As a musician I listen to a surprisingly small amount of new music. I seem to have let go of the childlike wonder of exploring the new and unfamiliar. That’s a serious detriment to my craft. So this year I made an effort to listen to things other than my usual go-to artists and albums. That mostly involved letting my daughters have control of the music selection while we’re driving around, Spotify recommendations and playlists, and listening to the radio of all things. WTJU is local public radio and the variety of programming is wild. I’m really enjoying it. So while there is no way to recall and list everything I’ve heard this year that I enjoyed, I do have a list of albums that I added to my vinyl collection in 2019. Also included are some artists that went into regular rotation on Spotify if not in physical form. These are in no particular order other than the first one because as Joe Pug said on his podcast The Working Songwriter, Josh Ritter making a record produced by Jason Isbell with the 400 Unit as the backing band just isn’t fair to the rest of us! Fever Breaks gets my vote as Album of the Year 2019. Leave a comment and let me know what you’ve been listening to and what I should add to the rotation!
Josh Ritter - Fever Breaks
Sturgill Simpson - Sound and Fury
Amanda Shires - To The Sunset
Penny and Sparrow - Wendigo
Brittany Howard - Jaime
Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells
Lucinda Williams - This Sweet Old World
John Paul White - The Hurting Kind
White Denim
American Aquarium - Things Change
Band of Heathens - A Message From the People Revisited
Bombino - Azel
Hayes Carll - What It Is
Gary Clark Jr. - This Land
Chris Cornell - Higher Truth
Alejandro Escovedo - The Crossing
Craig Finn - I Need A New War
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi - There Is No Other
Dave Grohl - Play
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
Grinderman - 2
Our Native Daughters - Songs of Our Native Daughters
Sheryl Crow - Threads
Iron & Wine
Fort Frances
Trigger Hippy
GospelbeacH
Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars
The Steel Wheels - Over The Trees
Leonard Cohen - Thanks For The Dance
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Self Titled and Here We Rest reissues
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
Wrinkle Neck Mules - I Never Thought It Would Go This Far