Steve Horowitz, There are many perspectives on just what constitutes "Americana". Clearly, that spirit is alive and well in the hundreds of releases each year that could be filed under Americana's vast umbrella. Neither did folky Americana acts like Josh Ritter, The Civil Wars or First Aid Kit, though we’re huge fans of all three. Americana is popularly referred to, especially in print, as alt-country or sometimes alt.country. The 15 Best Americana Albums of 2017. This album offers a varied dose of Americana recorded at the iconic Muscle Shoals studios. American Music - The Blasters 2. The Order of Time is unique and presents a confident and dynamic songwriter and performer with a rich background in stylistic and regional influences. Pieces of The Sky - Emmylou Harris 6. The title is "Americana," and I'm going to demand a recount if it doesn't win the Grammy for Best Americana Album of 2017. An album for playing loud with a smile of your face. The 50 best albums of 2020, No 6: Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud Best music of 2020 The 50 best albums of 2020, No 9: Taylor Swift – Folklore Published: 8 Dec 2020 Here, then, are the women (and a few men) who represented the best in Americana in 2017. Each week, the show features interviews, new releases, a classic album spotlight, and only the best in Americana music. Here, then, are the women (and a few men) who represented the best in Americana in 2017. Chuck Prophet - Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins, Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer - Not Dark Yet, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound, https://www.popmatters.com/best-americana-2017-2515674227.html, Alternative Press's 50 Best Albums of 2020. 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Av: Chris Griffy AXS Contributor Dec 3, 2017. 15. This is pure country music, Texas-style, meant for the state’s distinctive dance floors, nightclubs, dive bars, and open-air venues. The Americana Pulse is my weekly radio show devoted to Americana music that airs Wednesday nights on WDVX in Knoxville. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers - Sidelong (Bloodshot) Sarah Shook, a honky-tonk spitfire with a chip on her shoulder and a kickass back-up band, ... 14. Always a sonic chameleon, Prophet calls the amalgamation "California noir" and from the seductive "Your Skin", through the wry "Jesus Was a Social Drinker" to the raw "Alex Nietro", Prophet adds another collection of chapters to what could be termed an ongoing west-coast-gothic novel in song, stretching back to 2012's sublime Without a doubt it deserves to be in Album of the Year consideration, but there's not much chance of that happening these days, unfortunately. Angaleena Presley – Wrangled (Thirty Tigers) 13. It is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the Americana Music Association UK.The launch of the chart came at a time when Americana music was growing in popularity in the UK. But one of the band’s best album’s was a straight-up alt-country gem. Valerie June follows-up a highly regarded debut with a stronger, tighter set of songs around the theme of time and its passing. If I had to pick one album from 2017 to introduce someone to this nebulous thing we call “americana,” it would be Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound.Producer Dave Cobb has helped him lay down a good roots base for these songs that is perfect for Isbell’s soulful earnest twang, His band, the 400 Unit, are deeply accomplished musicians and you feel the connection to roots music history. Trace - Son Volt 8. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 ceremony.It won Best Americana Album at the 2018 Grammy Awards and International Album of the Year at the 2018 UK Americana Awards.Additionally, "If We Were Vampires" won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song.. Accolades Major life events always seem to cause inner reflection and examination. But as Presley discovered, she's too much of an outsider to ever be an insider. But one common aspect of the music that Simpson appeared to be championing during his bit of street theater is the independence, artistic purity, and authenticity at the heart of Americana music. Yola: Walk Through Fire. Musically, it all sounds assured and tasteful—a swirling organ, a drowsy clarinet, some junkyard percussion—on another impressive outing from one of Americana's most consistently reliable singer-songwriters. The Official Americana Albums Chart is a weekly music chart based on physical sales of albums in the United Kingdom. This is by no means a complete list of Americana albums from this year — like many genres, the definition is malleable — but it is a survey of some of 2017’s best. The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Two-thirds of our year-end list is comprised of albums by women. Bruce Springsteen ‘Western Stars‘ (2019) An easy choice. The title is "Americana," and I'm going to demand a recount if it doesn't win the Grammy for Best Americana Album of 2017. