In this age of unfathomable abundance in music, it’s harder than ever to discern a consensus on the year’s finest and greatest recordings, at least not without the perspective of time. My view of 2023 has been shaped by what I was pitched, what got promoted to Americana radio, what I stumbled upon, and what I heard about from friends, all filtered through my personal taste and discernment. At the same time, I do believe that certain artists emerge and surge at different times and deliver albums that anybody with some experience in the relevant genres would say, hey, that’s special.
That’s what this annual list is about, and why I title it the way I do. Outstanding is a semi-objective term that takes into account chart position, touring success, and general critical acclaim. Essential is more value laden of course, but let’s say it means these are albums I’d give as gifts, albums I think people ought to remember them years from now.
There’s been much talk this year from music makers feeling like widgets in someone else’s “content” factory instead of artists. That’s sad and true in important ways. Because we’ve never been more aware that one week’s wave of good music will get washed away by next week’s wave, with so many good songs floating back into an ocean that includes a century of genius music.
Yet this was, to my mind, an exceptional year for new albums. The pandemic seems behind us. Artists wrote about a huge range of ideas and struggles and journeys, with less focus on the hot political or social dynamics of the day. Enjoy the survey. I hope you find some fresh discoveries here. The year is ending, but the music of 2023 will live on.
Projects that I covered for WMOT are linked.
Rodney Crowell - The Chicago Sessions
Rodney Crowell, the 73-year-old titan of Americana songwriting, met Wilco star songwriter Jeff Tweedy on the Cayamo cruise and decided to work together. And the setting - Tweedy’s Chicago studio - seems to have revived Crowell’s outlook. 2021’s Triage was dark and stormy, coming at a tough time for him and for us all. Here, he sounds relaxed, inspired and in his element - in a room laying down tracks with a cast of seasoned, tasteful musicians, some from his own Nashville contingent, some from Tweedy’s world. Even the album cover evokes a younger Crowell, with its visual echo of his 1978 solo debut Ain’t Living Long Like This. But as always, the magic’s in his songs. Opener “Lucky” is gratitude set to a chilled out Little Feat groove with a supporting boogie piano. The sentiment - being bolstered by love - is even more explicit in his homage to his wife “Oh Miss Claudia.” In one case, “Everything At Once,” Crowell and Tweedy co-write and perform together, and it’s a sunny take on the darkness that swells and swirls around us. We squabble over the definition of “authenticity” in roots music, but this is what it sounds like.
This was arguably the first Americana buzz album of 2023, and when it arrived on Feb. 3 it stood out against the winter doldrums with idiosyncratic intensity and layers of intrigue. Sunny War, a former busker and addict from southern California, was no newcomer to the folk scene, with six prior releases, including her critically acclaimed Shell Of A Girl. But newly signed to New West and working with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Jeremy Ivey), War revs past pensive introspection and into some fiercely unique proclamations of selfhood set to imaginative harmony vocals, unexpected instrumentation, and her own special brand of fingerstyle guitar. “No Reason” rocks and rolls with a wall of sound. “Swear To Gawd” features guests David Rawlings and LA’s Chris Pierce playing some dirty blues harp. The 14-song collection struts off warily with “Whole,” an incantation on behalf of settling accounts and holding on to your soul’s integrity.
Brandy Clark - Brandy Clark
I saw the usual array of talent at this year’s AmericanaFest, but I can only remember one set that made time stand still. That was Brandy Clark by herself with her guitar singing songs from her impressive career and from her new self-titled album. The Washington state native found her place in Nashville as a songwriter behind the scenes, with songs cut by Reba, Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town. Meanwhile, for a decade, she’s grown steadily as an artist. Her voice is as pure as fresh Mt. Rainier snow and she’s earned acclaim for her insights into small town reality and life’s trials and ironies. She made this list in 2020 for her classic Your Life Is A Record. But she re-set the bar with this 11-song collection. Opener “Ain’t Enough Rocks” pairs a dark story of retribution with Derek Trucks’s slide guitar. “Dear Insecurity,” a duet with Brandi Carlile, was nominated for two Grammy Awards, as was the album itself in the Americana category. She now has 17 lifetime Grammy nominations. She deserves a win.
