ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 27, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of lists
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT 2020?!!
or FAVORiTE ALBUMs
This year-end favorite list feels right. Nothing that's left off and haunting me, nothing that leaves me with that nagging feeling it's in the wrong place. So something must be amiss.
There's also not a runaway Number One for 2020, even as I'm very much at peace with our final choice. It speaks not only to a year fraught with beauty and madness, but a lifetime characterized by the same. We are blind if we refuse to acknowledge either aspect of that equation. Life can be generous and lovely and fulfilling. It can also bring disillusionment and sadness. In the end, I can only cite Jon Dee Graham: Come here you beautiful thing / Come here you beautiful everything.
Music is one of life's sweetnesses. And as one year cedes to the next, I share with you thirty records that helped define my 2020. The words posted are from Routes & Branches reviews. If an album wasn't formally reviewed, I've written a new blurb. We'll be counting down from Number 30 to Number 1, this from just under 500 new records featured on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.
30. Justin Wells, The United State (Singular, Aug 28) Perhaps the most ready comparison to The United
State would be Sturgill Simpson's 2014 Metamodern Sounds record,
the sessions for which also featured guitarist Laur Joamets (and producer Duane
Lundy has worked with Simpson on earlier projects). That said, Justin
Wells' songs are well rooted in the stuff of day-to-day existence, the
fingernail dirt and the hopeful plans. As the title attests, there is no
more relatable story. Wells is quoted at the Americana UK site:
The United State is ultimately about love and joy, and I think from top
to bottom that's what shines through. If I was in a valley with the last
record, I'm on top of the mountain now.
29. Ward Davis, Black Cats & Crows (Davis, Nov 20) Much of this new collection follows in the tradition of
Davis' earlier Asunder EP, dwelling upon the the dissolution
of relationships and an abiding resentment. The narrator on "Lady
Down On Love" comes clean: Both of us got lonely / I gave into
lust. On the fiery "Book of Matches" he builds a pyre
fueled by letters and sweaters and pictures of you. But there
are moments that point away from that turmoil, songs that speak well to Ward
Davis' artistic range. "Where I Learned to Live" takes its
place in the line of classic odes to our small towns. Everything
I love's within half a mile of this, he sings. He might just be the
sort of songwriter who meets his muse more commonly in misery. But even
in his darkest moments, there is a welcome purity and conviction in Ward Davis'
work. Listeners will be willing to follow him into the fire.
28. Caleb Caudle, Better Hurry Up (Baldwin County Public Records, Apr 3) More than those legendary spirits, beyond the
ghosts that may haunt Cash Cabin, Caleb Caudle's new album simply builds on the
steady progress of his work over the past decade. Like Hiss Golden
Messenger's MC Taylor, his songs are confident in their use of the Southern
vernacular, be it country or blues, gospel or soul. And coming out of the
fog of addiction, stepping into the redemption of relationship, Caudle shares
an abiding positivity and encouragement with listeners. Even as we are
aware of what lies behind The Dirty Curtain, we're advised to go
forward and to Be the light. On the lovely lullaby-esque "Bigger
Oceans" that brings the collection to a close, Caudle leaves us with the
comforting reminder, Just being born is a longshot / Don't forget the
reward is in the risk.
27. Kathleen Edwards, Total Freedom (Dualtone, Aug 14) An eight year reprieve from the music business found the Canadian country-folk songwriter opening a coffee shop and immersing herself in the rhythms of everyday life. As she sings on "Glenfern", We toured the world and we played on tv / We met some of our heroes, it almost killed me. Edwards has chosen an interesting time to resume the family business, though the years off have served her very well. Total Freedom trades in the indie-colored folk of her excellent Voyageur, further investing in the contemporary production and edge that have made her more than just another pretty voice from the prairies.
26. Great Peacock, Forever Worse Better (Soundly, Oct 9) Since that earliest EP, Great Peacock have
sought admirably to set themselves apart from the crowded roots rock
field. On Forever Worse Better, it's not about reinventing the wheel
or trying to make noise that other acts haven't made. Instead, it's about
making the most of these familiar tools at their disposal: Old life
/ Alcohol and tears / Past life souvenirs. And what might've begun in the
crowded cab of one man's truck speaks volumes about our shared human condition,
looking for connection, reaching for identity. The collection's poignant
final tune, "Learning to Say Goodbye" grows from an acoustic strum
and a distant breeze of string to the full storm of those guitars and
drums. Andrew Nelson arrives as the lifesaving realization: It's
okay to be alone.
