By: Jay Minkin
Date: 01/05/2010

The fourth installment of my personal favorites from the past year of CD buying binges begins with the ladies, including Rosanne Cash and The List, the bluesy Cleveland Telarc label’s Never Going Back, by Shemekia Copeland, and the soft, sultry Melody Gardot accompanying her piano on My One And Only Thrill.

Big winners at the 2009 Americana Music Association awards were Buddy and Julie Miller and their epic Written In Chalk, as husband and wife share vocals. A renowned guitarist, Buddy gets to shine on his own recordings with lots of his friends paying him back by appearing on several tracks.

The heavyweight division includes a diverse group of bands, like Nashville’s rockin’ The Coal Men’s Kids With Songs; Austin’s R&B sound of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears’ Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is; the electric Band of Heathens’ One Foot In The Ether; The Avett Brothers’ beautiful Americana harmony I and Love and You, from Greenville, NC. And from way up north in Alaska, my Nashville trip surprise find Bearfoot and its bluegrass-flavored Doors and Windows, featuring the lovely vocals of Odessa Jorgensen.

 A stellar group of male vocalists came through big time with Leonard Cohen’s double CD, Live In London, along with Levon Helm, a former member of The Band, again hitting high marks with Electric Dirt. And where junior tops the old man, Justin Townes Earle delivered the beautiful Midnight At The Movies, beating out his father Steve for a spot on the list. 

    And coming in at Number One is (insert drum roll), former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell and his second solo release entitled Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit.  Recorded at legendary Fame Studios, in Muscle Shores, Alabama, this album is loaded with great songs that offer rock, soul, and ballads full of Isbell’s southern-flavored voice.

From tracks one to 11, you’ll fall in love with the beautiful arrangements of these songs and wonder why you never found this album earlier.

From here on out, just follow my advice. I’ll take you places your ears will truly appreciate.

Reach Jay at blues4bird@aol.com.