Favorite Music of 2011

Favorite new music 2011, in no particular order:

• Blackie and the Rodeo Kings – Kings and Queens
• The Black Lillies – 100 Miles of Wreckage
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Here We Rest
• Wilco – The Whole Love
• Lucinda Williams - Blessed
• The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
• Kenny Vaugh – V
• Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
• Dale Ann Bradley – Somewhere South of Crazy
• The Decembrists’ – The King is Dead 
• My Morning Jacket – Circuital
• Middle Brother – Middle Brother
• Owen Temple – Mountain Home
• Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
• Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
• Nick Moss - Here I Am
• The V-Roys - Sooner or Later

Ranking them would be a difficult and pointless task but do have to say that Blackie and the Rodeo Kings spent more time on my iPod than anything else. The album by the long-time Canadian roots band featured strong female guest accompanists like Lucinda Williams and Emmy Lou Harris, and I was especially taken with Serena Ryder on "Black Sheep".

And The V-Roys make the list as a late entry.  The music on "Sooner or Later" is a rerelease of a couple of albums put out in the late 90s' by this regionally loved Knoxville TN band that broke up in 2000.  I heard them do a reunion performance on Music City Roots this fall and realized they were an Alt Country original and understood why they were so popular in the Americana, country, bluegrass stronghold of Eastern TN, Asheville NC and western VA.