Here are my picks for the Top 10
folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2024. I started with a list of about 30
superb albums released over the past year and I’ve been over the list several
times over the past couple of weeks and came up with several similar – not
identical – Top 10 lists. Today’s list is the final one. The order might have
been slightly different and there are several other worthy albums that might
have been included, had one of the other lists represented the final choice.
1. The David Amram Quintet –
David
Amram Honors Guthrie and Ochs: Old Souls (Guthrie Legacy). There is no
other musician quite like
David Amram. Over the course of more than 50
years, I have seen David play at folk festivals and clubs and at jazz festivals
and clubs. I have also seen him in tails conducting symphony and chamber
orchestras as they perform his classical compositions in concert halls. On this
set of five
Woody Guthrie songs, and one by
Phil Ochs, David
offers innovative, jazzy arrangements of familiar lyrics that make them sound
new and fresh. At age 95 – OK, he was only 94 when he recorded the album – David
has lost none of the magic I’ve seen from him over the years.
2. Eliza Gilkyson –
Dark
Ages (Realiza). On many of the songs on this this sometimes subtle,
sometimes direct, collection of mostly topical songs,
Eliza Gilkyson insightfully
explores the darkness wrought by the forces that have taken control of
her country and beyond, and offers hope and inspiration that we will find our
way past these times.
3. Tim Grimm –
Bones of
Trees (Vault). As both a folk-rooted songwriter and interpreter of other
songs,
Tim Grimm has taken his place as one of our finest artists over
the past 25 years. Tim once did a whole album of Tom Paxton songs and Tom’s
influence can be heard in such great topical songs as “Broken
Truth” and “Woody’s Landlord Revisited,” an updated version of a song Tim first
released in 2016, as well as more haunting songs like “Up in the Attic.”
4. Anne Hills –
Every Town: More Songs by Michael Smith (Hand & Heart Music). If “The
Dutchman” had been the only song that
Michael Smith (1941-2020) ever
wrote, he’d still have to be on any list of great songwriters. But Michael
wrote so many more great songs.
Anne Hills has long been one of Michael’s
finest interpreters.
October Child, her first album of Michael Smith
songs, came out in 1993 and
Paradise Lost & Found, an album of their
duets, came out in 1995. While every one of these songs is a gem, highlights
include “Ballad of Elizabeth Dark,” “Crazy Mary” and a gorgeous duet with
John
Gorka on “Spoon River.”
5. John Gorka –
unentitled
(Red House).
John Gorka has an excellent body of work recorded over the
past four decades and this collection of wise and perceptive songs might just
be his best yet. Among my favorites are “Particle Wave (Goodness in the World,”
a beautiful song about finding hope in these dark times, “First Snow on the
Mountains,” a reflection on early winter and late-in-life love, and an
exquisite interpretation of
Stan Rogers’ “Harris and the Mare.”
6. Maria Dunn –
Hardscrabble
Hope (Distant Whisper Music). As I’ve said before,
Maria Dunn’s
inspiring original songs, deeply rooted in folk and Celtic music traditions,
capture the good in the human spirit and the essence of communal common cause. Maria
captures that spirit and essence beautifully in songs like “Walking the Miles”
and “Another Year.” And in songs like “Coal is a Thirsty Business,” she sings
insightfully about the consequences of greedy endeavours on our planet.
7. Woody Guthrie –
Woody at
Home – Vol 1 + 2 (Shamus). This collection of home recordings made in 1951
and ’52 by
Woody Guthrie is a fascinating look at Woody’s songwriting
process and includes some familiar material and some songs being heard for the
first time. Some songs – like a version of “This Land is Your Land” with verses
that are quite different from the ones he wrote more than 10 years earlier
– are both familiar and new. Another is “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”
with Woody’s own tune which is different from the melody composed years later
by
Martin Hoffman. Among the unfamiliar songs is “Back Door Bum and the
Big Landlord,” which I’m sure must have been inspired by the landlord
Tim
Grimm referred to in “Woody’s Landlord Revisited,” and the very clever “My
Id and My Ego.”
8. John McCutcheon –
Field
of Stars (Appalsongs).
John McCutcheon offers yet another superb
collection of insightful, often-poignant that have
much to say about the state of the world and human relations. While I like the
whole album, a couple speak very directly to me. “MS St. Louis” is about the
shipload of more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany who were refused
entry by Cuba, the United States and Canada. Ultimately, many of them were
murdered in the Holocaust, while “Tikkun Olam” is inspired by the Jewish
concept of repairing the world. Other highlights include “Field of Stars,” co-written
and sung with
Carrie Newcomer, and “Too Old to Die Young,” a song for
those of us among John’s generation who are at that age.
9. Mary Chapin Carpenter –
Personal
History (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers). As the title implies, this is
perhaps the most personal album in
Mary Chapin Carpenter’s career. Highlights
include “Girl and Her Dog,” a reflection on life, love and contentment, “The
Night We Never Met,” which captures feelings most of us have had at one time or
another, and “Paint + Turpentine,” which recalls being inspired by
Guy Clark.
10. Suzy Thompson –
Suzy
Sings Siebel, Volume 1 (Suzy Thompson).
Paul Siebel (1937-2022) was
a brilliant singer-songwriter who recorded just two albums in the early-1970s.
His first album,
Woodsmoke and Oranges remains one of my all-time
favorite LPs. On this collection,
Suzy Thompson, who has long been known
for mostly playing traditional music, offers 10 of Paul’s songs, including seven
from
Woodsmoke and Oranges, two from
Jack-Knife Gypsy, and one
that Paul himself never recorded. I think Paul would have been pleased with
Suzy’s fine interpretations. I’ll mention that some of my favorite Siebel songs
– including “My Town,” Then Came the Children” and “Legend of the Captain’s Daughter”
– are not in this set. So I’m looking forward to Volume 2.
I will be featuring songs from
each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 30, 3:30-5 pm
(ET), on CKCU. The program is now available 24/7 for on-demand streaming at this link.
–Mike Regenstreif
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