Music is the foundation for much of our culture, as it has from ancient days. Music is all about the pursuit of happiness.
I listen to a lot of Americana music–roots music melded together from traditional folk, country & western, and blues traditions. Once upon a time, 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to play Americana music on community radio as a volunteer DJ at KRFC-FM in Fort Collins, Colorado. I still stream their signal now and then, but mostly I build playlists on services like Spotify so I can track my spins on last.fm. Not so much as years past–we do have SiriusXM in the car and AppleMusic came with the iPhone–yet still my “scrobbles” still track my yearly favorites.
Americana Artists
Texan Charley Crockett has stormed the roots music scene with his hardscrabble work ethic and street busker ethos. I have no excuse why I haven’t seen him live yet–he’s been to Lincoln/Omaha since I’ve been here, and to Albuquerque when I was back in the high desert.
I did have a chance to see Andy Hedges in March, with my sister. He brought his cowboy poetry gang to Carnegie Hall, in support of his 2023 album Roll On, Cowboys, which featured a rogues gallery of duos on traditional and original western songs. One of those duets was with Corb Lund, the last artist I saw live before COVID, so fitting he was the first Americana artist I saw live since. Andy was also supported by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tom Russell, Dom Flemons. and others on stage.
I know many artists are none too thrilled with streaming services such as Spotify, but I like to try out a lot of different music–within my chosen genres. I try before I buy, but yes, I buy much less than I used to. After moving so often, I’m also really tired of carting around a dozen boxes of CDs and LPs every couple years. I yearn for my library, not just for books but for my music collection as well.
Americana Albums
I streamed Andy Hedges’ Roll On, Cowboys, ahead of my trip to his show in New York, and most every day after. It’s a good album with great co-coartists. At the end of February, Corb Lund released El Viejo–in part his tribute to the late Ian Tyson. It didn’t strike me as his best album, but it has solid tracks. Charley Crockett released a couple of albums and single tracks, all catchy. Then rounding out my top five were albums from Sierra Ferrell (Trail of Flowers) and The Mavericks (Moon and Stars) that just played natural together.
This year started off slow with the new music releases, but the field filled in with new stuff from a lot of under-the-radar artists. My top 5 tracks track my top 5 albums–mostly because I played these top tracks so much. Also, you’ll see Sierra Ferrell did the duet with the Mavericks, hence my previous not on the two albums playing nice together. Willie Nelson’s song “The Border” is not just good, but became a bit of my theme of Resistance this election year, twinned with John Moreland’s “Gentle Violence”, more for his town but maybe it seems a bit of gentle violence is necessary in any Resistance.
Happy New Year. Let us all find some peace, hope, and comfort in the music at the foundation of our own pursuit of happiness.
PS: It’s been awhile since my last Top Tunes post. I have been keeping track, as well as writing music reviews and cultural critiques now and then. Thanks for following along since then.
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