featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 27, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Every year is a good one for music if you know where to look, if you're keeping an eye open for new stuff. Here at R&B HQ we included over seven-hundred (700) records on this year's Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, so please look askance at anyone who complains that they couldn't find anything good in 2024. While we didn't/couldn't/don't want to listen to every single one of those releases, we pored over many, many of them. We included lots of them in our weekly Spotify ROUTES-casts. And we reviewed several. So we feel pretty good about making this judgment of our favorite albums of the year.
What follows is our thirty (30) favorite albums, each of which sparked something in us, kindling hope in the future of our kind of music. Some pushed boundaries like we like, while others simply did what they do exceptionally well. This year marks the second year-end list headed by Sturgill Simpson, whose 2014 Metamodern Sounds sat atop that year's rundown. Lydia Loveless is the only other artist to hold that distinction. It wasn't a slam dunk choice, until it was.
As is our tradition, we've included an excerpt from our published review of each record where that was available. Where we hadn't shared a review, we dashed off a little something for this list. We hope that our choices please you as much as they confound you, that you see some of your own favorites just as you discover some new stuff. Ultimately, we hope our end-of-year accounting exercise kindles your own enthusiasm for musical discovery as we founder into 2025.
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT 2024:
FAVORiTE ALBUMS
1. Johnny Blue Skies, Passage Du Desir (High Top Mt, Jul 12)
Josh Tillman became Father John Misty. More recently, Mike & the Moonpies wisely opted to shift to the more mature Silverada. Sturgill Simpson's adoption of the Johnny Blue Skies marquee isn't the main point of Passage du Desir, though issues of identity are central. Given space by his unfortunate ruptured vocal chords in '21, Simpson seems to have reconsidered the terms of his fame, free to call his own next move, liberated from expectations to the point where his strongest ambition is a desire to be honest. He sings, There's some days I ain't okay / And there's some nights I just want to die, then later: There's no happy endings / Only stories that stop before they're through. Sturgill Simpson's new collection doesn't resolve too many existential issues, but it's as comfortable as he's sounded in ages. Passage du Desir won't wow listeners with its invention or its reach, but it serves as a reset for one of our most essential artists, offering a great place to land if only for a moment, one of the year's strongest albums.
"Great Divide" stands as the record's driving epic, a song writer Lisa Walker calls a study on the minutiae of loss. The piece also features Walker's most impressive delivery, cushioned in that beautiful wall of noise alongside Joy Division guitars: I don't know what to do with this old drive / It's got your initials sharpied on the side / I nearly called to ask you for a ride / I hear you still across the great divide. Paired with two Bandcamp EPs (Cellar Door and Great Divide), Cincinnati Ohio rages and soothes, marking the very welcome return of Wussy's beautiful noise following a six-year silence.
Among the year's most worthy singles, "Wallflower" is a powerful acoustic march, Barna intoning the names of the five victims of a 2022 shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. Jesus we are tired / These spaces are sacred, he cries, weighing our rights and our responsibilities: Today I need peace / Not another memory. To date, Sean Barna's singles, EPs and two LPs have been exemplary, a strikingly passionate testimony of the queer story. The dramatic change of venue for his new EP attests to Barna's versatility. But even surrounded by a stellar folk ensemble, the singer's work remains at heart fiery and uncompromising: Do I have your attention / Would you like to hear my point of view / Can I make you feel better / Would you like to read my old love letters?
Katie Crutchfield is currently the sturdiest link between roots and indie musics, with her 2024 collection earning end-of-year nods across the board (and nearly always appearing just above or below MJ Lenderman's album). With producer Brad Cook and a capable cohort featuring Spencer Tweedy, MJ Lenderman, and Phil Cook, the songs of Tigers Blood are more immediate than 2020's Saint Cloud, delivered with an easy familiarity. That warmth might hide Crutchfield's increasing mastery as a songwriter. Based on her trajectory since 2012's enigmatic American Weekend, we're confident future Waxahatchee projects will continue to evolve. If we know what's good for us we will eagerly follow.
