The Best Americana of 2012

Every year, when we compile our Americana list, we wrestle with the question over what the hell counts as Americana music anyway. We also publish a Country list and a Bluegrass list, and naturally attempts to keep those lists distinct is a challenge. For instance, over on the country list, we stuck mostly to records by artists categorized as “country” in today’s marketplace, an inherently divisive issue within any genre as steeped in issues of identity and tradition as country music is. Still, this year’s country list included Justin Townes Earle’s not-very-country album and Iris DeMent’s country-as-hell album, despite the fact that neither of those records has a chance of fitting in with what most people are calling “country music” in 2012. So where does that leave “Americana”? Is this music that used to be called country, before country went classic rock? Or it anything that contains any kind of instrumentation traditionally associated with rural music? Does the presence of a steel guitar or a fiddle in a mellow-rock song make for Americana, the way a rural drawl in a singer’s voice in a rock anthem makes for new country music? Is blues still Americana? How about traditional folk? Singer-songwriter? Classic country? A check of our list below would seem to support any or all of the above. In fact, many of these records themselves sprawl from one subgenre to another. One thing is certain among all of this uncertainty: This stuff is experiencing new levels of mass popularity. Mumford & Sons has shot to the top line of the big festival lineups, and acts like Of Monsters and Men and the Lumineers aren’t far behind. Of course, such a point will only ignite more grumbling about whether a group of Brits or Icelanders who happen to throw a banjo into the mix should be allowed to define today’s Americana. Perhaps not. But Americana has always been a large umbrella that’s been expanded over and over, and in that spirit, we’ve expanded our list this time for the best Americana records of the year. Here are the great 2012 records that succeeded on their own terms, whatever you happen to call those terms. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Ray Wylie Hubbard

Album: Grifter’s Hymnal

Label: Bordello

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List Number: 25

Ray Wylie Hubbard
Grifter’s Hymnal

Forty years of life on the road, making music in dives and ditches, has only deepened the bourbon-bathed gumption and almighty carnality that whips Grifter’s Hymnal into such a greasy shitkicker of a country-blues record. Hubbard’s rascally posture, though, cannot obscure the raw-boned bite in his lyrics, a spirituous inspection of modern life and sex and God and rock-and-roll, all told with the poet’s trigger-happy eye for details. “Lazarus” is about the fall of America, “Train Yard” is about the fall of your pants, and “Coochy Coochy” is about getting a Beatle to guest on the album. Hubbard remains on a vertical comeback run, which seems to be both musically feral and fundamental, and at the hands of Hubbard, that’s a thoroughly kick-ass combination. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Band of Horses

Album: Mirage Rock

Label: Columbia

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List Number: 24

Band of Horses
Mirage Rock

To follow the success of 2010’s Infinite Arms, Band of Horses enlisted legendary producer Ethan Johns for the follow-up. Predictably, then, Mirage Rock is a tour through ‘70s Americana influences — the Eagles, Neil Young, Exile-era Stones — all made continually gorgeous by Ben Bridwell’s gift for melody and silver tenor, abetted by his Horses’ shiny harmonies. The Band burn bright with amalgamations of vintage guitars, folk stargazing, and wayfaring country-rock — rocking hard on the all-inclusive “Knock Knock” and sweeping the canyon with the ravishing Buffalo Springfield simulation, “Everything’s Gonna Be Undone”. This Mirage may have faded quickly from a congested scene, but a pile of vibrant rock and cosmic folk like this has every right to endure. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: The Tallest Man on Earth

