Remember December: The Old Grey Cat’s Top 25 New Posts of 2021 (aka Navel-Gazing, Part 1)

In six days, Santa will climb aboard his reindeer-powered sleigh and sail the skies fantastic while delivering toys and goodwill to all the world’s children. In some respects, I feel as if he’s already visited my home: No matter what happens in the final 13 days of 2021, this admittedly idiosyncratic weekend endeavor will have accrued more visitors and views than any year since its original incarnation (1997-2006). It now averages 54 visitors and 98 views a day—a 20+ percent increase over 2020. Thank you all for visiting!

Anyway, below are the Top 25 popular posts that I wrote in 2021; tomorrow, I’ll feature my Top 25 Overall Posts; and on the low-traffic day of Christmas I’ll share my favorite essays of the year. Then, on Boxing Day, I’ll spar with what it all means before, sometime before (or possibly on) New Year’s Eve, revealing my resolutions as they pertain to this blog.

1. The Essentials: Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2. The Fogelberg Files: Home Free
3. First Impressions: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Way Down in the Rust Bucket
4. The Fogelberg Files: An Introduction
5. The Essentials: Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
6. The Fogelberg Files: The Innocent Age
7. First Impressions: A Beautiful World by Calista Garcia
8. First Impressions: The Servant by Shelby Lynne
9. First Impressions: Young Shakespeare by Neil Young
10. The Essentials: Motherland by Natalie Merchant
11. First Impressions: Mind Gardens (40th Anniversary Edition) by the Salvation Army
12. First Impressions: Live from Lafayette by Rumer
13. First Impressions: Fat Pop (Volume 1) Deluxe Edition by Paul Weller
14. First Impressions: Downhill From Everywhere by Jackson Browne
15. First Impressions: For Free by David Crosby
16. First Impressions: Carnegie Hall by Neil Young
17. First Impressions: Barn by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
18. From the Archives: CSNY’s Looking Forward
19. First Impressions: American Siren by Emily Scott Robinson
20. First Impressions: Sara Bug – self-titled
21. First Read: Old Monarch by Courtney Marie Andrews
22. The Fogelberg Files: Nether Lands
23. The Essentials: Chapter Two and Quiet Fire by Roberta Flack
24. Delayed Plays: The Copper Album by Hank Erwin
25. R.I.P. Nanci Griffith

One addendum: By year’s end, my Remember December: Album(s) of the Year post should surpass my Nanci Griffith remembrance and possibly pass the Hank review, as it’s a stone’s throw away from both.