Oh, and don’t forget to weigh in with your own favorites in the comments!

10. In Person – Charley Pride

When it comes to audience-performer connection, this one ranks right up there with Cash’s prison recordings. Pride sounds damn happy to be at Fort Worth’s Panther Hall to sing for the folks, and the Texans sound damn happy to have him. Recorded in 1968, the same year Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, it’s a remarkable historical document and an encouraging affirmation of the ability of great music to cross boundaries and bring people together. Charley Pride has never sounded more alive on record.

9. Live at the Philharmonic – Kris Kristofferson

One of the great ‘lost’ live recordings, Kristofferson’s December 1972 show at New York’s Philharmonic Hall wasn’t released until 1992. Kristofferson was at the peak of his powers, most of his classic songs already under his belt but not yet on the downside of his commercial career (“Why Me” was just getting ready to hit). The singer-songwriter also brought along a few friends, including Larry Gatlin, future wife Rita Coolidge, and a young unknown named Willie Nelson who would be taking the nation by storm in short order.

8. Double Live – Garth Brooks

Listen, I get it. Really, I do. Garth Brooks was so ubiquitous for so long, and is still so heavily played in recurrents, that you would probably be just fine never hearing “The Dance” again. But imagine coming to this album for the first time if that hadn’t been the case: Double Live captures a supreme showman in all his kinetic glory, but it also captures the essence of mainstream country music during the ’90s. You can’t understand any of it without understanding the guy who towered over all of it. This is a Garthmania time capsule.

7. Live at the Old Quarter – Townes Van Zandt

Seminal live recording by seminal Texas songwriter. It demands your full attention, but even if you give it, you won’t be able to grasp everything in one sitting. Townes was on a whole other plane.

6. Alison Krauss and Union Station Live – Alison Krauss and Union Station

All Music’s Rick Anderson writes: “The simple fact is that every time Krauss opens her mouth to sing, angels stop what they’re doing and take notes. There may be no musical pleasure quite as pure and sweet as listening to Krauss sing ‘Baby, Now That I’ve Found You’ or ‘When You Say Nothing at All.’ And when she starts in on the impossibly beautiful gospel tune ‘Down to the River to Pray,’ the effect is almost disturbingly moving.” Yep. The musicianship is about as good as it gets, too.

5. Keepers – Guy Clark

No people-launching cannons or pyrotechnics here. Guy Clark just chats and sings, which is all that’s needed when your songs include “L.A. Freeway,” “Texas 1947,” “Homegrown Tomatoes,” and “That Old Time Feeling.” It doesn’t hurt to have Verlon Thompson, Darrell Scott, and Kenny Malone backing you up, either.

4. VH1 Storytellers – Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson

Once-in-a-lifetime guitar pull between Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, featuring great acoustic versions of, well, everything these guys touch: “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky,” “Worried Man,” “Family Bible,” “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Flesh And Blood,” “Crazy,” “Unchained,” “Night Life,” “Drive On,” “Me And Paul,” “I Still Miss Someone,” “Always On My Mind,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “On The Road Again.” Yes, I listed every single track. With all the interplay between the two legends, there’s also more of each performer’s personality and sense of humor here than you’ll find just about anywhere else in his discography.

3. Near Truths and Hotel Rooms Live – Todd Snider

Anyone who’s been following me for any length of time shouldn’t be surprised to see this rank high on my list. Todd Snider is one of the absolute best songwriters working today in country, folk, or any other genre, and this live album is everything I like about him distilled into 75 minutes of storytelling and song. But as good as it is, it’s not significantly better than the average Todd Snider concert. See him live if you ever get the chance.

2. At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin – Johnny Cash

So much has been said and written about these two albums that I don’t feel the need to get too verbose here. Just know that if you somehow haven’t heard them yet, you’re not allowed to die until you do.

