Best CD


Important: This article was last updated on September 21, 2005. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.

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Readers' picks

Best Bar
 The Poor House, Fort Lauderdale

Best Concert Venue (Tie)
 Culture Room and Revolution, Fort Lauderdale

Best Rock Club
 Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale

Best Strip Club
The Cheetah III, Pompano Beach

Best Coffeehouse
 Chocolate Moose Music Café, Davie

Best Sports Bar
 Bru's Room, various locations

Best Movie Theater
 Muvico, various locations
 
Needle Bed by John Ralston
www.john-ralston.com

In a year that saw the release of some fine albums, Needle Bed is still head and shoulders above the rest. After his band Legends of Rodeo registered a blip on the mainstream-music radar by getting signed to a major label, the group ran into serious problems and disintegrated. Ralston recorded this album in the wake of that implosion, and the palpable heartache of Needle Bed pays testimony to the singer-songwriter's state of mind. Perhaps it was just the emotional set of circumstances that allowed Ralston to come up with such a touching work, but we'll take it any way we can get it. Needle Bed is a masterpiece.