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The 25 Best Americana Albums of 2020

In 2020, Americana artists empathetically dealt with the things that bind us together and keep us apart. The albums on this list encourage hope for the future based on a belief in the human spirit.

                                      
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Recent

Music

An Alternative Christmas Playlist for the Coming Ice Age

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Interviews

A Look Back but a Step Forward: An Interview with Steve Earle

Steve Earle has blazed his own trails but now, at 62, he reflects on fallen heroes, chance encounters, and how he'll always be a political rabble-rouser.

Music

Steve Earle and the Dukes: Terraplane

Terraplane pays homage to the Texas blues, with mixed results.

Music

Country Fried Rock: Steve Earle Interview

Steve Earle's new album, Terraplane, takes this lyrical master down to his Texas blues roots.

Music

Steve Earle and the Dukes - "You're The Best Lover That I Ever Had" (video)

Americana hero Steve Earle returns with Terraplane releasing via New West on 17 February.

Music

When the Man in Black Went to Bat for Native America

A recasting of Johnny Cash's most controversial album, Bitter Tears, raises questions about the inclusiveness of American music.

Film

Everyone Lost: Protest Art and the Iraq War

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

Music

Steve Earle & The Dukes (And Duchesses) - "Invisible" (video)

The first single from Steve Earle's superb new album, 'The Low Highway', released yesterday.

Music

Steve Earle's 'I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive'

A been-there-lived-it-attitude and street-level redemption, all propelled by a songwriter's/storyteller's lyrical and narrative knack.

Reviews

Play Me Some Mountain Music: The Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2011, Part 1

Four days of sun, banjos, snow, Mumfords, fiddles, and rock gods at 10,000 feet.

Steve Leftridge

Music

Commit: An Interview with Steve Earle

Earle digs through a mutual past for a new album of Townes Van Zandt covers, and he explains what it was like knowing, and being heckled by, the songwriter himself.

Music

Steve Earle: Townes

A distinctively Earle-stamped tribute to one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.

Jayson Harsin

Television

In Prison My Whole Life

In Prison My Whole Life works through the contexts and details of Mumia Abu Jamal's experience, connecting it to other moments in recent American history.

Reviews

Slacker Uprising

With substandard picture quality and a lack of true eye-opening material, this will be regarded as a minor work in an otherwise impressive film canon.

Reviews

The Wire: The Complete Fifth Season

The dense mythology, painstakingly created over five novelistic seasons, has enough drama packed inside to be easily spun out for the next five, ten, 15 years.

Music

Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade

Earle sheds the southern sweat on his new record, and gives listeners a more metropolitan, but still solid, sound.

Music

Goodbye Guitar Town: An Interview with Steve Earle

Steve Earle might be quieting down, but he still has plenty to say. PopMatters talks with Earle about his new album, New York and much more.

Reviews

Steve Earle: Live at Montreux 2005

While a no-frills affair, this DVD shows Earle in peak form taking aim at those in power.

Reviews

Steve Earle: Live From Austin TX [CD and DVD]

Clean and sober, Earle's prolific string of seven albums in nine years has been nothing short of masterful. It has also usurped the first half of his career: Earle, formerly competent songwriter, now makes sonically adventurous records with political and social conscience.

Zeth Lundy

Music

Steve Earle: The Revolution Starts... Now

The release of this record two and a half months before we have to enter the voting booths should offer solace and inspiration to those ready to act.

Hank Kalet

Reviews

Steve Earle: Just an American Boy [DVD]

Amos Poe had a terrific chance to put together the definitive profile of an artist who is at the peak of his career, producing great music, prose, and drama at such a prolific rate as he'd never done before.

Adrien Begrand

Music

Steve Earle: Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary

Just an American Boy cements Earle's status as one of the most vital, brave singer-songwriters of the past couple of decades, and also one of the most prolific, as this album is his seventh stalwart effort in the past eight years.

Adrien Begrand

Music

Steve Earle: The Best of Steve Earle (20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection)

There is nothing new offered on this collection, no song or version of a song that cannot be found elsewhere, on one of the many "best of" or "essential" Steve Earle albums.

Chip O'Brien

Music

Steve Earle: Jerusalem

Steve Earle has always been a guy who is never afraid to shoot his mouth off, and with 'Jerusalem', his timing is perfect, as his own razor-sharp words slice through the shallow slop of almost all 9-11-inspired music that has come out to date.

Adrien Begrand

Music

Steve Earle: Sidetracks

Sidetracks is Earle's collection of what he calls "stray songs", songs that never made it to albums, or which can only be found on obscure compilations, soundtracks, or import editions of his albums.