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s first album together in five years is an enjoyable ride through his career and the life he has lived. That the songs are covers is ultimately irrelevant to the care, arrangements, and deliberate duet Lynne and Moorer deliver, the songs finding their strength and shared focus to push ahead after loss. It doesn't matter. Posted by gwburn1 on January 20, 2018. Best Americana Albums 2017. Our Best 20 Americana albums of 2019 are a multicultural, polysexual, cross-genre lineup of cool Americana music that, as with the best parts of … For most of All rights reserved.PopMatters is wholly independent, women-owned and operated. Old #1 - Guy Clark 7. -- Ed Whitelock, As his father spent the year honoring outlaw country forebears, Justin Townes Earle, on his eighth album, continued to forge his own unique songwriting path. The definition: Americana is an amalgam of roots music fused by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles. © 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. AUK writers’ best albums of 2017. She'll draw you into her songs' scenarios like that cool friend who has done all the things your parents warned you not to do, telling stories of late-night bedlam and pocket drama about proud, wounded late night warriors. Ed Whitelock, Some might consider singer-songwriter Angaleena Presley more of a country than an Americana artist because she has sang and spoken openly about her desire to go mainstream. In this regard, Kids in the Street seems to be the moment where Earle is taking stock of his life, remembering back on what got him to this point, and looking onward to what may greet him on this next phase. Presley holds her own here and works well with others. Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator. As mainstream country music continues to, for the most part, incorporate rock and hip-hop elements onto the charts and into the arenas, Americana music in 2017 was a twangier, often sparer affair. 1. The Gilded Palace of Sin - The Flying Burrito Brothers 5. Into The Purple Valley - Ry Cooder 9. We are moving to WordPress and a new host, but we really need your help to fund the move and further development. Shook is a marvel at writing the kind of classic country one-liners that have inspired generations to cry into their beers or kick back from the bar looking for trouble. ... which has seen them trading the top spot on my annual ‘Best Albums of the Year’ list in the last few years. Not only is her latest record possibly the most cohesive collection of outlaw-flavored roots rock tunes from the Greenville artist, yet, but a rallying call for female individuality and empowerment. The album's personal call for individuality is a poignant staple in what is otherwise an altogether gritty, sassy, and smooth collection of infectious numbers. 10. In Americana music the present is female. 81 20 reviews. A wide range of styles are on offer from lonesome country to raucous honky tonk and soulful songs complete with horns and great funky grooves. PopMatters have been informed by our current technology provider that we have to move off their service. The powers that be are trying to shut her down, but they can't. Los Lobos: Kiko (1992) Kiko is now such a certified classic that it’s easy to forget how profoundly … Temple Beautiful. Americana/Folk Albums (formerly Folk Albums) is a music chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the top selling "current releases by traditional folk artists, as well as appropriate titles by acoustic-based singer-songwriters" in the United States. I believe 2017 is Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit’s time to top the list with the simply perfect The Nashville Sound. If a single moment best illustrates the current divide between Americana music and mainstream country music, it was Sturgill Simpson busking in the street outside the CMA Awards in Nashville. AllMusic Best of 2017 - From festival headliners like Kendrick Lamar, Lorde and Depeche Mode to rising acts such as Whitney Rose, Sheer Mag and Angaleena Presley, 2017 delivered outstanding releases from musicians of all recognition levels and font sizes. Yola Carter’s mere presence—the rare Black artist amid the otherwise pale … Honky Tonk Masquerade - Joe Ely 4. Is Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew' a Tradition-Carrier or a Sellout. It’s a deeply personal and often autobiographical album that cuts right on the things Isbell, the band, and his family, confront in the world. You can listen to The Americana Pulse Wednesday nights from 6-11 Eastern, or On Demand anytime on