STATE of the GENRE 2020

ROUTES & BRANCHES  

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

November 29, 2020

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

It's just about the highlight of every year for me.  Sometime in December, I'll dedicate an Episode to my thirty favorite records of the year.  It's an absolutely subjective deal.  These aren't the best or the most important or the most impactful albums, just stuff I've enjoyed.  As I've warned that personal list will happen during the final week of this year.  

This week, the Grammys shared their own traditionally flawed list of releases deserving of special recognition.  While there was a necessary effort to address the issue of representation, this year's nominees demonstrated nothing more than the fact that the voters are largely out of touch with the state of popular music, not to mention their take on our kind of music.  Rather than spend our valuable space reviewing Grammy's hit-and-miss selections, I've decided to try a list of my own.  

My list contains the ten americana, alt.country and roots music releases from 2020 that I would tag as most impactful and most relevant.  These are necessarily albums from larger labels with a wider reach, records that landed on radio charts and received substantial review attention.  Some of these projects will appear on my year-end favorites list, but some may not.  It's more my take on the stuff that I'd have hoped Grammy voters would consider.  

STATE of the GENRE 2020: 

10 Records That Defined Our Kind of Music (in order of appearance)

Bonny Light Horseman, Bonny Light Horseman  (37d03d Records, Jan 24)

     nominated this year for Best American Roots Performance for "Deep In Love" and Best Folk Album

Drive-by Truckers, The Unraveling  (ATO, Jan 31)

Nathaniel Rateliff, And It's Still Alright  (Stax, Feb 14)

Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud  (Merge, Mar 27)

Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels  (Hwy 20, Apr 24)

     nominated this year for Best American Roots Song for "Man Without a Soul" and Best Americana Album

Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, Reunions  (Southwestern, May 15)

Jaime Wyatt, Neon Cross  (New West, May 29)

Margo Price, That's How Rumors Get Started  (Loma Vista, Jul 10)

Courtney Marie Andrews, Old Flowers  (Fat Possum, Jul 24)

     nominated this year for Best Americana Album

Chris Stapleton, Starting Over  (Mercury, Nov 13)

I'd also want to recommend the Grammy powers recognize Gillian Welch.  Welch has proven notoriously stingy with her new music, formally releasing just five studio records since her groundbreaking 1996 Revival collection.  I'm told by math types that's a remarkable average of one album every five years.  She released a covers collection in July, All the Good Times Are Past and Gone, credited with her longtime partner David Rawlings.  but the real celebration should be for the generous release of her Lost Songs sessions.  48 mostly unheard tunes across three discs, these songs, covers and sketches were set to tape between 2001's Time (the Revelator) and 2003's Soul Journey.  

The story is one you'll want to track down, probably best delivered in a recent New York Times Magazine piece by Hanif Abdurraqib (he's a terrific writer: In Nashville, it was getting late, and even the cicadas were singing as though they were trying to land a record deal ...).  As you may recall, around the same time the pandemic was first taking hold in March, a tornado sliced through East Nashville, inflicting massive damage on property like Welch and Rawlings' Woodland Studios.  The pair scrambled to salvage a lifetime of recordings.  The coinciding episodes triggered a change of heart in the notorious musical perfectionists, which resulted in the rapidfire release of these four collections.  

Remarkably, the 48 Lost Songs were recorded over the space of one long weekend, Welch's effort to fulfill a songwriting contract.  David Rawlings would pull song after song from Welch's hundreds of wirebound notebooks, set them before the singer and press Record.  The pieces on these three records are frequently brief, more suggestions for songs than fully realized works.  Nevertheless, over the years artists such as Alison Krauss and Solomon Burke have availed themselves of this deep well of Welch's creativity.  

The officially released collections of Gillian Welch tend towards spartan and simple arrangements, characterized by a warm intimacy and immediacy.  After years together, Welch and Rawlings demonstrate a musical telepathy, expressed in tight knit harmonies and understated accompaniment.  Those hallmarks are present throughout the Lost Songs discs as well.  Absolutely none of these pieces strikes a sour note or lands like an outtake or a throwaway.  As a result, the sessions stand strong alongside the duo's more formal offerings.  To cite Emmylou Harris from Abdurraqib's article: They're so pure without being precious.  In their own way, they're punk.  

