Not a particularly notable year for me, with a few exceptions.

Cut and pasted from elsewhere, or it wouldn't be from the bottom up, and I'm too lazy to retype it:

20) Two Gallants~ What The Toll Tells- ended up sounding too much like a rehashing of their excellent The Throes album from 2004 for me to rate it any higher.

19) Guy Davis~ Skunkmello- nothing earth-shattering here, but some fine rootsy blues from Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee's son.

18- Damien Rice~ 9- Had high expectations for this that haven't been realized so far.

17) Todd Snyder~ The Devil You Know- Good, but hasn't gotten a lot of repeats.

16) Neko Case~ I hear a lot of diverging opinions on this one, but it really hasn't knocked me out like her earlier work did.

15) Drive-By Truckers~ A Blessing & A Curse- I still don't have any idea why I like these guys, but I do.

14) Frank Black~ Fastman/Raiderman- I'm actually just discovering Frank Black this past year. This is a very good set.

13) Magnolia Electric Company- Fading Trails- even moderately good Molina is better than 95% of anything else.

12) Josh Ritter~ Animal Years- I expected this one to go higher. It's very good, but couldn't quite crack my top ten.

11) Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit~ Needs more spinnage around here still.

10) Woven Hand~ Mosaic- Also needs more spinnage. An exhaustingly good album.

9) Jeffrey Foucault~ Ghost Repeater- This one came out of nowhere a couple of months ago- the songwriting really impressed me and continues to grow.

8- Handsome Family~ Last Days of Wonder- Not the Sparks family's best work, but damned good.

7) Willard Grant Conspiracy~ Let It Roll- If Fisher hadn't made the mistake of covering Dylan's Ballad Of A Thin Man on this, it would have been higher on my list. The title track is 9+ minutes of jaw-droppingly excellent music.

6) Joseph Arthur~ Nuclear Daydream- Needs more spinnage. The young man makes frightening and fine music.

5) Decemberists~ The Crane Wife

4) Alejandro Escovedo~ The Boxing Mirror- Another one that came out of the blue for me. Has gotten a lot of play-time around my house, and the sq is excellent on my system.

3) Hellwood~ Chainsaw of Life- I mean, really, Dowd and White weaving dark magic together...

2) Guy Clark~ Workbench Songs- Another masterpiece. enough said.

1) Willie Nile~ Streets of New York- Sometimes, early-in-the-year releases tend to get lost in the shuffle in the ensuing months. No danger of that happening here. Willie dropped the bucket down the rock n' roll well and pulled up an album that everyone else should have made, but didn't have the goods to.

Shit. I forgot to include Joseph Arthur...good choice.




Damn, I always have top 20 remorse after seeing other people's lists.

Sweet, gots me a shopping list. Except for that Decembrists abortion.

Haha...I know, I know. Stay away from the D. Rice as well- after I wrote this, I decided it is a monumental turd and it has no business on this list.