25. Chris Stapleton, Starting Over (Mercury, Nov 13) While his From a Room records might've been a bit of a pause, Starting Over finds the country music savior picking up the threads from his contemporary classic, 2015's Traveller. Even the most jaded listener will acknowledge that he has few peers as a vocalist, his pitted and soulful delivery investing the music with so much sentiment. One listen through "Cold" should dispel any lingering doubts. Even his covers of songs by Guy Clark and John Fogerty are spirited albeit easygoing. While his debut remains the superior record, Starting Over is a terrific romp.
24. Becky Warren, The Sick Season (Warren, Oct 23) Voices like Becky Warren's are crucial to the
propagation and relevance of our kind of music. She's an artist whose
music tells stories that we need to hear, whether that's a portrait of an
unhoused woman selling newspapers or the travelogue of an artist wandering the
labyrinth of depression. We need to hold more of our writers to this kind
of standard, to give the Big Names of our genre a break from the spotlight and
to celebrate those who are wielding a sharper writerly edge. The
Sick Season boldly portrays the reality of mental illness, but also
rewards listeners with a terrific roots rock record.
23. Country Westerns, Country Westerns (Fat Possum, Jun 26) The trio assembled in Nashville, hailing from
other worthy acts such as Silver Jews, the Weight and State Champion.
After some time flying beneath the radar, they were spurred on to create a
record in part by the late David Berman, following producer Matt Sweeney to
Brooklyn's Strange Weather Studios. In his intro to the band, Sweeney
recalls their stated mission to make depressing songs with fun drums.
There is understated magic in the sessions, an urgency and vitality of the sort
that originally contributed to what would eventually become alternative
country.
22. Margo Price, That's How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista, Jul 10) Margo Price's third record doesn't abandon the country of her first pair of superb LPs, even as the collection serves to expand the stylistic reach of her artistry. Rumors adds more grit and soul, with guitars brought forward and Price's voice pushing beyond its previous country confines. For a fuller picture of the present state of Price's musical vision, you'll also want to check out the pleasant surprise of Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman (Loma Vista, Nov 13).
21. Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels (Hwy 20, Apr 24) Don't tell her to cheer up. Good
Souls Better Angels is the record Lucinda Williams set out to make, an Old
Testament force of nature that portrays God (the Big Rotator) spinnin' the
world like a top. And has there ever been a better time for an album that
calls its shots so boldly? Dragging listeners through the crucible fire,
it's nothing but surprising when we're left feeling cleansed by the
ordeal. With her lyrical repetition and stream-of-consciousness delivery,
Williams offers a Van Morrison-like balm for the spirit on "When the Way
Gets Dark" and the closer "Good Souls". These acts as
prayers of protection and guidance, hushed words of encouragement during an
uncommonly challenging time: Don't give up / It's gonna be alright /
You're gonna be okay ... Beautiful.
20. Lilly Hiatt, Walking Proof
(New West, Mar 27) Lilly Hiatt's
own touring plans have been somewhat scattered by our recent plague winds,
including some promising dates with Hiss Golden Messenger. She wrote
in No Depression this week about the lessons of letting go that she's
learning, her labor of love birthing a strong and beautiful collection at such
an uncertain time. Often, the most reliable moorings we can find as
listeners are records such as Walking Proof. The release places
Hiatt in the rare company of artists who overflow the tired expectations of
genre to hint at a sound all their own.
19. Bonnie Whitmore, Last Will & Testament (Starlet & Dog, Oct 2) Bonnie Whitmore can sing pretty, and she's
not in danger of being evicted from the roots music sandbox anytime soon.
Like Maria McKee or Nicole Atkins, she carves a refreshing swath through the
genre, fiercely crossing borders and solidifying her own musical identity along
the way. Even as Last Will & Testament resets the
expectations Whitmore prompted with her first projects, it sets the stage for
what might be next. In light of the eclectic and accomplished nature of
her new record, the limits are few. She sings: Time to shoot, take
the shot / Show the world what you got / When it's done, when you're gone /
Were you right, or were you wrong?
18. HC McEntire, Eno Axis
(Merge, Aug 21) On Eno Axis,
HC McEntire is a poet more than she is a storyteller, best at invoking names
and places, conjuring landscapes and running her hands through thick
foliage. The artist talks of returning home from an extended tour behind
Angel Olsen, retreating to her century-old house on the banks of North
Carolina's Eno River. From deep in her place, she broadcasts a report to
listeners for whom quarantine has redefined our own relationship to home.
