100 Great Milwaukee music makers: the headline says it all.

As we enter not only a new year, but also a new decade, it seemed like a good time to reflect on Milwaukee's musical past.

So, here is a list of 100 great bands and musicians who have created Milwaukee's musical landscape and -- in many cases -- helped the world at large appreciate the cream of the Cream City crop.

Any discussion of great music is a subjective one. Who I like isn't necessary who you like and we might both disagree with Drew Olson, for example. So, I fully expect that you will have something to say about this list of musicians and bands who are from Milwaukee and / or work (or have worked) in Brew City's clubs and concert halls. And I encourage you to say it, using the Talkback feature at the bottom.

Let me say up front that I have included a few of whom I'm not necessarily a big fan, but whose contribution to Milwaukee music earns them the right of inclusion. I'll let you figure out who they are.  Also, you'll notice that the list is in alphabetical order. I have not made any judgments about any one entry being better or more important than any other.

Stay tuned and you'll see a second list in coming weeks, too.

1. .357 String Band, raucous bluegrass-infused rock and roll
2. A-G-2-A-Ke, an early Brew City hip-hop group
3. Ernie Adams, jazz drummer
4. Adekola Adedapo, jazz singer
5. Bad Boy, '70s rockers
6. The Barnburners, Richard LaValliere's short-lived, post-Haskels band
7. The Baroques, psychedelic group signed to Chess Records
8. Black Elephant, defunkt (de-trunked?) hip-hop group
9. The Blackholes, Mark Shurilla's punk-era combo
10. Eric Blowtorch, long-time punk, reggae rocker
11. Blue in the Face, Mike Benign's best band
12. Bodeans, you know them
13. The Bonnevilles, Milwaukee's first rock band and Buddy Holly labelmates
14. Junior Brantley, keyboard player with The Fabulous Thunderbirds
15. John Calarco, session drummer
16. Gerald Cannon, jazz bassist, bandleader and member of McCoy Tyner's group
17. The Carnival Strippers, all-star Milwaukee band fronted by Loey Nelson (aka John Norquist's sister), had a song in the film "Speed"
18. Paul Cebar, perhaps Milwaukee's most recognizable voice
19. James Chance/James White, New York no wave saxman and singer
20. La Chazz, Latin jazz combo
21. Cherry Cake, hard rockin' '80s outfit
22. Cincere, modern R&B star in the making
23. Citizen King, late, lamented funk rock band
24. Compound Red, early '90s punks
25. Codebreaker, Milwaukee's gift to dance music
26. Couch Flambeau, one of the punk era's funniest and most endearing bands
27. The Danglers, experimental rock and roll
28. De La Buena, Afro-Cuban jazz
29. Decibully, modern rock in every good sense of that phrase
30. Die Kreuzen, punk gone metal, perhaps one of Milwaukee's most internationally respected bands
31. Claude Dorsey, jazz pianist
32. E*I*E*I*O, proto-alt.country band
33. Einstein's Riceboys, post-punk art rock
34. Element, the queen of Milwaukee hip-hop
35. Manty Ellis, jazz guitarist
36. Howie Epstein, member of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers
37. The Esquires
38. Berkeley Fudge, jazz saxophonist
39. Jack Grassel, jazz guitarist
40. Jerry Harrison, member of Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers
41. The Haskels, THE Milwaukee punk band
42. The Honest Disgrace, post-punk outfit featuring Ray Krahn and Anne Hetzel, to name a few
43. International Jet Set, ska and soul -- fronted by Kings Go Forth's Dan Fernandez
44. Gintas Janusonis, jazz and R&B session drummer now in New York
45. Al Jarreau, well, sure, you know him
46. Mark Johnson, jazz drummer with a long list of credits. Son of ...
47. Scat Johnson, jazz guitarist
