Concerthopper's 20 Favorite Americana Albums of 2021- 10-1
It's that time of year again, when every music journalist pads out his December by releasing annual “best of” lists, While they're not popular with everyone, I've always found them to be a good way to catch up with some releases I missed and to hear others' thoughts on my own list. I do, however, not care for the ubiquitous “best” labels. Even keeping to the Americana genre, there are far too many releases for even the broadest publication to have heard them all. For a site as small as this one, where I am essentially a one-man album review team, my two ears can't possibly hear even a fraction of the year's releases. So, instead, let call this my favorites; the albums among those I did hear that stood out in some way. 20 of them to be exact. I covered my 11-20 last week and today will reveal my 10 favorites. Where we reviewed the album, I've included a link to the full review. Where we didn't, I've linked a Youtube video of a standout track.
A note on methodology: To keep the list somewhat manageable, I have excluded live albums and covers-only albums, which is why you won't see Jason Isbell or Molly Tuttle's covers albums on here, nor any of Isbell or Aoife O'Donovan's excellent pandemic live releases, though all are deserving of your time.
10. Amigo the Devil- Born Against
When you look at an Americana artist and notice a ton of his summer tour dates are metal festivals, that you have something very different on your hands. Nothing on Born Against approaches metal musically, but aesthetically, it's easy to see why he's popular with fans. Amigo the Devil has that mix of nihilism and humor, absurdist aggression and turn of phrase that metal fans love from acts like Alice Cooper or Ghost. Just check out “Murder at the Bingo Hall” for one of the most delightful balancing acts between dark and goofy that I've seen in a while.
9. Amy Speace and the Orphan Brigade- There Used to Be Horses Here
Amy Speace is one of those automatic artists. Depending on the release and the competition, she doesn't always make a year-end top 20, but her output is always good. I have a freely acknowledged bias toward highly literary artists, who don't just sketch the characters in their stories but richly paint them with all the light and shadow to make them three dimensional. On There Used to Be Horses Here, Speace once again connects with her longtime producer Neilson Hubbard, but this time as a collaboration with his band The Orphan Brigade. Speace anchors her album with the opposite poles of the death of an emotionally father and worry for being the best mother to her own new son.
8. Yasmin Williams- Urban Driftwood
I try to not let live performances affect the ranking of my albums, but it can't be helped with Yasmin Williams. I'd never even heard of her until her performance at Americanafest, where she was my surprise find of the weekend. Soon after the festival, I picked up her newest album Urban Driftwood and was as blown away as by her live shows. I don't know how neatly her insanely layered instrumental fit into the Americana realm, but it doesn't fit elsewhere either which makes it Americana by default. If Americana artists are misfits, Williams is exactly the kind of misfit we need, and the kind of new talent that keeps the future of music viable.
7. Allison Russell- Outside Child
I'll be the first to admit I am probably too low on Outside Child. A lot of critics and publications I trust have rated it #1 or near to. My ranking here is not a criticism of the album. It's consistently good and at times (Hy-Brasil) great. There just happened to be six albums (including her two Our Native Daughters bandmates) I liked a little more. Still, Russell's semi-concept album about the mental anguish and emergence from an abusive childhood is an album that is not only going to launch one of Americana's future megastars, but one that will likely be replayed frequently for years to come.
6. Sarah Jarosz- Blue Heron Suite
From a personal standpoint, this is the album ranking that should show you just how strong the competition was. Jarosz's World on the Ground was my #1 last year. Blue Heron Suite, written mostly in 2017 as the result of a commission from the Freshgrass Foundation, is informed by her mother's fight with breast cancer and Hurricane Harvey's effect on Port Arkansas, Texas, a favorite childhood holiday spot for Jarosz's family. The result is as beautiful and vulnerable as you would expect from Jarosz, easily one of the most consistent performers in Americana today.
5. Amythyst Kiah- Wary & Strange
The second of three Our Native Daughters alumni albums in the Top 10, Amythyst Kiah is rapidly emerging as one of Americana's great disruptors. While the genre has done better with inclusion all around, Kiah is the next level, a black queer woman who is more in your face with her identify than most. At times on Wary & Strange, it's like Kiah has been possessed by the spirit by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Highlights include a more hard-edged rendition of her Our Native Daughters hit “Black Myself” and “Fancy Drones (Fracture Me)” about humanity's increasingly toxic relationship with technology.
4. Aaron Lee Tasjan- Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!
“You know, what Americana needs more of is glam rock influence” said no one, ever. Except, that is, Aaron Lee Tasjan. Tasjan has plenty of experience in the genre, co-founding Semi-Precious Weapons and doing a stint in glam pioneers New York Dolls, and he proves that not only does it belong, it is a perfect match. The androgyny and sexual fluidity of glam rock combine with jangle pop and Traveling Wilburys-era Tom Petty for an album that hits on important topics like love in the age of technology (“Computer of Love”), vices disguised a virtues (“Up All Night”), and vapid radio hits (“Cartoon Music”) while remaining by far the most fun album on this list.
3. Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi- They're Calling Me Home
I'm almost tempted to just stop ranking Rhiannon Giddens in my year-end lists and give her a Lifetime Achievement Award that just assumes if she's released an album, it's one of the best. She's automatic. They're Calling Me Home explores topics that will be familiar to anyone who spent COVID-19 lockdowns distant from her family. Living in Ireland and missing their families (in North Carolina and Italy respectively), Gidden and Turrisi penned and covered songs that sang to the concept of “home”, whether that be a literal reunion (“Avalon”) to a return “home” to the final embrace of death and what's beyond (“O Death”, the title track). Beautifully written and beautifully sung by the best voice in roots music (and arguably in all music) today.
2. David Olney and Anana Kaye- Whispers & Sighs
David Olney is the greatest master of the story song in roots music since Tom T. Hall. The characters in his stories manage to achieve more depth in 4 minutes than many movie characters do in 2 hours. The last recording before his death in 2020, Olney didn't know he was passing the torch but if he had, it's hard to think of a better person to pass it to than Georgian (country, not state) vocalist Anana Kaye, who proves herself more than capable of her own atmospheric story songs tinged with gypsy folk melodies, mysterious dark motives, and profound sadness. From the Rolling Stones-hooked “Last Days of Rome”, about nations' habits of eating themselves when they become too bloated (sound familiar?) to the eerie “The Great Manzini (Disappearing Act)”, about the ghost of a magician who spends eternity regretting his commitment to his sleight of hand career only succeeding in making his family disappearing, this is the album I spent the most time with in 2021, and will likely spend quite a bit with in 2022.
1. Yola- Stand for Myself
All hail the new queen of Americana. Since I first saw Yola (known then as Yola Carter) playing the back yard of a record store in 2016, there was no doubt she was something special. With a voice so powerful it defies belief and a grounding in both country music and soul (I've always described her as Roberta Flack meets Dolly Parton), she's as unique a figure in Americana as they come. Her 2019 debut Walk Through Fire was good enough to be my album of the year, but my one disappointment was that producer and Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach played down her country side for much of the album for her soul side. Stand For Myself finds her regaining that balance, especially on album standout track “Diamond Studded Shoes”, which could be the spiritual successor to Parton's “9 to 5.” There aren't enough superlatives to do Stand for Myself justice. It's that good, and Yola's young enough to only get better from here.