The Chart Show: Maternal Material Leads the Way
by Mark Wheat
December 20, 2018
Next week we will be presenting a special two hour edition of The Chart Show! We'll play all 20 of the songs that have made it to #1 and a few from the top of The All Time Hall of Fame Chart. The final, 21st chart topper is Nathaniel Rateliff. Strange how the final two Number Ones have been "The Mother' and "Hey Mama"!? At this time of year, with all the holiday preparations that our mothers do, don't forget to say, "Hey Mama, thanks!" Nathaniel and the Night Sweats are ending another very successful year in Denver, their adopted home town with two sold out shows at The Ogden Theatre. Then the prestigious Grand Ole Opry in Nashville have booked them for New Years Eve!
Chastity Brown has a busy weekend, opening for The Jayhawks Friday night at The Ave. Then DJ at the Roma Di Luna show at Icehouse Saturday! She's also inducted to the Chart Hall of Fame for the third time, with "Mad Love", a song she explained to me at The Fair this year.
Jeff Tweedy hasn't been on our chart much this year but highest new entry at #10 is a perfect example of what a good year he's had, some terrific solo and Wilco shows, a well received memoir "Let's Go ... (So We Can Get Back)" that's the most open he's been, and giving sharp insightful interviews like this.
Conor Oberst has just released two new singles on his site now and available on vinyl in Feburary. The song that he's new in at #11 with is on the soundtrack to "Juliet; Naked".
With an album called "No Geography" coming next spring The Chemical Brothers, new at seventeen, seem set for a big year. Our Music Director David Safar has predicted that next year will see a big Big Beat revival, and these guys are the Masters! European festival season is seeing them play along side The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Bon Iver and Sharon Van Etten!
Stella Donnelly crashes in at #19 this week. She's on my Top 5 new discoveries this year and it was a delight to meet her in Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves Festival.
Rayland Baxter will be one of our guests at The 14th Birthday Party shows next month at First Avenue, he's in the basement. Thanks to a lot of members and early adopters, tickets are selling steadily and are now available to the General Public.
Have a very merry Christmas especially if you have been a regular voter on The Chart Show, we couldn't do it without you! We total up all your votes over the year for our best of next week, so we don't have a new ballot. But of course if you are jonesing to vote... New Year's Eve throughout the day we broadcast the Top 89 and we need as many votes as possible to make it a genuinely unique review of 2018!!