I could so easily fall into the cliché trap of stating how hard it has been to compress my favourite albums of the year down to just ten. But I will not do that, because it has been easy. The reason? They are all flipping marvellous records and I still want to play them, a lot.
Painting Blue – Amy LaVere
I have no doubt that had Amy LaVere continued touring and promoting this album throughout 2020 it would have reached a lot more ears by now but nevertheless, this is a lovely record with some out-and-out modern Americana classics in its grooves. Listening to it now takes me back to those pre-lockdown weeks when we could just go and indulge ourselves with a trip to Nottingham, excited by the news that Amy LaVere is in the UK and she has a new album coming out! Hard to believe how much I took a simple pleasure like that for granted. But the lockdown did reflect well on this artist in other ways as I continued to track her activities throughout the year. I have to confess, I did get on my high horse in frustration at times when a high-profile singer, loosely in the folk arena, took to the internet to petulantly rant about how they would not be playing free home concerts online because “live music is revenue” before arrogantly throwing about large numbers to illustrate how much the lockdown was negatively affecting their turnover. Meanwhile an artist like Amy LaVere, no less afflicted financially by the crisis, happily played weekly online Facebook sessions from her home with her partner Will Sexton, whilst talking openly about filling out job applications. By the end of the year, they were still playing the live home streams whilst Amy had enterprisingly embarked on a mobile vegan chocolate lava vending business. My point is that if you’re a real artist, with music in your DNA, you will make and play music no matter what your circumstances because you simply love to. The music such an artist creates endures and is listened to for years to come. If you treat music as ‘revenue’ you will end up making “product” that sound like a box ticking marketing committee exercise before quickly ending up as landfill. Amy LaVere’s albums stay in my collection and I come back to them time and again. Real artists may have to shift conditions in trying times, but they remain what they are in essence and Amy LaVere has always been the real deal for me. ‘Painting Blue’ is a great album, do not let it slip through your net.
Rough & Rowdy Ways – Bob Dylan
It can take time for later works in a major artists catalogue to sit favourably alongside the earlier celebrated work. Make no mistake though, ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’ is going to be regarded as one of Dylan’s major works. Throughout his life he has released albums that captured a state of mind relevant to his age; youthful idealism, blissful domestic retreat, marital turmoil in adulthood, midlife crisis of faith and meaning, later life heartbreak and accepting a removal from the modern world as his sixties loomed; whether he really lived these experiences or not is irrelevant because he always wrote about them so vividly. And now he is reflecting the mind of a man who has lived eighty summers with a clarity that mirrors the interactions with people I have known throughout my life to reach that age. Their heads are alive with friendly ghosts, world events that happened decades ago are recalled with the clarity of a current newsreel and their brains really do overflow with the multitudes they contain. It is frightening what Dylan is saying at times within the depths of this album (“black rider, black rider, you’ve been on the job too long”), little wonder he reverts to grooving to his old Jimmy Reed albums. “I can’t play the record ‘cos my needle got stuck”. ‘Murder Most Foul’ finds Dylan meditating on a world tragedy that no one could make sense of at the time and finds that little has changed. This opens the door for an avalanche of other memories to tumble down for over sixteen minutes. Open up the gatefold of the album sleeve and staring back at us from nearly 90 years ago are Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, fresh faced and full of life, their faces saying that they know something which we do not.
Editors note: Bob Fish’s review is quoted from on Bob Dylan’s home page…something we are all very still chuffed about.
World On The Ground – Sarah Jarosz
I class this as a sit-up-and-take notice album in Sarah’s career to date. Something in the creation and execution of these songs seems to state that this a musical talent on an upward trajectory. The songs are memorable, they are instant, they have thoughtful details and they overflow with drama, emotion and heart. Most of all they are little earworms and you will want to play them loud and singalong. It is that kind of album, stick it on while you are cooking the dinner or sit down and listen properly. It works either way, Sarah Jarosz is pulling off that age-old musical trick here of being very, very good.
Old Flowers – Courtney Marie Andrews
It is only when you get to this time of year and start to compile all the music you have listened to throughout the past twelve months that a theme starts to emerge. Well, it turns out that Americana and Country have been my big things in 2020. I cannot really nail why that has been although back in the spring I did thoroughly enjoy the Ken Burns Country Music documentary series. But no, it has got far more to do with the high volume of incredible country albums that have been released. This one in particular from Courtney Marie Andrews cemented her growing reputation as the real deal. Songs like ‘It Must Be Someone Else’s Fault’ sounded, to these ears, like instant classics and you know she is taking this seriously because she always looks so thoroughly hacked off on her album covers; she even looks annoyed on the sleeve of her Christmas single!
