1) R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now

 2) Old Californio – Sundrunk Angels: I keep coming back and listening to this album.  It’s rock ‘n’ roll, and twangy, and a little bit funky.  There are slide guitars and harmonicas, ballads and ditties.  It’s a veritable jambalaya of Americana music.

 3) Suzanna Choffel – Steady Eye Shaky Bow: Choffel, a guitarist as well as singer, manages to put a very jazzy spin on some tunes that are otherwise more country and pop, all while maintaining an Austin sensibility to the production.  Normally when someone says music is hard to classify it’s because the music is all over the map.  In this case, the songs are in a consistently similar vein, albeit not something you hear very often.  Undoubtedly the best Americana album of the year to play for someone who says they don’t like country and twangy.

 4) Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest: I was a little bit meh about this record when I first heard it.  But it’s grown steadily on me since it came out.  I think what I like most is that it’s so different from just about anything else I heard all year, and yet it’s still so essentially Gillian.  If you just listened to this once or twice and then put it away, go back and listen again 6 months later.  You’ll see.

5) Sons of Fathers – Sons of Fathers: And speaking of great harmonies in the vein of Welch & Rawlings, check out the debut release of David Beck and Paul Cauthen, otherwise known as Sons of Fathers.  These guys have a crack set of musicians behind them and give a vocal performance that is mesmerizing.

6) Milk Drive – Road From Home: Sometimes there’s no substitute for the ability to shred.  Milk Drive consists of members who collectively have probably won more picking awards than any band in existence.  They’ve put a jazz spin on a bluegrass sound and are seriously pushing the envelope of how sophisticated Americana music can sound.  Not to mention that instrumental virtuosity.

7) The Bottle Rockets – Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening: Just as the unplugged MTV performance by Pearl Jam defined the very plugged-in sound that was grunge, this acoustic performance by a normally loud band shows why they’ve been so successful.  With all the amplifiers stripped out, the songs are still well written and well performed and stand the test of time.

8 The Decemberists – The King Is Dead: Lots has been written about the early 2011 release by one of the darlings of the indie crowd.  For me, this album showed how wide ranging they can be with its twangy influence that simply presents Colin Meloy and his mates in a new light that’s an easy extension to their previous catalog.

9) Dave Alvin – Eleven Eleven: No real surprises here, it’s another solid effort from Alvin who proves that, first, he can without fail drum up a supporting ensemble that’s so incredibly tight you’d swear they’ve played together for years.  And second, he keeps writing songs that convey such a sense of time and place that you’re transported with him to the moment in time so carefully documented in the lyrics.

10) Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down: Jarosz’ vocals have gained strength and capability on her second release.  Combine that with mandolin (and other strings) chops that may be the best in Texas even though she’s barely old enough to vote and you have a winner.  She just gets better every time you see her.

11) The Band Of Heathens – Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son: I liked this album as a follow up to their two previously acclaimed efforts, but the real reason it’s in the years top was that it provides new material for them to perform live.  You have to catch them in a club to experience the full joy of TBOH.

12) Robert Earl Keen – Ready For Confetti: Another album that’s here because it’s just full of good songs.  Keen has his sound and his fans and no one’s going home disappointed from this.

13) Sinful Savage Tigers – The Last Night Of The Revels: A really solid effort from a group that’s bound to start gaining more notice.  They’re just too good and the tunes too catchy to fall into some regional bucket where they only play for the locals.

14) Great American Taxi – Paradise Lost: Sort of an Americana supergroup, Great American Taxi is a little retro and a little progressive and someone you need to go hear live.

15) Wilco – The Whole Love: The year off did these guys right.  There’s more excitement in this record than I’ve heard from Tweedy & company in a while.

16) Beirut – The Rip Tide: Another good release from one of the kings of the neo-Balkan indie sound.

17) Hayes Carll – KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories): Carll continues to craft a unique sound and there are some real keepers on this album.

