As we begin to gather our Editors’ Picks for best of the year, we’d love to hear from you first. Throughout the year we host a weekly poll in which you can vote for your favorite new release of the week. From that list we’ve taken the albums that you voted for the most plus a few of our own recommendations and compiled this list. We try to include only new release full albums. In other words, re-issues, live albums and EPs are not intended to be among the picks. In no particular order, here they are:
- OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW, Carry Me Back
- TODD SNIDER, Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables
- LUCERO, Woman & Work
- ALABAMA SHAKES, Boys & Girls
- KATHLEEN EDWARDS, Voyageur
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, Wrecking Ball
- THE MASTERSONS, Birds Fly South
- JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE, Nothing’s Going to Change The Way You Feel About Me Now
- BUDDY MILLER AND JIM LAUDERDALE, Buddy and Jim
- CHUCK PROPHET, Temple Beautiful
- TIFT MERRITT, Traveling Alone
- CITIZEN COPE, One Lovely Day
- NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE, Psychedelic Pill
- JOHN HIATT, Mystic Pinball
- DR. JOHN, Locked Down
- RY COODER, Election Special
- SONS OF BILL, Sirens
- KASEY CHAMBERS AND SHANE NICHOLSON, Wreck and Ruin
- THE AVETT BROTHERS, The Carpenter
- RUTHIE FOSTER, Let It Burn
- RYAN BINGHAM, Tomorrowland
- SHOVELS AND ROPE, O’ Be Joyful
- DR. DOG, Be The Void
- RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS, The Wolf You Feed
- ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, Big Station
- GLEN HANSARD, Rhythm And Repose
- THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, Handwritten
- THE LUMINEERS, The Lumineers
- MUMFORD & SONS, Babel
- ROBERT FRANCIS, Strangers In The First Place
- STRAY BIRDS, The Stray Birds
- CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS, Leaving Eden
- I SEE HAWKS IN L.A., New Kind of Lonely
- JERRY DOUGLAS, Traveler
- CHRIS KNIGHT, Little Victories
- DWIGHT, YOAKAM, 3 Pears
- LANGHORNE SLIM, The Way We Move and
- BETTY LAVETTE, Thankful N Thoughtful
- BRANDI CARLILE, Bear Creek
- GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS, The Lion The Beast The Beat
- JOE PUG, The Great Despiser
- SARA WATKINS, Sun Midnight Sun
- MINDY SMITH, Self-titled
So please tell us your favorite album of the year by voting in our poll seen in the right side column of our blog. We’ll wrap up the poll the last week of December and capture the results.
About the author: Washington, D.C. area creative by day. Music is my muse. I host Twangville’s weekly Readers‘ Pick.