wdvx.com. Sputnikmusic's list of the best Americanaalbums of 2021, rated by users. Her cowriters and special guests include Guy Clark ("Cheep Up Little Darling"), Chris Stapleton "Only Blood", fellow Pistol Annies' bandmates Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe ("Dreams Don't Come True") and Wanda Jackson ("Good Girl Down"). Without a doubt it deserves to be in Album of the Year consideration, but there's not much chance of that happening these days, unfortunately. … 157 157 16541761 6 y2017m12d03. "Nail", "Heal Me", and the title track should all resonate with listeners, but it's a song like "Dwight Yoakum" that could open up the doors to a Hall of Fame-level career. Posted in: Best Americana 2016, Best Americana Albums 2017, Best Blues Albums 2017, Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples. If anything, in Americana, the present is female: Two-thirds of our year-end list is comprised of albums by women. The other identifiable trend amid a genre so diverse is the diversity itself of the artists and output. 10 Best Americana/Country Music Albums of 2017. That's why the cover of her new album depicts her bound and gagged. Best Americana albums of 2017. She tackles the music present on this record with all of the attitude of a Haggard beside the moxie of a Parton, giving fans of old-school outlaw and western sentiment a modern record to call home all while not backing down from autobiographical themes and convictions. Kids in the Street, JTE settles into the swampy soul shuffles and blues structures that have been his signature sound of late, yet the album contains several distinctive standouts, like the imagery-rich small-town sketches of the title cut or the Jersey-shore-ish barfly ballad "There Go a Fool". Presley considers herself a whistleblower airing Nashville's dirty laundry. Segarra literally serves as The Navigator on this 12 track journey into the past where memory, poetry, myth, and reality mix to create a rich, spicy and hearty guisada. Sarah Shook, a honky-tonk spitfire with a chip on her shoulder and a kickass back-up band, dedicates her Bloodshot Records debut to examining the beauty in the profane. The album earned Isbell his first CMA Award nomination. -- Steve Leftridge, When Nikki Lane returned to the studio with Americana music is, of course, a sprawling range of roots genres that incorporates traditional aspects of country, blues, soul, bluegrass, etc., but often represents an amalgamation or reconstitution of those styles. -- The Blind Boys of Alabama’s Almost Home is full of vitality and poignancy, and is very inspiring; Jason Isbell continues to set exceptional standards for song writing and performance; Dori Freeman’s second album showcases her lovely voice and outstanding song writing skills; Rhiannon Giddens’ Freedom Highway is a powerful set of timely songs featuring her amazing musical talents; and Taj Mahal and … That may be more myth than truth, or perhaps Presley's songs embody a higher truth. While Simpson played his guitar and sang in a sort of renegade-outsider protest, Garth Brooks was onstage lip-syncing his way to Entertainer of the Year. Rear View Mirror - Townes Van Zandt 3. Highway Queen, she was returning to the forefront of the rising, women-led Americana movement while she was at it. These 12 tracks of love, passion, daily disappointments, and frustrations offer musical insights into the human condition. -- Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to … Some will bandy about this record as the best released so far in 2020, and it sure makes a big case for itself, especially in the Americana and songwriting realm, while also making for a good specimen of a record that is able to broach political subjects in a respectful manner in what promises to be a very political year in American roots music. Chuck Prophet's body of work reveals him as a subscriber to the great big stew of American music school of thought on the subject, and Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins finds Prophet and his band, the Mission Express, tearing through a set where familiar guideposts pass by like blurred billboards on a highway bound for New Orleans, or maybe Memphis (and wasn't that Chicago in the rear-view a ways back?). She sings in a voice that resonates growing up along dusty roads and seeing a bit too much too young, but hers is not a gun in the purse persona, more a knife in the boot. 2 Comments. See which music tops the charts, read reviews, and rate albums. With a total departure from his usual rock … Americana. What a great year for music! -- Jonathan Frahm. Tagged: Americana, Best Americana Albums, Blind Boys of Alabama, Dori Freeman, Jason Isbell, Keb Mo, Taj Mahal. March 10, 2017. Or a Sellout charts, read reviews, and rate Albums sales of Albums in United! 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