Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball
Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Justin Townes Earle – Nothing’s Gonna Change the way You Feel About Me Now
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Sugar + the High-Lows – Sugar + the High-Lows
Patti Smith – Banga
Todd Snider – Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables
Kelly Hogan – I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
Allah-Las – Allah-Las
Close calls:
- Bob Dylan – Tempest
- Dr. John – Locked Down
- Bonnie Raitt – Slipstream
- Best Coast – the Only Place
- Nick Waterhouse – Time’s All Gone
- Alejandro Escovedo – Big Station
- The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter
- Beachwood Sparks – The Tarnished Gold
- Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale – Buddy and Jim
- The Lumineers – The Lumineers
- Ian Hunter – When I’m President
- Sara Watkins – Sun Midnight Sun
- ZZ Ward – Till The Casket Drops
- Clairy Browne & the Bangin Rackettes – Baby Caught the Bus
- The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten
Best Blues:
- Tedeschi Trucks Band – Everybody’s Talkin’
- Janiva Magness – Stronger for it
- Michael Burks – Show of Strength
- Magic Slim & The Teardrops – Bad Boy
- Buddy Guy – Live At Legends
- John Primer – Blues On Solid Ground
- Joe Louis Walker – Hellfire
- Dion – Tank Full of Blues
- Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King – Close to the Bone
- Joe Bonamassa – No Hits, No Hype, Just the Best / Driving Towards The Daylight / Beacon Theatre: Live From New York