The Top 40 Project

If you know me then you know I spend a lot of time thinking, talking and writing about, listening to, promoting and otherwise rolling around in music.

You should also know that I love birthdays - especially my own - and I have a big one coming up.

To celebrate the impending four-decade marker I will be posting an appropriately themed countdown here each month for the year leading up to my 40th birthday.

As part of the celebration I am asking you to help create a Top 40 birthday countdown.

Simply think of a song that best reminds you of me or that you would like to share, and send it my way. Consider it your gift to me, one for which I am already and forever grateful.

Suggestions will be reviewed, stacked, relished and presented here on July 31, 2013... and the countdown will not be limited to forty tracks in spite of the title - it just sounds better that way given the occasion.

Leave your suggestion in the comments section, via email or Facebook message. Thanks!

Artist:

Song:

Reason for Selection: (brief explanation / history)

REVIEW: North to Glory "North to Glory"

Rating: 7.5

Never heard of them?  Join the crowd.  I found this buried in the discount bin for $2.98.  It appears to be a CDR with a nicely designed  paper label stuck on the non-player side. Very home-made.  And very good, but good luck finding it.  The only North To Glory hit online is a mention by the engineer who recorded some of the band's drum tracks in an industry chat room.

The way this works is that I tell you about them now and in five years when they're opening for U2 I get to claim legitimately that I am cooler than you. Unfortunately there is no clear sign that super stardom awaits this band, just top notch music - atmospheric, bright, and familiar without seeming derivative.  This is a ringing testament to the possibilities of home production; here' s hoping they find a label for wider release.