Here are my picks for 10 best national, local and reissued releases of 2011. Enjoy.

Their names are often scribbled at the bottom of the show posters in marker or in italics on the venue website. Sometimes they're a complete surprise.

KDHX invited an eclectic group of St. Louis musicians to weigh in on their favorite concerts of the year. A formidable task, to be sure.

The lilting harmonies and hazy, soft-focus nostalgia of Trotting Bear's sound may at first seem a bit familiar -- after all, thanks to artists like Sam Beam, the genre of subdued folk music has slipped into mainstream consciousness.

Stoner rock gets dark and doomed in the sound of Damned Holy Rollers. The band is on a mission to take St. Louis on a heavy trip, late into the rock 'n' roll night.

Relive the year in live music with the music photographers of KDHX. This epic gallery has highlights of 2011 concerts in St. Louis and the midwest.

Obviously, 2011 has been a phenomenal year for artists releasing stellar albums in St. Louis. Here's the local albums this year that caught our ears over and over again.

In Part 2 of this exchange of letters, Pokey LaFarge and I correspond about genres, St. Louis bricks, film scores and baseball.

Outside of Euclid Records in the summer of 2011, I was reading the liner notes to "Middle of Everywhere," a new album at the time by Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three.

You better not cry, you better not pout -- it's Christmas time again and Celia's Yuletide Express is in town.