Album: There’s No Leaving Now

Label: Dead Oceans

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List Number: 23

The Tallest Man on Earth
There’s No Leaving Now

Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Mattsen’s third full-length album as the Tallest Man on Earth finds him deepening his commitment to austere, homespun solo-acoustic folk, highlighting his new old Dylan vocals and his polished guitar fingerpicking. One could grumble that the five-foot-seven-inch Mattsen isn’t pushing his art into new directions, and indeed There’s No Leaving Now has an unchanging quality, but such concerns are rendered moot by songs so consistently pretty and skillfully performed. MOE does show some versatility here, like moving to the piano for the sublime title cut and adding some steel-guitar(ish) ambience to “Bright Lanterns”. Overall, Mattsen stretches out his cracked-poetry mumbo jumbo, and his new songs tend to be longer than before, so Leaving does heighten his craft, along with his voice, frequently mining the top of his range on songs like the stirring “1904”, a song that reaches new heights for The Tallest Man indeed. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Tempest

Label: Columbia

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List Number: 22

Bob Dylan
Tempest

After 50-plus years of constant praise and accolades, Dylan can still amaze, confound, and surprise listeners and critics alike. What’s more to say except that he follows his muse and drags those willing to follow along every bump, corridor, and crevice he wishes to explore. Here, he regales us with violent body counts, plots of revenge, crass sexually tinged come-ons (“I’m still hurtin’ from an arrow / That pierced my chest / I’m gonna have to take my head / And bury it between her breasts”), tributes to kindred spirits, and a horrifyingly graphic account of the sinking of the Titanic. It’s that unique mix of that “Old Weird America” that Dylan has been so adept at depicting. It’s a mixture of the old and sacred (like an archivist at the Smithsonian, he continues to gently crib from long-ago source material), and the dirty, seedy underbelly that has long been the flip side of living the American Dream. Clocking in at nearly 80 minutes, it’s also a long album, yet one that fascinates and keeps up the suspense, rather than meandering and shifting focus. And Dylan’s road-tested, gnarly back-up band keeps things genuinely frenetic throughout the affair, slicing in and out, and framing Dylan’s trademark croaks, yelps, and utterances with crackling intensity. There’s a lot of divide to Dylan these days, with many claiming his recent work measures up to the treasured masters of yesteryear. Just as many find his newer material difficult, obtuse, and often unlistenable. If the two factions can find agreement, it’s the fact that works like Tempest are never dull. Jeff Strowe

 

Artist: Joe Pug

Album: The Great Despiser

Label: Lightning Rod

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List Number: 21

Joe Pug
The Great Despiser

Chicago-based singer-songwriter Joe Pug begins his second LP, The Great Despiser with a bold proclamation: “If you are devoted to a dream / Go and light the lantern / Leave your family abandoned / Meet me by the shadow of the stream.” Following the spirit of song can be a tricky proposition that, for better or for worse, can engulf a life. You can dabble in the waters or you can jump fully in, and Pug seems to be committing to the latter with this solidly engaging album of spirited, acoustic folksongs and plaintively honest ballads. With overarching themes of accepting responsibility and coming-of-age emotional maturity, Pug’s characters stub their toes, get knocked down a notch, and make failed attempts at progression. However, they live to tell the tale, and rather than hang their heads in despair, they search out truths and wisdom in hopes that the same mistakes won’t again be repeated. Augmented by the deft production touches of Brian Deck, Pug’s straightforward and honest delivery makes these songs worth repeated spins, and in contrast to his previous album, the arrangements are a little more sprightly and rock-oriented. It’s Pug’s lyrics, though, that demand attention and seem to be hurtling his career in an upward direction. Jeff Strowe

20 – 16

Artist: The Pines

Album: Dark So Gold

Label: Red House

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List Number: 20

The Pines
Dark So Gold

The Pines remain one of indie-roots’ most overlooked groups, David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsey are Minneapolis-via-Iowa boys who pick delicate, spare acoustic guitars wrapped in glass-slide reverberations and gentle, haunting organ embellishments on these ten scorched-earth songs. The singers whisper their vocals for the most part, which help establish the alienation in lyrics set when late night becomes indistinguishable from early morning and there’s nothing left to lose. The Pines create patient songs — Delta blues drifts, lonely melodies, intertwining fingerpicked guitar, and shimmering brushed percussion. Coming of the excellent Tremelo (2009), Dark So Gold is another elegant, cohesive, and seductive record. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Brandi Carlile