And it's all beautifully broken. Like a Gen Z Gram and Emmy, Lenderman joined Katie Crutchfield on one of the year's outstanding songs, Waxahatchee's "Right Back To It". But none of this is permanent. Artists like MJ Lenderman haven't established a lasting outpost for indie country (we see this as a different thing than alt.country btw). These phenomena are always temporary, as fleeting as our restless musical attention span. Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Wednesday, etc will turn their focus elsewhere, and non-country fans will tire of country artists just as they've lost interest in strummy hey-ho indie folk acts like Lumineers and Mumford. For today, these artists serve as areas of growth and change for our kind of music, signs of life and relevance without which we threaten to become just another musical museum. MJ Lenderman's country isn't like most of what's come before beneath that genre heading. And it's that otherness, the brokenness and the short attention span of it all that are the victory of Manning Fireworks. It's a puzzle that doesn't need to be solved, a mess that we don't want to fix, a beautiful noise that may end up defining 2024.
"Lately" also serves as one of several showcases for Sophie Gault's best-in-class singing, a comfortably human instrument that is also capable of some heavenly passages. With a slow vibrato like Lucinda (with clearer annunciation), she can also rock brashly like Sheryl Crow, or drop a touch of soul like Margo Price. Gault's single cover, a run through Patty Griffin's early "Every Little Bit" is revelatory, shot through with drama and spite. The reckless "Poet In a Buick" provides a twang rock vehicle for her, the story of an edgy outlaw friendship with a guy who smelled like a pack of Camels & some winterfresh gum.
Baltic Street Hotel closes by taking refuge in little pleasures, declaring "Things Are Going Good". Hurry up and knock on wood, she advises on the beautiful ode to gratitude: This is right where I belong. Sophie Gault sounds confident and capable on her long-awaited second project, pairing with producer Ray Kennedy and their small band for a set that proves the victories of Gault's debut won't be short-lived.
Moreland's unannounced Visitor marks a slight return to the songwriter's more standard folk settings, following a pair of more adventurous projects (2020's LP5 and '22's Birds In the Ceiling). The collection arrives following a reported hiatus from writing and recording, and prioritizes simplicity and immediacy, with Moreland himself handling nearly every sound. On the beautiful "Blue Dream Carolina", he invokes his muse: Blue dream Carolina, remind me why I do this / Tell me what the truth is, don't tell me who to be. While stripped and laid bare, the content of Visitor isn't tossed off or unfinished. Songs like "Gentle Violence" and the title cut are fully realized, presenting the essential Moreland, distilled and maybe even purified.
Alynda Segarra publishes a regular substack called Resist Psychic Death, delivering wise and thoughtful content suggesting the songwriter's free-ranging creativity. Their 2024 release serves the same purpose, fulfilling the restless promise hinted at in their band's earlier projects, from environmental prophet and societal provocateur to sharp-edged poet. On The Past Is Still Alive, Segarra appears more confident and artistically determined than on their Navigator and Life On Earth, steady in their roots-rock pocket with assistance from SG Goodman, Conor Oberst, and Anjimile.
"Funny Masterpiece" is a nine-minute opus whose steady, repeated progress recalls Van Morrison in his mystical No Guru period: In my final gasp of glory days / Have I missed my window / To do something great / Or is being steady / A greater fate. It's a fitting wrap to Scott Ballew's humble but stunning statement, shimmering with surprise, rich with understated revelation. A contemporary renaissance artist (not unlike Terry Allen, it turns out), Ballew and his cohort have shared one of the year's most rewarding collections, an imminently listenable and endlessly quotable treasure: There's nothing as brave as surrendering ... And you learn how to live / As if you're someone to love.
The jacket for Living Thing, a stirring illustration by Heather Layton, depicts an assortment of figures, each engaged in an embrace. More than any other songwriter, Anna Tivel's work addresses moments of connection, coming together and not coming together. On her new sixth collection, her music is eloquent in its expression and unblinking in its observation. Is the truth that our pandemic reality wasn't so much a departure from reality as it was a magnifying glass on human nature? Tivel's collection closes with "Gold Web", a piece enveloped in the sound of rain (so appropriate of Tivel's Portland home). She sings of A scarecrow scared of wanting, so afraid to be reaching, as the record closes with the sound of approaching thunder.
11. Bonny Light Horseman, Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar, Jun 7)
In our book, folk music isn't a static entity. As a genre, it involves dialogue and is bent by the breezes of a living tradition. In the opening half of this year, it's already delivered such a rich diversity from voices like Beth Gibbons, Myriam Gendron, Iron & Wine, Jessica Pratt, and many others. Bonny Light Horseman still wander down by the sally garden; they can still be troubled like a ship on a churning sea, or enraptured all covered in dew at your garden gates. But just as Anais Mitchell masterfully repurposed much older myths for her Hadestown musical, she joins Kaufman and Johnson in creatively, lovingly breathing new life into the old bones of Western roots music for Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free.
