Live.
Obviously, Caspars first-ever live show of Neil Young is right up there. As he wrote in his blog in June (Casparlive: Neil Young and Crazy Horse), it wasn't the best show ever, but what a joy to see your old hero still rocking. To realize that his songs are still vivid, his guitar solos still long and loud, and his band of brothers Crazy Horse still the compact rocking motor they always were.
Old, but new (to me).
I can't help to think sometimes that you essentially know it all. Back when I was still a teenager, I remember discovering Lou Reed, when my brother bought New York, the album. I also remember hearing Nick Drake for the first time (when a friend-in-the-band played it to me), but it had been a while since I discovered something new, but old, that blew me of my socks. Somehow, in 2013, I came across the band Television, with their album Marquee Moon (1977). Great double-guitar work, great songs, punky attitude, and , a psycho drive to the vocals. Old, but new to me!
New, in the 2013 sense of the word. I guess that must have been Brendan Benson. I knew the name before, but only in 2013 did I discover his own music, both on CD, as live. What makes me very happy, is that Benson was good, but not at his best when Caspar saw him live (casparcritique Brendan Benson live), but he took a good revenge organizing a gig with special guests like his musical buddy Jack White, Jacob Dylan, and Ken Stringfellow, amongst others. Plus, he recorded a great new album called You Were Right. Great that I finally got to get to know you, BB, you're my personal new-comer of the year!
Best debut 2013.
As far as you know Caspar, you know that it usually takes some time before he decides it's a thumbs up, or not. So, for him to actually pick something brand new, is quite difficult. Well, to be honest, he made a very swift pick choosing Jonathan Wilson, but after he discovered that Wilson's 2013 album Fanfare wasn't his debut, it took some time to find something else. But, as Caspar's good friend Niels'd say: pick one or die, the best debut for Caspar was by a Dutch guy called Jacco Gardner. A young lad using gear from the sixties, sounding like early Pink Floyd, but with his own quality song material.
Dead in 2013.
Unfortunately, but unavoidably so, the world will have to do without a number of great musicians. Lou Reed, Ray Manzarek, George Duke, just to name a few. On a personal note, Caspar said that the death of JJ Cale, fantastic songwriter and guitarist, was his biggest loss of the year. You might consider that Lou Reed, with his revolutionary work, his legacy with so many historic albums, is the bigger star. But that is exactly why Caspar chose Cale; JJ felt more like a friend, easily approachable, sweet, laidback guitar tunes, and, don't forget, some classical tunes to his name!
Finally, a personal highlight of the year is when I met up with Jelle Paulusma, singer-wongwriter from Amsterdam, to be interviewed in Het Parool. We talked about his former band Daryl-Ann, and how his relation was to Anne Soldaat, the 'other' singer-songwriter from Daryl-Ann, nowadays. His answer was that they were on 'speaking terms'. Only about two months later they announced their plans for reuniting the band in 2014! (Jelle: too bad your new CD is postponed because of this ;-)) 
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