Album: Bear Creek

Label: Sony

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List Number: 19

Brandi Carlile
Bear Creek

Recorded in a Washington cabin, Bear Creek, Brandi Carlile’s fourth album, is a twangier operation than her last time out. Brandi maintains, of course, much of the folk-pop charm that has gotten her here, and she has formidable weapons in her arsenal: a rich voice with an adorable knack for phrasing, a penchant for melodies that tickle your neurotransmitters, and twin musical monsters Tim and Phil Hanseroth backing her up. Plus, the big gorgeous piano ballads are here again, like lead single “That Wasn’t Me”, but Bear Creek makes this list for its country-folk moments, and there are plenty of priceless ones, including “Hard Way Home”, which finds Brandi tapping into her inner Loretta Lynn, and “Keep Your Heart Young”, the Hanseroths’ rustic John Prine-esque singalong. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: The Stray Birds

Album: The Stray Birds

Label: The Stray Birds

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List Number: 18

The Stray Birds
The Stray Birds

The Stray Birds, a folk-grass trio from rural Pennsylvania, are gaining traction for their self-titled debut, a collection that showcases the band members’ kindred dedication to traditional American folk music. Pastoral and literate, the Stray Birds sing three-part harmonies over drowsy fiddle and gentle clawhammer banjo with obvious reverence to ancient forms. Yet the Birds are young enough to have absorbed a number of folk-rock idioms, which show up now and then, as on the halcyon CSN-style harmonies of “My Brother’s Hill”. But let’s hear it for Maya de Vitry, a genuine talent on all fronts as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and singer. The sky’s the limit. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: John Fullbright

Album: From the Ground Up

Label: Blue Dirt

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List Number: 17

John Fullbright
From the Ground Up

Throughout the course of his debut LP, Fullbright, a twenty-something Oklahoman, wears his influences proudly on his sleeve. There’s some Randy Newman sardonic piano pop (“Fat Man”), Outlaw Country prophecy (“Satan and St. Paul”), and sly Guy Clark-esque longing (“Me Wanting You”). There’s also the Townes Van Zandt indebted album cover photo and the “can’t make this up” fact that his birthplace is indeed Okemah, Oklahoma that add to a surefire Americana hero. He’s also getting lots of recognition and the accompanying star power, as this album’s recent Grammy nomination can attest. However, the music is what matters most, and as much as Fullbright’s output can be traced back to source material, an original and authentic spirit shines through with each repeated listen. You may recognize the themes, and nod along with the sentiments, but appreciate the songcraft all the same. Like his forebears, Fullbright doesn’t cut corners and is willing to chase songs down those dark and troubling alleys. He may not have answers, but his spirited examinations of complex human emotions make for great musical exercises. Far from a derivative knock-off, Fullbright, alongside contemporaries like Justin Townes Earle and Hayes Carll, has positioned himself as a viable bearer of the torch. Jeff Strowe

 

Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Album: Americana

Label: Reprise

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List Number: 16

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Americana

Over the past year, Young has reconnected with his most ferocious sounding outfit for two albums, one composed of originals, and this one, a collection of familiar and beloved traditional folk-songs set to that jarring and pounding Crazy Horse backbeat. Here, Young makes the conscious effort to emphasize the forgotten or excised lyrics of sing-along anthems like “This Land Is Your Land”, “Clementine”, and “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (here titled “Jesus’ Chariot”), which gives these well-known standards a darker, more intense feel. It’s far from a somber affair, though, as infectious enthusiasm for the music is captured on tape throughout. It’s a wonder to listen to ol’ Neil growl his way through murder ballads, tales of revenge, and proclamations of civic pride. The recording is loose and free, with snippets of conversation between the band members left in for a live feel that makes the album glide by like a one-off, spur-of-the-moment show. Not everything works, namely the unfortunate stab at doo-wap in “Get a Job”, but for the most part, this is a classic band injecting a fresh take into old and comforting material. Jeff Strowe

