Who jumped out at you in 2018?

1. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs

2. John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness

3. Jimmy LaFave – Peace Town

4. Richard Thompson – 13 Rivers

5. Aaron Lee Tasjan – Karma for Cheap

6. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Live From the Ryman

7. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

8. Willie Nelson – Last Man Standing / My Way

9. Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel

10. Alejandro Escovedo – The Crossing

Rounding out the Top 20:
11. Caroline Rose – Loner
12. Brandi Carlile – By The Way I Forgive You
13. I’m With Her – See You Around
14. Rosanne Cash – She Remembers Everything
15. Beth Hart – Front and Center / Live at the Royal Albert Hall
16. Florence + The Machine – High as Hope
17. Cowboy Junkies – All That Reckoning
18. Paul Weller – True Meanings
19. Israel Nash – Lifted
20. Fantastic Negrito – Please Don’t Be Dead

BLUES – they ain’t dead
1. Shemeka Copeland – America’s Child

2. Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite – No Mercy in This Land
3. The California Honeydrops – Call it Home Vol. 1 & 2
4. Buddy Guy – The Blues is Alive and Well
5. Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – Black Coffee
6. Billy F Gibbons – The Big Bad Blues
7. The Nick Moss Band – The High Cost of Living Low
8. Janiva Magness – Love is an Army
9. Elvin Bishops Big Fun Trio – Something Smells Funky Round Here
10. Snooky Pryor – All My Money Gone

Best of 2017 – My iTunes library is a digital black hole but these are a few artists that managed to climb to the top in 2017

1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound / Live From Welcome to 1979
   
   
2. Robert Plant – Carry Fire
   
3. John Moreland – Big Bad Luv
   
4. Justin Townes Earle – Kids In The Street
   
5. Margo Price – All American Made
   
6. Brandy Clark – Live From Los Angeles
   
7. Gospelbeach – Another Summer of Love
   
8. Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie – S/T
   
9. Imelda May – Life Live Flesh Blood
   
10. The Mavericks – Brand New Day
    
11. Real Estate – In Mind
12. Chris Stapleton – From A Room Vol. 1 / Vol. 2
13. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Soul of a Woman
14. Don Bryant – Don’t Give Up On Love
15. The Feelies – In Between
16. David Rawlings – Poor David’s Almanack
17. Allison Krauss – Windy City
18. Ed Sheeran – +
19. Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Navigator
20. Hard Working Americans – We’re All In This Together

THE BLUES

1. John Primer & Bob Corritore – Ain’t Nothing You Can Do
   
2. Joe Bonamassa – Live at Carnegie Hall Acoustic
3. Ronnie Baker Brooks – Times Have Changed
4. Janiva Magness – Blue Again
5. Gary Clark Jr. Live North American 2016
6. Gregg Allman – Southern Blood
7. Coco Montoya – Hard Truth
8. North Mississippi All Stars – Prayer For Peace
9. Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm – S/T
10. Kim Wilson – Blues and Boogie Vol. 1

1. Lydia Loveless – Real
   
2. Elizabeth Cook – Exodus of Venus
   https://youtu.be/h6Am4klts-s
3. Angel Olsen – My Woman
   
4. Todd Snider – Eastside Bulldog
   
5. The Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome
   
6. Sara Watkins – Young In All The Wrong Ways
   
7. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
   
8. Drive–By–Truckers – American Band
   
9. Tedeschi Trucks Band – Let Me Get By
   
10. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
    
11. Bonnie Raitt – Dig In Deep
12. Margo Price – Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
13. Amanda Shires – My Piece of Land
14. Aaron Neville – Apache
15. Alejandro Escovedo – Burn Something Beautiful
16. The I Don’t Cares – Wild Stab
17. Eleanor Friedberger – New View
18. Britta Phillips – Luck or Magic
19. Blackberry Smoke – Like An Arrow
20. The Flat Five – It’s A World Of Love and Hope

Blues
Joe Bonamassa – Live at the Greek Theatre
Keb Mo – Live – That Hot Pink Blues Album
Lurrie Bell – Can’t Shake This Feeling
Beth Hart – Fire on the Floor
The James Hunter Six – Hold On!