Nickel Creek’s first reunion album after a nine-year hiatus, 2014’s A Dotted Line, was good but not great. The next nine years brought more varied and profound musical ventures for Chris Thile and Sean and Sarah Watkins, not to mention a pandemic. So when they decamped to a house in Santa Barbara for a creative residency and reunion album number two, they had a lot to work with and a certain fire to cast a new vision while holding on to some of the effervescent joy that brought them to fame in the early 2000s. The resulting hour-long, 18-song affair delivers a sound that’s inexplicably lush for four instruments (including masterful acoustic bass by LA session musician Mike Elizondo) and three voices. It flows like a novel, with the opening title track acting as an invocation before the meticulous intricacy of “Strangers” and the jaw-dropping harmonic lane changes of “The Meadow.” This masterwork never lags, setting a new bar for progressive string band music.
Allison Russell - The Returner
Following up the triumph that was Allison Russell’s solo debut Outside Child had to be intimidating, with that album’s widespread acclaim, multiple Grammy nominations and wins at the Americana, Folk Alliance, and Juno Awards. But Russell doesn’t show it. Indeed she’s at least equalled that 2021 project with inventive soundscapes and deeper dives into the subjects of resilience, repair and “survivor’s joy.” Opener “Springtime” sounds like nothing else in Americana, with open space and choral voices giving way to a remarkable fusion of strings and beats. Here and on other tracks like “Stay Right Here” and “All Without Within,” one gets a sense that Russell is channeling the disco delight of her famous 2021 Newport superjam with Chaka Khan. She brightly stares down her “Demons” to a chill groove. And Russell’s happy warrior advocacy for racial justice grows some fangs on “Eve Was Black,” an arresting and deviously clever rebuke of white supremacy. Coming on the heels of Russell’s organizing of the springtime Love Rising benefit concert that filled the Bridgestone Arena on behalf of LGBTQ people, one couldn’t find a roots artist who had a greater impact overall in 2023.
It was clear that Michigan transplant Lindsay Lou was going to build on and expand from the progressive bluegrass of her albums with The Flatbellys and the serene harmony folk of her trio the Sweet Water Warblers. We just didn’t know what it would sound like until now. Some string band instrumentation remains, but working with producer Dave O’Donnell (a powerhouse who sought her out for collaboration), Lou has made something elegant, bewitching and personal. The songs explore transitions, self-discovery, and being a woman in the world through one of the most melodious and versatile voices in our business. Queen of Time is Lindsay Lou’s best album yet, even as whets our appetite for whatever’s next.
Jason Isbell - Weathervanes
Lyrics are the lifeblood of this art form we call Americana, and most of them get the job done, but Jason Isbell is in a class by himself. We may look to others for more diverse and creative music, but no star in today’s format out-writes the Alabama bard. His scenarios are sharply drawn with devilish juxtapositions and regional allusions that sell the scenes. His records are arranged and mixed to foreground the poetry, and Weathervanes continues his astonishing run of successful song cycles. I first heard this one on a long Uber ride on a rainy day in suburban Chicago traffic, and it suited the mood. The stories here - of addiction, off-balance relationships, infidelity - feel like short stories with tension and character revealed with ruthless efficiency. Isbell expands his sonic palette as well, self-producing for the first time after a great run with Dave Cobb. Isbell’s guitar pairings with Sadler Vaden are thrilling, and there’s more experimental arranging here too, as on the seven-minute finale “Miles.”
Eilen Jewell - Get Behind The Wheel
They don’t have awards categories for consistency, but Boston/Boise’s Eilen Jewell should win one. In any event, there’s been a groundswell of enthusiasm, especially at Americana radio, for the eleventh album from this fine and grounded country and blues based songwriter. A divorce and the loss of some loved ones led Jewell to get more personal and vulnerable on Get Behind The Wheel, produced in Nashville by Will Kimbrough. It’s both subtle and transfixing. I love the fervid stomp of “Alive” and the pastoral motion of “Winnemucca,” and the graceful imagery of “Silver Wheels And Wings.” The crafty, tasteful playing of Fats Kaplin on pedal steel with Jewell’s longtime guitar player Jerry Miller completes the scintillating sound.
