Why 33? Damned if I know. That's how many I ended up feeling worth mentioning, which is a lot for me. Good year. And maybe the year with more established performers than any other in a while. Maybe I just faced the fact that I never had any cred, or maybe some old explorers came up with some new bags of beads.

These are numbered, but could be shuffled around in pretty much any order:


33) Glenn Campbell – Ghost On The Canvas
32) Amos Lee – Mission Bell
31) Middle Brother – S/T
30) Mountain Goats – All Eternal Deck
29) Steve Earle – I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
28) Ben Sollee – Inclusions
27) Abigail Washburn – City Of Refuge
26) Daniel Martin Moore – In The Cool Of The Day
25) K.D. Lang & The Siss Boom Bang – Sing It Loud
24) Old Calf – Borrow A Horse
23) Hugh Laurie – Let Them Talk
22) The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
21) Deep Dark Woods – The Place I Left Behind

Shuffling a couple these wouldn't make much difference, but pretty solidly valued as is:

20) Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps: Dulli doing what he does well. This one has worked for me when I want to crank some shit up and act degenerate.

19) Willie Nile – The Innocent Ones: A lot of positive national press on this latest one, and I'm glad to see it. No secret that I love Willie's music, and this has some pretty great stuff on it, such as the anthem, “One Guitar”. I'm put off by the vocals taken by someone else through the album, though. I don't buy a Willie Nile album to hear someone else singing, particularly when the voice isn't appealing.

18) Joseph Arthur – The Graduation Ceremony: Stylistically a bit more sparse than his previous few releases, this one is getting more plays here than when I first got hold of it. Solid all the way.

17) Robbie Robertson – How To Become Clairvoyant: Yeah, yeah, haters, fuck you. This is Robertson, and I like it, even with the blemishes I hear in the at-times heavy-handed production and the fact that Clapton sings a bit.

16) Joe Henry – Reverie: If I have a bone to pick with this album, it's probably that this Henry is starting to sound like the previous Henry, which sounded like the previous... still, a very good album.

15) Bill Callahan – Apocalypse: I have to admit to not having heard much of any of this guy's music; surprising since he's been around as long as he has. At any rate, this has a bunch of textures stacked one on another, some rocking moments, and is growing on me.

14) Cowboy Junkies – Sing In My Meadow: The Nomad Series, Volume 3: I've never been a fan of the Junkies, just couldn't connect, but the Chesnutt covers thing they did last year (?) was really fine, and they seem to be hitting everything right on this album of originals.

13) A.A. Bondy – Believers: Dark, moody, and well-suited for playing after midnight with a bottle of cheap bourbon and a bellyful of disdain for mostly everything else.

12) The Waterboys – An Appointment With Mr. Yeats: Scott's long-time project setting Yeat's poetry to music finally gets completed. There's self-indulgence at work here, but Scott's never shied away from Big Things. The latest line-up he assembled is as good as any other through the years; in particular, the addition of vocalist Katie Kim is a perfect fit.

11) John Hiatt – Dirty Jeans & Mudslide Hymns: Strongest performance since Crossing Muddy Waters, Hiatt found some of the grit he'd misplaced on the last few records.

10 through 1 after I throw a few words at each of them.

I'm morbidly curious about this one.



I'm definitely not a hater with Robbie, despite giving the world heavy ammo to use against him. This album though, I couldn't get through it. I don't know what happened here.



Definitely need to hear these.

And the rest...

10) Ry Cooder – Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down: with a dizzying array of musical styles draped over some pretty angry, even revolutionary, topical lyrics, this is a much easier listen for me than his previous 3.

9) Jeffrey Foucault – Horse Latitudes: An album of originals, as opposed to the covers that Foucault has been doing for the last couple albums, and fine originals they are. A stew of folk and rootsy rock and roll, Van Dyke Parks shows up to play keyboards.

8) Eliza Gilkyson – Roses At The End Of Time: Just about a lead-pipe cinch that a 60-ish year old folkie singer/songwriter's latest release won't show up on anyone else's list here. This album has gotten a BUNCH of listening since it showed up. Great songs, and the recording is sonically wonderful as well. The allmusic review summarized my feelings pretty well:

“If a new artist released an album as strong and well-crafted as Roses at the End of Time as their debut, they'd likely be hailed as a major new force on the contemporary singer/songwriter scene.”

7) Paul Simon – So Beautiful, So What: After churning out mediocre music for..., well, a long damn time, Simon went somewhere and got reminded he could write fine pop music. Then he went into a studio with a superb backing band and recorded them.

6) Garland Jeffreys – The King of In Between: God bless Garland- this one is being deservedly well-received. I may have rated it higher, but the cover of Rock On is absolutely inexcusable and pisses me off every time I play this otherwise dead-nuts perfect album.

5)Tom Waits – Bad As Me: It's good to listen to a Waits album that I don't feel like a need a handful of Seconal and a pint of Cisco beforehand. His best album in a while, and that's saying a lot.

4) Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath The Willow: This has been discussed in depth over the last several months, and it deserves that discussion; more so, it deserves hearing. By a lot more folks than I imagine will end up doing that.

3) Lucinda Williams – Blessed: One more in the “yeh, haters, fuck you” category. Her best effort since World Without Tears. And she finally dumped that wanker Pettibone.

2) Hayes Carll – KMAGYOYO: An early-year release that might have been forgotten with all the rest of the year's great music, but not around here. Stays in steady rotation. Carll started out strong several years ago, and he keeps getting better.

1) Bobby Bare, Jr.- A Storm, A Tree, My Mother's Head: Another early-year release, and another one that damn sure isn't forgotten. While the quirkiness is still in evidence, and the fractured humor still shows up, there's an underlying confidence in these songs that I hadn't previously heard in Bare Jr.'s music. And those MMJ boys sure make a hell of a backing band.

Lots of stuff I need to find on here.

Overlap between our lists (at least the one in my head):

Daniel Romano
Joe Henry
Ry Cooder
Garland Jeffreys

I like that Robbie Robertson album fine and if I actually made a list and went deep enough it would be on it, doubt it would be top 20 though.

I suspect I'd like more if I'd actually heard more of these. I didn't really care for that Willie Nile though and I could have sworn that BBJ was from 2010.

I thought the Bobby Bare, Jr. was last year?

Damn. It is. Either cut it off and renumber everything, or else disregard everything in this thread- the author is a fucking moron. I blame the cachaca.

It's good enough to be included for two years.

I didn't even like that BBJ that much so I'd prefer to cut if off and renumber everything. As long as i'm going to renumber things in my head, I think I'll just slide the Daniel Romano and Garland Jeffreys up to 1 & 2, respectively.

Now, goddammit, I may be a moron, but I'm an opinionated moron.

Always humbles me to see shit I've never even heard of on a list like this that I know is chock full of greatness.

Some days, I fucking hate how much I love music.

some good shit on here i still need to hear. agree with yail. so much good music out there.

Pretty sure that was my #1 last year. Excellent choice!

Totally missed that Willie Nile. I got overexcited about the Hugh Laurie record on first listen, and it didn't have any staying power for me.