First tier:
The Regrettes - Feel Your Feelings Fool!
Tyler Childers - Purgatory
~~~~~~~~~
Second tier:
Chuck Prophet "Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins"
Colter Wall - self titled
Craig Finn - We All Want the Same Things
Margo Price - All American Made
Willie Nelson - God's Problem Child
~~~~~~~~~~
Third tier:
Jason Isbell - Nashville Sound
John Moreland - Big Bad Luv
Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett - Lotta Sea Lice
Mark "Porkchop" Holder - Let It Slide
Shinyribs - I Got Your Medicine
Steve Earle - So You Wanna Be an Outlaw
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Honoarble mention:
Chris Shiflett, Dori Freeman, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jade Jackson, Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes, Prophets of Rage, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Turnpike Troubadours
~~~~~~~~~~
Reissue category:
Neil Young - Hitchhiker
REM - Automatic For the People 25th Anniversary (the live set is start to finish the best 60 minutes of music released all year).
~~~~~~~~~~
Songs of the Year:
God in Chicago by Craig Finn
Jesus Was a Social Drinker by Chuck Prophet

More:

Beast of the Year: "Alex Nieto" by Chuck Prophet. Covers similar ground to What It Means but this one rages where Patterson's song philosophizes.

Lyric of the year: from Tyler Childers' "Banded Clovis," where the singer kills a guy in cold blood on a mountainside and then, while ruminating in his jail cell, takes the low road when it comes to (not) accepting blame: I reckon the chase of the pills and the powder, corn liquor and women, are the culprits to blame. Love it!

TOO EARLY. There are a least a dozen records (or more) that I haven't given proper time to

Zip City wrote:TOO EARLY. There are a least a dozen records (or more) that I haven't given proper time to

Oh kudzu.

Clams wrote:

Zip City wrote:TOO EARLY. There are a least a dozen records (or more) that I haven't given proper time to

Oh kudzu.

I'm never ready for these lists. And my new job has cut into my listening time. Seems like all the major magazines are releasing them already though

Honestly thought 2016 had a greater quantity of strong releases, but Margo Price’s All American Made is my absolute favorite. Also enjoyed the releases from Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Father John Misty, Chris Stapleton, Kendrick Lamar, and Vince Staples greatly.

Didn't really dig in to a ton of new stuff this year, but the ones that kept me coming back were:

Will Johnson - Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm
John Moreland - Big Bad Luv
Hiss Golden Messenger - Hallelujah Anyhow
The Tills - Canon
Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black (I know it just came out a week or two ago, but man it is something special)

I'm sure I'll think of others as time goes by, but those 5 are the ones that hit it the most.


Saw Tyler Childers this year, thought he was pretty good.
Saw Margo Price this year, thought it was pretty middle of the road.
Saw Colter Wall this year, thought he was pretty boring. Had a tough time getting over his Cashian voice too.
Saw DBT like 15 times this year. Fucking bands rocks as hard now as they ever have since I started seeing them in 2006.

Also best reissues are NY - Hitchhiker, NY - Harvest Moon and Gloria Barnes - Uptown (reissued by Colemine Records and one of the deepest soul records ever)

WarHenRecords wrote:Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black (I know it just came out a week or two ago, but man it is something special)

Really special - must give Jeff Tweedy a lot of credit for this, two or three of the songs he's written for it are incredible.

WarHenRecords wrote: Saw Colter Wall this year, thought he was pretty boring. Had a tough time getting over his Cashian voice too.

I listened to the record a couple of times but his voice just puts me off

firmly in the "don't get all the fuss" camp when it comes to Colter Wall

Give me another couple of weeks or so for a formal list but Moreland is definitely #1 followed by Bash & Pop at #2. After that Hurray for the Riff Raff, Lilly Hiatt, War on Drugs, Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, Hiss Golden Messenger, Tyler Childers, Will Johnson, Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes and Chuck Prophet will all land somewhere in my top ten plus. I feel like I'm missing some stuff though so I have to actually put some time in which won't happen for a bit here.

