Yes, it’s a fool’s errand, but this feature helps contributors like me to express their love for particular songs which, to them, define the nebulous americana genre. My top ten includes some of the biggest names in the genre, who offer tracks that boast excellent arrangements and moods. I’m more of a music than a lyrics guy, which may have had a bearing on my choices, which all benefit from being made together in a room full of musicians.
Number 10. Tedeschi Trucks Band ‘Anyhow’ from “Let Me Get By” (2016)
Susan Tedeschi croons her verses and increases her intensity in the chorus to better express her desire to be with her loved one. The horn arrangements recall the Stax era while Derek Trucks contributes a solid solo, sliding up and down the fret with controlled abandon. It’s a seven-minute masterpiece.
Number 9. Lucinda Williams ‘Drunken Angel’ from “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” (1998)
Written in honour of Blaze Foley, the song uses a gentle chord progression over which Williams describes the “saviour singing the blues” who is now on “the other side”. Her vocal is full of compassion and heart, which transfers the lyrics effectively.
Number 8. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit ‘Hope The High Road’ from “The Nashville Sound” (2017)
I have a feeling we’ll see Isbell a lot in these top 10 lists. Here’s my choice, even though it’s the kind of song where you spend the first verse wondering where the ‘one’ is. The boogie-rock riff is eventually joined by the full band, who chime in with harmonies on Isbell’s hopeful wish that the road “leads you home again”.
Number 7. Rosanne Cash ‘Modern Blue’ from “The River & the Thread” (2014)
This one hooks you from the introductory passage played by John Leventhal. Cash’s lyric takes her from Barcelona to Paris to Memphis, with each line given space to breathe. The wordless middle section introduces a new musical idea, while the melodic chorus repeats how she keeps her “head down” and her mind on the man she loves.
Number 6. Ruston Kelly ‘Mockingbird’ from “Dying Star” (2018)
Musically, this is a terrific song, with its long and expansive opening passage, as well as the harmonica solos. The imagery is excellent too – “rain on my window”, “too strung out to be upside down” – and Kelly’s vocals reflect the “nightmares” that attack him as he repeatedly wishes to be sung to.
Number 5. The Band ‘The Weight’ from “Music from Big Pink” (1968)
This is a picaresque song with conversational verses and a sing-along chorus, coupled with a descending chord progression that ties everything together. The key moment is the four-part harmony on “you put the load right on me”, while it also benefits from different Band members taking different verses, as if it is a campfire sing-along.
Number 4. Brandi Carlile ‘The Joke’ from “By The Way, I Forgive You” (2018)
It hits you on the first listen, with passion and feeling in every syllable. The song builds up to the title line, when Carlile sings “the joke’s on them”. Like the abovementioned Isbell track, this is music to carry with you. It’s notable how harsh the language is – “they hate the way you shine”, “tugging on your shirt”, “kicking the ladder” – and this makes the message of the song more emphatic when it comes. Let people talk, because their words don’t really matter.
Number 3. Wilco ‘Jesus Etc’ from “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (2002)
“Our love is all we have” is the key line in a song which tells the addressee not to cry. There is plenty of concrete imagery: stars as setting suns, buildings shaking, and cigarettes burning. Musically, the track plays with major and minor chords effectively, coming to rest in a major key after starting on two minor chords that set the words “Jesus don’t cry”.
Number 2. Counting Crows ‘A Long December’ from “Recovering the Satellites” (1996)
“It’s all a lot of oysters but no pearls” is Adam Duritz’s sigh from a metaphorical and literal canyon. As with many songs in this top ten, there’s a declarative introduction, here from piano, which is followed by a warm arrangement full of accordion. In lieu of a chorus, there’s a na-na part that makes this modern standard a sort of rootsy version of ‘Hey Jude’, with the hope that “maybe this year will be better than the last”.
Number 1. Dawes ‘Time Spent In Los Angeles’ from “Nothing Is Wrong” (2011)
It was the combination of the chord progression, the guitar tone, the weathered vocals and the band arrangement that made me replay this song when it came out. For all the introspection, the message is of connection, of enveloping someone in your arms. This was made clear after the song took on a new life after the LA fires in 2025, which gave it a still wider audience.
What a terrible thing the editor has asked of you! Well done for doing it.
It is difficult to pick 10 artists, let alone 10 songs. My list could change by the hour and every track I listen changes my mind! As an example my Lucinda w track would have to be “Blue”.
Of your list Brandi Carlile would be my No.1
Thanks.