Jobi Riccio - Whiplash
Morrison, CO native Jobi Riccio has a knack for winning songwriting contests, from the 2019 New Song Music Competition to 2023’s Newport Folk Festival John Prine Fellowship. Thus by the time her debut album Whiplash arrived in September (following a move to Nashville), the hype was loud and expectations were high. And unlike the Atlanta Braves in the Division series, Jobi hit under pressure with what feels at this point like the debut album of the year. It’s delicious to the ears, and Riccio feels very close to those ears with her feather-edged laser beam of a voice. It’s a good voice for candor and catharsis, and her stories are moving, some in an explicitly country vein. “For Me It’s You” is an extravagantly sad song of unrequited love that earned an admiring tweet from Jason Isbell. The title track shares an open wound from a relationship with an interesting beat and swoons of steel guitar. She took her time getting this album ready. A rapid follow-up would be welcome.
Logan Ledger - Golden State
As I’ve reported, Nashville-based Logan Ledger got a break when T Bone Burnett heard a demo and sought Ledger out, resulting in his superb debut album of 2020. The lack of touring and tepid response to the self-titled opus was tough to take, but Rounder Records stood with him and reloaded the gun with this fine project produced in LA by Shooter Jennings. In a sea of adequate male voices in Americana, Ledger stands out as a true stylist in the vein of Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison. His songs are full of longing and melancholy romance. This sun-dappled, bittersweet love letter to his home state is spectacular, and Ledger’s believers, like me, are hoping it will get him established as a unique roots artist with a sound that’s touched by the 1970s yet perfect for tomorrow.
Layng Martine Jr. is a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer whose career launched in the 1960s and who wrote the summertime pop hit “Rub It In,” Reba McEntire’s smash “The Greatest Man I Ever Knew,” and even Elvis Presley’s single “Way Down,” which was on top of the charts when he died. His son is the renowned indie rock and jazz producer Tucker Martine, whose credits include The Decemberists, The Avett Brothers, and Bill Frisell. Father Layng was retired, but Tucker gave him (as a Christmas present) a week in a studio to record songs he loved and to give voice to a dad who’d never had the recording career he flirted with decades ago. True to Martine’s 60s era and his sunny disposition, the music brims with young love and freedom. Songs like “Love You Back To Georgia” and “Little Bit of Magic” conjure an ageless, timeless charm. It’s one of the year’s most surprising delights.
Tyler Childers - Rustin’ In The Rain
Perhaps this is a mea culpa, but last year after a lot of agonizing I left Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven? by Tyler Childers off of this list despite a lot of critical acclaim. I thought its three versions of the same eight songs were too similar, so the concept was lost on me. Then it won Americana Album of the Year and Childers headlined Bonnaroo, where the same gospel songs sounded spectacular with a small orchestra and background vocal chorus. That was the version I wish he’d released! Now comes Rustin’ In The Rain, a terse 28-minute collection of seven songs that’s nevertheless among the year’s most impactful releases. The cover of “Help Me Make It Through The Night” revives a classic with class, and the single and video of the pro-queer Appalachian love story “In Your Love” breaks more ground than a West Virginia strip mine. I’m still pining for a full suite of songs as fiercely trenchant and clever as Purgatory or Country Squire, but I’m convinced Childers knows what he’s doing and is set up for the long run.
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - City Of Gold
Molly Tuttle’s full embrace of the bluegrass music on which she was raised and her formation of one of the genre’s best bands has been a magnificent addition to roots music over the past two years. I was surprised how fast she followed up on 2022’s amazing Crooked Tree, especially given her touring tempo, but City of Gold doesn’t feel rushed at all. The songs, co-written with her friend Ketch Secor, are clever, whimsical and nicely varied, including the western ballad “El Dorado,” the whip-fast “San Joaquin,” the fun, psychedelic “Alice In The Bluegrass,” and the plaintive waltz “The First Time I Fell In Love.” Molly and Golden Highway now have too much killer material for any one show, and that’s a great problem to have.
