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 between December 2023 and November 2024. 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. Any new albums that arrive between now and the end of the
year will be considered for my 2025 list.
1. Perla Batalla –
A
Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music). Early in her
career, in the late-1980s and ‘90s,
Perla Batalla toured the world as a
backup singer in
Leonard Cohen’s band. I remember being mesmerized by
her singing as I sat front row, centre at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal in
1988. In 2004, Perla released the superb collection,
Bird on the Wire: The
Songs of Leonard Cohen, and now follows up with this sublime album. She
includes superb versions of eight of Leonard’s songs; a version of “The
Partisan,” a song from the French Resistance in the World War II that Leonard
made his own; and two of Perla’s original songs inspired by her friend and
mentor.
2. James Talley –
Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron).
James Talley has been one of my
favorite singer-songwriters since he released
Got No Bread, No Milk, No
Money, but We Sure Got a Lot of Love in 1974. On
Bandits, Ballads and
Blues, James sings compassionate songs about old west outlaws, family, a
missed dog, and – most importantly – common folk victimized by forces beyond
their control.
3. Lenka Lichtenberg –
Feel
with Blood (Six Degrees).
Feel with Blood by
Lenka Lichtenberg,
the second album that Lenka has done based on poems written by
Anna Hana
Friesová, her maternal grandmother, while she was a prisoner at the
Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust. While
Thieves of
Dreams, her first album of this material was largely sung in Czech, this
album is largely sung in English translation.
4. Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens –
American Railroad (Nonesuch). The
Silkroad Ensemble
is a multicultural group of musicians founded by
Yo-Yo Ma and now under
the artistic direction of
Rhiannon Giddens. As explained on the Silkroad
Ensemble website,
American Railroad, was inspired by the impact that African
American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish, and other immigrant communities had on
the creation of the transcontinental and connecting railways in North America.
5. Eric Bibb –
Live at the
Scala Theatre (Stony Plain) and
In the Real World (Stony Plain). The
always inspiring
Eric Bibb, who has been a favorite folk and acoustic
blues performer for many years, released both a live album,
Live at the
Scala Theatre, and a studio album,
In the Real World, this
year and both are deserving of inclusion on this list, so I decided to bend my list
and have two albums share a slot.
6. Chris Rawlings –
Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music). I’ve known
Chris Rawlings since circa
1970 and I think that
Two Sides to Your Story – featuring stellar backup
from
Henry Heillig and
Jim Hoke – is his best (and best sounding)
album yet. Among the highlights is a new version of “Smoker’s Lullaby,” a piece
that Chris sang the first time I heard him about 55 years ago, featuring
slightly edited lyrics that make a great song even better – and whose opening
line gives the album its title.
7. Carla Sciaky –
Heart of
the Swan (Propinquity).
Heart of the Swan, the first solo album in
about 30 years by
Carla Sciaky, marks a triumphant return of a fine
singer and songwriter who was unheard from for too long. This is an album of
quiet power with several tracks featuring recurring instrumental or vocal
passages from the traditional ballad, “Polly Vaughn,” about a hunter mistakes
the woman he loves for a swan.
8. American Patchwork Quartet
–
American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine).
American Patchwork
Quartet is a multicultural group whose members are both ethnically and
musically diverse, traits which they bring to their delightfully re-imagined
versions of 14 traditional folksongs that demonstrate how relevant and powerful
traditional source material remains for contemporary music.
9. Joel Mabus –
Lonesome
Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928
(Fossil).
Joel Mabus, a longtime veteran of the folk music scene, is a
fine singer and player of many stringed instruments. Joel is also an excellent
songwriter whose work is well informed by his knowledge of diverse styles
including traditional balladry, old-time country, bluegrass, jazz, vintage pop
and blues. On
Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the
Lost Generation 1924-1928 Joel offers fine versions of 14 classic songs
written between 1924 and 1928.
10. Grayson Capps –
Heartbreak,
Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family). On
Heartbreak, Misery &
Death,
Grayson Capps, a singer-songwriter from Alabama well-versed in
folk and blues styles, turns his attention to really nice versions of
traditional folksongs and contemporary folk classics written by the likes of
Leonard
Cohen,
Gordon Lightfoot,
Jerry Jeff Walker and
Randy
Newman.
I will be featuring songs from
each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 3, 3:30-5 pm
(ET), on CKCU. The program is already available 24/7 for on-demand streaming at this link. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67938.html
–Mike Regenstreif
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