Paste magazine, which has already included Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot among the decade's best albums, has now chosen its Ten Best Producers of the Decade. Making the list are three producers whose work during that time includes several projects on Nonesuch, as producer and otherwise: Tucker Martine (Laura Veirs, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb), T Bone Burnett (Sam Phillips, solo), and Danger Mouse (The Black Keys).
As the first decade of the millennium nears its end, it's only fitting to look back at what has been a memorable time, to say the very least. On the music front, Paste magazine, which has already included Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot second among the decade's best albums, has now dug deeper into the makings of the aughts' recorded highlights, choosing the Ten Best Producers of the Decade. Making the list are three producers whose work during that time includes several projects on Nonesuch: Tucker Martine at No. 10, T Bone Burnett at No. 4, and Danger Mouse in the top slot.
Of the three, Tucker Martine, based out of Portland, Oregon, has contributed to the greatest number of Nonesuch albums during the past 10 years, having, as Paste puts it, produced "the collected works of Laura Veirs," including her three Nonesuch releases, Saltbreakers (2007), Year of Meteors (2005), and Carbon Glacier (2004). He has worked on several albums by Bill Frisell, serving as recording and mixing engineer on East/West and Further East/Further West, both from 2005, The Intercontinentals (2003); The Willies (2002), selections from which appeared on the best-of collection Folk Songs (2009); and, most recently, this year's Disfarmer; all of which were produced by Lee Townsend. Martine also engineered and mixed (and even played tambourine on) the 2002 Robin Holcomb album The Big Time.
Among the many projects helmed by T Bone Burnett are two albums by Sam Phillips—her 2001 Nonesuch debut, Fan Dance, and the follow-up A Boot and a Shoe from 2004—as well as his own album Tooth of Crime (2008), featuring songs that had originated in an earlier Sam Shepard play, with performances by Phillips, Marc Ribot, Jon Brion, and Shepard himself.
Topping Paste's list is Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Brian Burton, "whose Gnarls Barkley project unleashed one of the all-time great pop singles," says Paste. (The song, "Crazy," was later covered memorably by Shawn Colvin on her Live album from this past summer.) Among the "notable projects" Paste lists as the producer's accomplishments is Attack & Release, the most recent album from The Black Keys.
For the complete list, visit pastemagazine.com.
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