My Albums of 2016

 And so here are the albums that played a big part in my year in 2016. They aren't in any order or organization.  I just loved these bodies of work and the artists who made them.  Let's dive in, shall we?

Bon Iver - 22, A Million
Sonically, I think this was probably the most interesting and beautiful album released this year. Justin Vernon has a head for laying down tracks and paints these rich canvases of sound that I can listen to over and over.  It took me a while to get into this record but once I finally put it on in my house on a cold winter night and spent some time with it, I really heard it and started to love it.  It was 8 (circle) that initially grabbed me.  The horn arrangements on this record alone.  Haunting. This is an expected choice.  This was on everyone's list this year and I believe it deserves a place among the best musical contributions of 2016 for sure.

Lori McKenna - The Bird and the Rifle
Definitely my favorite album lyrically of 2016.  You have likely heard Lori McKenna songs, but someone else was singing them, like maybe Tim McGraw, or Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Alison Krauss, or Faith Hill? I hadn't heard anything she had written until I came across this album this year. I listened to the first track, "Wreck You" and my jaw dropped. I don't know if I've ever heard such an honest set of lyrics.  On her website, Lori is quoted as saying

My words are front porch, kitchen, there's always a car in there... but that is where our greatest conversations happen––sitting in the front seat of someone’s car in the driveway when we should have gotten out 15 minutes ago.

It's rare that I connect so completely with a sound and lyrics but hers really hit home with me. And maybe, I almost hope, that she personally hasn't walked through everything she writes about but goodness can she put words to a feeling.  And her voice isn't perfect.  I love that there is imperfection and insecurity in her voice -- makes me love it all the more.

Front Country - Sake of the Sound
I lose track of where I am in time when I hear this record.  It's stripped down, full of pure country bluegrass, and sounds like it was recorded in someone's bathroom. It has a fantastic raw quality to it, but the songs are classic, rooted in tradition. Beautiful banjo, fiddle and mandolin arrangements sound like clear mountain streams and make me want to run away to the mountains and leave this city life behind every time I hear them.

Tedeschi Trucks - Let Me Get By
One of the few bands to be on both my albums and songs of 2016 list.  Susan and Derek just really got me this year.  Susan's voice is absolutely incredible, sounds like what bourbon tastes like to me: smoky and complex, with a sultry quality to it. Their show at Wolf Trap this summer was one of my favorites of the year.  And Derek Trucks' guitar riffs are enough to make anyone sit up and notice. One of the most talented players out there today, IMHO.  Not a track on this album I don't really enjoy listening to.

Shovels and Rope - Little Seeds
Another favorite show of 2016 at 9:30 club.  The harmonies and the country/rock marriage of Michael and Cary Ann work together so well. I listened to this album a ton as I was cleaning or cooking in the apartment this year.  It feels jangly and loose and would relax me at the end of ridiculous days when I was too uptight about my to-do list.

Jared and the Mill - Life We Chose
A sweet band of beautiful men from Phoenix, AZ.  I saw them at Jammin' Java by myself on a Sunday night in summer and they played way past they were supposed to be shut down due to noise regulations in Vienna, so they just unplugged and played a whole acoustic set on the floor with all of us around them.  The plinking banjo sound and beautiful melodies, with relatable lyrics.  I know what that search in your 20s for meaning and self-realization feels like.  Some people never come out of it. But this is the sound of it, without a doubt.  And I love it, both for its nostalgia and the sweetness of its tarnished but still intact naïveté.

Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People
Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls actually opened for Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton at Merriweather Post Pavilion this summer.  Yeah, I was surprised to.  Frank has a pretty great story about being a punk rocker and then kind of turning the tide to his current sound after his post-hardcore band Million Dead broke up.  He cites Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" album as a big influence in the change in his career and I think you can hear it.  He's got a great message in his music and I just loved his stage presence and the way he approaches his career.  He's funny and writes really good, fun, and honest songs.

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter
A great show enjoyed at the Hamilton with KG.  She sings her heart out and since I have just returned from Nashville where I toured the Ryman auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame, I can see exactly where she gets her sound from.  She has gone back to the roots of the old female greats of country like Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette, perhaps without the domestic abuse problems. She has stepped back in time and I liked listening to this album.  I should try listening to some of the originals next to Margo and see how they compare side by side.  2017 project idea!

C.W. Stoneking - Gon' Boogaloo
Because it's just so swampy and dirty and fuzzy.  If you can figure out the time signature during the verses on The Jungle Swing, you are a better person than I, my friend.  What the heck is happening with those rhythms? Whatever it is, I want more of it.

Gregory Porter - Take Me to the Alley
Oh Gregory, sing to me.  Anything.  Sing the phonebook to me.  But sure, if you want to write a song about how Jesus looks for those in the alleys and not in the gilded houses, and says "take me to the afflicted ones, take me to the lonely ones that somehow lost their way", that's okay too.  Or you can also sing beautiful original love songs too.  I accept.

River Whyless - We All the Light
Not quite bluegrass, not quite country, not quite rock, not quite The Beatles' Revolver, but certainly heavily intertwining all of the above.  There is a lot going on in their songs and this was another stellar Jammin' Java show I went to this summer.  They played with heart and soul and have a unique sound that is really hard to do in an era where everything sounds like a remake of something else, old or new.  They're from NC too, which I have to tip my hat to.

Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle 
One of my biggest live disappointments of 2016, I saw Julien at U St. Music Hall and she was great but the sound system was terrible and really got in the way of her performance. She soldiered through like a champ but didn't do an encore and practically ran off stage at the end without saying anything.  I could barely hear her and there was tons of feedback.  But her album, thankfully more professionally produced, is full of songs about struggling to find faith, and meaning, and love in the midst of sadness and addiction.  It's beautiful.  I can't wait for more from her this year. She's so young, it's hard to imagine having lived what she has by the tender age of 21.

Andrew Peterson - Burning Edge of Dawn
Andrew Peterson is one of my favorite poets, and just happens to be great at putting poetry to music. I LOVE his lyrics, and I love how he "smuggles in the light" to a world where there is a lot of darkness.  I love how he sees the world through which he walks, and how he is moved to tears often by brokenness but is never discouraged for long, and always returns to hope.  Sometimes the sound can get a little cheesy and Christian-y for me, but by and large he is one of the most consistently good Christian artists and I return to him, if not just for the sheer beauty of the sentiments expressed through his lyrics.

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
Listening to this album is like going to a church where they love curse words.  I definitely get the sound of the Sunday choir all throughout this, but it's not shying away from language and raw expression in lyrical flow. I love how this guy thinks and rhymes and I love how this album was produced. It's full of great questions and honesty and he just lays his life out to consider with us via these tracks. I felt like I was having a conversation with him while I listened to this album. I felt invited in to his world and that is not easy to accomplish.

Paul Simon - Stranger to Stranger
I saw Paul this summer at Wolf Trap and it was one of the top five best concerts I have ever seen in my life.  He is one of our best songwriters, ever.  His band is incredible and he infuses so many different world musical traditions into his songs and writes such interesting lyrics, he is just on another level.  I can't remember the specifics of the concert that night really, other than I was sitting there on a perfect summer night just hoping it would never, ever end.  I love the themes he explores in his music, both sonically and lyrically and he never fails to break ground in what he's doing.

Honorable Mentions:
Anderson .Paak - Malibu
Raury - All We Need