BRAD MCEWEN: Home runs, High Country’s, Masquerades, and Iron Maiden: 2015 is in the books

Now that we’ve tied a bow on yet another (mostly) exciting year, it’s not uncommon for people of my ilk to offer up a seemingly endless string of year-end lists.

Invariably we get the “year’s best and worst movies lists” (my new favorite is movies that were box office duds, despite grossing countless millions overseas), lists about which binge- or cringe-worthy TV shows had our butts glued to the sofa on a regular basis (you should’ve left him dead, “Walking Dead”).

And then there’s the always popular “songs or albums that had us singing at the tops of our lungs in the driver’s seat, or crying into a plastic cup of beer” lists.

While I could easily toss off a few, no doubt, insightful lists, instructing you to buy Jason Isbell’s “Something More Than Free” or bemoaning the forgettable nature of the second Avengers movie, when I look back on my 39th year aboard the third stone from the sun, it’s not the big- or small-screen gems or the background soundtrack of a few road trips that float into my mind’s eye.

No, it’s the real stuff — the stuff that makes up a life worth living — that draws a smile across my face, gets the saltwater welled up in my eyes and spreads warmth through my heart that will forever mark 2015.

First there was Bear (and, in truth, his daddy) discovering the joys of youth baseball, or tee ball to be exact. For those of you who have never experienced the flutter in your stomach of watching your burgeoning athlete nervously, but gamely, perform the hitting, throwing and catching basics in front of a gang of clipboard-toting dads attempting to rank players for a draft, you’re missing out on one of the most thrilling and terrifying moments of parenthood.

Thankfully, that day of, mostly, worry soon gives way to unabashed happiness as your little one experiences the thrill of victory, the bond of being on a team, and the hard-won lessons of victory and failure that keep all of us striving for more.

While there were plenty of little moments like that throughout the year, there’s simply no way I can do any kind of looking back on the year piece without talking about MY year in music, which is, as many of you already know, my favorite thing to write about. So here it goes:

Over the year, I had the opportunity to interview a considerable number of uber-talented artists, on both the local and national level, but a few of them stand out from the pack.

One such interviewee was Leesburg’s own Faith Jackson, who, thanks to her growing popularity and her fortuitous casting in the hit musical “Metal,” was on my radar in a big way this year.

And while I don’t always get the chance to interview those on my radar, with Faith, I not only got the chance to enjoy an hour-plus sit-down, in which she actually came to my office with some of her band and her “Metal” cast mates, I made a new friend who now texts me regularly to keep me abreast of her schedule or just to say hello.

Faith has proven to be a refreshing talent that, no matter how bright her star seems to shine, hasn’t lost touch with her humble Southwest Georgia roots.

Although they operate on a much larger scale, nationally known musicians also took the time to speak with this lowly Southwest Georgia part-time music writer as well.

In the past year I’ve discussed the inner-workings of writing, recording and touring with a number of big-time talents, including Silversun Pickups drummer Christopher Guanlao, brothers Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei of the Bots, and Neon Trees bassist Branden Campbell, but for some reason, the one-two punch of an early listen and a lengthy phone interview shortly thereafter made my encournter with The Sword’s JD Cronise one for the ages.

Another highlight of the year was the chance to get a few early listens to some incredible music. Hearing Silversun Pickups’ lastest “Better Nature” and The Sword’s “High Country” before the general public was thrilling, to say the least.

And speaking of thrilling High on Fire, the metal titans from Oakland, not only provided one of the best albums of 2015 with their seventh studio release “Luminiferous,” they also provided two of the best moments of not only 2015, but my entire life.

I had the opportunity to interview drummer Des Kensel not long after “Luminiferous” hit stores and just before the band embarked on a North American tour. Not only was Kensel exceedingly gracious, he was uncharacteristically forthright and insightful. Like the best interviews, chatting with Kensel felt like chewing the fat with an old friend, not peppering someone who makes his living entertaining thousands of adoring fans with random questions.

In addition to giving one of the best interviews of the year, Kensel also took part in what was easily the best live show I saw in 2015. In fact, High on Fire’s blistering set at Atlanta’s Masquerade was one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had.

Not only was the band absolutely note-perfect, laying down thundering blasts of metal perfection, but thanks to their press agent Carl Schultz of Action! PR, I manged to get some intimate visuals to go along with the aural onslaught.

Although I got some killer up-close-and-personal photos throughout the entire night, nothing beats nearly getting head-butted off the photo pit riser by head-banging Pallbearer bassist Joseph D. Roland as I laid across the band’s stage monitors to get a tight shot.

The fun of that show, however, was really highlighted by getting chance to enjoy it with my best bud Thomas, the very man who first turned me on to the wonders of High on Fire a few years back, and who has finally returned from the land of fruits and nuts (Cali, for those who don’t know).

As much fun as I had with both the High on Fire interview and show, however, the true musical highlight of 2015 involved two of my three favorite people.

One of the greatest joys I’ve had as a parent is to watch Bear and Milla develop their own musical tastes. Tay and I expose them to a lot and pretty much give them free rein to listen to whatever suits their fancy. And while there are some family-shared staples, like the Beatles, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age and anything involving Jack White, we don’t all gravitate to the same stuff. We all pretty much dig Michael Jackson, but as far as Bear’s concerned, the King of Pop is top dog. For Milla, that distinction still goes to Metallica, although barely ahead of other favorites, such as Baroness and Tool.

This year, however, she and her brother both came to one similar conclusion which swells their father’s chest with pride — the conclusion that legendary metal gods Iron Maiden are, in a word, awesome!

There really is nothing better than the two of them in unison joining powerhouse vocalist Bruce Dickinson in belting out “Run to the Hills, Run for Your Li-I-ife,” or “run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die.”

More impressive though, and the way I know they’ve become true Iron Maiden fans, is that as soon as the band’s trademark sound — the punchy, distinctive, in-the-pocket beats of Nicko McBrain, the tight tangle of melodic strains from the now triple guitar attack of Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, and the all important, “it just wouldn’t at all sound like Iron Maiden if it were missing” gallop of bassist Steve Harris — comes through the speakers, one or both chime in, “I’m going to say that this is Iron Maiden, right, dad?”

“Yes you beautiful children with impeccable tastes and discerning ears for music, it absolutely is Iron Maiden.”

Although the bulk of the year was filled with similar moments of delight, 2015 was not without it’s rough spots, not the least of which were the days marked by the sadness of losing loved ones and friends.

The most painful of these losses was that of my friend Gretchen Weisenmiller, who, at the tragically young age of 40, went home to her Lord last spring after a hard-fought battle with cancer. Losing someone is never easy, but when that someone is a person you’ve know since elementary school, someone just a few months older than you, it is especially hard.

That pain was most assuredly real, but I do take solace in the fact that facing that loss and the loss of others also brought with it reflection; reflection on a life lived and multiple lives touched — reflections on the memories of our youth, when we were all shiny and bright and life’s hard edges hadn’t started to wear us down.

Those reflections, those tender memories, those moments we accumulate through the years in our book of life, those are the things that matter. Those are the things worth looking back on, whether it’s at the time of someone’s passing, or at the end of another calendar year.

So as I finish up the chapter that is 2015, I not only send a prayer to those who have gone before me, I gaze back one more time at the things that really matter, and turn boldly toward an uncertain but potentially exciting 2016.

Email Brad McEwen at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_BradMcEwen on Twitter.