The Band of Heathens - Simple Things
When Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and their bandmates got together at their Texas studio after countless months apart during the pandemic, Jurdi said it was like being 13 again, rocking out and feeling over the moon. That shows in the live-sounding passion of Simple Things, one of the most successful albums of the year at Americana radio (including WMOT where it was our second most spun). More than halfway through their second decade as a band, the BOH’s experience on stage and understanding of each member’s strengths really shows, from the intense reflections of “Heartless Year” to the extravagant, string-laded finale of “All That Remains.” The veterans prove that keeping it simple means keeping it sturdy.
Phoebe Hunt - Nothing Else Matters
The confidence to record and release a songwriter album backed only by one’s own fiddle is one thing. The insight and command to pull it off is another. Phoebe Hunt’s opening title track is a modern day classic that has already been widely recorded, including by fellow WMOT favorite Lindsay Lou. “Molly My Dear” probably will be scaled up by a bluegrass band, but it’s a great example of how deftly Hunt’s varied instrumental techniques shape a harmonic and rhythmic grounding for her rich and graceful singing. She bows and sings with similar phrasing, which makes sense. It’s all one voice.
Gabe Lee - Drink The River
Anyone with half an ear on Nashville’s indie country music scene has been aware that native son and Taiwanese American Gabe Lee has been developing as an artist like a plant growing in a time-lapse movie. He’s released four albums since 2019, each better than the last. Something about Drink The River feels like all the work, all the pieces, all the attention to storytelling detail are working in perfect synchronicity. It’s an absolute gem of songwriter-centric Americana. He turns from his own story to others’ on this tightly wound 9-song collection, and they’re not easy on the heart. We look in on a man losing his wife to cancer, a friend who fell apart and overdosed. But it sure is easy on the ears and the spirit. Life and love go on despite all, in his reckoning. The one cover is telling - Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “All I Can Do Is Write About It.” Because that’s what Gabe Lee does so well.
Daniel Donato - Reflector
The audacious, ambitious dynamo that is Daniel Donato hustled himself into Nashville’s most important local guitar gig when he was just 16 - playing nightly with the Don Kelley Band at Robert’s on Broadway. When he launched his own career, he proudly took ownership of the Cosmic Country mantle and developed a sound blending honky-tonk, funk, and psychedelic jam. On this, his second album of original songs, Donato builds a world and takes us for an hour-plus ride. His voice has an air of kindness and an inviting energy, while his guitar playing is extravagant and spellbinding. “Double Exposure” is one of my favorites, a patient, slinky groove with lush instrumental textures and a composed guitar swirl in the middle. “Sugar Leg Rag” conjures the throwdown energy of Lower Broad. “Weathervane” has an arena grandeur. With a true bandstand sound and chemistry, this is the closest thing to a live show presented on a non-live album I heard this year.
You may well have seen Ed Snodderly’s lyrics in the rotunda of the Country Music Hall of Fame, but have you heard his music? The East Tennessee songwriter and venue proprietor (The Down Home in Johnson City) is one of the under-rated legends in modern roots music. He proves it with the graceful acoustic/electric Chimney Smoke, produced with savants R.S. Field and the late recording engineer Bil VornDick. The title track gives dimensions to the rural people he grew up with, defending them against the world’s scorn. “There You Are” is a magical rumination on noticing the humanity in everyone around us. Special guests include Amythyst Kiah, whom he mentored, Gretchen Peters, and Malcolm Holcomb, who shares a certain poetic kinship with Ed. It ends with a fresh reading of that Hall of Fame song “The Diamond Stream,” as if to illustrate that his work is worthy of being etched in stone.
Charley Crockett - Live From The Ryman
Live albums are too rare in Americana music, so I was surprised to see Charley Crockett release one, and I was thrilled to experience it. As I’ve been saying, alongside Chris Stapleton, Crockett is the most authentic, complete, historically important country singer songwriter of our time, and he deserves every great show and accolade that’s come his way so far. He proves it in these 76 minutes of charged yet laid back material. He tells his story on “The Valley.” His catchy classic “Jamestown Ferry” is here, along with a show-closing cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley.” The mix captures the warm reverberance of the Ryman, and you won’t have to sit in a hard pew to enjoy the show.