The bright, devotional "Hands For the Harvest" features McEntire's
enchanting voice accompanied by little besides keyboard and percussion: Early
to rise / Start the fire / Till the rows / Pass the tithes ... Her song
pulses with the definite rhythm of the days.
17. John Calvin Abney, Familiar Ground (Black Mesa, Nov 20) On his fifth full-length record, the
Tulsa-based writer bucks the prevailing sentiment that it takes more work to
make noise than it does to exercise restraint. Familiar Ground is
seemingly a product of its time, a collection that speaks to isolation and
intimacy, to stasis and to travel, time and timelessness. Throughout,
Abney weaves a quiet spell that never becomes lazy or droning. His music
has as much in common with pop sensibility as indie folk or the roots world in
which he spends so much of his time. With its fingerpicked acoustic juxtaposed
with a subtle cloud of studio melancholy, the title track recalls later period
Elliott Smith. The CD closes with "Tokyo City Rain", what seems
like a dreambound account of a fleeting trip abroad. The weight of
the world, Abney sings, is not yours to hold / Your shoulders are heavy /
And I don't know / Lost in translation. While John Calvin Abney has
proven that's he's capable of creating a louder noise, perhaps it's this kind
of tranquil sigh that speaks to us most directly in the present
moment.
16. Arlo McKinley, Die Midwestern (Oh Boy, Aug 14) Die Midwestern officially stands as the
solo debut of Arlo McKinley. More than six years after his Lonesome
Sound collection, the artist is, of course, older with more experience
under his belt, more miles on the road behind him, stories beneath his
hat. For most, this Oh Boy offering will serve as a fine introduction to
a worthy writer. And Die Midwestern does reset expectations,
perhaps even laying the groundwork, if we're lucky and McKinley's cards fall
right, for an album release schedule that will allow him to stretch and
explore, to continue to grow as a performer.
15. Courtney Marie Andrews, Old Flowers (Fat Possum, Jul 24) Fact is, every time I've listened to Courtney
Marie Andrews' new album, I've reached for the headphones. Old
Flowers is not a pristine listen, it's rough and grained like
burlap. Even as Andrews' voice has been recognized as among the most
beautiful instruments in our kind of music, it's the company she keeps on her
new collection that lift Old Flowers beyond being just another pretty
sad folk album. Listen closer. It's the whispers and the spaces
between that will tell you that this is a masterful record.
14. Jamie Wyatt, Neon Cross
(New West, May 29) Jaime Wyatt,
Shooter Jennings and co. have birthed a fantastic collection that manages to
build on the artist we met and appreciated on Felony Blues. Most
impressively, they accomplish this by stripping away any artifice or pretention
and giving listeners full access to her voice and vision. As she
commented in a Fader interview, It's imperfect and beautiful and
spontaneous. Like Margo Price, Wyatt can deliver attitude. Like
Sarah Shook, Neon Cross can be raw and direct. And like a young
Lucinda Williams, her potential is sky high.
13. Lydia Loveless, Daughter
(Honey You’re Gonna Be Late, Sep 25)
It's as appropriate a place to close Daughter as the opener,
portraying Lydia Loveless on the verge. From 2014's Something Else through
2016's Real, she's never made easy listening music, never fulfilled the
obvious expectations of an artist with her kind of voice. On Daughter,
she chooses to allow herself to be vulnerable, even calling into question her
own emotional wellness. But rather than indulging in performative
gestures, Loveless' first new collection in four years is raw and genuine,
demonstrating an anger and an edge, a toughness far more real than anything
on Indestructible Machine (the cover of which depicted a woman in
cut-offs drinking gasoline). Through these changes, she's not necessarily
reinventing herself as much as she's peeling back layers, peeling back any
artifice in search of a musical gesture that is true to her circumstance.
12. John Moreland, LP5
(Old Omens, Feb 7) The
collection's most outstanding departures also stand as some of LP5's
strongest moments. "When My Fever Breaks" is a bright shining
lovesong written for Moreland's wife (he said it, not me). It's as
extroverted a sentiment as you're likely to hear from the writer, and a lovely
song: Star-crossed eyes and cross-eyed stars / No use hiding age old scars.