18) The Gourds – Old Mad Joy: Kevin Russell and his band mates have pushed out the boundaries on what most people would consider “Gourds music”, which was a pleasant surprise.

19) Allison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplane: Krauss is back into her groove from the rock-royalty side projects and as much as I enjoyed those, this seems to capture her spirit better.

20) The Wailin’ Jennys – Bright Morning Stars: When it’s all about the vocals, you can’t do much better than the Jennys.  Another group I have to recommend seeing live.

The finest example of what I mean by that is perhaps So the Story Goes.  It reminded me of the kind of power pop you got from Katrina & the Waves, or even Petula Clark waaaay back in the day.  It’s snap-your-fingers fun.  There’s the same kind of vibe with Hold Of the Night and my favorite, Raincloud.

More typical of the album though is the smokey, jazzy, chanteuse style.  The disc opens with Archer, with its film noir feel.  Animal follows a couple of tunes later with very breathy vocals.  The best example of the style, though, is Stumble with its Mick Ronson funkiness and highly stylized vocals (and a tasty bit of vibraphone in the background).  There are also a couple of ballads on the album that utilize the huskiness of Choffel’s voice to their advantage as well, Hot Shot and Come Clean.

Steady Eye Shaky Bow isn’t the usual Twangville fare.  But with the support of a number of local stalwarts, it’s kind of what you’d expect from a jazz singer coming out of the Austin music scene.  You owe it to yourself to give this a listen.

The first cut, Dry Creek Inn, is a paean to the late 60′s sounds of Roger McGuinn and The Byrds.  Except instead of the familiar 12-string sound, guitarist Noah Jeffries and mandolinist Dennis Ludiker have combined their instruments to create something that’s similar, but subtlety and enjoyable different.  The second tune, Smokeblowers, moves forward a few years to the sort-of country rock of the acoustic Doobie Brothers before they went down the schmaltz pop route.  This time, the difference is bass player Matt Mefford, who puts a Stanley Clark imprint on the song and makes you wish you could have Mark Ronson go back and remix a bunch of those early Eagles or Poco tunes.

From there, things shift to more of a jazzy feel.  SoHo showcases the bands harmonies, with a very Bill Frissell-like guitar track.  Changa Chang goes even further down the path with multiple key changes, jazz improvisation solos and a brief section in the end that could have come from Stravinsky.  That segues directly into Nightmares By the Sea with it’s minor keys and tempo that would be right at home on an Arcade Fire recording.

One of the things I liked most on this album was the band’s ability to combine everything–instruments, vocals, writing–into a song that so cohesively sets a feeling.  Stepping Stones with it’s short phrasings and clipped notes conveys thoroughly that sense of jumping from one rock to the next.  And Spare Key, with its sparse sound and minimalist lyrics, completely reflects the yearning for someone to stay.

Overall this is as much a jazz album as it is rock or folk or bluegrass.  The number of instrumental-only songs may put a few people off.  But the amount of texture and complete mastery of so many sounds make this a recording that earns a lot of listens to catch all the subtlety of the arrangements and gorgeous sound.  I expect to be as enamored of Road From Home in six months as I am today.

Busting out of Oklahoma, The Turnpike Troubadours are here to breathe new life into what is too often a stale environment in the world of Red Dirt music.

Sure, this quintet does their fair share of rocking out, why wouldn’t they? It’s the added country (shocking!) dimensions of their tunes that lend the album, and their overall sound, a bit of heft and legitimately place them into a roots-rock realm that often seems to lack actual “roots” tones. A weaving fiddle, and a sincere lyrical effort that harkens to a previous period, without just sounding old, become prominent and pleasing.

On the band’s second album, Diamonds & Gasoline, the band that used their name to pay homage to their home state-sharing heroes such as Woody Guthrie, sing of life on the railroad, working along the river banks and the girl next door, all with extreme believability and a severe minumum of formulaic predictability.