Live:
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – 9/11/16 Pittsburgh PA
The Mavericks – All Night Live Volume 1
Neil Young – Earth
Aoife O’Donovan – Man in a Neon Coat: Live from Cambridge
Rolling Stones – Havana Moon

Singles and EPs
Nathaniel Ratecliff & The Night Sweats – A Little Something More
Drive – By – Truckers – Live Title Goes Here
Prince – Little Red Corvette / Dirty Mind (Live)
Michael Stipe – The Man Who Sold The World (Live
Bruce Springsteen – Purple Rain / Rebel Rebel / Take It Easy (Live)

1. Rhiannon Giddens – Tomorrow Is My Turn / Factory Girl EP

2. Drive By Truckers – It’s Great to Be Alive
3. James McMurtry – Complicated Game
4. Richard Thompson – Still
5. Mavericks – Mono
6. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and …
7. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
8. Tame Impala – Currents
9. Martin Courtney – Many Moons
10. Leo Bud Welch – I Don’t Prefer No Blueshttps://youtu.be/v1BoAmSHozE

    Here is the rest of my top 25 and these could really be in just about any order depending on my mood.

11. Samba Toure – Gandadiko
12. Leon Bridges – Coming Home
13. Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material
14. The Dead Weather – Dodge and Burn
15. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
16. Chris Stapleton – Traveller
17. Dwight Yoakam – Second Hand Heart
18. Josh Rouse – The Embers of Time
19. Jimmy LaFave – The Night Tribe
20. Beth Hart – Better Than Home
21. Tony Bennett – The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern
22. Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
23. Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin – Lost Time
24. Adele – 25
25. Shawn Colvin – Uncovered

Blues

Buddy Guy – Born to Play Guitar
John Primer – Muddy Waters 100
Charlie Musselwhite – I Ain’t Lying
Joe Bonamassa – Live At Radio City Music Hall / Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks
Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King – Fat Man’s Shine Parlor
Sonny Landreth – Bound By The Blues
Robert Cray – 4 Nights of 40 Years Live

Hope you found something worth adding to your music rotation. On to to 2016…

2014 Best of the Year – a good use of bandwidth!

1. Real Estate – Atlas
2. Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters – Lullaby and … The Ceaseless Roar
3. Leonard Cohen – Popular Problems
4. Lydia Loveless – Somewhere Else
5. Drive-By-Truckers – English Oceans / Black Ice Verite
6. Sturgil Simpson – Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
7. The Black Keys – Turn Blue
8. Lucinda Williams – Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone
9. Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes
10. Hard Working Americans – S/T
11. Jackson Browne – Standing In The Breach
12. Rosanne Cash – The River & the Thread
13. The Allman Brothers Band – Beacon Theatre 10-28-2014
14. Nikki Lane – All or Nothing
15. Hurray For The Riff Raff – Small Town Heroes
16. Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté – Tourmani & Sidiki
17. St. Vincent – S/T
18. Nickel Creek – A Dotted Line
19. Ray LaMontagne – Supernova
20. Neil Young – A Letter Home
21. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Derecontructed
22. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Days of Abandon
23. First Aid Kit – Stay Gold / America
24. Jenny Lewis – The Voyager
25. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Hypnotic Eye
26. Richard Thompson – Acoustic Classics
27. Eric Clapton and Friends – The Breeze An Appreciation of JJ Cale
28. Willie Nelson – Band of Brothers
29. Allah-Las – Worship the Sun
30. Gary Clark Jr. – Live
31. The War On Drugs – Lost in the Dream
32. The Secret Sisters – Put Your Needle Down
33. Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class
34. Tennis – Ritual In Repeat
35. Benjamin Booker – S/T
36. John Hiatt – Terms of my Surrender
37. Jack White – Lazaretto
38. Lake Street Dive – Bad Self Portrait
39. AC/DC – Rock or Bust
40. Tinariwen – Emmaar

BLUES

Coco Montoya – Songs From The Road
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin – Common Ground
Tommy Castro & the Painkillers – The Devil You Know
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – Live In Amsterdam
Joe Bonamassa – Different Shades of Blue