My Top 30 Albums of the 2000s
I know I’m a little late with this, but I felt weird doing this before 2010 actually got here. Unlikely as it seems, I could have discovered a masterpiece on December 31st that belongs here. I didn’t, by the way, but at least now I can reflect.
It is a lot harder putting together a decade list such as this one than a year-end list. This list is subject to change at any time, depending on my mood, so there are definitely great albums that I have left off. I have also left off albums that aren’t really “new”. For example, Johnny Cash’s Personal File would easily be in the top 10 and it was indeed released in 2006, but I have chosen to exclude it because it was recorded in the ’70s (mostly).
Anyway, on with the list and here’s to the 2010s being just as good as the last decade was musically speaking and even better in every other aspect…
1. John Mellencamp- Life, Death, Love and Freedom (2008)
2. James McMurtry- Childish Things (2005)
3. Drive-By Truckers- Southern Rock Opera (2001)
4. Johnny Cash- American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)
5. Gillian Welch- Time (The Revelator) (2001)
6. Todd Snider- The Devil You Know (2006)
7. Bob Dylan- Love and Theft (2001)
8. Rosanne Cash- Black Cadillac (2006)
9. Steve Earle- The Revolution Starts Now (2006)
10. Kris Kristofferson- This Old Road (2006)
11. Mavis Staples- We’ll Never Turn Back (2007)
12. Bruce Springsteen- Devils and Dust (2005)
13. Merle Haggard- If Only I Could Fly (2000)
14. Neil Young- Prairie Wind (2005)
15. Deer Tick- Born on Flag Day (2009)
16. Lucinda Williams- West (2007)
17. John Fogerty- Revival (2007)
18. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis- Two Men With the Blues (2008)
19. James McMurtry- Just Us Kids (2008)
20. Alejandro Escovedo- Real Animal (2008)
21. Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
22. Loretta Lynn- Van Lear Rose (2004)
23. Mudcrutch- Mudcrutch (2008)
24. Justin Townes Earle- Midnight at the Movies (2009)
25. The Bottle Rockets- Zoysia (2006)
26. Johnny Cash- American V: A Hundred Highways (2006)
27. Neil Diamond- 12 Songs (2005)
28. Bobby Bare Jr.- From the End of Your Leash (2004)
29. Patterson Hood- Killers and Stars (2004)
30. Ry Cooder- Chavez Ravine (2005)
A few honorable mentions:
Marty Stuart- Soul’s Chapel
Levon Helm- Dirt Farmer
Ralph Stanley- Ralph Stanley
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds- Dig, Lazarus, Dig
Elvis Costello- My Flame Burns Blue
Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale- Roll On
Indigenous- Broken Lands
Joe Grushecky- A Good Life