Bobbie Nelson and Amanda Shires - Loving You
Amanda Shires invited Willie Nelson’s sister to support her on a session to record “You Were Always On My Mind,” and as they got close, they got inspired to track an album of Willie covers and country/jazz standards. As it awaited its moment for release, Bobbie Nelson passed away in 2022 after 50 years of tickling the ivories for the Texas legend. So it became not just a loving tribute to an important American instrumentalist but a hot, all-natural session that brings out probably the best vocals I’ve ever heard from Shires. She clearly loves this foundational material, and she gives Bobbie room to shine as the fine, swinging pianist she was. Willie joining in on “Summertime” is pretty cool too.
Cat Clyde - Down Rounder
This album’s a child of disruption, dislocation and a timely arrival of good fortune. Canadian songwriter Cat Clyde dealt with the pandemic by setting up a home studio and she was ready to make her next album when she and her partner suddenly lost their apartment. But a hookup with star producer Tony Berg (Aimee Mann, Phoebe Bridgers) gave her a one-week window to let a batch of pent up songs and emotions spill forth in quirky tones, smartly layered guitar parts, and Clyde’s wonderfully searching and personal voice. “Papa Took My Totems” smashes the patriarchy to a jungle beat. “Mystic Light” is a dreamy rumination with spaghetti western twang. Clyde has built a strong following on the mellow side of indie rock, but she has a folky heart, and the two tides mingle here with insight and resolve.
Rhiannon Giddens - You’re The One
Now that she sets the tone for roots music intelligentsia in the 21st century, Rhiannon Giddens has infinite options and she seems to be taking most of them. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar. She made a couple of globally-tinged folk albums with her partner the percussionist Francesco Turrisi. But I did not expect this kind of funky juice from the founder of the old-time string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Working with LA pop producer Jack Splash (Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar), Giddens conjures a wide-open, windows-down collection with bright narratives like “Yet To Be,” where she’s joined by Jason Isbell and a jazzy flute, and the hot grooving “You Louisiana Man” with accordion from album contributor Dirk Powell. Banjos, fiddles, and Turrisi’s frame drums are in here, but mixed into a rich, post-modern, crossover stew. I’m not sure Giddens’s formally trained operatic voice is the right match for all of these arrangements, but this is the sound of a great artist surprising us yet again.
Marty Stuart - Altitude
Marty Stuart, 50 years into his Nashville journey, just keeps bringing it. Altitude is a magnificent expansion on the cosmic country rock that first reached Stuart as a kid when he picked up the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album in 1972. Years later, in 2019, Stuart and his Fabulous Superlativestoured with Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn playing Byrds music. It also picks up where Stuart last left us six years ago with his rich and atmospheric Way Out West album of 2017. Marty’s original songs are meaningful and enriching, not mere vehicles for the twang, as with the mythologized autobiography “Country Star” and the stratospheric title track. Best of all for me is the guitar showcase pairing Stuart and Kenny Vaughan in torrents of tone, sheets of sizzle, and tricky duo instrumental flights that take Altitude over the top.
Margo Price - Strays I and II
Margo Price quit drinking in the years since releasing 2020’s That’s How Rumors Get Started, but she found a more inspiring inebriant in psilocybin, including a multi-day trip with her husband/collaborator Jeremy Ivey that inspired and influenced this extended but never dull double album. Yes, it’s psychedelic, but not in the Strawberry Alarm Clock kind of way. Instead it conjures an atmosphere of fractal possibilities and the kind of cosmic unity one experiences under the influence. Perhaps that was one of the notions behind the peculiar release - Strays in January, followed by an announcement of a “companion” that came in October, to complete one big record. The title track of this affair, which didn’t appear until it opened the second volume, is as autobiographical as the memoir Price released in 2023. With its cast of eclectic guests (Lucius, Mike Campbell, Sharon Van Etten), I hear this far-out, sometimes-hard rocking, sometimes-liquid album as a rock opera by and about one of the most interesting women ever to leave the farm for Nashville.
