Albums That Excited Me in 2022

The moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. I’m announcing my Most Exciting Albums of 2022. You can call it Top Albums or Best Albums if you like but I chose on the basis of how much they excited me. They are defined by the divine spark, and the effect that has on me, and perhaps you. Other lists might focus on craftmanship, the songs on those lists tend to leave me cold. They were chosen to be played on the hour allotted to Gord’s Gold so there are songs from 14 albums as that’s how many I had time to play. When you’re finished reading this you can listen to the show on the embedded player. Even better you can start playing it now and listen as you read. I go into more detail here then on the radio. I’m listing the albums alphabetically by the artist’s first name, so you know that these are not in the order of quality. They are all great, and all quite different from each other.

• Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy: I had a dilemma, Anaïs Mitchell has a fantastic new album as does the band she’s in Bonny Light Horseman. They are two of the best albums released in this or any year but for the sake of spreading the wealth I didn’t want to include both. I just saw the Horseman and they are not as well known as Anaïs who made the Time Magazine list of 100 most influential people in 2021, so I went with their album, Rolling Golden Holy. The band is Anaïs, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman. People know Anaïs as a songwriter, but she is also an greats singer. This is not Anaïs’s band, Eric and Josh are equal contributors, and amazing musicians. They put on a great live show.
• Chuck Brodsky – Gravity, Wings, and Heavy Things: Chuck Brodsky is known as a baseball balladeer but there is far more to him. Gravity, Wings, and Heavy Things has political songs with a philosophical tint. Chuck always makes you think. Lots of songwriters will tell you what’s wrong with the world, but Chuck can make you think about the way you think.
• Fern Maddie – Ghost Story: A few years ago, my friend Katrina sent me a video of Fern Maddie. For me it was love at first hearing.  I loved her first album and her second, Ghost Story takes it to a new level. She’s the embodiment of roots music; she lives on a goat farm in rural Vermont. She’s a young woman that sounds like she’s been there since the days of Ethan Allen. When I decided to describe this year’s albums as exciting, I was thinking of Ghost Story. My heart races hearing music rooted in tradition yet totally fresh. I was delighted to find that NPR agreed with me and put it on their top roots music list as did The Guardian.
• Hannah Rose Baker – To Lay This Body Down: I know Hannah Rose Baker from her time as the fiddler in the old-timey Spuyten Duyvil. She asked if she could send me a copy of her first album. What I heard was not what I expected. The only thing her solo music has in common with Spuyten Duyvil is quality. It affects me like Emily Dickenson. Wednesday Addams could listen to her all day as can I. I was bowled over. This was unexpected excitement.
• Jake Blount – The New Faith: Jake Blount is an anomaly that shouldn’t be an anomaly, a black man playing Old Time Music on banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Jake is not just a great musician but also a scholar that explores the rich African American tradition of Appalachian music. They were as much an influence as the white hillbillies. His new album is The New Faith which combines the new with the traditional. This album also made the NPR and Guardian lists. I have kindred spirits.
• Kate Rusby – 30: Happy Returns: Kate Rusby is a singer in the English tradition of Sandy Denny, and one of the few that deserves the comparison. I melt when I hear her sing. Her new album, 30: Happy Returns might well be her best. The title comes from her 30 years in music. She’s joined on the album by guest musicians including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Darlingside, KT Tunstall, Sarah and Jarosz. We’ll hear the fairest Ms. Rusby sing Fairest of All Yarrow @30. She does not tour in the U.S. as she’s afraid of flying. Is there are therapist in the house that can cure her? I’d be ever so grateful.
• Lily Henley – Oras Dezaoradas: Oras Dezaoradas was released in May, but I knew from the first listen it would make my year in review show. The album is in Ladino the language of the Sephardi, the descendants of the Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. There is so much more to folk music than sensitive people singing of their personal life on guitars. There’s so much more to folk music than the Anglo-American-African tradition. Lily set old songs to new music. You might know her as a fiddler but that’s just one of her divine aspects.
• Mama’s Broke – Narrow Line: Mama’s Broke is Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler from Halifax Nova Scotia. Like so many of my favorites they can be simultaneously trad and modern. They engage with either their singing or instruments alone but keep you entertained with both. I’m not the only one that loves them, they have the Cheryl Prashker seal of approval. Mama’s Broke on FolkPod.
• Molly Tuttle – Crooked Tree: Molly is someone I should have seen countless times, but I haven’t. She is right in my sweetspot, a great singer and songwriter with a band of virtuoso musicians. On Crooked Tree Molly decided to explore the limits of Bluegrass. On the show I played Dooley’s Farm. It’s an updating of the Dillards’ Dooley with the bootlegger transformed into a weed farmer.
• Shemekia Copeland- Done Come Too Far: Shemekia Copeland has been making great blues for 20 years. The mystery is why I wasn’t familiar with her. Once I heard her, she became part of the Gord’s Gold Mix. Her new album Done Come Too Far is as good as anything she’s done before. It’s going to have to represent the Blues on this year’s show.
• Talisk – Dawn: There is no band more exciting than the Talisk from Scotland. Just try to sit still when you hear their instrumentals played on concertina, fiddle, and guitar. I have only seen them live once but it was as energizing as any concert I’ve been to. You could run a small city on the electricity they produce. They are just as good recorded. I bet you can’t keep still while you hear them.
• The Whiskey Charmers – On The Run: The Whiskey Charmers are the Detroit based duo of Carrie Shepard and Lawrence Daversa. Their music bounces around folk, country, and rock. As soon as I heard their new album, On The Run, I knew I’d be including it here. Carrie and Lawrence are nice, but this is as far away as you can get from my bête noire, nice people playing nice songs nicely. The guitar is more than just filler, Lawrence knows how to play. The vocals and songwriting are bursting with originality.
• Tone of Voice Orchestra – Tone of Voice Orchestra: Tone of Voice Orchestra came to me out of left field. I had never heard a thing about them, but I was sent their eponymous album. I had low expectations as 90% of everything is crap. I was so how that they defied my expectations. They are a large band from the American Folk Music hotbed of Copenhagen Denmark. They feature 4 singers, fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, cittern, saxophones, flutes, 2 drummers and double bass. I’m exciting just hearing the list of instruments. Who is going to bring them to America so I can see them live.
• Youth in a Roman Field – Get Caught Trying- There is no one to compare Youth in a Roman Field to, that’s a good thing. They are led by singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Claire Wellin. The album will take you to a new world, one both strange yet familiar. The songs are simultaneously folk and art songs. I had seen them only twice before the release show for the party plus I saw Claire solo once. Would they be as good as I remember them? No, they were better.

Please listen to the show and hear the albums, not just me talking about them. Your faith will be richly rewarded. You’ll also get a bonus track, The Existential Bell singing Auld Lang Syne to ring in the new year.