Exposing songs from Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 list of 2016

Indie music is…well, independent to the point it adds additional responsibilities to the artist to expose their tunes to the masses. Sometimes that comes with ease. Sometimes that’s an afterthought.

I cited the other day when talking about Gypsy Star, keeps a competitive Top-40 list (which listeners and web visitors vote on). At the end of the year, the songs that rank highest in votes on the Top 40 are piled into a Top 100 song list. The site has a page devoted to the listings from several years – though the lists are graphics and somewhat illegible. It doesn’t really get the songs out there or make it easy for you to actually find them online.

This post is an attempt at changing that. I’ve taken the 2016 Top 100 listing from Music Tampa Bay and converted the image to an actual list. To build on that, to actually expose the artists who ranked so well to make this list, I’ve hyperlinked to as many of the songs as I could find.

While these are supposed to be Tampa Bay based artists, some have national attention (Four Star Riot among others). Also, while this list was for 2016 – some of the songs were published before then and I don’t mean just a year earlier.

The ranking of the songs itself is based off of votes cast in the Top 40 listing. I can’t say this was pure song rankings, or as if there was no “fix” regarding the top 10; don’t take the order as an opinionated or fine performance ranking. It’s just voting.

As of this writing, 80 out of the 100 songs are linked to so you can take them in yourself. I’ve linked to YouTube most of the time, but other places such as Reverb Nation and Soundcloud also get linking. Spotify contains many of the songs, including non-linked songs (I decided against using Spotify due to the forced registration to use the service). Some of those unlinked songs also are readily available on commercial sites such as Amazon or iTunes – this isn’t a sales-pitch though, so I didn’t link to any of that either.

Some of these songs, despite being listed as Top 100 and having age and radio play on Music Tampa Bay (at least) had never been viewed on YouTube by the time I crossed them while compiling this piece. Some came off as deeply hidden.  It sort of furthers the point of limited exposure.

This article remains an ongoing project as I’d like to get music genre listed next to each song… I mean, c’mon! You’ve likely never heard of most (if not all) of these artists and you’re not exactly encouraged to blindly click to a song. At least knowing it’s supposed to be pop, rock, country, folk, etc. will encourage where you go.

Also, as this remains an ongoing project, if you can provide a link for a non-linked song that would be great. Just use comments below or contact me via email with a link.

