, not blues or rock, but these guys are awesome. Great lyrics, all band members play their instruments extremely well with great harmonies. Little Lion Man is my favorite song off of this one.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band's We Walk This Road - This new record is a bit different than what we're used to from RRFB, but it works really well for them. T-Bone Burnett knew what he was doing that's for sure. They sound very relaxed and not focused on extended jams but just grooving out. Highlights: Traveling Shoes, If I Had My Way, Shot Of Love.

Best reissue: Got to be SRV's Couldn't Stand The Weather. Not much in the way of bonus studio tracks (just 3), but the extra disc with the live 1984 Montreal concert is just cooking. Stevie is just GOING on this show. The tone is just so good. Really happy to have more live officially released SRV to enjoy.

Aaah, here it is again, my favourite topic!

Even though 2010 can musically not totally keep up with 2009 in my opinion (2009 is hard to beat though), there´s still a lot of great new CDs that were released this year... apart from Joe´s stuff (I´m amongst the ones who like BCC) my favourites are:

Mulennium - Gov´t Mule: they finally released their Millennium show on 3 CDs, #1 with some Mule classics, #2 very bluesy and #3 that goes to show that the Mule can cover any song on the planet and make it even better than it was before. As I´m seeing their NYE show this year, that´s my favourite for 2010. 

Croweology - The Black Crowes: The Crowes doing some of their best songs in new acoustic versions - what could be a boring repetition of old stuff is really a great record with new twists to the songs. The Crowes are definitely my personal "band of the year" as I wasn´t really aware of them until the Forrester clan made me see the light this summer.    "Shake your moneymaker" (even though released long, long ago) is my personal favourite new album this year.

Georgia Warhorse - JJ Grey and Mofro: Blues, Country, Soul, Gospel, Southern ... call it what you want, it´s good!

Emotion and Commotion - Jeff Beck: One of the most memorable moments of the Crossroads Festival this year was Jeff Beck playing "Nessun dorma" and the whole stadium holding their breath. I had tears in my eyes and turned around to see that half the stadium was weeping too ... works great on CD too.

Live in Chicago - Kenny Wayne Shepherd: The proof that he´s still great live.

That´s it - bring it on 2011!

Eva

5 may just be too short a list. With the few posts already on this I've seen several cd's that could have been on my list that I think are fantastic:

Croweology - The Black Crowes
Emotion and Commotion - Jeff Beck
Live in Chicago - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Slash - Slash

only 6 is also a real biatch, in no particular order:

Relentless - Eric Gales (you knew that was coming)
Black Rock - Joe Bonamassa
Mojo - Tom Petty
Emotion & Commotion - Jeff Beck
5th is a tie between Living Proof - Buddy Guy, Valleys of Neptune - J Hendrix

honorable mention:
Six String Theory - Lee Rit & friends
We Walk This Road - Robert Randolph
The Fight is On - Popa Chubby (sorry, I like it a lot)

Tres

Yeah, great thread.
Need a few days to post my fab 5 of 2010. I have to check my library first, cause this year I didn't buy so many new releases but some older stuff.

Read a lot about JJ Grey and Mofro the last weeks and now that the band is mentioned here, I checked their latest album and ordered it a few minutes ago.

CD from Monkey Junk and some other CDs were ordered last weekend, but I'm still waiting for the postman.

Hmmm I'm gonna have too agree except I would change Jeff Becks with the Black Country album.  At first it wasn't my favorite, but as I listened it grew on me so much that I really love it now.  Funny how the majority of these albums we bought/discovered together.  They have a special meaning ...

Ben

PS - O yea and Mule's NYE theme this year is... they are asking the fans to submit their favorite songs and they will do a "Get behing the Mule: Past, Present, and Future" 3 sets of the best of Mule.  Can't wait Spatzl !!!

It´s not that BCC is not in my list - I just thought it´d be a given that Joe´s stuff is in the list anyway as we are writing the list on Joe´s forum.  So I just added 5 "other Artists" - aka, I cheated. 

And I just love the theme for this year - could it be that we´re lucky **anothercensoredword*?? 3 sets best of Mule ... hmmm. Where can you submit the songs? Da Da Da Dadada Daaa ... Bad little doggy. 

@ Curby - you´re very welcome ... and the best thing about Croweology is: it´s 2 CDs! You´ll like it, I´m sure...

Eva