Best of 2015: My favourite concert pictures, albums and songs of the year

It's the last day of 2015 and so it's an appropriate day to reflect on the year that's passed and look forward to the year that's coming. My list of concerts and albums that I'm looking forward to in 2015 is already growing quite nicely. I saw over 150 bands this year. I got to photograph most of them. Overall, it was a really good year for me and I hope it was for you, too. All the best for 2016.

Here are links to my best of posts for 2015.

Favourite Concert Photos of 2015

Favourite Songs of 2015

Favourite Albums of 2015

Thanks once again to everyone who visits this site, follows me on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, everyone who lets me into shows, everyone who works at the venues I go to, and everyone who politely allows me to photograph around them. Thanks, of course, to the artists who continue to create music that lifts our spirits and moves our hearts, minds and bodies.

I'll leave you with my top five favourite songs of 2015.

5. "Giant Peach" by Wolf Alice

4. "Leave a Trace" by Chvrches

3. "Flesh without Blood" by Grimes

2. "Get Better" by Frank Turner

1. "Bros" by Wolf Alice

TURF 2015: Day 3 Compendium - Concert Pictures

The end of The Toronto Urban Roots Festival always brings mixed emotions. There's the exhaustion that comes from shooting over thirty bands in just a few days, the looming task of going through thousands of pictures to find the right ones to post and the elation of having seen some incredible bands in a fantastic, downtown Toronto setting, at an amazingly well-run festival with a wonderful vibe.

The third day of TURF's outdoor festival presented a great line-up of artists and was rain-free, too. Here are links to each of my posts on the bands of TURF day 3. Enjoy!

The Pixies

Neko Case

Heartless Bastards

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Punch Brothers

Hop Along

SATE

Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins

And in case you missed them, don't forget to go back and experience Day 1, including the Club Bonus Series and Preview Series, and Day 2 through my camera's eye.

Cover Me Impressed Set 2: Sam Cash and the Romantic Dogs, SATE, The Elwins, Brendan Canning, Andrew Cash, Jim Cuddy, Devin Cuddy, Sam Polley - Concert Pictures

Collective Concerts and Indie 88 presented the second annual Cover Me Impressed show at Lee's Palace on Boxing Day. It's a charity show for SKETCH Working Arts and the Daily Bread Food Bank. I'm writing a post for each of the two sets performed that night. The second set featured the host band Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs, SATE, members of The Elwins, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Andrew Cash, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley. In case you missed it, check out my post on the first set.

Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs started off with Carol King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and Tom Petty's "The Waiting".

Sate came out on stage next to unleash her powerful performance on the crowd. For this show she covered Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits", Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and a tune I knew was going to be incredible, a powerhouse rendition of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". Both Sate and the band put out such an incredible performance. Amazing. Sate is playing The Horseshoe on Friday, January 22. Do yourself a favour and go to that show.

Three members of The Elwins joined Sam Cash and the band next for renditions of "Keep Fishin'" by Weezer, "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" by Rooney and "22" by Taylor Swift. These guys are always fun and everyone seems to love a Taylor Swift cover.

Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene and many other bands was up next. He performed Wilco's "Passenger Side" followed by a great rendition of the Gordon Lighfoot classic "Sundown". For his intro of his third tune, Brendan paraphrased Bono from The Unforgettable Fire, "The Barenaked Ladies stole this song from Bruce Cockburn. I'm stealing it back." Unfortunately, the reference was lost on most of the audience so he just launched into Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time".

The next part of the show saw the biggest names on the bill take to the stage, and it was extra-special because of the father-son duos. Sam Cash was joined by his father Andrew Cash and Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy brought along his sons Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley.

They started off with Andrew Cash leading the well-covered "Eve of Destruction" and Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding".

Devin took lead vocal duties for "It's Money That I Love" by Randy Newman. The setlist has The Flying Burrito Brothers' "My Uncle" up next but my memory is failing me on whether they actually played that tune. There was an awful lot of music going on.

They then played Hank Williams III's "Crazed Country Rebel" with Sam Polley on lead vocals, "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello with Jim Cuddy on lead vocals, who continued with Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" and they invited everyone who had played through the evening up to the stage for the finale of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone".

The second annual Cover Me Impressed was such a great night with so much amazing talent, all for a good cause. I'm looking forward to next year already.

Cover Me Impressed Set 1: Sam Cash and the Romantic Dogs, Autumn Stones, Union Duke, Fast Romantics, Ian Blurton - Concert Pictures

Collective Concerts and Indie 88 presented the second annual Cover Me Impressed show at Lee's Palace on Boxing Day. It's a charity show for SKETCH Working Arts and the Daily Bread Food Bank. I'm writing a post for each of the two sets performed that night. The first set featured the host band Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs, members of The Autumn Stones, members of Union Duke, Matt Angus of Fast Romantics and Ian Blurton of Public Animal, C'mon and Change of Heart,

Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs took to the stage to start things off with one of my favourite tunes of all time, Nick Lowe's "Cruel to be Kind", followed by Graham Parson's "Local Girls" and Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic". Great start to what would turn out to be a fantastic night of music.

Members of The Autumn Stones were up next with "Babies" by Pulp, "The Cutter" by Echo and the Bunnymen and "She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses. Their covers featured some great sax; a different one for each tune.

Members of Union Duke jokingly tried their best to pass off their cover songs as their own, but no one was having it. They performed Bruce Springsteen's "The River" followed by Bahamas' "Little Record Girl" and closed with The Wallflowers' "One Headlight". They were truly in the Christmas spirit with some great Christmas sweaters.

Matt Angus of Fast Romantics joined Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs next for their rendition of the Sam Cooke classic "Bring it on Home", Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" (another all-time favourite of mine) and Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City". All great renditions of classic tunes.

Local alternative rock / guitar god Ian Blurton closed out the main set with a killer duo of tunes. He handed a cowbell to an audience member for the MORE COWBELL tune of Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", another of my all-time favourites, followed by Thin Lizzy's "Rosalie". I love listening to Ian Blurton perform in any of his projects - Change of Heart, C'mon and Public Animal - and this was no different. Very rockin' versions of some awesome tunes with most excellent guitar playing.

And with that, Set 1 came to a close. So far so good. A tight, well organized set of great covers by a wide range of artists. This was going to be a great night.