No time to comment on each as I’d normally do. The jazz interlopers (Allen, Waldorf & Frisell) illuminate the time-honored American process of roots mutating into art, as does any great roots album that retains the folkloric scruff. Mulvey, Foucault & Camplin are part of a Midwest songwriters mafia in their prime who’ve borne loaded-for-bear sons (and perhaps stylistic kin like Nor’easter Erelli – hear the murder ballads w Foucault – and Iowan Pieta Brown).
Mild-mannered they seem, but these folks can all deliver the deft uppercut when they need to. The unofficial godfather is arguably Camplin, who operates out of an old fort just over of the Illinois border (the great roots venue/restaurant Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson WI). Singer-songwriters on the run know that the Café provides fierce familial loyalty and a mattress to curl up on – or under. I did an expose on the place for yournews.com – Madison edition earlier in the year.
Also, if you care about patching up the financially stressed pillars of American writing culture, pick up a copy of Oxford American magazine, the proud Dixie doorstep of workshops and woodsheds.
In order of preference:
- Mavis Staples You Are Not Alone
- John Mellencamp No Better Than This
- Geri Allen Timeline Live
- Peter Rowan Legacy
- Peter Mulvey Letters from a Flying Machine
- Avett Brothers Live Vol. 3
- Josh Ritter So Runs the World Away
- Torben Waldorf American Rock Beauty
- Gil Scott Heron I’m New Here
- Carolina Chocolate Drops Genuine Negro Jig
- Various Artists The Oxford American Southern Music CD No. 12 – Alabama
- Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine Various Artists
- Bill Camplin Old Bones
- Pieta Brown One and All
- Los Lobos Tin Can Trust
- Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses Junky Star
- Jeffrey Foucault & Mark Erelli Seven Curses
- Band of Horses Infinite Arms
- Bill Frisell Beautiful Dreamers
- Allison Moorer Crows