15 – 11

Artist: Kelly Hogan

Album: I Like to Keep Myself in Pain

Label: Anti-

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List Number: 15

Kelly Hogan
I Like to Keep Myself in Pain

For Kelly Hogan’s new album, she asked 12 of her favorite songwriter friends to pen a new original tune for her to sing. The result is the scrumptious I Like to Keep Myself in Pain, and, despite that title, Hogan sounds perfectly at ease on one winner after another, expressing her toasty alto across a variety of torchy soul, folk-pop, and roots-rock styles. Hogan has long been one of alt-country singers’ favorite alt-country singers, backing up everyone is the business at one time or another, and on this set of songs, her buddies are lucky to have someone who hits these songs like Hogan — a refreshingly direct vocal interpreter, who grips respectfully to the melody, allowing her graceful phrasing and impeccable tone to carry the songs. And what songs! Highlights: Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin’s “Dusty Groove” and Robbie Fulks’ sultry “Whenever You’re Out of My Sight”. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Heartless Bastards

Album: Arrow

Label: Partisan

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List Number: 14

Heartless Bastards
Arrow

When you talk about barn-burners, Erica Wennerstrom and co. deliver an entire album’s worth on Arrow. The album is a blistering tour-de-force that despite its winter release, served as a perfect summer soundtrack in 2012, as the forcefulness of the sound played well in long car rides with the windows down or backyard beer and barbecue sessions. Designed to be played loud, the album’s tracks blister forth with searing guitar riffs, a pounding rhythm section, and even a bit of spacy jamming that rattles the bones and the floorboards. In an era where music is consumed largely through earbuds, headphones, and tinny laptop speakers, it’s cathartic to still flip in a CD or drop the needle and crank up the speakers to ten. Heartless Bastards have proven in the past that they can deliver on that performance, but this album showcases them consistently rocking out for the duration. There are a few subdued moments scattered throughout, particularly in opener, “Marathon”, but for the most part, Arrow impresses with its unabashed reckless energy and passion. Whether Wennerstrom is reflecting on the past, reveling in the abandon of a wild evening, or contemplating its aftermath, her words and emotions are backed with a thundering charge and a confident statement of purpose. Jeff Strowe

 

Artist: The Lumineers

Album: The Lumineers

Label: Dualtone

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List Number: 13

The Lumineers
The Lumineers

The Lumineers came up with the best record of the year from the post-Mumford throngs of indie-folk-rock start-ups. In fact, this Colorado outfit’s atmospheric, beguiling debut album came on so fully-formed that the band deserves both the tremendous popularity they enjoyed this year and the right to shed any accusations of following anyone’s lead. “Ho Hey” was the hit, but it’s only the beginning of a rewarding showcase of outstanding songwriting, Wesley Schultz’s tender vocals, and a steady stream of tasteful piano, cello, and acoustic guitars. The Lumineers is the kind of hazy alt-folk record that had zero chance of competing at the top of the charts five years ago, but in 2012, the iron is piping hot, and the Lumes delivered a hard, reverberant strike. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Father John Misty

Album: Fear Fun

Label: Sub Pop

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List Number: 12

Father John Misty
Fear Fun

John Tillman has already had a prolific ten years of recording, including a stint as the drummer for Fleet Foxes, but his romantic new album, recorded under new moniker Father John Misty, is a striking reboot. Sure, “Americana” might be a bit of a stretch for much of the material on Fear Fun, but the ambrosial Laurel Canyon atmosphere makes for a mellow delight, and for tunes like “Tee Pees 1-12”, Father John breaks out the fiddles and resurrects the ghost of Gram Parsons. FJM also got good wood on the bat with the Lennon-esque true-story “I’m Writing a Novel” and the distinctively gorgeous “Funtimes in Babylon”, a seize-the-day manifesto for everyone with 2012 apocalypse fever. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Patterson Hood

