Music is awesome. And I'm still convinced that music is what i'm supposed to be doing with my life. Whether that's simply a delusion of grandeur or not, we'll see. But at this point, I'm convinced. The problem is, I don't know exactly what that's supposed to look like.

That's why out of all the side projects I worked on last year, 4 were musically related, including making a new Relevant Reverence CD, singing about presidential failures with Why Every President Sucked, creating brief bouts of newsical satire with News in Song, and writing music for Grace Church.

So, what's up for 2011? Probably all of these again. But I really want to focus this year on making a new album with my Relevant Reverence partner, Matt. Because I've been having a mini musical ephiphany lately, as I seek to understand why music is so awesome.

The idea that music is so universal. The fact that you ask someone "what kind of music do you like?" not simply, "do you like music?", because that's a given.

So, I want to spend this week looking at what makes particular songs 'great'. I hinted at this at the end of last year with my comparison to great songs as full-profile foods. The best dishes are always artistically layered. Deep. And yet taste incredibly simple.

I'm convinced that great music is the same way. Not to be confused with merely 'good' music, which can easily be a one-note entree. But I'm looking to determine the components behind great music, so I can start making it myself.

So, that's what I need from you today. The names of either great artists, or great songs. They can be from any genre. It doesn't matter. But you need to think they're great and start thinking about why you think so. We'll spend the rest of the week investigating the flavors.