On “Evangeline,” a harmonica and banjo push the shuffling number forward while Evan Felker sings of a girl who’s “sweeter than communion wine.” While in the hands of other songwriters, the idea of a woman being a man’s redemption can be a notion that’s a bit tired, but here, an avoidance of a ham-fisted appraoch in favor of simplicity makes the concept timeless, not cliche.

So, to sum up: The Turnpike Troubadours are old-fashioned, in a very exciting fashion.

Her twelfth album started as a jazz project, but morphed into something more akin to a jazz attitude set to music. There are several songs that would be perfectly at home on a Blue Note album. Automatic, for example, has a smoky jazz lounge kind of feel, with a chorus line that’s hard to get out of your brain (…automatic, democratic, chromatic, acrobatic, southern blues…). You Belong In New Orleans is a serious swing number, complete with scat singing and those muted Bourbon Street horns and a wailing clarinet. Take Me Places is also heavy with scat singing, but is presaged with Whatachoice that’s a dialog about ordering a cinnamon roll at the drive up. Don’t ask me how, but back-to-back it just works.

That attitude I mentioned earlier manifests itself in a couple of numbers that are sort of beat poetry set to music. Folk rap, if you will. Wail Theory comes from the a poem by Dorothy Parker, while Come Tomorrow is a Hendrix original but adds steel guitar and blues harp, influenced by Charlie Musselwhite and Norton Buffalo, to the verbal dance. The harmonica also makes a strong appearance on Hula Mary, a quirky (she’s got a hula hoop, and knows how to use it) and fun song. And for just an overall musical arrangement I find compelling, check out the neo-Balkan feel of The Berlin Wall.

With those dozen albums under her belt and the incomparable production of Maines, Hendrix has never been someone easily categorized. Cry Till You Laugh stretches her boundaries even further. She notes this record is a little like a mix tape, and maybe that’s the best description for the synergy of sound, words, and production that make this her best album yet.

The first song on the record, Shasta, has a driving background banjo part that reminded me of 80′s era Pat Metheny.  It serves as a good warm up to Big Hook, a pretty traditional take on bluegrass, with some tasty mandolin to go with Hargreaves’ fiddle playing.  Lost in Lunel, about the French mandolin festival, also hews to the bluegrass genre.

More of the album, however, is jazz focused.  April Joy does the fusion idea proud with a bluegrass instrumented take on a traditional sounding jazz tune.  That leads into the John Scofield composition, There Will Never Be Another/Not You Again, that would have been right at home back in the day when I used to catch some of masters at a couple of Kansas City clubs.  I also have to mention Road Song, a tune that quickly goes on the attack with a fiddle/bass duel, but then transitions into something more New Orleans than Harlem.

On the whole, Prelude is a record I’ll probably go back to when I’m in the mood for something a little different.  The musicianship on this all-instrumental album is pretty fabulous.  It is, though, more jazz and ambience than my normal daily diet of music.

Did I say win big? I meant really big. Thanks to our friends at Red Distribution, we’re celebrating this tremendous release in style with a special prize package that includes eight, count ‘em, eight cds. The package starts with Preservation, an Album to Benefit Preservation Hall. It also includes the latest releases from seven artists featured on Preservation: My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, Jason Isbell, Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons, Del McCoury Family Band (Del appears solo on Preservation), Julie & Buddy Miller (Buddy appears solo on Preservation) and Steve Earle.

To win, post a comment with a favorite New Orleans song or artist. A winner will be selected at random when the contest ends on Monday, 8 March 10 at midnight ET.**

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of videos featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The first is a documentary about the tribute album, featuring scenes from many of the recording sessions. Next up is a trio of live sessions featuring the Edge (performing “Vertigo” with the Band — eat your heart out, Bono!), Del McCoury and Pete Seeger.

The building itself is strikingly humble. No running water. No air conditioning. Six spare benches and a few cushions for visitors. One can’t imagine that much has been changed since the building was originally built as a Spanish tavern in the 1750s.

