Monday, December 21, 2020

The One World Music Radio Top 30 Tracks of 2020 Written by Steve Sheppard

 


2020 has probably been one of the hardest years for us collectively to endure, thank goodness for music the panacea to cure most ills, most musicians have been ultra-creative this year during the many and ongoing lockdowns due to the global pandemic, ones likely to stretch well into 2021 too, but this has given a plethora of opportunities for artists, even me, to create new music, whilst we sit at home and stare at the freedom of clouds, and the rise of nature.

I have had time therefore, to create a top 30 of tracks officially for One World Music Radio, ones that have been heard on the station during the year and now are to be recognised as the media outlets top 30 listing, so let’s get this underway.

#30: Jim Ottaway with “Diamonds in the Rain” from the album “When Eternity Touches Time”

#29: Lissa Kathe with “By Nature” from the album “Harp Dreaming”

#28: Lynn Tredeau & Joseph L Young with their single “Broken Dreams”

#27: Michael Whalen with “A Metaphysical Morning” from the album “Sacred Spaces”

#26: Michelle Qureshi with “Shores of Atlantis” from the album “Within”

#25: Andrew Colyer with “Strings in the Ocean” from the album “Mists of Time”

#24: Rodrigo Rodriguez with his single “The Enlightened Face Of Buddha”

#23: Jon Durant with “Tributaries” from the album “Soul Of A River”

#22: Joey Curtin with the single “From the Beginning”

#21: Anaya with “Cathedral” from the album “Secrets”

#20: Bernward Koch with “Lavender Fields” from the album “Becoming”

#19: Jaimie Black with “Violet Flame” from the album “Season Of the Witch”

#18: Holland Phillips with “Our Sweeter Days” from his album “A Momentary Pause”

#17: Hiroki Okano with “Mother River” from the album “Peace On Earth”

#16: Dulce Joya with “Yes it’s You” from the album “Devotion”

#15: Andy Rogers with “Skylark Above The Dunes” from the album “When the Land Meets the Sea”

#14: Prem Vidu with “Holy Devine Mother” from the album “Encounter: Medicine Songs from Ma”

#13: Pam Asberry with her single “Floating”

#12: Kirsten Agresta Copely with “Winterbone” from the album “Around The Sun”

#11: KeithTim Anderson with his single “Evermore”

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#10: Joseph Sullinger with “Drawn by The Wind”, released as a single from one of the most accomplished acoustic guitarists in the business, technically brilliant, creatively colourful.

#9: Samer Fanek with “Just Like The Wind” released firstly as a single, Fanek has time on his side to become one of the greats on piano, his flair, passion and musical interpretations will open many doors wide for him in 2021.

#8: Tayu with “Shores Of Atlantis” from the album “Incantation”, featuring the talents of guitarist Mark Barnwell, our surprise album this year on OWMR, but what a stunner, for one I hope to see more of Tayu in 2021.

#7: Vin Downes with “Oak Lane” from the album “Good Light To Go By”. Downes is an artist who you know always releases a quality album when the time comes, there is never a weak track and here is a performer that has all the abilities to reach the peak of the acoustic guitar world in 2021 with his emotive and memorable compositions.

#6: Wayne Bethanis with “The Return Of The Cherokee” released as single and utilising the talents on flute of the brilliant Marcus Sjöwall. Bethanis followed up his mega hit “Tribes Of The City” with another classy moment of genius, I see even bigger things for Bethanis in 2021.

#5: Chasm with “The Silence Between The Words” from the album “Wood, Wind and Skin”. This was one of those songs from an album that became so addictive in 2020, it is one of those magical songs that just has something about it, the construct of the minor and major elements with a wistful sense of refection made this song for me truly special.

#4: The Song Gardeners with “Love Flows”, one of many splendid singles from the new age band, but one that seemed to resonate the most with the station. It was a timely release, when we all needed to see the love flow as well, but the creative genius of this band leaves me to think that 2021 could potentially be huge for them.

#3: Roger Eno & Brian Eno with “Obsidian” from the album “Mixing Colours”. Here we have true mastery from the duo, that shouldn’t really be a surprise of course, but this track with its mysterious and unreal organ sounds created for me one of the most ambient pieces of music I have heard for decades, filled with soft reflective textures and great colour and mood.

#2: Kevin Kendle with “Laniakea” from the album “Deep Skies 6: Laniakea”. It was a long time in the waiting room for this one, but boy was it worth it as Kendle brings us his best Deep Skies album since “Deep Skies 2: Lagoon Of Eternity”, the title track here was filled with a deepness of power and grace, a rich mood filled melody would gift us one of the best space styled tracks of the year, and see the UK artist at the top of his game.

#1: Cadence Spalding with “Trust In Love”, a single earlier on in the year, but one of those pieces of music you could see being played at the end of a concert with people raising their lighters or is it mobile phones now, above their heads in salute of this absolute anthem. Spalding is lyrically perfect, compositionally sublime, likened to Enya yes, but in my view warmer, and my prediction to be the break our star of 2021.

So there you go folks, be ready from the new awards season which starts in January 2021, as we will see for the first time all of One World Music Radio’s awards given on the same night, in a huge evening of award giving, in the meantime, light is just around the corner, keep the faith and trust in love.



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