Never Work – Ariel Sharratt & Mathias Kom
If you are unfamiliar with the lyrical work of songwriter Mathias Kom then I would suggest you go on YouTube right now and search up his band The Burning Hell. If you don’t know where to start, try watching the video for the song ‘Amateur Rappers’. That should do it, I know people are short of time with all this music available to them. If you are already clued up about Mathias, then you will also be aware that this duo developed out of the Burning Hell as band members started to drop off with other life commitments and that ‘Never Work’ is a consistently entertaining lesson in superior song-form story telling. 2020 did not end there for Mathias and Arial, the Burning Hell also re-appeared with the brilliant Covid-isolation fatigue anthem ‘I Want To Drink In A Bar’.
Head Above The Water – Brigid Mae Power
‘On A City Night’ is one of those songs that musically evokes its subject matter perfectly. Painting pictures in your mind like a ‘Waterloo Sunset’, those guitars slide past you as if they were car headlights and the tired vocal seems to rise gently into a starry night sky. It is absolutely gorgeous and a fine example of how Brigid Mae Power has really delivered on her early promise with this release. From the beautiful piano-led melancholic dream of ‘Wearing Red That Eve’ (“I often seem to be in my most important memories”) to the isolating mysteries of ‘I Had To Keep My Circle Small’, this album is simply hypnotic and mesmerising. When an artist is producing the goods like this three albums in, you really know its time to sit up and take notice.
Just Like Moby Dick – Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
Bob Dylan wasn’t the only artist flying the septuagenarian flag in 2020, even if he was the most high profile (I haven’t heard the McCartney album yet). Way down below the radar there was this fantastic album by Terry Allen who, even at this stage of his long and storied career, could conjure up work bursting with deadpan wit and spirited musical lightness of touch. On the surface this may be straight ahead country back-porch storytelling, but Allen’s genius has always been in his eye for absurdist detail. Give it a try, if opening tune ‘Houdini Didn’t Like The Spiritualists’ (and isn’t there enough in that title alone to make you want to give it a try?) grabs you then go on the rest of the journey with this master, you will not regret it.
Reunions – Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
I am sure I am not that different as a music obsessive who loves the thrill of discovery and sharing, but can sometimes have unforgiveable blind spots when a new thrill is not uncovered by me. So, it has been, I am very ashamed to say, with me and Jason Isbell. I have a close drinking buddy, with whom I have spent many a late night discussing the finer points of Dylan’s poetic rage, who at least five years ago now told me I should be listening to Jason Isbell. His reasoning was, I am heavily into acts like Wilco, Gillian Welch and Ryan Adams (who I haven’t listened to for a couple of years on the grounds of his unforgiveable sexist misdemeanours. It is a dilemma, should the man’s art be cancelled because I wouldn’t like him as a person? I saw a documentary on Woody Guthrie once where a commentator said his friends put up with him being an absolute shit of a person for the sake of his music and I still listen to Woody….) so Jason Isbell needs my attention. But with my musical tunnel vision turned up to the max I gave Jason Isbell one listen back then and went “nah, not for me”. Well, I am happy to say categorically I was wrong. There is no excuse for why it took me so long, I mean I do listen to a lot of music so maybe that is a factor? It’s not as if I haven’t been into his old band the Drive By Truckers (who also put out fantastic new music this year) and absolutely loved some of their stuff. Maybe I just needed to be ready and have the time to receive because Isbell’s music is deep, needs to be digested properly. But as this album proves, it is well worth it. And best of all for me in 2020, I’ve had the whole back catalogue of solo and Unit 400 releases to go back to as well. I love it when that happens!
Bitter Better – Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards
Here is another case of an artist I had been casually following for a few years delivering an album that sounded like a great leap forward. I would hear a track like ‘Treat You Better’ on the radio and feel a glow of excitement that Laura and her band had made a record that sounded so immediate and right without watering down any of their musical instincts and natural flare. It has a deserved place in my end of year list because a few months on, I still love it. In fact, I noticed online the other day that they have released a book to accompany the album which I think I might treat myself to. It’s funny but somehow, even though most things are available to listen to for free, when an album has become listed as one of your ‘favourites’ in some way, you still feel the need to own something tangible to say you’ve properly brought it into your life. Which is one of the many reasons I was so delighted with my final selection for 2020…
Hard Luck Stories 1972-1982 – Richard & Linda Thompson
This year may have been an enforced quiet one for Richard Thompson (although the Bloody Noses EP released through Bandcamp was typically superb) but it was quite nice how this has shunted the bulk of our attention onto the Richard & Linda Thompson years. This box set was classily packaged and the mouth-watering selection of live and unreleased rarities did not disappoint. However, for me, the best thing about it was how this release levelled the playing field in their back catalogue. The albums ‘First Light’ and ‘Sunnyvista’ had been buried, unavailable for too long, giving the impression that they were inferior works. That wrong has been put right and the completists can now own the entire LP catalogue in a satisfyingly complete set, with an overflow of extras, that should surely inspire us all to sing hallelujah!
Photo Credit: Todd V Wolfson