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It's year-end list/reader poll time - What's your Top 10 of 2011?

Well, folks...here we are, approaching the end of another year full of so many good albums it's hard to even count. In other words, it's time for year-end lists.

There's a long tradition here at No Depression of compiling a community poll - a grand list of albums you, the community, most loved and adored this year. The rules are pretty simple. Respond to this blog post (in the comments section) with your personal Top 10 Albums of 2011. While you're more than welcome to expand upon your list with video clips, explanations, etc., in a separate blog post, you'll have to post your basic Top 10 in the comments here in order to be counted. Likewise, lists posted on Facebook, Twitter, or any other site around the web won't be counted unless they're also included in the comments here.

To comment on this post, scroll to the bottom of this page and leave your list in the comments section.

In the interest of my sanity (your fearless Community Manager Kim) We will not be accepting Top 20 (or longer) lists this year but feel free to add honorable mentions in addition to your top 10.

You have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 16 to submit your top ten list via this blog post. I (along with a small team of volunteers) will then disappear into a meditative state, where I will employ a complicated mathematical formula to combine all your lists into one master list. This master list will be published on this site on Monday Dec. 26, 2011, as the final official No Depression Community Poll. (Also published that day will be a masterlist of the favorites from our most frequently featured bloggers - the closest we'll get on this site to your standard critics' poll).

Reissues don't count, nor do box sets. We're looking for the ten best new recordings this year. Some allowances can be made for albums released in 2010 in Europe and 2011 in the States, and vice versa. No other scientific rules apply.

Now, give it some thought, then cast your votes.

Comment by aburtch on December 19, 2011 at 9:48am: Here's my personal year-end "best-of" list. Obviously leans towards the Bluegrass/Americana end of the spectrum, but the key is which albums I end up listening to the most.

In no particular order:

Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Abigail Washburn - City of Refuge

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Sarah Jarosz - Follow Me Down

Tara Nevins - Wood and Stone

Chis Thile & Michael Daves - Sleep with One Eye Open

Gillian Welch - Harrow and the Harvest

Farewell Drifters - Echo Boom

Dehlia Low - Ravens and Crowes

War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

Yo-Yo Ma - Goat Rodeo sessions

Megafaun - Megafaun

Comment by ddauta on December 21, 2011 at 9:55am: I saw too late you have a 2011 hit parade

Meanwhile, I send you, from France, my personal 2011 top ten 2011

In France we are some people fans of Texas & NO music

Domi

1 CODY CANADA & THE DEPARTURES

2 HAYES CARLL Kmag Yoyo

3 THE BAND OF HEATHENS Top hat crown...

4 R E KEEN Ready for confetti

5 HANK III Ghost to a ghost

6 HUG LAURIE Let them talkies

7 GARY NICHOLSON Texas song book

8 STONEY LARUE Velvet

9 MARCIA BALL Roadside attraction

10 PISTOLS ANNIE hell on heels

Comment by Jack Williams on December 21, 2011 at 10:37am: Speaking of late entries, I see my list tagged as "Saturday". Hopefully, that's based on GMT or something. I know I resubmitted my list Friday evening and I'm in the Eastern time zone. I actually got my copy of Hellbound Glory's Damaged Goods on Friday and have time to give it couple of spins. I put it at #9 and I might have moved it even higher given more time.

While I'm at it, I guess I could add a few more HM's. No harm there:

Black Joe Lewis - Scandalous

Black Keys - El Camino

Jim Lauderdale - Reason and Rhyme

Kenny Vaughan - V

Comment by Donna's Americana on December 21, 2011 at 3:31pm: Hey! I just noticed that, like Jack Williams, my list is showing as having posted on Saturday. But I know I posted it on Friday night, long before the 11:59 pm deadline. I think i posted about 10 pm.

I hope you'll still include my list in the compilation!

Well, since I'm here, here it is again:

My Top Ten, and true to my librarian roots...in alphabetical order :)

Audrey Auld-Come Find Me

Dave Alvin-Eleven Eleven

David Ferrard-Journeyman

Grant Peeples- Okra & Ecclesiastes

Hayes Carll-KMAG YOYO

Enter the Haggis- White Lake

Kate Campbell-Two Nights in Texas

Mare Wakefield-Meant to Be

Nathan Bell-Black Crow Blue

Rebecca Zapen-Nest

Honorable Mention:

Chuck Brodsky-Subtotal Eclipse

Peter Mayer-Heaven Below

Comment by Bob Goldstein on December 22, 2011 at 8:56am: 1. NRBQ - Keep This Love Goin'

2. Fountains Of Wayne - Sky Full Of Holes

3. Tom Russell - Mesabi

4. Nick Lowe - That Old Magic

5. Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven

6. Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest

7. The Black Keys - El Camino

8. Amanda Shires - Carrying Lightning

9. Ry Cooder - Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down

10. Jeff Beck - Rock & Roll Party

Comment by Hanspeter Eggenberger on January 8, 2012 at 7:20am: My Favorite Records Of The Year:

1. Chip Taylor (with John Platania, Kendel Carson), Rock And Roll Joe – A Tribute To The Unsung Heroes Of Rock ’n’ Roll

2. Ry Cooder, Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down

3. Lydia Loveless, Indestructible Machine

4. Greg Brown, Freak Flag

5. Robyn Ludwick, Out Of These Blues

6. Grant Peeples, Okra And Ecclesiastes

7. Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers, Starlight Hotel

8. John Hiatt, Dirty Jeans And Mudside Hymns

9. Laura Cantrell, Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs Of The Queen Of Country Music

10. Stacie Collins, Sometimes Ya Gotta …

Runners-up (alphabetical order):

77 El Deora, The Crown & The Crow’s Confession

Dave Alvin, Eleven Eleven

Pieta Brown, Mercury

Slaid Cleaves, Sorrow & Smoke – Live At The Horseshoe Lounge

Brigitte DeMeyer, Rose of Jericho

Amber Digby & Midnight Flyer, Live at Swiss Alps Hall

Drive-By Truckers, Go-Go Boots

Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue, Set Two

Larry Lange and his Lonely Knights, Wiggle Room

Nick Lowe, The Old Magic

The Rainmakers, 25 On

Rachel Timberlake

Renée Wahl, Cumberland Moonshine

Re-issues, Compilations

1. Sir Douglas Quintet, The Mono Singles ’68–’72

2. The Rainmakers, The Good News And The Bad News (1989)

Comment by Luis M. Williams Jr. on December 4, 2012 at 8:34am: 1. Woody at 100: Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection
2. Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Crown and Treaty
3. Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
4. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Leaving Eden
5. Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Between the Ditches
6. Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Twenty Dozen
7. Otis Taylor - Contraband
8. Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott - Live at Chickie Wah Wah

9. Papa Grows Funk - Needle In the Groove
10. Alhousseini Anivolla - Anewal/The Walking Man

I also enjoyed, among others, Kelan Philip Cohran & the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Various - The Rough Guide To The Music Of China

Comment by Jerome Langguth on December 4, 2012 at 5:42pm: Ten great records from 2012:

1. Donald Fagen-- Sunken Condos

2. Woods-- Bend Beyond

3. Neil Young-- Americana

4. Patti Smith-- Banga

5. Bob Dylan-- Tempest

6. Beth Orton-- Sugaring Season

7. Bruce Springsteen- Wrecking Ball

8. Leonard Cohen- Old Ideas

9. Van Morrison-- Born to Sing: No Plan B

10. Brian Eno- Lux