After huddling with a bottle of parfait amour and a chopping board, we Americana UK writers have nailed down our top 20 albums of 2023. How did we do it? Every writer selected their album of the year – each one of the choices below was number one for someone – and then the whole writing team voted on this shortlist (or longlist?) Yesterday we ran through numbers 20-11. Today, it is on to the top 10!
10. HC McEntire “Every Acre” Steeped in the land and culture of her corner of North Carolina, HC McEntire’s third album intersects with many of the touchstones of americana. Folk, country, blues, soul and gospel as well as a helping of Southern Gothic are all here as influences and in its rich cultural mix. The songs at times reach an intensity that has the listener pausing for breath. The tight group of local musicians and select guests that join McEntire on the tracks feel them rather than just play them. Most played on the iPod in 2023. (RP)
9. Rod Picott “Starlight Tour” Rod Picott portrays his vistas of bleakness through the characters who populate his writing. For ‘Starlight Tour’ Picott has gathered an excellent band who create a distinct sound, the oxygen for Picott to breathe his songs. Unchanged is Picott’s relentless melancholy. His perspective has lengthened as he looks back at his life and ponders the future darkly. Picott thinks about his own mortality, a theme that runs through the entire album. There is a sense of reckoning but also defiance, grace and dignity. But Picott clings to hope, he will do things differently because, “it’s time to find a new dream”. (LB)
8. Cordovas “The Rose of Aces” Nashville based Cordovas’ ‘Ace of Roses’ is perfectly balanced to be an enjoyable, laid-back listening experience. Set to energetic jams, classic guitar riffs, and beautiful harmonies, the songs’ stories are full of wit and insight without bringing the listener down. Songwriter and frontman Joe Firstman is in top form throughout the album, paying homage to the ‘Lost Angels of Rock and Roll’ and sharing wild, roguish reminiscence on ‘High Roller.’ There are secrets whispered around a campfire on the beach and adventures shared on long road trips through the desert. It is a fun summer ride too. (KB)
7. Buddy & Julie Miller “In The Throes” Buddy and his wife Julie Miller have had long successful individual careers in folk, country and americana, Buddy as a songwriter, producer and studio musician, and Julie as a songwriter of note. ‘In The Throes’ is only the fourth album Buddy and Julie have released as a duo in over twenty years, and it could just be the best of their collaborations and offers clear evidence of how two talented individual artists can make a greater whole. The album is varied but cohesive and even includes a Dylan co-write with Julie and Regina McCrary. (MJ)
6. Various Artists “More Than a Whisper: Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith” I’m a bit of a sucker for tribute albums. I’m also a lover of the late, lamented Nanci Griffith’s songs so when I first heard “More Than A Whisper” I was hooked. There are fourteen tracks from the likes of John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Mary Gauthier amongst other americana royalty. The whole album is a great joy and makes me lament Griffith’s passing at just 64 in 2021. And it’s not just me. Richard Parkinson’s review on this website was headlined: A mighty and entirely merited salute to a giant of americana. He gave it 9/10 – I’ll give 10/10. (AF)
5. Jeffrey Martin “Thank God We Left The Garden” With ‘Thank God We Left The Garden”, Jeffrey Martin has delivered an album of breathtaking beauty, with its stripped-back arrangement of vocals and guitar revealing eleven songs full of hope that have been lovingly chiselled out through hard-earned sagacity, and in doing so has marked himself out to be one of the finest confessional singer-songwriters of our time. Each song has a spiritual quality that wraps around his sublime poetic narrative like a web encasing all the fragility and strength of a master wordsmith. In time I strongly believe this album will be a touchstone for singer-songwriters of the 21st century. (GT)
4. Allison Russell “The Returner” Strip away the disco back beats and ‘The Returner’ is filled with wonderful Country Folk tunes like ‘Shadowlands’ and especially ‘Rag Child’. The funky ‘Stay Right Here’, recalls Gloria Gaynor, but speaks of trying to reconcile past trauma with the present, “I’ll stay right here. Wanna hear my daughter laughing”. The Philly Sound strings add a swagger at odds with the subject matter. The gospel call and response on ‘Demons’, the almost hymn-like ‘Requiem’ and the soul that permeates every song makes this an album that stress tests the existing view of what is Americana, but gloriously so. (TM)
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3. Lucinda Williams “Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart” This is a great return to form. The previous few albums by Lu have not been up to her own brilliant standards (in my opinion), but this is Williams at 80% of her best and that exceeds what most other artists are able to achieve. I wonder whether the presence of guitarist Doug Pettibone for the first time since 2014’s “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone” has in any way influenced the return to form. Stuart Mathis, himself a fine guitarist, who has played on many of Williams’ recent releases (including 2021/2’s “Lu’s Jukebox” series) also plays on this record, but Pettibone’s playing seems to suit Williams’ music so well. (PT)
2. Kassi Valazza “Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing” It’s not too much to say that this is an album that recalls the very finest examples of Cosmic American Music – apparently simple songs with endless layers of depth and lyrics that carry seemingly effortless poetry to deliver thoughtful – and thought-provoking – messages. (JA) From out of nowhere, well, Portland, Oregon really, Kassi Valazza’s album, recorded with Portland’s TK & The Holy No Nothings (hence the title) was a bolt out of the blue. Sounding as if it were recorded in the heyday of 1960s psychedelic folk, the album is a wondrous listen. Valazza sounds quite glorious, her voice having a glacial purity while songs such as ‘Rapture’ and ‘Watching Planes Go By’ are quite spellbinding. The band are superb, laying down a tapestry of glistening guitars and organic keyboards as Valazza glides serenely through the songs. (PK)
1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit “Weathervanes” Isbell’s eighth album didn’t disappoint. A wonderful mixture of angst and shining bright melodies – he really blossomed on this thirteen-track belter of an album. Subject matter in the songs are as always highly personal, but resonate with the listeners instantly. Whether it’s raging against gun violence, ruminating on how safe schools are for his young daughter on ‘Save The World’, or ‘Middle Of The Morning’ where he looks at the dark elements in relationships – this isn’t a bundle of fun. But it contains musicianship and songwriting that shows just how his albums are getting better and better. (PR)
