A Year In A Blog: BarryGruff’s 1st B/day

BarryGruff is one year old today. It is hard to believe really, the time has simply flown by. It’s been remarkable fun sharing music with you all, a task made much easier by all the great music being produced.

I have been completely blown away by the sheer volume and quality of music out there, particular here at home in Ireland. In the past I have guilty or treating much Irish music as a poorer relation to places like the UK. The past 12 months have set me right and proven, to me anyway, Ireland is more than capable of punching above its weight. Exciting times ahead I feel.

Apart from the day-to-day stuff of updating the blog I have been lucky enough to witness so many great live shows, four bloody festivals and be asked onto 98fm’s Totally Irish show, not to mention making the music shortlist for the Blog Awards.

How to celebrate such an auspicious occasion? I thought about sending out every ice-cream van in Ireland playing the same tune but it was too short notice. Instead, I decided to put together a mixtape compiled with some of my favourite songs from the past year. There are surely some glaring omissions particularly Irish stuff (I didn’t feel the need after the end of year Irish mixtape) and please forgive the dire lack of hip-hop. I hope you enjoy the mix as much as I did making it and the tracklisting is after the jump.

Finally BarryGruff would be nothing without its readers to whom I’m truly grateful for allowing me to indulge in this obsession of mine. Last but certainly not least, thanks to Stevie Moon for the wonderful artwork to accompany the post/mixtape.

BarryGruff – A Year In A Blog Mixtape