Album: Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance

Label: ATO

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List Number: 11

Patterson Hood
Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance

It’s been well documented, but the age of 27 seems to be a traumatic year for many artists and musicians. Those that are fortunate enough to make it through unscathed seem to use that age’s accompanying angst and confusion as a reference point for growth or as a line of demarcation indicating a before and after period. Though well past this infamous age, the genesis of Hood’s third solo album was borne out of the trails and tribulations of his 27th year, which was spent in Memphis digging in and out of personal torment. Hood’s original intentions were to center his feelings around a novel, but eventually he channeled these thoughts back to music. As both a solo artist, and in his day job with Drive-By Truckers, he’s been a songwriter with a novelist’s eye, and this collection is no exception as he populates the narrative with small-town boozehounds, faithless lovers, and self-destructive comrades. However, he’s careful not to kick these folks when they’re down and masterfully expresses the fragility of the human spirit. After all, we’re all capable of making bad decisions and heading down a troubled path. Hopefully, people pick you up along the way and it’s what you do with these new opportunities that make the most difference. Hood himself knows this better than most and expressed as much in the album’s accompanying press: “The songs begin in the period that the book was set in, but don’t end there, as they really just were the impetus for writing about the life I am living now and contrasting it with the troubled times of two decades ago.” That modern-day life he spoke of currently experiencing is best depicted in “Leaving Time”, a first-hand account of saying goodbye to the family, packing up the gear, and hitting the road for another tour. There’s a job to be done, and hopefully money to be made, but the price to pay is missing out on valuable time with the loved ones. It’s a sentiment that shows just how far one can come if the darkness of those earlier, wilder years can be overcome. Jeff Strowe

10 – 6

Artist: The Avett Brothers

Album: The Carpenter

Label: American

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List Number: 10

The Avett Brothers
The Carpenter

The Avetts followed their breakthrough, I and Love and You, by reteaming with producer Rick Rubin, but the Brothers insist on evolving, replicating neither the mountain-punk freakouts of their earliest records nor the epic pop grandeur of their last album. Instead, they’ve returned with a set of fireside tunes wrapped in organic, snuggle-folk environs. The Carpenter is understated, but nobody does open-hearted restraint like the Avetts, and bittersweet songs like “Winter in My Heart” and “February Seven” are songs that every country-folk-rock fan should be happy to toast. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Black Prairie

Album: A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart

Label: Sugar Hill

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List Number: 9

Black Prairie
A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart

Black Prairie started as a side project by three members of the Decemberists — dobroist Chris Funk, bassist Nate Query, and accordionist Jenny Conlee — as a way to explore their mutual love of progressive bluegrass styles between Colin Meloy’s writing bursts. Black Prairie’s first album, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon was the best gypsy-klezmer-newgrass album of 2010. Now with their sophomore release, the band expands their sound into some seriously gorgeous music, and as instrumentalists, they’ve graduated from mere Jerry Douglas worshippers to legitimate contenders. Much of the credit goes to the more prominent role of vocalist and violinist Annalisa Tornfelt, who helps make songs like “Rock of Ages” so knee-bucklingly beautiful. It’s a generous record of serious musical accomplishment, one of the most pleasant surprises in roots music this year. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Shovels & Rope

Album: O’ Be Joyful

Label: Dualtone

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List Number: 8

Shovels & Rope
O’ Be Joyful

The next big singer-guitarist and drummer duo is married couple Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, who make up Shovels & Rope. Hearst has been around a while as a solo artist, but in Trent she’s found a perfectly sympatico songwriting and vocal partner. She’s the tough-as-nails guitar player with a raspy vocal power and range that will make your hair stand on end. He’s the drummer and occasional guitar strummer who sings the soulful harmonies. These South Carolinians sound rural as hell, yet they aren’t afraid to turn up the indie-rock distortion so that at times their ticking-bomb blues-rockspeak makes like the hick Black Keys, but S&R demonstrate far more diversity, going from Folkways facsimiles to jug-band cloggers to garage pop to molten hard country on one of the year’s most promising debuts. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames

Album: New Multitudes

Label: Rounder

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List Number: 7

Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames
New Multitudes

On paper, this seems to be a redundant idea. Making albums out of old, unfinished Woody Guthrie lyrics has been done several times before, including most prominently by Jay Farrar’s old Uncle Tupelo bandmate. However, the musicians involved in this project — Farrar, Johnson, Parker, and Yames — are some of the best in the business at conveying those high, lonesome, and conflicted emotions that Guthrie expressed throughout his writings and songs. Rather than try to encompass the entirety of Guthrie’s vast canon, the musicians distinguish their approach by concentrating here on Guthrie’s bleak and desolate L.A. months, where he spent some time contemplating the frailties and troubles of his life. As a result, the album’s subject matter tends towards the bleaker side of things, with dark and swirling introspective ballads like “Talking Empty Bed Blues” and “Careless Reckless Love” highlighting the track listing. However, the vocal duties are passed around and as the four singers each step into the spotlight, their individual strengths shine and breathe a set of fresh perspectives to the lyrics. It’s not all doom and gloom, particularly when Parker shoots a dose of optimism into “Flying High” or when Johnson embodies Guthrie’s sly wink to vice on “V.D. City”. At the end, the album feels like a necessary accompaniment to the plethora of tributes we’ve gotten this year for the Guthrie Centennial. It may not be a definitive testament to Woody, but a necessary and uniquely interesting perspective to explore. Jeff Strowe

The fact that this record went so overlooked is a puzzler — a project that brings in Jay Farrar and Jim James, two of the most highly-regarded honchos of roots-oriented rock, for newly-penned music set to lost Woody Guthrie lyrics, just in time for the centennial Guthrie year. Throw in alt-country scrapper Will Johnson and Vernaline singer-songwriter Anders Parker, and you have New Multitudes, a bewitching set of warm, responsive tunes based on Guthrie’s early Los Angeles writings. Much of the record adopts Farrar’s recent instincts to slow things down, which works to bring out a seductive refinement, particularly on Farrar’s terrific “Careless Reckless Love” and Parker’s corn-fried “Fly High”. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale

Album: Buddy and Jim

Label: New West

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List Number: 6

Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale
Buddy and Jim

Miller and Lauderdale are, of course, two of the great utility men in roots music — guys who sing better, write better, play better than pretty much anybody. They’ve also served as essential backup singer and pickers for everyone from country-folk luminaries like Emmylou and Lucinda to rock heroes like Robert Plant and Elvis Costello. So it’s high time the two sat down and made a proper album together. And with these two blending voices and pitching each other cool songs to sing, you know the finished product sounds great. Predictably, these friends gallivant through a several territories, cutting loose on lusty tunes like Joe Tex’s “I Want to Do Everything For You,” but Buddy and Jim are best of all when they lean in together on country weepers, none better than Buddy’s wife Julie’s “It Hurts Me”. Steve Leftridge

5 – 1

Artist: Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson

Album: Wreck & Ruin

Label: Sugar Hill

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Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Wreck & Ruin

On their second album together as a duo, Australian husband and wife, Chambers and Nicholson continue to make a pure and interesting blend of country, folk, and bluegrass music. Dashes of banjo, fiddle, and harmonica clarify the soundscape and add a rustic feel to the album’s 13 harmonious tracks. In interviews, Chambers indicated that she hoped Wreck & Ruin would give listeners insight into their life as a married couple: “There’s a lot of songs on this album that I don’t think we could sing if we weren’t married.” On the surface, this comment may give thought to saccharine-filled lush odes to domesticity. On the contrary, however, the duo has avoided romanticized cliches and heart-on-the-sleeve devotions. Instead, songs like “The Quiet Life” and “Familiar Strangers” touch on the small building blocks that comprise the foundation of a marriage, and focus on the little things that eventually strengthen the bond of a union. There’s also a strong spiritual component to the album as Chambers and Nicholson bring in Biblical lessons and religious symbolism, not in a preaching manner but instead as guideposts from which to learn from and seek solace in. Jeff Strowe