Music Tampa Bay Top 100 Tracks of 2016

1. Tampa (The Perfect City For Me) — Sal & Marvell (pop)
2. Bossa — Gypsy Star (folk / rock)
3. Comin’ Round Again — Paul Cataldo (rock)
4. On My Way — Jimmy Pickett and the Great Lakes Band
5. Big Booty Is My Kryptonite — Highly Rhythmic White Boys (country)
6. Tricks the Girl — Rebekah Reid (rock)
7. Latest Regret — Rosewood Creek (folk)
8. My People — Rosewood Creek (folk)
9. Drones — Not Broken Yet (folk rock)
10. Home is Still Home to Me — Kameron Williams (country)
11. Old Dog Walkin — Stephens & Worrall
12. Unanswered — Will Erickson (country)
13. Ecstatic Fanatic — Koncrete Kite (rock)
14. Moto Jones — Das Funk Haus (rock)
15. Red Cherokee — Highly Rhythmic White Boys (country_
16. Blowin’ Them a Kiss — Rebekah Reid (country)
17. No More — Leigh Humes (folk)
18. Real Man — Paul Guy Bovee (country)
19. You Know Why — Steve Humes (country)
20. Crooked Woman — Will Erickson (alt. country)
21. Til The Place Falls Down — Crushing Myrna (rock)
22. Sometimes Sleep Don’t Come Easy — Rosewood Creek (folk)
23. The Art of Self Undoing — American Song Box (acoustic)
24. 2 Birds — Ricky Wilcox and The Moonsnakes (rock)
25. Rescue Me – Mr. Grumpy (rock)
26. Waves — The Cruz Brothers (rock)
27. Bye Bye My Love – Kurt
28. No Way Out — Robert Andrew (rock)
29. Rock Jam Boo – The Goldilocks Project (rock)
30. End Times — Baluja & Small (folk)
31. Heartbreak — Tyler Costanzo
32. When The Sun Goes Down — Amber Lynn Nicols (rock)
33. Haircut — Pretty Voices (rock)
34. Mad House — Savi 
35. Highway 59 – J Klein (country)
36. Too Much To Do – Jimmy Pickett and the Great Lakes Band
37. Wolf Bite — The Ekos (rock)
38. Mr. Delaware — Dean Johanesen ()
39. Together In The End — John Kelly ()
40. I Am Who I Am — Hatley (rock)
41. Completely — Mike! Soulhop
42. Earthbound — Lenny Austin
43. Tell Me I’m One — Debbie Hood
44. Don’t Cry Wolf — Charlie Souza (rock)
45. Any Life Out There — UCM2 (rock)
46. Darke County Fair — Bath Salt Zombies (rock)
47. Happy (Like You) — Gale Trippsmith (pop)
48. Jealousy — Tyler Costanzo ()
49. Ambivalent — Fowlers Bluff (rock)
50. Guys Like You — Amber Lynn Nicols (rock)
51. Devil’s At The Crossroads — Franc Robert (blues)
52. I Will Love — John Kelly ()
53. Before We Lose Our Mind — The Hip Abduction (slternative)
54. Let Your Freedom Ring — Swearingen & Kelli (folk)
55. Love at 16 — Zack Biss ()
56. Beach Bum — Funky Seeds ()
57. Another Dream is Broken — Steve Arvey (pop)
58. Baby Don’t Leave — Experimental Pilot (rock)
59. Can’t Take It With You — Hardtale (rock)
60. Crash and Burn — Mr Bella (rock)
61. Drawn By Desire — Steve Roberts (Steve Terrapin) (rock)
62. I’d Rather Be Lucky — Dave Williamson ()
63. Lost at Sea — Dave Williamson ()
64. Torn — Rob Kosinski ()
65. Fool – Charlie Morris ()
66. Last Song — Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues
67. Why Are You Staring — Bobby Smith
68. Can’t Hide Your Love — Alex Lopez ()
69. Don’t Go – Zack Biss (country)
70. I Promised Myself – Mark Doran (folk)
71. Let’s Get It Together – Butch Ryan
72. Lovin’ Man – Shelly Starks (country)
73. Mystic Mistress – Charlie Souza (rock)
74. OK With Everything – Ted Lukas ()
75. Open – Ed Woltil ()
76. Satan’s Silk – Mia Bury ()
77. Stereophonic – Four Star Riot (alternative)
78. Sweet & Sour Sugarcane – Brianna Rah ()
79. Sweet Romance – Pete Merrigan ()
80. The Sea – Alan Craig Project ()
81. U R Amazing – Mike! Soulhop (pop)
82. Waiting For You – Sunshine & Bullets ()
83. When I Saw You See Me – Brooke Ramel ()
84. Counting Clouds – Shane Meade & The Sound (acoustic)
85. Cried Like Rain – Jack Speer (sung by Joshua Rush) ()
86. Cross The Line – Crushing Myrna (rock)
87. Equilibrium – Trigger City Trio (rock / funk)
88. Find Some Peace – Ben Bryan Band (folk)
89. Holiday – Hip Abduction (raggae)
90. I Will Not Go Down — Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band (folk rock)
91. In Bird’s Eye — The Ditchflowers (pop)
92. In Your Arms – Four Star Riot (alt)
93. Monsters – Ashley Lauren (R&B)
94. Runaway Queen – Shane Meade & the Sound ()
95. Runnin’ Wild – Michael McMagic (rock)
96. Something So Right – Four Star Riot (alternative)
97. The Curse of the Immigrant – Brendan Nolan ()
98. This Boat – Guitar Sal Belloise ()
99. Trigger City Funk – Trigger City Trio (rock / funk)
100. Who I Am – Skydogs 25 (rock)