Did you hear that? 10 albums that shaped the sounds of 2019.
The continued charge of two Kentucky country renegades, the long-awaited debut of a pop crusader and a trip out West with The Boss. That’s just part of what distinguished the finest contemporary recordings of the past year.
Here is a last look at the sounds that surrounded 2019 – a critic’s pick roundup of the records that continue to resonate as 2020 takes off. As in past years, none of these albums have been ranked. All should be considered and enjoyed equally.
Tyler Childers: Country Squire
The best thing about “Country Squire” is how keenly it fuels the still soaring trajectory of Lawrence County native Childers’ national prominence. But it’s a splendid recording aside from all that. The music’s roots are still steeped in rural country but with a storytelling sensibility as worldly (“House Fire,” “All Your’n”) as it is whimsical (“Bus Route,” “Gemini.”)
Kelsey Waldon: White Noise/White Lines
Even though Ballard County hero Waldon has been establishing her traditional country credentials in local clubs for some time, 2019 was her breakout year. Chalk that up to the unassuming appeal of an album that blends the honest, homespun charm of early Dolly Parton records with the songwriting acumen of such masters as Patty Griffin.
Maggie Rogers: Heard It in a Past Life
An introductory pop statement three years in the making, “Heard It in a Past Life” is a mash-up of cross-generational inspirations woven into a trance-like pop fabric. The songs’ confessional nature is almost purposely blurred under sheets of electronica, but the hypnotic appeal of the Maryland songsmith’s music remains enormously striking.
Billy Strings: Home
Not since the breakout of the Bela Fleck/Sam Bush/Jerry Douglas brigade over four decades ago has bluegrass seen such an effortlessly progressive thrillseeker as Billy Strings. On his sophomore album, it’s not so much the string band innovations that impress as the songwriting. Check out the album’s elegantly elegiac title tune for proof.
Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka
On his third album, British soul stylist Kiwanuka offers a trippy variation on folk reflection. The bare bones narratives get dressed up in layers of percussive and electric pageantry without ever sounding over-produced. The result is psychedelic soul with Kiwanuka’s sometimes weary, sometimes exultant vocals at its core.
Mavis Staples: We Get By
Released six weeks prior to Staples’ 80th birthday, the 11 Ben Harper songs on “We Get By” serve as a potent reaffirmation not only of her fervent gospel devotion, but of the singer’s place in the modern pop landscape. Just listen to the way she absolutely owns the groove, as well as the message behind it, on the album-opening “Change.” Mavis rules.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge
With three of its founding members having passed away, Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye have expanded the now 50-year-old Art Ensemble into an orchestra full of strings, electronics, poetry and more. That makes the group less of an exploratory jazz unit and more of a multicultural army marching toward the future.
Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi: There is No Other
A stylistically restless artist, Giddens embraces a more inward intensity here than on her previous solo records. Thanks largely to her give-and-take with multi-instrumentalist Turrisi, Giddens skips through Italian verses at times and summons the spirits of Ola Belle Reed and Nina Simone at others with a sense of drama as clear as the tonality of her brilliant singing.
Wilco: Ode to Joy
Easing into its status as a rock elder with a sense of uneasy comfort, Wilco opts for subtlety both disarming and deceptive on “Ode to Joy.” There is no denying the warm haze of “Bright Leaves.” But the more troubling “We Were Wrong,” with its rattling Nels Cline guitar vocabulary, offers the sound of a glorious slow burn within a scorched meditation.
Bruce Springsteen: Western Stars
The year’s most unexpected yet rewarding departure by a rock mainstay, “Western Stars” possesses an orchestral beauty reminiscent of the great Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell collaborations from the 1960s. But the songs are wildly subversive with stories of loves and lives battered by a world far less comforting than the sounds Springsteen drapes them with.
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The first weekend
Two immensely recommended regional shows will help 2020 settle in this weekend.
On Jan. 4, the youthful power trio drive of Sour Cream headlines a bill with Taildragger and MojoThunder at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. The band (guitarist Harlan Cecil, bassist Colby Grant and drummer Jon McGee) just issued an ultra-fun single and accompanying video for a retro-minded mash up of Byrds-like lyricism and post punk immediacy called “Hey Holly” (8 p.m., $12). Call 859-447-8166 or go to theburlky.com for more info.
The winter months are ideal time to get reacquainted with Meadowgreen Appalachian Music Park (formerly the Meadowgreen Park Music Hall), 303 Bluegrass Lane in Clay City. It will be hosting Saturday evening concerts by some of the most prestigious names in bluegrass well into the spring. The Jan. 4 lineup features Sideline, which took Song of the Year honors at the 30th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards last fall for “Thunder Dan.” Black Powder Express will also perform (6 p.m., $15). For tickets, call 606-945-5999 or go to meadowgreenmusicpark.com.