-by Kelcy Salisbury
This list is by no means exhaustive.
2012 has been an absolute banner year for good music. I’m sure
there are several great albums released in 2012 that I haven’t even
heard yet and will discover some time down the road & wish I’d
included them. I tried doing a top 5 list, then I tried for 10 but in
the end these were the albums I just couldn’t bring myself to cut
off the list.
The Canadian musician released some of
his finer work with this album (get the deluxe edition with multiple
acoustic versions of several songs.) Don’t miss Down On The
Mountain, Drink It Like You Mean It, One Left In The Chamber &
the hilarious Hayes Carll collaboration of Bible On The Dash (as a
former rodeo cowboy who’s done his share of traveling I found this
to be one of the most truthfully humorous compositions I’ve heard
in years.)
Texas music godfather reaches out to an
under-served demographic. Grifters need hymnals too, right?
Seriously, Coricidin Bottle & Lazarus are as good as any work
he’s done. My favorite Ray Wylie Hubbard album since Delirium
Tremolos.
The album is a touch uneven in places
but songs like The Long Road Ahead, Summers Dreams and Daddy’s
Hands are so good that they elevate the entire thing. There’s not
a song on here I skip, but there are a few I look forward to more
than others. Can’t wait to see what the next project sounds like.
Not sure I can really describe this one
but to say that The Trishas are easily the best female duo or group
in country music right now and it’s not even close (sorry Pistol
Annies but you could take some notes from these ladies). I hate to
distinguish them as a “female” act though. Isn’t it about time
we just acknowledge that this is one incredibly good bunch of
musicians? They can play, they can sing, and they can write…How
they can write! I’d tell you what my favorite songs are on the
album, but that changes every time through. Last time around it was
Mother Of Invention, John Wayne & Gold&Silver. Listen for
yourself, if you haven’t heard this album you’re missing
something great.
I’m a Dwight fan, I’ll admit that.
I’ve also appreciated Pete Anderson’s production work, so when I
heard that Dwight’s new album would not employ Pete as producer I
was a little worried. I’m sure the folks who want to hear
“Guitars, Cadillacs” re-made over and over won’t care for this.
It’s unabashedly Dwight’s “rock” album, but it’s
outstanding. Top songs are Waterfall, It’s Never Alright and Long
Way To Go.
9) Jason Eady - AM Country Heaven
Probably the best pure country record
of the year, this one saw Eady take a slight detour from his more
folk oriented material and record a straight ahead country album that
draws heavily on the Merle Haggard school of writing & playing.
The end result is simply astoundingly good in its simplicity. Don’t
miss the scathing songwriting of the title cut, the heartbreaking
Wishful Drinking or the Patty Loveless duet of Man On A Mountain.
8) Dirty River Boys - The Science Of
Flight
I have to thank Brad Rice (the drummer
from Jason Boland & The Stragglers, not the one from Son Volt)
for bringing this band to my attention. I was honestly getting a
little burned out on “new” Texas/Red Dirt/Independent bands. I
hadn’t heard a new one doing anything original in a few years &
even with all the buzz about these guys I hadn’t paid a bit of
attention. Brad told me they were “original” and “different”
and was he ever right! I’d venture to say that this album would be
top 3 material if I’d only picked it up a little sooner. I’ve
only had time to listen to it twice but it absolutely blew me away
and forced me to include it on this list. Dirty River Boys sound is
a hard thing to describe, but I’ll try. Let’s imagine that the
Black Crowes & Nick Cave had a baby that was raised by a group of
Celtic musicians who also happened to be bluegrass fans & the
baby ran away from home at age 14 to tour with Ray Wylie Hubbard &
Gram Parsons. These guys aren’t scared to try a mixture of styles
and influences and the end result is something amazing to hear. I
can’t wait to get a chance to see them live. Best songs on the
album (and there isn’t a bad one) are the title song & Six
Riders, but you’d better get the whole thing.
The best voice in 90s rock is back
where he belongs as Chris Cornell has reunited with Soundgarden &
put out an album that sounds like a worthy follow-up to Superunknown,
not the album that showed up a decade plus after Down On The Upside.
There’s no Get On The Snake, Blow Up The Outside World or Fell On
Black Days (my 3 personal favorite Soundgarden songs) here but what
there is, is more than enough to be the hard rock album of the year.
Soundgarden was somewhat unfairly labeled as “just another grunge
band” in the 90s & were never completely able to break free
from that. They may never break away from it completely but
hopefully this album will earn them a whole new generation of fans as
well as reminding their legions of Gen X fans (how’d we all get so
old anyway?) that Soundgarden are still kings of the rock universe.
