This blog accompanies tonight’s edition of Gord’s Gold on Folk Music Notebook. It’s my annual list of favorite albums of the year. This is not a top ten list. This is an hour’s worth of radio list. As a bonus there is also my favorite EP and single of the year. If you tune in at 9 PM ET or 2AM ET, you can hear it streamed. If not, you can listen on demand starting Friday at Noon on Mixcloud, just click on where it says Gord’s Gold here. Not only is this not a top ten list it’s not in order of preference. I chose a top album of the year, treat the rest as equals. The order is based on optimizing the flow of the show. For the blog I’ll list the EP and single separately. Here are my favorite albums along with a few words about each.
- They’re Calling Me Home – Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi
- I assumed that this album would make my list before I heard it. I was right. There were a few other albums I highly anticipated that I reluctantly left off. They were good but not as good as the albums I included. Rhiannon is right up there with Richard Thompson in my hierarchy. I should hate Francesco as he stole Rhiannon from me, but he can’t help it if he’s more talented and attractive than me and has the advantage of actually having met her. Rhiannon is peerless as a singer and a great banjo player and songwriter, and an excellent fiddler. She can do anything.
- Easy Way Down – Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer (The Murphy Beds)
- Eamon is from Ireland and Jefferson from the US; their music has roots on both sides of the Atlantic. In a year that I’ve seem few concerts, I’ve seen them twice. They are songwriters’ songwriters and make the songs they cover their own
- I’ll Meet You Here – Dar Williams
- Dar is the archetype singer/songwriter folksinger. It feels lazy including an album of Dar’s on a list like this. Dar forced my hand; the album is so good I’d feel guilty to exclude it. It’s her newest album but every song on it is already and old favorite. It’s brilliant Dar, which is brilliant indeed.
- Folk Hero – House of Hamill
- House of Hamill is the married couple, Rose Baldino and Brian Buchannan. They are both virtuoso Celtic fiddlers and singers. Brian also plays guitar. Brian is Canadian, a member of the band, Enter the Haggis and Rose is from Pennsylvania, where they are based and a founding member of Burning Bridget Cleary. They are one of those acts that always make me feel good.
- Parlor Sounds – Miss Tess & Thomas Bryan Eaton
- Tess and Thomas are yet another musical and romantic duo. Most years you’ll find many band albums on my list, but this was not a year for large ensembles. Parlor Sounds is the epitome of the pandemic year album. It was made by people that live together and recorded in their home studio. Like Dar’s it forced its way on to the list. I listened to it during my daily walk. Anyone watching me would have wondered why this weird looking old guy pulling a grocery cart was dancing in the street. It’s a great album for any year.
- Cycles – Rachel Baiman
- Rachel is a Nashville singer/songwriter/fiddler that I know but not well. I didn’t know what to expect. Cycles is not in a style I often listen to but that doesn’t matter. It immediately connected with me. It has meaningful lyrics and swing. I suspect that it has crossover appeal outside of the folk world. Dare I call it pop? No, it’s too deep for that but people that don’t want content will still enjoy it. It tastes like empty calories but is nutritious. Just don’t tell anyone.
- Masters Radio Vol 1 – Andrea Asprelli
- I knew that the album, Masters Radio Vol 1, would likely make my list from the first time I heard it. It’s all traditional or classic folk songs recorded as simply as a field recording made in a modern studio. For me it was love at first listen. No one will confuse it with pop, but they might think that Andrea is a scion of the Carter family. I originally knew Andrea as the fiddler in Cricket Tell the Weather.
- Us in the US – Gordonville, USA
- One of the great perks of being a DJ is that people throw music over your transom. Sometimes they aren’t even taped to bricks. I didn’t know Gordon Glantz at all till I found his music in my email. Sure, he has a splendid name but that doesn’t mean his music is good. I was delighted to find that I loved song after song of his. He fits right in with the great makers of politically aware folk music. Lead vocalist Tom Hampton’s singing style makes you hang on every word, and they are fine words.
- In Our Voices – Moira Smiley and Voco
- I first heard Moira Smiley in the parlor of the Jenkins family; they host a great series of house concerts. Even though I had never heard of Moira I trusted Sandy’s and Rich’s taste. I was well rewarded. That show was with guest musicians not her harmony group Voco. The human voice can produce a range of music to rival an orchestra, as Moira and Voco demonstrate. Don’t misunderstand me; the album is not filled with vocal gymnastics but meaningful songs.
- Outside Child – Allison Russell
- Allison Russell was formerly half of Birds of Chicago. You might know Allison as part of Our Native Daughter along with Rhiannon Giddens. I will always associate them. Allison is from Montreal, and now lives in Nashville. Outside Child made the top five list of half the staff of Folk Music Notebook. If we did MVP style voting It would win the Folk Music Notebook MVP. John Platt listed her too.
- Solastalgia – Annie Sumi
- Canadian chanteuse Annie Sumi music often sounds otherworldly, but she’s as down to earth as they come. If you tried to figure out what she looked like from her singing I don’t think you get close. She sounds like an imposing and serious goddess; she looks like an adorable pixie with the world’s biggest smile.
- Then and Now – Debi Smith
- I first saw Debi Mother’s Day Weekend 2002 at the Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival. My first thought was “She’s Dar’s Babysitter, she can sit on her hair.” I reconnected with her when she joined the Four Bitchin’ Babes. As an official Man-Babe that makes us Kin; but it wasn’t nepotism that got Then and Now on the list. It was that I couldn’t decide which song to play on the radio. They are all so good. Her voice has the clarity of fine crystal which makes a great contrast with the humor and even silliness.
- Changemakers – Crys Matthews
- I have known from the first time I heard it that my favorite album of the year is Crys Matthews’ Changemakers. Nobody can write songs of social justice like her. She never lectures, she sings songs that bring you along with her. Listen to Hope Revolution. Listen to every word. It’s easy to complain, it takes genius to bring hope.
Now for the EP and Single.
- EP – Narrative – Alisa Amador
- There are six songs on it. I’ve played five on the air. Do I need to say more? My elevator talk for Alisa is that she reminds me of Jean Rohe, high praise indeed. Whether singing in English or Spanish, she moves the listener. I can’t speak a word of Spanish.
- Single – The Year of Losing Things -Tom Prasada-Rao.
- Tom had the defining song for last year, $20 Bill (For George Floyd). He repeats the trick by capturing the spirit of the plague year. Should I pencil him in for next year too?
Next week I will play an addendum to my favorite albums. There were some albums that I had to leave off for time considerations. There was one, The Undertaker’s Songbook by the Sons of the Never Wrong that I just somehow missed in the 2021 releases. I caught that because my colleague, Marilyn Rea Beyer put it on her top 5 list. My first reaction was, “That must have been a 2020 release. It wasn’t. I’m an idiot and missed it.
I was going to write about that and the albums that on another day would have made my list but I’m getting tired, this is long. I’ll save it for next week when I play them on Gord’s Gold. Now go right to Folk Music Notebook and listen if there is time.
Now you can listen right here.
Wise Madness 