12. Adeem the Artist, Anniversary (Four Quarters, May 3)
Anniversary's most effecting moments provide glimpses into Adeem the Artist's home life alongside their partner and child. Summing up the record, Adeem comments: This is an album about cycles. It's about the psychological imprint of trauma. It's about Anniversary as a concept and as an experience. "Carry You Down" is an acoustic ballad with a thoughtful arrangement that steadily adds banjo, horns, and pedal steel to a fingerpicked base. "Rotations" will likely compete among our year-end favorites, a heartbreakingly sweet ode to parenthood. Adeem sings of that sweet and beautiful eclipse, as we see our children in light of our own youth, recognizing how this circle game continues from one generation to the next: I know that you are not me / I would never ask you to be / You are more than I could honestly ever have expected to be true / But when I'm gone / You'll carry on / And carry all that is left of me with you. Punctuated with a tender muted trumpet solo and piano, it speaks well to the warm heart behind Adeem's music.
13. Why Bonnie, Wish On the Bone (Fire Talk, Aug 30)
Wish On the Bone closes with the songwriter ghosted: I waited at our old bar / But you never showed / So I took the shot I bought you / And one more for the road. Even in moments of disappointment, Blair Howerton's songs seem resolute, tentatively inching forward in contrast to the longing glances of 90 In November. This relative uncertainty is part of the authenticity of her music, being both here and there, this but also maybe that. While there's a sense that there's more noise on the horizon as she continues to evolve, Wish On the Bone portrays the artist poised in a beautiful place.
14. Rosali, Bite Down (Merge, Mar 22)
Guitarist and songwriter Rosali Middleman follows the relatively pastoral No Medium with this crunchy collection which spotlights her fearless electric guitar. Backed by David Nance's band, Bite Down boasts increasingly focused songwriting, even as it seems more sonically expansive. Rosali's new project arrives in the wake of her relocation from Philadelphia to North Carolina. Destroyer's Dan Bejar comments: The calm of Rosali's voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That's their sound.
15. John Calvin Abney, Shortwaving EP (JCA, Dec 6)
John Calvin Abney has opened some recent shows for Hanson (yes, that Hanson), filling in for Matthew Sweet who is recovering from an unfortunate stroke. Like Sweet (and that Hanson), Abney understands melody and resonance. While these new songs hint at an evolution to his typically streamlined folk-pop, there's a real appeal to Shortwaving's unfiltered Abney, a directness that contributes to the EP's air of vulnerability. After years of discovering, then honing his craft, the songwriter recognizes the value of filling in artistic ruts, pushing against crutches, perhaps even leaving the familiar comforts of home. Of course, we find the noise and the sincerity gorgeous, embracing the beauty in the din, grateful for the salvation in the static.
16. Willi Carlisle, Critterland (Signature Sounds, Jan 26)
"Higher Lonesome" concludes with Willi Carlisle's admission: The artist has his suffering / And the gods will have their pain / By the time the ride is over / I'm sure I'll ask to ride again. The sharing of his character is one of Critterland's great revelations, reintroducing listeners to a man who acknowledges and even explores life's dark corners without succumbing to bitterness and resentment towards himself or others. "When the Pills Wear Off" seems a lovesong to late friends, adding tasteful strings for the record's fullest arrangement. It's a moving and meaning-full song, a light touch that dives deeply: He shines like the neon in the town's only bar / Slick as the needle and slim as the scar. On a high-profile release that might have prompted him to embrace the more simplistic elements of his developing craft, Carlisle and his producer have instead created a shining example of meaning in restraint.
17. American Aquarium, Fear Of Standing Still (Losing Side, Jul 26)
While Dave Cobb has carried the mantle of americana producer extraordinaire for years, it's high time Shooter Jennings took a couple laps. Fear Of Standing Still is a terrific sounding album, presenting American Aquarium largely live in studio, but also clean- and current-sounding. The upbeat "Messy As a Magnolia" is an anthemic slice of roots rock: I'm gonna love you / Til the wheels fall off this thing. The set closes with the pounded piano and bar band fervor of "Head Down, Feet Moving", a cri de coeur that promises American Aquarium is in it for the long haul. Jennings has cultivated the perfect setting for BJ Barham's songs, songs written by an adult about adult things. If he's more dull for no longer being the biggest partier, he'll at least be around long enough to write some great songs about hangin' around in his backyard: There's a reason why / The windshield is bigger / Than the rearview mirror / There's better days ahead.
18. Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future (4AD, Mar 22)
Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker sounds as at home on her solo work as she does with her band, though both serve as very personal expressions of her unique psyche. Bright Future spits the difference splendidly, incorporating both the intimate, rambling nature of her earlier projects with the more efficient writing of her Big Thief work. Without abandoning her trademark fragility, Lenker has presented the most complete collection of her solo career.
19. Sierra Ferrell, Trail Of Flowers (Rounder, Mar 22)
The sheer wonder of Ferrell is most readily witnessed on stage, with the eccentrically-costumed singer-songwriter holding court with the force and vision of a Chappell Roan. Her second full-length comes close to capturing that charisma, delivering fully realized songs that ably walk the wire between trad and today. With Trail Of Flowers, Ferrell has seized the reins of mainstream americana, both the face of our kind of music and a tireless whirlwind of creativity.
20. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland (Acony, Aug 23)
Welch and Rawlings have always been best when they create their songs from bits and pieces of plainspoken tradition, even as they speak to current realities. An album highlight, "Hashtag" beautifully memorializes longtime supporter Guy Clark, with strings and french horn: You said time makes the wheels spin / And the years roll out and the doubt rolls in / In the truck stops and the parking lots / And the cheap motels. The duo don't redefine their sound on Woodland, though the collection sounds more fresh, more emotionally invested. Welch and Rawlings trade lines on "Howdy Howdy": We've been together since I don't know when / And the best part's where one starts and the other ends.
21. Merce Lemon, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (Darling, Sep 27)
The results can be mesmerizing, making Watch Me a frequently very pretty experience, the mind wandering through the sometimes woozy arrangements. Even on Lemon's more traditionally structured songs like "Birdseed", she can sound like a hybrid of Joni Mitchell and Neko Case, with Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel and Landon George's fiddle: I'm the bird that sings so goddamn loud / It wakes you up at dawn. "Backyard Lover" is a patient, smoldering impression of a friend's passing: Now I am falling to a dark place/ Where just remember her death's / About all I can take. Even in the midst of their ambience and internalness, Merce Lemon's songs can be corporeal and grounded in very tactile things. On the closing title cut: A tree fell, I smell the wood / And the bark is coming off / I write my words down on it. Like Bill Callahan, her work can be both slightly alien and intensely familiar. Gorgeous in its attention to the plain things.
22. Kasey Chambers, Backbone (Essence, Oct 4)
The variety of her new collection is impressive, from the lighthearted contemporary country of "Love Like Springsteen" to the drunken romp of "Divorce Song", co-written and sung with her former husband and recording partner Shane Nicholson: Maybe we did it all wrong / Kinda fucked everything up ... We couldn't survive as the marrying kind / But we do divorce pretty good. The soulful "Something To Believe In" could be a show stopper, with its own strong helping of electric guitar. While she has been reliably prolific since the start, Kasey Chambers' past couple projects haven't received their due attention. The inclusion here of an unexpected live eight-minute cover of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" should serve as a reminder of her talent and range.
23. Ben Chapman, Downbeat (Hippie Shack, Dec 13)
Nashville songwriter Ben Chapman is flirting with simplicity on just his third LP. Produced by Anderson East, Downbeat proposes a seamless country-soul project, eloquently understated in its execution. Originally from Lafayette, Georgia, Chapman earned his way into the Music City's songwriting circles, placing his work with acts like Flatland Cavalry and Muscadine Bloodline in addition to releasing a pair of his own records. Many of the right pieces can be heard on 2022's Make the Night Better, and moreso on last year's Amber Sounds Vol 1. Chapman and East have sifted and assembled them for one of the year's memorable breakthroughs.
24. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Revelations (Abeyance, Mar 29)
With their new collection, Shook has managed to corral the quirk and edge of their debut, taming it just enough in service of their increasingly disciplined songcraft. Revelations retains the alluring buzz, even as Shook is widening their lane as a nuanced writer in a sustainable way. With songs that boldly embrace issues of emotional health and identity, it's a tribute to Shook (who has assumed the name River) that they have earned the trust of the typically conventional roots music mainstream.