Andrew Gilstrap

Reviews

Steve Earle

Jordan Kessler

Music

Steve Earle: Guitar Town (Expanded Edition)

Without this brilliant effort, none of the others would've been possible. A modern classic.

Jason MacNeil

Books

Doghouse Roses: Stories by Steve Earle

On first blush, it would seem Steve Earle might need more than a doghouse rose to make up for foisting this book on his fans. By the end, you realize the book 'itself' is a doghouse rose. 'It ain't much,' you can imagine him saying as he hands it over, 'but I did it for you.'"

John Kenyon

Music

Steve Earle: Transcendental Blues

Steve Earle, once all but given up for dead, metaphorically if not literally, has been riding a white hot hand since returning from the long dark night of drug addiction and musical oblivion.

Mitchell Moore

Features

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In 2020, Americana artists empathetically dealt with the things that bind us together and keep us apart. The albums on this list encourage hope for the future based on a belief in the human spirit.

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Steve Earle has blazed his own trails but now, at 62, he reflects on fallen heroes, chance encounters, and how he'll always be a political rabble-rouser.

Terraplane pays homage to the Texas blues, with mixed results.

Steve Earle's new album, Terraplane, takes this lyrical master down to his Texas blues roots.

Americana hero Steve Earle returns with Terraplane releasing via New West on 17 February.

A recasting of Johnny Cash's most controversial album, Bitter Tears, raises questions about the inclusiveness of American music.

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

The first single from Steve Earle's superb new album, 'The Low Highway', released yesterday.

A been-there-lived-it-attitude and street-level redemption, all propelled by a songwriter's/storyteller's lyrical and narrative knack.

Four days of sun, banjos, snow, Mumfords, fiddles, and rock gods at 10,000 feet.

Albums that missed our Top 60 Albums list, but at least one of our writers loves.

Earle digs through a mutual past for a new album of Townes Van Zandt covers, and he explains what it was like knowing, and being heckled by, the songwriter himself.

A distinctively Earle-stamped tribute to one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.

In Prison My Whole Life works through the contexts and details of Mumia Abu Jamal's experience, connecting it to other moments in recent American history.

With substandard picture quality and a lack of true eye-opening material, this will be regarded as a minor work in an otherwise impressive film canon.

The dense mythology, painstakingly created over five novelistic seasons, has enough drama packed inside to be easily spun out for the next five, ten, 15 years.

Earle sheds the southern sweat on his new record, and gives listeners a more metropolitan, but still solid, sound.

Steve Earle might be quieting down, but he still has plenty to say. PopMatters talks with Earle about his new album, New York and much more.

Summarizing Steve Earle’s amazing career in one disc just isn't possible, but you can't go wrong with any compilation of the master.

While a no-frills affair, this DVD shows Earle in peak form taking aim at those in power.

Clean and sober, Earle's prolific string of seven albums in nine years has been nothing short of masterful. It has also usurped the first half of his career: Earle, formerly competent songwriter, now makes sonically adventurous records with political and social conscience.

The release of this record two and a half months before we have to enter the voting booths should offer solace and inspiration to those ready to act.

Amos Poe had a terrific chance to put together the definitive profile of an artist who is at the peak of his career, producing great music, prose, and drama at such a prolific rate as he'd never done before.

Just an American Boy cements Earle's status as one of the most vital, brave singer-songwriters of the past couple of decades, and also one of the most prolific, as this album is his seventh stalwart effort in the past eight years.

There is nothing new offered on this collection, no song or version of a song that cannot be found elsewhere, on one of the many "best of" or "essential" Steve Earle albums.

Steve Earle has always been a guy who is never afraid to shoot his mouth off, and with 'Jerusalem', his timing is perfect, as his own razor-sharp words slice through the shallow slop of almost all 9-11-inspired music that has come out to date.

Sidetracks is Earle's collection of what he calls "stray songs", songs that never made it to albums, or which can only be found on obscure compilations, soundtracks, or import editions of his albums.

Without this brilliant effort, none of the others would've been possible. A modern classic.

On first blush, it would seem Steve Earle might need more than a doghouse rose to make up for foisting this book on his fans. By the end, you realize the book 'itself' is a doghouse rose. 'It ain't much,' you can imagine him saying as he hands it over, 'but I did it for you.'"

Steve Earle, once all but given up for dead, metaphorically if not literally, has been riding a white hot hand since returning from the long dark night of drug addiction and musical oblivion.