"Terrestrial" is a a standout on a CD that offers some eye-opening
rhythmic choices. Abney's keys are just this side of jazzy, and
reflections are set to a syncopated, percussive soundscape. It sounds
like no other Moreland number, though the voice and the sentiment are familiar: You
gave me purpose but I could not complete the task / As a child I repented my
nature, 'til as a man I repented my past.
11. Drive-by Truckers, The Unraveling (ATO, Jan 31) The New OK (ATO, Oct 2) While Patterson Hood and co. released two very different projects in 2020, both continued in the band's recent record of setting the country's present predicament to perfectly agitated country and rock. Drive-by Truckers remain one of the best pure bands around, as evidenced by their tremendous work behind Jerry Joseph on his Beautiful Madness sessions. Hood and his accomplice Mike Cooley share as much songwriting acumen as any other bandmates working today. While The New OK was the lesser of the releases, its loose groove and off-the-rails spirit harkened back to the Truckers' earliest work.
10. Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud (Merge, Mar 27) From her earliest American Weekend release in 2012, Katie Crutchfield has grown artistically, adding elements of production and songwriting to her initial bare bones arrangements. Her last album, 2017's Out in the Storm was a harder-edged full band project. Saint Cloud finds a way to pair that more assertive noise with Waxahatchee's earlier folk sensibilities, harnessing the best of both sounds.
9. Austin Lucas, Alive in the Hot Zone (Cornelius Chapel, Oct 30) An artist like Austin Lucas accepts a risk everytime he urges his music into unexplored territory. But it's also these moments that establish integrity and define a career. There's an effortlessness and a perennially boyish appeal to Lucas' voice, whether he's giving voice to populist concerns or questioning his own priorities. Even in light of Hot Zone's hot, buzzing guitars and sense of social urgency, the collection is a fitting step in a discography that has never found him covering familiar ground. It's a suitable soundtrack as we accept Lucas' invitation: Sit back / Relax / And watch the American pyre.
8. Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin' Grass Vol 1: Butcher Shoppe Sessions (High Top Mt, Oct 16) Vol 2: Cowboy Arms Sessions (High Top Mt, Dec 11) While most of the tunes on this pair of records have been heard before in one form or another, they are revisioned and reinvented by Simpson and a remarkably accomplished bluegrass ensemble. I harbor a secret hope that the restless artist's next gesture will feature his bluegrass band on a series of all new tracks. Until such time, these LPs go down smooth.
7. American Aquarium, Lamentations (New West, May 1) BJ Barham fully owns up to who he is, as a man of the South who hails from a long line of the same. And while he refuses to hide his personal leanings, so many of his songs are delivered by characters who might have some disagreement with him. It takes skill to be comfortable in that balance, and Barham does it as well as any of our current songwriters. On the album's closer, "Long Haul", he gives voice to detractors: They say 'You ain't been the same / Since you lay that bottle down / The songs they ain't got no soul / The band's done lost its sound / Get your head out of the clouds boy / Pretty soon you'll realize / That sometimes the kindest thing you can do / For a dream is let it die'. To his credit, the writer is in it for the long haul, facing down his challenges and evolving as an artist of admirable ability and expression. Alongside Shooter Jennings and his current bandmates, Lamentations stands as his boldest, largest palette to date, ranging from cinematic to intimate, from good humored to confrontational. He demonstrates the sort of integrity that made some of his musical forebears exemplary artists.
6. SG Goodman, Old Time Feeling (Verve, Jul 17) The sound of Old Time Feeling is a fascinating meeting of tradition and vision, though Goodman points to Link Wray's timeless 1971 self-titled record as inspiration. You might also be able to draw a line through Nashville and a couple hundred miles to the Southwest, where Bobbie Gentry conjured her 1968 Delta Sweete. You'll wade through that hazy, humid spirit on "If It Ain't Me Babe", a tune that also name-drops Neil Young's Harvest. But, like Mercury Rev's recent reimagining of Gentry's music, Goodman's sessions with Jim James add a layer of atmospherics and attitude that assure that Old Time Feeling isn't just another nod to days gone by. "Space and Time" reads like an early rock 'n blues, as delivered by Courtney Marie Andrews. In a beautiful cry, Goodman recognizes the role that even her detractors have played in making her who she is: the stranger i pass / my momma / brothers / friends and my father / they're god undercover.
5. Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes the Harlot the Queer the Pusher & Me (Carnival, Sep 11) Even more difficult than carrying an honest portrayal of the hell of addiction is exercising taste and restraint when speaking to redemption and recovery. Waylon Payne incorporates strains of gospel on pieces like "Back From the Grave" or the hymnlike "Precious Thing". The songwriter never suggests that the great storm is over, however, as he admits that sobriety and temptation are a daily battle even years after his last fix. Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me is not necessarily a new story, though Payne is such a phenomenal and a discerning storyteller that I continue to hold out hope for a memoir. Until such time, this long-awaited sophomore offering serves as a gorgeous reintroduction to an important artist who will hopefully remain on the scene for years to come.
4. Nathaniel Rateliff, And It’s Still Alright (Stax, Feb 14) At the heart of the album are the moments where Rateliff struggles to express his grief at Richard Swift's passing. The title cut is one of the year's most engaging singles, an introspective and soul-searching acoustic number, filled out by Eric Swanson's pedal steel: I'll be damned if this old man / Don't start to count his losses / But it's still alright. It's a song that is imbued with real emotion, and one of the high watermarks of Rateliff's career. Even more effecting is "Rush On", the record's closing number. In a heartbroken vocal, the singer confronts both guilt and gratitude, conducting an emotional wake: I hoped like a prayer / That your brokenness would leave you / But months turned to years / And the emptiness prevailed. Rateliff lays bare his heart on the session, offering the collection's most cutting and direct lyric: All the love and cries could not shake you from your rest / Would've given up my sight to take the jaundice from your skin.
3. Low Cut Connie, Private Lives (Contender, Oct 13) I used to reference albums I whiffed on, stuff that I simply overlooked. Sometimes this happens with an artist's entire body of work. I'll find some time to look back on those earlier Low Cut Connie records. But I would guess that Private Lives isn't a terrible launching point to enter the fray. It's sprawling without being overindulgent, presenting Adam Weiner as a tightrope-walking showman capable of unexpected depth of feeling and artistry, a frontman in the tradition of Peter Wolf or Paul Westerberg. More often than not, the appeal is simply in the record's four-minute arguments against perfection and soullessness. He says it best himself in the two-minute "Nobody Else Will Believe You": Do your shit / Do it well / You've got to boogie for yourself / Because nobody else will believe you.
2. Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, Reunions (Southeastern, May 15) "What've I Done To Help" features David Crosby on backing vocals, along with a distant cloud of strings and a great lead vocal. At 6 minutes 40 seconds, the track propels urgently forward on the merit of the 400 Unit's beautiful musical bed. Like much of Reunions, the song explores themes of accountability, especially as Isbell finds himself in an increasingly privileged position: The world's on fire and we just climb higher / Till we're no longer bothered by the smoke and sound / Good people suffer and the heart gets tougher / Nothing given, nothing found. The ghosts that surround Jason Isbell are the spirits of past decisions and the hard won scars of lessons learned. What emerged early in his career as self-criticism and anger have evolved into an awareness of consequence and a growing compassion for others. Tell the truth, he sings. You'll find it rhymes with everything.
1. Jerry Joseph, Beautiful Madness (Décor, Aug 21) Jerry Joseph is a fascinating figure, an artist whose interviews are smart and profane and honest and funny. He is a socially-minded world traveler whose listeners will follow him into areas of the globe largely neglected by even more adventurous acts. Joseph has directed an admirable amount of time to his NOMAD Music Foundation, a nonprofit that brings instruments to young people in conflict zones (teaching empowerment through music, art, fellowship and cultural awareness). A journey back through his prolific musical output would reward a listener with some terrific songs. But there is a consistency and a motive behind The Beautiful Madness that will catapult the collection to the forefront in any future conversation about Joseph's oeuvre. It's a record that arrives at just the right time, backed by just the right band (Drive-by Truckers) to assure that he will reach a whole new cadre of listeners. Moreover, after more than three decades of nose-to-the-grindstone labor, Jerry Joseph has created an album that deserves to be added to any year-end best-of conversation.
No ROUTES-cast this week, but just a reminder to visit our Spotify home and subscribe hard to keep up with our weekly playlists. You'll also want to jam a sharp bookmark into A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. That's our magically updated release calendar, helping good girls and boys keep track of what's on the horizon and what's just been issued in our kind of music. From this growing list, I can already tell you the three records I'm most looking forward to so far in the New Year: Buck Meek, Lucero and Mando Saenz.
Scott Foley
routesandbranches@gmail.com
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