Dom Flemons - Traveling Wildfire
Add Dom Flemons to the list of proven Americana artists trying something new in 2023. Instead of more rollicking songster folk, he foregrounded his songwriting on Traveling Wildfire, with an eye on the trials of the 2020 lockdown and his move to Chicago with his family. Dom plays 15 different instruments and conjures a 1960s Leonard Cohen vibe working here with English producer Ted Hutt, whose improbable history includes Old Crow Medicine Show and the Violent Femmes. “Dark Beauty” evokes a taboo from that era - the unapologetically Black love song. My favorite song is “Nobody Wrote It Down,” about the vast histories that went unrecorded because of who the protagonists were.
Tré Burt - Traffic Fiction
When California-raised Tré Burt became a rare signing to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records (shortly before Prine died in 2020), our first impression was of a classic folk troubadour with an uncanny vocal resemblance to Bob Dylan. Superficialities aside though, we heard an old soul with a lot to say and a personal way of singing it. After two albums in that vein, Traffic Fiction offers a satisfying stylistic leap. Working with esteemed Nashville producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes), Burt mingles neo-soul beats, organ, vibey background vocals, and reggae/dub textures in a genuinely original and surprising ride. Now Burt’s voice brings a punky swagger (I hear Joe Strummer) while the songs beckon with open-ended imagery and provocative wordplay. Home recordings of interactions with his aging grandfather add pathos and sonic fascination.
Bahamas - Bootcut
In the aughts, he was Afie Jurvanen, guitar-playing sideman from Toronto working with area artists. Then in 2009 he took the stage name Bahamas and began collecting Juno Award nominations and trophies for his intelligent, whimsical alt-country solo work. I’d not heard of him until he landed on this year’s AmericanaFest roster, where he debuted Bootcut, and it arrived like a cool wind from the north. It opens with a cinematic little audio moment where his daughters try to wrestle him away from songwriting, followed by the song itself, which is about the song itself, in a poignant and delightful chess move. “Working On My Guitar” brings more of that easy humor and warm empathy, while “The Second Time Around” is just a classic country song with a twist that John Prine would have enjoyed. He’s got a strong catalog too, but Bootcut seems to point to an abundant future.
Jenny Owen Youngs - Avalanche
Jenny Owen Youngs was an AmericanaFest 2023 surprise, because she doesn’t have a history in the format. Years ago, the New Jersey native released tuneful indie-rock out of Brooklyn. Then she moved to LA where she thrived in the studios as a commercial songwriter in the pop and soundtrack worlds. But with a fresh start (her first album in a decade) and a story to tell (of divorce, relocation, and new love), this mature and original songwriter made the most organic album of her career, notwithstanding a few digital drums and tasteful twiddly sounds overseen by folk guru Josh Kaufman. There’s a charming, disarming intimacy in her voice, which becomes the honey for the medicine of “Knife Went In” and “Salt” (both songs about being pierced by blades now that I think of it) and the catchy-as-hell “It’s Later Than You Think.” Please welcome Jenny to the family.
Margo Cilker - Valley Of Heart’s Delight
From the opening stanzas of Margo Cilker’s 2021 debut Pohorylle, it was clear a striking and self-assured talent was at work out in the pacific northwest. This sophomore standout is a can’t-go-home-again song cycle named for California’s Santa Clara Valley. When she was born, its era as a sun-dappled agrarian paradise was giving way to its current fame as Silicon Valley. So there’s nostalgia and processing here, but it takes the form of comfortable country songs that brim with affection and humor. “I Remember Carolina” time lapses us through the places Margo has lived with a mythic Woody Guthrie quality and a funny refrain about burgers and Texas. “Steelhead Trout” delights with its observant details and honky tonk singalong. Seeing Margo live sealed my affection for her, but the songs - and a voice that reminds me of a young Lucinda Williams - will be a landmark in her career.
Hiss Golden Messenger - Jump For Joy
It takes a certain kind of courage to embrace and foreground delight and “wide open wonder” in 21st century art, lest one be accused of overlooking the trials of the world. Yet our souls need the kind of light, sonic and lyric, that M.C. Taylor lets in on his latest. I feel physically better listening to its chordal sweetness and comfortable tempos. There’s something of a concept here he says - a dialogue with a younger, less-worldly alter ego. But you don’t need to follow every tendril of this interplay to let the project uplift you. Taylor sees the dangers on the horizon in the title track, but he urges us to “jump for joy; See where it gets you.”