But the music. The music is sublime. With a bit of Dixieland, a touch of blues, a dash of folk and a whole lotta old time jazz, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band make a magical sound.

To celebrate this institution, over twenty artists journeyed to New Orleans to record with the group in the hallowed Hall. Give credit to the album’s producers, who did more than just invite a random selection of popular artists. Rather, they paired the group with a diverse array of musicians who, in their own right, represent a rich picture of American music styles.

Buddy Miller finds the country swing in “I Ain’t Got Nobody” while Pete Seeger brings out the folk edge of “Blue.” Amy LaVere and Paolo Nutini seem to have stepped back into their 1920’s with their stylized vocals. Jim James takes it a step further, singing through an old school bull horn on “Louisiana Fairytale.”

The collaboration between the band and the Blind Boys of Alabama is a spiritual summit of epic proportion. Not to be outdone, Richie Havens’ melancholy turn on “Trouble In Mind” is mesmerizing. Tom Waits gets the band groovin’ with his “Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing.’ The highlights are endless.

If nothing else, you should be buying this album to support Preservation Hall and its efforts to continue a rich music tradition. The fact that you’ll be getting such rich music from a storied musical institution is a bonus. Well, a really big bonus.

The Belleville Outfit play at Waterloo Records

Led by the torch-singing style of lead singer and fiddler Phoebe Hunt, the group stayed firmly in the jazz vein, albeit with Americana and country ingredients, for the entire evening.  Keyboardist Connor Forsyth played the club’s enormous grand piano with the enthusiasm of someone playing with their new Christmas gift for the first time.  And lead guitarist Marshall Hood, while subtle, tossed in some pretty tasty licks when you least expected them.

The set selection, not surprisingly, leaned heavily toward the swing numbers they’re perhaps most known for, like Caroline and Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby.  They mixed it up a little with the country soft shoe of Will This End In Tears.  They also played a few covers including a Peggy Lee number and the bluesy Baby Bye Bye, which for the life of me I can’t figure out who wrote.

I’ve seen The Belleville Outfit play a couple of outdoor music festivals, and there’s no doubt they get the crowd up and going with their normal stage show.  But if they come to your neck of the woods and play a small club, I highly recommend you get there and see the performance.

Click here for a video of Baby Bye Bye.

there is one thing that the Dirty Dozen seem to understand is that Jazz has a strong tradition of being party music. “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing” is a lesson some Jazz combos seem to have lost sight of. While experimental forms of Jazz are not without there own merits, they are hardly ever fun and cooking quite in the original sense of the word. Most Jazz clubs or performances today attract people who quietly sit and listen, stroking their chin in contemplation while secretly fighting sleep and boredom. The Dirty Dozen may not be as subtle live as on record but they do bring the Funk. The Dozen live drop bomb after bomb. Drummer Terence Higgins has a high Hip Hop sensibility, pushing and pulling with an approach that is both sloppy, loose and incredibly tight. You can’t help but throw your hands in the air, wave em like you just don’t care. The horn section adds a booty shaking grease that makes it impossible to sit down. If the Dirty Dozen don’t get you off your ass it is advised to check your vital signs. You might be dead.

The material the Dozen picked to play was aimed at getting the audience into a sweaty Funk. After they were done my arm pits reminded me of the true meaning of the word. With the chops of the Dirty Dozen a classic like “When The Saint Come Marching In” sounds as fresh and funky as “Fire On The Bayou” or “Feet Can’t Fail Me Now”. Although the band was struggling with the acoustics of the venue some, they paid their dues and then some. The Dirty Dozen is the kind of band that doesn’t play for you, they party with you. They are there for their own pleasure as well as yours. Though very accomplished musicians they never loose themselves in pointless solos for musicians sake. Still their music is adventurous and incredibly original. With the Dirty Dozen the music of New Orleans is as vital, challenging and cooking as it was a hundred years back.

“What’s Going On”

The Dirty Dozen “Live At Paradiso” is available through the Dime