Second Story Garage: Top music videos of 2014

We at Second Story Garage like to think we helped discover Billy Strings and Don Julin.

We hadn’t heard of the Michigan-based duo until a local music industry guy tipped us off. Then the young guitar scorcher Strings and bluegrass guru Julin (pictured to the left) came into the studio and set our hair on fire.Their rendition of “Little Maggie” has the most views by far of any 2014 performance in Second Story Garage. We bet a lot of SSG viewers were seeing the future-star Strings for the first time.

It’s impossible to predict which performances will become fan favorites. When we compiled the Garage’s most-viewed videos from 2014, the artists at the top turned out to be a wildly varied bunch.

In second place, after the acoustic countrified “Little Maggie,” is the darkly energized “Nowhere” by hipster goth-punks Ringo Deathstarr from Austin, Texas.

The next three are “Die Trying” by bluegrass supergroup John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band (pictured right); “Dance, Dance, Dance” by recent Colorado Music Hall of Fame inductee Chris Daniels and his band, The Kings (pictured below), and “Says She Loves Me” by Boston hip-hop pop duo Aer.

The official video for “Says She Loves Me” has more than 800,000 views, which helps explain how the Garage version by Aer’s David von Mering and Carter Schultz (pictured below) climbed the ranks.

Aer’s was an interesting session: We’ll just say that it was among the earliest to follow Colorado’s new marijuana laws, and 2014 in the Garage saw many touring bands evidently sampling the mile-high lifestyle.

We’ll also remember 2014 as a year when the caliber of acts in the Garage went through the roof. Yonder Mountain String Band, Boy & Bear, The Motet, Roosevelt Collier, Scars on 45, Elephant Revival, You Me & Apollo, Great American Taxi, Ark Life — some of the best local, national and international artists made a point to stop by the Garage in 2014.

We’re already planning an even better 2015. Stay tuned.

Sign up. Don’t miss out! Sign up for the Second Story Garage newsletter to keep up with local music news — show announcements, ticket sales information, previews, interviews and even an opportunity to sit in on a Second Story recording session. Sign up here.