Jack White may be the direct spiritual
descendant of Keith Richards & Led Zeppelin. Nobody in
mainstream music is doing anything remotely close to his sound. Just
great rootsy rock 'n roll that comes straight from the heart. This
album, along with most of his output is proof that 3 chords and the
truth are really all you need.
5) Turnpike Troubadors - Goodbye Normal
Street
Turnpike Troubadours are one of the
finest live bands to come out of the rich musical scene of eastern
Oklahoma in the past several years. Their first two albums showed
tremendous promise due to the great songwriting and musicianship.
What sets this album apart is the addition of backing vocals of Jamie
Wilson of The Trishas. Like most of the albums near the top of this
list, there simply is not a single throwaway track. The album needs
to be heard in it’s entirety. The musicianship has actually
improved over their first two albums (Bossier City & Diamonds and
Gasoline) if that is even possible. Either this or Eady’s album
are the best true country albums of this year, if not the best of the
past 2-3 years. The only country album I’ve heard in the past
couple of years that can stand on the same level is Jason Boland &
The Stragglers Rancho Alto.
4) The Departed - Adventus
After This Is Indian Land came out last
year I was intrigued to see what this band could do with their
original material. I’m happy to report that they exceeded all my
expectations. This isn’t a country album, it’s a bluesy, rootsy,
gospel influenced trip through the prodigious talents of a band that
(while made up of an all-star cast of players) is truly much more
than the sum of it’s parts.
3) Chris Knight: Little Victories
Mr Knight (I feel like I should refer
to him as Mr., just because I’m pretty sure anybody with the kind
of body count usually exhibited in his songs might stab me if I don’t
call him Mr.) has released the finest album of his remarkable career.
It’s not quite a protest album, but there is a theme of social
commentary running through the entire thing. In almost any other
year this would be my album of the year. I’ve only had the album
since early October, but all the songs are among my most played for
the entire year. I can’t hear Jack Loved Jessie, Nothing On Me or
The Lonesome Way while driving without risking a speeding ticket.
First a bit of background: I am such a
fan of Matt’s 2005 album “Rube” (right down to the Marilyn
Manson sounding drums, and other industrial sounding touches) that I
have worn out two CD copies, and it’s been one of the top 2 most
played albums on my iPod every year since I got the digital copy,
something like 5 years running now. I liked the Matt King & The
Cutters EP. I loved the bare bones approach of Raw, which is also an
album that’s been in heavy rotation for the past couple of years.
(I’ll admit to not being a huge fan of Matt’s mid 90s Nashville
country output, but hopefully Matt will forgive me for that…) Point
is, I had very high expectations for this album even though I didn’t
really know quite what to expect. If you’re looking for real
stories of real life Matt is one of the three songwriters I’d point
you toward to start with (Chris Knight & Javi Garcia would be the
other two.) I’d be doing this album and the listener a disservice
to point out one song over another as the “must have” tracks on
this album. It’s an album that’s meant to be heard from start to
finish. It’s clearly a labor of love, care was paid to the
sequencing of songs - so get the album and listen to it the way it
was meant to be heard, start to finish. My brother once asked me
what Matt King sounded like and I told him that if Trent Reznor &
Loretta Lynn had a child who was raised in the Appalachians by Woody
Guthrie, he would be Matt King. That was meant as a compliment &
hopefully it’ll be taken that way.
This one came out early in the year, February I believe. Anyway, the first time I heard Drifting Wood I was hooked. This album is proof that you don’t need “top of the line” equipment or fancy production to make a great album. The pure soul of the vocals, the simple blues influenced music suits each song perfectly. There’s great variety here. Clementine & Truckers Love Song are simple yet beautiful (if somewhat unconventional) love songs. Mud Puddles, Drifting Wood, Living This Hard and Reckoning Lament are haunting rootsy slices of goodness. I had the privilege of catching Lincoln opening for Billy Joe Shaver last fall in San Marcos,TX and he blew me away. The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in terms of a single person making sounds that one person shouldn’t be able to. Lincoln is a young man with an old soul and a clear appreciation for the traditions of such influential acts as Robert Johnson and Ray Wylie Hubbard. If you’ve somehow missed the greatness that is The Shovel VS The Howling Bones, go pick it up today. You can thank me later.
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Albums I’m looking forward to in 2013:
New music from
Jason Boland & The Stragglers: The best traditional country band going has a new album (produced by Shooter Jennings) on the way early in '13.
Tyler McCumber (he’s a star in Italy of all places) plans to release some new music in '13. In an interesting side note, Javi Garcia was a member of Tyler’s first band.
