The Masked, Distanced and Sanitized Top 25 for 2020

1. Jason Isbell – Reunions

2. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

3. Black Pumas – Black Pumas

4. Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You

5. Khruangbin – Mordechai

6. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

7. Bananagun – The True Story of Bananagun

8. Frazey Ford – U kin B the Sun

9. Drive By Truckers – The New Ok / The Unraveling

10. Elizabeth Cook – Aftermath

  • Fleet Foxes – Shore
  • Real Estate – The Main Thing
  • X – Alphabetland
  • Phoebe Bridges – Punisher
  • Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
  • A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
  • Eddie Vedder – Matter of Time
  • Rolling Blackouts CF – Sideways to New Italy
  • Larkin Poe – Kindred Spirits
  • Nicole Atkins – Italian Ice
  • Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started
  • Ashley McBryde – Never Will
  • Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King
  • Marcus King – El Dorado
  • U.S. Girls – Heavy Light

BLUES

  1. Shemekia Copeland – Uncivil War
  2. Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
  3. New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers – S/T
  4. Johnny Iguana – Johnny Iguana’s Chicago Spectacular!
  5. Kim Wilson – Take Me Back
  6. Duke Robillard – Blues Bash
  7. Elvin Bishop / Charlie Musselwhite – 100  Years of Blues
  8. Sonny Landreth – Blacktop Run
  9. Dion – Blues With Friends
  10. Robert Cray – That’s What I Heard

WORLD

  1. Songhoy Blues – Optimisme
  2. Khruangbin – Late Night Tales
  3. Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete African Sessions
  4. Bebel Gilberto – Agora
  5. Baba Sissoko – Mali Music Has No Borders

2019 – To Stream Or Not To Stream. That Is The Question

THE TOP 25 OF 2019

1. Yola – Walk Through Fire
2. Jake Xerxes Fussell – Out of Sight
3. Durand Jones and the Indications – American Love Call
4. Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
5. Todd Snider – Cash Cabin Session Vol. 3
6. Steve Gunn – The Unseen in Between
7. Lana Del Rey – NFR!
8. Bruce Springsteen – Western Stars / Songs From the Film
9. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride
10. Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Colorado
  • Jeremy Ivey – The Dream and The Dreamer
  • Rachael & Vilray – S/T
  • The California Honeydrops – A Higher Degree / Live 2019
  • Dwayne Dopsie – Bon Ton
  • Black Keys – Let’s Rock
  • Leonard Cohen – Thanks for the Dance
  • The Raconteurs – Help Us Stranger
  • Shana Cleveland – Night of the Worm Moon
  • Miranda Lambert – Wildcard
  • Allah-Las – LAHS
  • Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka
  • Buddy & Julie Miller – Breakdown on 20th Ave. South
  • Cate Le Bon – Reward
  • Black Pumas – Black Pumas
  • The Who – WHO

BLUES

  • Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – Kingfish
  • North Mississippi All Stars – Up and Rolling
  • Coco Montoya – Coming in Hot
  • Jimmie Vaughan – Baby Please Come Home
  • Toronzo Cannon & The Chicago Way – The Preacher, The Politician or The Pimp

THE ARCHIVES

  • Bruce Springsteen – 1978/09/19 Passaic New Jersey
  • Prince – 1999
  • The Beatles – Abbey Road
  • Replacements – Dead Man Pop
  • Neil Young – Tuscaloosa
  • Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Review: The 1975 Live

WORLD

  • Tinariwen – Amadjar
  • Various – Rough Guide to a World of Guitar
  • Balake Sissoko & Baba Sissoko – Sissoko & Sissoko
  • Bassekou Kouyate – Miri
  • Kefaya & Elaha Soroor – Songs of Our Mothers

Top of the Deep Pops 2018

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 – I am spotify

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

Top of the Pops 2016

  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)