Personal highlights among the 48 songs include "Peace in the Valley", "I Just Want You To Know", "Turn It Up", "Blind On the Inside", "Sin City", "Strange Isabella", "Garden of Love", "Changing Ground", "City Girl", "How's About You" and "Valley of Tears".  

We're able to achieve a new perspective on a lot of things through the lens of the pandemic.  For Gillian Welch and David Rawlings it created in them a greater urgency to share their music, even the unpolished gems.  As she sings in "One Little Song": There's gotta be a song left to sing / Cause everybody can't've thought of everything / One little song that ain't been sung / One little rag that ain't been wrung out completely yet / Until there's nothing left.  

- Calexico, "Hear the Bells" Seasonal Shift  (Anti, Dec 4)  D

- Spencer Cullum, "Jack of Fools" Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection  (Human Error, 20)

- Andrew Bird, "Alabaster" HARK!  (Loma Vista, 20)

- Molly Parden, "Within a Dream" Rosemary EP  (Parden, 20)

- Dave Alvin, "On the Way Downtown" From An Old Guitar: Rare & Unreleased  (Yep Roc, 20)

- Sturgill Simpson, "All Around You" Cuttin' Grass Vol 1: Butcher Shoppe Sessions  (High Top Mt, 20)

- Larkin Poe, "Bell Bottom Blues" Kindred Spirits  (Tricki-Woo, 20)  D

- Chris Stapleton, "Devil Always Made Me Think Twice" Starting Over  (Mercury, 20)

- Hold Steady, "Ascension Blues" Heaven is Whenever: Super Deluxe  (Vagrant, 20/10)  D

- Aaron Lee Tasjan, "Sunday Women" Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!  (New West, Feb 5)

- Low Cut Connie, "Now You Know" Private Lives  (Contender, 20)

- Adam Selzer, "I'll Be Around" Slow Decay  (Jealous Butcher, 20)  D

- Brit Taylor, "Back in the Fire" Real Me  (Cut a Shine, 20)

- Peter Case, "Let Me Fall" Full Service No Waiting  (Vanguard, 98)

- Dr Dog, "Survive (live)" Live 2  (We Buy Gold, Jan 29)  D

- Scott H Biram, "Can't Stay Long" Fever Dreams  (Bloodshot, 20)  D

- Pony Bradshaw, "Dope Mountain" Less Glamor More Nutrients  (Black Mt, Jan 29)  

- Dwight Yoakam, "Things Change" Long Way Home  (Reprise, 98)

- Margo Price, "Weekender (live)" Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman  (Loma Vista, 20)

- Reed Turchi, "Coyote" Creosote Flats  (Nine Mile, Feb 19)  D

- Richmond Fontaine, "Barely Losing" Post to Wire  (Winner's Casino, 04)

^ Gillian Welch, "There's a First Time For Everything" Boots No 2: Lost Songs Vol 3  (Acony, 20)

- Frank Turner & Jon Snodgrass, "Hold Me Homie" Buddies II: Still Buddies  (Xtra Mile, 20)

- Austin Lucas, "Cry Over" Alive in the Hot Zone  (Cornelius Chapel, 20)

- Lee Ann Womack, "Sunday" Lonely the Lonesome and the Gone  (ATO, 17)

- Jeff Tweedy, "Opaline" Love is the King  (dBpm, 20)

- Kelsey Waldon, "Law is For the Protection of the People" They'll Never Keep Us Down EP  (Oh Boy, 20)

- David Quinn, "Horse" Letting Go  (Quinn, 20)

- John Calvin Abney, "Signs of Weather" Familiar Ground  (Black Mesa, 20)

Next Episode, we'll be sharing a list of our favorite songs of 2020.  With the relative lull in new and forthcoming releases, it's a fitting time to take a look back.  Nevertheless, there continues to be stuff added to our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  Scott H Biram and Bloodshot surprised us with Fever Dreams, an unannounced collection this week.  Cody Jinks will be assembling a package recorded here in Our Faire Square State.  Red Rocks Live appears wherever music matters on December 4 (Late August). Having just released a Super Deluxe edition of their 2010 Heaven is Whenever, the Hold Steady have wasted no time in moving forward.  They've set February 19 as the date for their next new studio effort, Open Door Policy (Positive Jams). Eclectic Nashville guitarist Reed Turchi has been so productive that he's offering two (2) albums on February 19.  Via Nine Mile Records, expect I've Chosen Love and Creosote Flats.  

To enjoy our weekly Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months.