You know, Shambers are a cute couple. Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, that is, the Australian hubby-and-wife team, both major stars Down Under, who have followed up 2008’s acclaimed duet album Rattlin’ Bones with the 13-track “Wreck and Ruin”, a country-before-country-was-cool record of barnstorming twang and turmoil. Nearly every song clocks in at under three minutes, so these are old-fashioned bluegrassy tunes about broken love, the fear of God, mountain myths, and hard-times blight. You know, country music. And as tradition-steeped as the record is — and the two sound terrific together throughout — the existential angst and the economic despair feel mined from today’s collective consciousness. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: First Aid Kit

Album: The Lion’s Roar

Label: Wichita

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List Number: 4

First Aid Kit
The Lion’s Roar

Johanna and Klara Söderberg, the Swedish duo who perform as First Aid Kit, are still just kids, which makes their second album, The Lion’s Roar such a marvel. It was 2012’s first great record, and in a year when indie-folk blew up huge, First Aid Kit provided the single best set of songs of them all on the most gorgeously-sung album of the year. The sisters’ harmonies feel entirely intuitive even though the girls’ American musical influences are contained in songs like “Blue” and “To a Poet”, songs that provide a modern-day afterglow to decades-old folk-rock archetypes, supporting hard-earned lyrics that sound otherworldly having been written by artists this young. They namecheck Johnny and June and Gram and Emmylou, as well, paying specific homage to musical heroes, but their biggest tribute and lasting gift to their muses is this shimmering, enchanting album. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Tift Merritt

Album: Traveling Alone

Label: Yep Roc

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List Number: 3

Tift Merritt
Traveling Alone

Traveling Alone is an appropriate title for Ms. Merritt’s sixth album as she picks up and moves along, both geographically and musically, whenever the spirit calls. From North Carolina to Paris to New York City, she has explored her whims, contemplated her career, and dabbled in various musical stylings, without ever losing passion for her work or trust in her instinct. Here, she insisted on seeing her own vision through to the end, and with the help of some “dream” collaborators who sidled up to her and a few of her long-time cohorts, succeeds with an album’s worth of lived-in experiences and insights. She rationally examines the failings of a relationship in a gorgeous duet with Andrew Bird on “Drifting Apart”, flirts with a nagging wandering spirit on the rollicking “Still Not Home”, and pines for a life with less outside distraction and more personal interaction on “Small Talk Relations”. As always, Merritt’s writing is stellar and heartfelt, and her voice beautifully carries each note along through the course of each song’s emotion. The attention to the musicianship is the other striking feature of this album. Merritt’s collaborators fill the spaces with warmth and feeling, ratcheting up the intensity when necessary, and staying out of the way when the feelings require it. Jeff Strowe

The Emmylou comparisons are obvious and have long been appropriately applied, and there are times on Traveling Alone when Tift Merritt once again recalls Emmy’s unsentimental country-folk resonance. But when is the last time you listened to Olivia Newton-John’s early ‘70s country phase? Probably never, but much of Travelling Alone, Merritt’s best album to date, recalls that sweet, rustic seventies vibe (and ONJ’s voice) on steppers like “Still Not Home” and lilters like “Feeling of Beauty”. The record’s quickly-recorded, casual sound only makes it stronger and otherwise upholds what we’ve already known about Tift, now five albums in: she’s at the tip-top of today’s country-folk singer-songwriters. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Old Crow Medicine Show