Top 10

1. Turnpike Troubadours "A Long Way From Your Heart". I have repeatedly hailed Evan Felker as the heir apparent to James McMurtry as the poet laureate of Middle America. On this record, he solidifies himself as not only that, but a Dust Bowl Springsteen with the rest of the Troubadours aptly serving as an analog to the E Street Band. Their mix of fiddle, ripping guitar solos, and (now, thanks to the full time addition of Hank Early) soaring pedal steel licks push Felker's brilliant, yet universally relateable songs about regular folks working hard, playing hard, struggling to get by, and celebrating life out here in the middle to new heights.

2. Bash & Pop "Anything Can Happen". Tommy Stinson returns to the Bash & Pop project with what is clearly the champion of the post-Mats era work from any of the former members. Either Stinson was a bigger part of the Mats signature sound than he was initially given credit for, or it just seeped into him completely. Riding the fence between ragged punk fury, and the fragility of acoustic based country tinged "little songs" (as his former bandmate referred to them), the 50 something Stinson has an undeniable way with a melody, and his quick witted lyrics tackle the typical rock subject matter with a sense of humor and the wisdom of a life slugging it out on the front lines of rock and roll.

3. Queens of the Stone Age "Villains". Josh Homme continues to be one of the most relentless forces in rock and roll. Never settling in one spot for long, he takes his signature guitar and vocal styles and punches them up to a serious level of dance-able groove with the help pop producer Mark Ronson. The result is an album that's 100% Queens of the Stone Age, but slick, rollicking, sexy, and fun as hell.

4. Tyler Childers "Purgatory". The Next Big Thing. The Sturgill Simpson discovered eastern Kentucky native makes his true and proper debut with one of the best country albums of the recent American resurgence. Childers intervweaves Appalachian hopelessness, the opioid crisis, chasing tail, dreaming big, and living hard into this collection of killer, hard-nosed country songs. This is a stunning "debut" from a guy with a really big future in front of him.

5. Chris Shifflet "West Coast Town". Foo Fighter guitarman Chris Shifflet has been a long-time advocate of real country music. His excellent podcast "Walking The Floor" pays tribute to the greats of the past, while exposing new audiences to the artists making this music today. His solo album is a perfect mix of Bakersfield Country, and Social Distortion influenced punk snarl. With a song cycle that starts with his childhood, runs through his wilder years on the road playing in punk bands, and ends with a celebration of middle age stability, Shifflet knocks this out of the park.

6. The Yawpers "Boy In A Well". A concept album about frontman Nate Cook's recent divorce, told through the allegorical story a child abandoned in a well in France during World War 1. This insanely weird mix of punk, blues, country, Zeppelin-esque roar, and howling maniacal vocals is another step forward for these hyper-literate, hard living savages. Yawp on.

7. Sam Outlaw "Tenderheart". The album opens slowly, with several dreamy James Taylor inspired pop songs, before breaking into the last two thirds, a full-on homage to Gram Parsons. Shimmery, sun-kissed California country at it's finest.

8. Sarah Shook & The Disarmers "Sidelong". While loaded with a lot of standard Outlaw Country tropes, Shook's immense talent shines through in several heartfelt masterpieces of self loathing, and barely contained lust. The Disarmers snarl, fire, and rock their way through a collection of tunes that's nothing if not extremely catchy.

9. Old 97's "Graveyard Whistling". A great band continuing to do the things that make them great. While it doesn't break much new ground, this is a highly enjoyable mix of Rhett Millers' pop sensibilities filtered through ripping guitar solos and a shit-kicking rhythm section that has defined the Old 97's best work over the past several decades. The songs are smart, funny, bitter, wistful, and occasionally moving. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

10. Chuck Prophet "Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins". Much like the Old 97's, Prophet has a brilliant formula that he's continued to make exciting. Spitting hot, Kinksesque guitar lyrics all over his Tom Petty As a City Slicker delivery, Prophet delivers another batch of songs skewering the state of the world today. This album features what's perhaps the most visceral takedown of police brutality to date in "Alex Nieto".

Honorable Mention

Hiss Golden Messenger "Hallelujah, Anyhow"
Dead Man Winter "Furnace"
Margo Price "All American Made"
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires "Youth Detention"
Wheeler Walker Jr "Ol' Wheeler"
Chris Stapleton "From A Room Vol 1."
John Moreland "Big Bad Luv"
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit "Nashville Sound"
Son Volt "Notes of Blue"
Foo Fighters "Concrete & Gold"

Excellent work, Iowan.

