It seems like I say it every year – so here goes, another bumper year for Americana releases blah blah. but it’s true!

I’ve been sitting on a list of about 50 releases all of which could easily be included in a top 10 list of the best of 2012

until the last final minute of the deadline i set for myself to keep from crapping up my holidays. i had to make a stand.

Here it is.

I finally threw the arbitrary “Top 10” structure out the window and doubled down and made it a top 20 21. The selections are lasted in arbitrary order and are not most best to least best. They all stand on their own as some of this year’s. or any year’s, finest examples of songwriting and performance excellence.

A quick word on the exclusion of mainstream heavyweights like Mumford and Sons, The Avett Brothers and their upstart competitors the Lumineers didn’t make the cut. Cards on the table, for all my rooting for mainstream acceptance of the genre I’m still a music snob. Like most other genres, I genuinely think that once a person mines the Americana field below the mainstream examples that is where they will discover the real riches lie. This is my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Here’s a a happy, healthy and twangny 2013! thanks to all of you for reading, following,commenting. And to all the great musicians that reward us every day with riches that I personally am unworthy of.

Chris Knight – Little Victories

Malcolm Holcombe – Down the River

Darrell Scott – Long Ride Home

Corb Lund – Cabin Fever

Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale – Buddy and Jim

Iris Dement – Sing The Delta

Dwight Yoakam – 3 Pears

Turnpike Troubadours – Goodbye Normal Street

John Fullbright – From the Ground Up

Shovels & Rope – O’ Be Joyful

The White Buffalo – Once Upon a Time in the West

Justin Townes Earle – Nothing’s Going to Change The Way You Feel About Me Now

The Trishas – High Wide & Handsome

Gretchen peters – Hello Cruel World

Lindi Ortega – Cigarettes & Truckstops

Patterson Hood – Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance

Chelle Rose – Ghost of Browder Holler

Derek Hoke – Waiting All Night

Shooter Jennings – Family Man

BlackBerry Smoke – The Whippoorwill

Nick Cave / The Bootleggers / Warren Ellis – Lawless (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)