48. Reed Kailing, member of The Grass Roots, Badfinger, Player and others
49. Pee Wee King, country music star
50. Kings Go Forth, one of the latest signings from Milwaukee
51. Greg Koch, blues guitarist and teacher
52. John Kruth, back in New York but for a time Milwaukee's punk troubadour
53. The Legends, 1960s Milwaukee "Mersey Beat" band with great harmonies, signed to Capitol
54. Jim Liban, blues harmonica player
55. Liberace, if I have to tell you ...
56. Little Artie & the Pharaohs, says Bruce Cole, "introduced Milwaukee kids to James Brown and Bobby Bland"
57. The Lovelies, fronted by Liv Mueller with Damian Strigens on the drums ... 'nuff said
58. Brian Lynch, jazz trumpeter
59. The Masonic Wonders, Milwaukee gospel band
60. Sam McCue, erstwhile Legends frontman and later played with The Everly Brothers
61. Verne Meisner, polka's own...
62. Steve Miller, The Joker, the midnight toker
63. Milwaukee Slim, blues guitarist
64. Modern Values, fronted by Dean Schlabowske (Waco Brothers, Wreck) and Jim Warchol (Sometime Sweet Susan, Loam) ... definitely one of Milwaukee's best post-punk bands
65. Andy Noble, bassist, DJ and record store owner
66. The Oil Tasters, Richard LaValliere, Guy Hoffman on drums and Caleb Alexander's sax made the Oil Tasters a blueprint for Morphine
67. Old Man Malcolm, if you think the turntable isn't an instrument, you haven't heard Malcolm
68. Les Paul, he has a guitar named after him, you know ...
69. Larry Penn, folk singer
70. Plasticland, psychedelic revivalists, still going after all these years
71. Robin Pluer, R&B Cadets songbird, now an interpreter of Piaf's work
72. Willy Porter, singer/songwriter of national note
73. George Pritchett, jazz guitarist
74. The Promise Ring, emo pioneers who crashed and burned on the heels of its best record
75. The R&B Cadets, one of the city's best-loved party, club and festival bands
76. Mel Rhyne, jazz organist who worked with no less than Wes Montgomery
77. The Ricochettes, first generation Brit Pop
78. The Robbs, a '60s band born in Oconomowoc, house band on Dick Clark's "Where The Action Is"
79. Sonia Robinson, jazz violinist
80. The Rusty Ps, hip-hop stalwarts
81. Harvey Scales, R&B singer
82. Semi-Twang, John Sieger's songs took them to California and Warner Brothers Records
83. The Shags, 1960s band sometimes credited as the city's psychedelic pioneers
84. John Sieger, see Semi Twang and R&B Cadets, Sieger is a respected songwriter and temporary Nashvillian
85. Leland Sklar, session bassist (Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and many others)
86. Sigmund Snopek, multi-instrumentalist prog rocker, member of The Bloomsbury People and long-time Violent Femmes collaborator
87. Sometime Sweet Susan, noisy but still song-driven early '90s rock and roll
88. Squares, 1980s Indiana transplants inspired by Costello, Morrison, Dylan, Squeeze
89. Daryl Stuermer, of Sweetbottom and, oh yes, some group called Genesis
90. The Thousandaires, featuring Sage Schwarm, the Nobles, etc. Fine short-lived band
91. Jason Todd, saxman and hip-hopper
92. Chris Twining, he of the Straight Edge Feminists and the quirkiest singer/songwriter of the Cream City '80s
93. Al Vance, bassist and founding member -- with Harvey Scales -- of the Seven Sounds
94. The Velvet Whip, known as much for its stage presence as its sometimes wandering psychelic, hippy-hippy shake
95. Violent Femmes, if you have to ask ...
96. Mark Waldoch, of The Celebrated Workingman, The Mustn'ts and others. A voice and a personality like no other
97. Wild Kingdom, the best ska funk band Milwaukee ever did see. Matched Fishbone at its own game
98. Babyface Willette, jazz organist
99. Juli Wood, saxophonist
100. The Wooldridge Brothers, Squares offshoot featuring duo of fine roots rock songwriters