I'm a little surprised to not see Hiss Golden Messenger- Hallelujah Anyhow showing up in more lists especially since so many of those songs were played while they were opening for DBT in the spring. If it doesn't fall in my top 5 it'll be just outside. Lost Out in the Darkness is a top 5 song of the year for sure.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:I'm a little surprised to not see Hiss Golden Messenger- Hallelujah Anyhow showing up in more lists especially since so many of those songs were played while they were opening for DBT in the spring. If it doesn't fall in my top 5 it'll be just outside. Lost Out in the Darkness is a top 5 song of the year for sure.

That was a total brain fart on my end. It's definitely in the upper half of the "Honorable Mention" category. I really like this album, but just haven't listened to it as much as those in the Top 10.

Clams wrote:Excellent work, Iowan.

Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

Thanks for the "guidebook" folks. As always, interesting, thoughtful and knowledgeable choices, w/ more to come, I'm sure.

I read Rolling Stone's Top 50 w/ particular interest this year. I don't know if their choices are good, bad, indifferent, controversial, elitist, more than usually stupid or whatever, but what is totally clear is that there is no center of pop music anymore. This is not exactly news, but still, the range of styles and genres included and the absence of anything approaching a plurality of any single genre, to say nothing of something called "rock," brings home the fracturing of the music world (and the larger culture?) in an obvious, easily graspable way.

^That's a good take.

Iowan wrote:

Clams wrote:Excellent work, Iowan.

Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

don't think I didn't see sun-kissed

Iowan wrote:

Clams wrote:Excellent work, Iowan.

Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

Iowan wrote:

Clams wrote:Excellent work, Iowan.

Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

I've got a lotta time to roll doobies...

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

Iowan wrote:

Clams wrote:Excellent work, Iowan.

Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

don't think I didn't see sun-kissed

I figured "shit kicking" would trip your radar quicker

Iowan wrote:

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

Iowan wrote:
Thanks. I consciously wrote with WWCD's Musical Cliches that need to die in the back of my mind.

don't think I didn't see sun-kissed

I figured "shit kicking" would trip your radar quicker

hah, you assumed I read all of it

I'll probably have to come back and make additions and edits but for now ...

First Tier:
Spoon - "Hot Thoughts"
Kendrick Lamar - "DAMN"
John Moreland - "Big Bad Luv"
LCD Soundsystem - "American Dream"
The National - "Sleep Well Beast"
Kelela - "Take Me Apart"
Slowdive - "Slowdive"

Second Tier:
Hiss Golden Messenger - "Hallelujah Anyhow"
Future Islands - "The Far Field"
Broken Social Scene - "Hug of Thunder"
Fleet Foxes - "Crack Up"
The War on Drugs - "A Deeper Understanding"
Run the Jewels - "Run the Jewels 3"

Third Tier:
Craig Finn - "We All Want the Same Things"
Bjork - "Utopia"
The XX - "I See You"
The New Pornographers - "Whiteout Conditions"
Old 97's - "Graveyard Whistling "

Honorable Mention:
Margo Price - "All American Made"
Chris Stapleton - "From A Room Vol. 1"
Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett - "Over Everything"

Disappointing:
Arcade Fire, U2, Isbell...

Iowan wrote: Wheeler Walker Jr "Ol' Wheeler"

I think I had Run the Jewels 3 on my list last year, but there may have been a gap between them releasing it for free on their website and the commercial release

Hurray for the Riff Raff 'The Navigator' hasn't been mentioned much in this thread, but it is certainly one of my favorites of 2017.

Zip City wrote:I think I had Run the Jewels 3 on my list last year, but there may have been a gap between them releasing it for free on their website and the commercial release

You're right. Commercial release was January 3, 2017. It was released on the website before the new year if I'm remembering correctly.

Zip Up to Michigan wrote:

Iowan wrote: Wheeler Walker Jr "Ol' Wheeler"

I take it you aren't a fan.

Gregg Allman- Southern Blood