25. Katie Pruitt, Mantras (Rounder, Apr 5)
Katie Pruitt cowrote only a couple songs on her new collection, with the majority boasting only her own name on the credits. As a writer, she leans towards Lori McKenna's domestic sociodrama, or Caroline Spence's projection of the personal into public spaces. Where Kacey Musgraves' new cowrites reach too far inward (or so far upwards) that they threated to disappear, Pruitt's craft anchors her introspection. She regards relationship missteps patiently, and operates from a place of forgiveness, even in light of her own shortcomings. Cowritten with Ruston Kelly, "Standstill" closes Mantras with a wistful acoustic number, with strings and warm fingers across frets. She sings, It's okay to stand still / You don't have to gain the world to say that you're fulfilled.
26. Pernice Brothers, Who Will You Believe (New West, Apr 5)
Joe Pernice is a classic songwriter, a throwback soul whose facility with words and melody hail from a place beyond genre. On Who Will You Believe, this might be most evident to a pair of tracks that portray him in quite a different light. "A Song For Sir Robert Helpmann" is a brief instrumental interlude, a sweet waltz carried on piano and strings like a cinematic theme from a motion picture soundtrack. "Purple Rain" closes the LP on a remarkable note, while addressing the loss of friends and family, including David Berman of Silver Jews and Purple Mountains: Here's a man one heartbeat from a ghost. His fragile voice alongside a simple acoustic strum, soon joined by heart-tugging strings, then low brass. The final minute of the album features the choral ensemble Choir! Choir! Choir! carrying the chorus for a unexpectedly sincere and moving finale. Pernice has commented, it's about the dread of potentially losing intangible things that I thought would always be there. It comes off as an almost daring risk for Joe Pernice, a heart-on-sleeve moment that succeeds in leaving listeners with the impression that there's much more to hear from this one-time misanthrope.
27. Jessica Pratt, Here In the Pitch (Mexican Summer, May 3)
Pratt's alluring indie-folk won't fit tidily in any single box, alternately presenting as an exercise in retro pop and an ethereal, reverb-happy singer-songwriter. The sum total of her fourth record, however, can be decisively gorgeous with its orchestral pop arrangements and Pet Sounds-inspired vibe. The California-based Pratt expands her previously hushed sound for a fuller effect that is simultaneously retro and keenly current.
28. Chuck Prophet, Wake the Dead (Yep Roc, Oct 25)
On Wake the Dead, Chuck Prophet and his band are still just a pack of friends playing great music in the garage, not unlike when Prophet and Dan Stuart were collaborating in Green On Read so many years ago. "One Lie For Me, One For You" adds an early rock doo-wop influence to its swaying melody, with a bridge constructed of bells and strings, and the memorable "Red Sky Night" even explores touches of California jazz and light sha-la-la's on the chorus. On the closer, Chuck Prophet demonstrates a profoundly simple understanding achieved by facing such adversity: It's a good day to shame the devil / Good day to let it all ride / It's a good day to be alive. We would add: It's a good day to listen to Chuck Prophet!
29. JP Harris, JP Harris Is a Trash Fire (Bloodshot, Sep 20)
You can track down an online documentary directed by Schuyler Howie, House-Broke Tiger On a Leash. The camera follows as JP Harris goes about his day job restoring old houses, drawing parallels between the artist's carpentry craft and his music - what he calls old shit that had some life left in it. Harris explains how a desire for self-sufficiency and a commitment to living his values led to his complementary passions: I don't want it to just be a really good replica of something that came before me, he comments. I want to have my own little thumb print on it. Trash Fire's title track plays like a mission statement, or a declaration of Harris' independence: I'm writing old songs in a new style / Just trying to stretch this country mile ... The world keeps turning / And I stand still.
30. Loose Koozies, Passing Through You (Tall Texan, Dec 6)
The second full-length from this Detroit five-piece came in just under the wire for our year-end list, and might have merited a loftier placement if we'd had more time for a formal review. Frontman EM Allen and co. generate the sort of reckless alt.country that can be tough to track down these days. On Passing Through You, they temper their free-wheeling Wednesday-esque rowdiness with a slightly more disciplined approach to their songs.
... and just to make sure we apply due credit, were we to expand this list to forty (we won't), the next ten artists in order of appearance would probably have been Pony Bradshaw, Andrew Bryant, Haley Heynderickx, 49 Winchester, Orville Peck, Gold Star, Liv Greene, Noeline Hofmann, David Nance, and JR Carroll.
As 2025 approaches, we have alternately enjoyed and been tested by this year's expanded R&B offerings, our nearly daily glimpses into our kind of music. Our vocational situation is morphing in January, so things will change a bit out of necessity. We're not entirely certain how. What will not change is our abiding commitment to this thing, our humble little place in the sandbox of musical discovery. More on what to expect once we know what to expect ...
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