Album: Carry Me Back

Label: ATO

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Old Crow Medicine Show
Carry Me Back

A lot of Americana releases are devoid of fun. Empty bottles, lonesome sidewalks, and nagging dilemmas often populate the scenery, lending a sluggish feel to many of the genre’s compositions. The gentlemen of Old Crow Medicine Show, however, know how to dial things up a notch every now and then. Now over a decade into a solid career, this band can often be taken for granted as their rousing singalongs and the ubiquity of “Wagon Wheel” often gleam over the totality of their recorded output. Carry Me Back certainly has no shortage of “good times” vibes, as songs like “Mississippi Saturday Night”, “Sewanee Mountain Catfight”, “Country Gal”, and the title track can stand toe to toe with many of the band’s best-known material. Years of busking and toiling in rural outposts gave them the chops and swagger to pull off gritty, passionate, and energetic rave-ups that sound like they are emanating out the windows of a roadside barn. Contrary to some other likeminded bands though, Old Crow have walked the walk, thus giving their music authenticity and believability. Songs like “Ain’t It Enough” and “Ways of Man” prove the band’s versatility and ability to shift the emotional spectrum, but even an entire session full of barn-burners would be enough to place this album on many year-end lists. Jeff Strowe

It’s silly to pretend that the loss of Old Crow second-in-command Willie Watson didn’t hurt: gone are Watson’s merciless head-nodding and sweet-and-scrappy vocals as key elements of the Old Crows’ bangety-bang live shows. Ketch Secor, however, has taken on the sole starring role, and there’s no better frontman in roots-music for that job, as his band reformed with old friends for Carry Me Back, the band’s highest-charting record yet. The album is crammed with hooks on a few of the dingblastinest ruckus-raising string-band tunes the boys have put on record to date, including the swinging Hank mashup “Country Gal” and the fiddle-icous backwoods hootenanny “Carry Me Back to Virginia”. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Album: Leaving Eden

Label: Nonesuch

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Carolina Chocolate Drops
Leaving Eden

After the success of their 2010 breakthrough, Genuine Negro Jig, the Carolina Chocolate Drops kept the momentum going by turning to roots-music MVP Buddy Miller, who enriches the Drops’ African-American string band history edification by making them sit in the same room and play together. Plus, Miller, as a premier curator himself, led the band to wrap their banjos, fiddles, and back-porch percussion around excellent found songs by the likes of Hazel Dickens and Etta Baker. Yet it’s singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens’ own “Country Girl” that allows the band to update its sound beyond museum-piece reenactment without yielding an ounce of the meticulous craft that makes the Drops such a delight. Steve Leftridge

Alan Lomax was a renowned ethnomusicologist who took field recordings of Americans playing their regional folk styles. Many of his recordings in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s focused on black rural music. Some songs were recorded in homes, some in prison, some in the work fields and some in concert halls — altogether, these recordings documented what black music sounded like in the first half of the century and perhaps what shaped rock and roll, modern blues, and other essential American styles. Leaving Eden sounds like a collection of Lomax’s recordings. That, in folk music, is high praise. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a young trio of singing string players who play the old-fashioned way — but with a new energy. Learnt, in part, from the ancient fiddler Joe Thompson, they began with the banjo and fiddle music you might have heard in a 1940s North Carolina dance hall and have since developed a repertoire of originals and traditionals with a wider scope. Of all the racket: the violins, banjos, various strings, and percussive poundings — all the sounds employed by Carolina Chocolate Drops, the one that stands out is the voice of Rhiannon Giddens. Her intonation is as clear as a country night sky and as strong as moonshine. But it’s her delivery that’s truly potent — able to lock into a songs emotional energy and express it in full. One year ago, the Carolina Chocolate Drops were presented with golden gramophones in the category of Best Traditional Folk Album for their 2010 release, Genuine Negro Jig. But for it’s diversity, experimentation, and excellent performances, Leaving Eden is even better. Kevin Curtin