Adult Alternative
- Is It Like Today?-World Party (Good lyrics offering a historical perspective from 25 years ago that's needed in this country today. "How could it come to this?" Indeed.)
- All That I Need Is Love-Melody Gardot (Lyrically and vocally, this is a natural segue with Norah Jones's "It's A Wonderful Time For Love.")
- Triste-Oscar Peterson (This percolating piano melody hooks me from the first note, regardless of whether Kenny Barron or Oscar Peterson plays it.)
- Get On Your Feet-Gloria Estefan (To my ears, "Get On Your Feet" holds up best among Estefan's non-ballad hits. A lot of her ballads follow a similar template, so it's energizing to hear a get-up-and-go song sung and played with this much resolve.)
- Sovay-Low Lily (This strong, brisk rendition of a traditional English tune, released in March, features excellent Celtic-style singing, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar.)
- Swept Away-Missy Raines featuring Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Molly Tuttle & Sierra Hull (An appealing blend of vocal harmonies against bluegrass instrumentation.)
- Weather Out The Storm-Figgy Duff (There's an epic quality in the vocals that makes me wonder how October Project's Mary Fahl would sound covering this.)
- Armame-Lauren Henderson (This could segue with Doris Day's version of "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.")
- Blue Moon-Ben Webster (The Marcels topped the charts with their spitfire vocal rendition of this in 1961. As memorable as their version is, Webster's elegant version shows the tune is even better served as a slower, romantic tenor sax instrumental.)
- Voyage-Kike Fernandez (Soothing, sultry-sounding piano that falls somewhere between easy listening and smooth jazz.)