1. Waylon Live: Expanded Edition – Waylon Jennings

Cash gets the attention, but Waylon Jennings is the man with the best live album in country music. Already a classic in its original 1976 edition, Waylon Live has only improved with time: a 1999 reissue expanded it to the originally-planned double LP (single CD) length of 20 tracks. Four short years later, Waylon Live: The Expanded Edition more than doubled that track count to 42, spread out over two discs. Why so much attention to updating this particular live album? Because it’s Waylon and his band at their absolute best, possibly even surpassing Honky Tonk Heroes and Dreaming My Dreams (much less Wanted!) as the definitive outlaw recording. It just doesn’t get any better than this, and I think I’d be afraid if it did.

Well, there you have it: The 20 Best Country Live Albums of All Time. What do you think?

Agree? Disagree? Like to pick fights? Be sure to weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

20. Live at Stubb’s – Reckless Kelly

When I first got this disc, it stayed in my car CD player for at least a month or two. Even with Bulletproof landing near the top of my 2008 album list, this is still my favorite available Reckless Kelly recording.

19. Are You Ready for the Big Show? – Radney Foster

Radney Foster is great live. This 2001 album doesn’t completely capture it, but it gets fairly close, with on-the-nose performances of “Just Call Me Lonesome,” “Nobody Wins,” “Folding Money,” and more.

18. John Prine Live – John Prine

Before there was Todd Snider, there was John Prine. If you want to understand what he’s all about, the winning combination of empathetic, self-deprecatingly humorous banter and pared-down live performances of “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” “Illegal Smile,” “Sam Stone,” “That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round,” and “Angel from Montgomery” (with Bonnie Raitt) will do the trick.

17. Ragin’ Live – Rhonda Vincent and the Rage

Straight-up smokin’ bluegrass and country from one of the best bands and vocalists on the circuit. “I’ve Forgotten You” and the blazing cover of “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin” are particular favorites.

16. Viva Terlingua – Jerry Jeff Walker

Recorded live in Luckenbach in 1973, Jerry Jeff Walker at his ‘gonzo country’ finest. Memorable takes on “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “Backslider’s Wine,” “London Homesick Blues” and a now-legendary recording of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother.” Mix in the first appearance of Walker originals like “Sangria Wine” and “Gettin’ By” and you’ve got a night, and a live recording, to remember.

15. Live at Billy Bob’s Texas – Merle Haggard

1969 live album Okie From Muskogee – recorded live in Muskogee – is almost certainly of greater historical import, but I find this 1999 Live at Billy Bob’s album to be the more entertaining overall show. It’s so good that it prompted a sequel, 2004′s Live at Billy Bob’s Texas: Ol’ Country Singer, which is almost as good.

14. Top of the World Tour – Dixie Chicks

Setting aside The Comment and the ensuing fallout, there were still plenty of musical reasons to like the Dixie Chicks in 2003. These compiled performances from their 2003 tour don’t stray far from the studio versions, which is, in hindsight, sort of an affirmation of the fact that they were still doing what they had been doing all along, even as their public image was in a state of turmoil. Taken together, the performances are an impressive portrait of a band at the peak of its powers, making this the best Dixie Chicks ‘greatest hits’ set on the market.

13. No. 2 Live Dinner – Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen inspires fierce loyalty among his followers. From the outside looking in, this live album doesn’t completely explain why, but it does present most of the singer’s essential tracks in a way that’s fairly evocative of a Texas dance hall experience. Worth the adventure, even if the rather extraordinarily long version of “The Road Goes on Forever” might have you trying to wipe off some of the frat boy stank on your way out the door. (Undone: A Musicfest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen was also seriously considered for this list, so check that out too.)

12. Live in London, England – Dale Watson

If you want to ‘get’ Dale Watson, get this live set. Song titles like “Nashville Rash” and “Country My Ass” give a sense of where he’s coming from, but barely hint at how well he backs it up with brilliant originals like “I Hate These Songs” and “A Couple of Beers Ago” and a seemingly encyclopedic repertoire of classic country covers that includes Haggard’s “Mama’s Hungry Eyes,” Ray Price’s “Bright Lights and Blonde Haired Women,” Wynn Stewart’s “Another Day, Another Dollar,” and Johnny Cash’s “I Got Stripes.” Good stuff all around.

11. The Carnegie Hall Concert – Buck Owens & His Buckaroos

In 1966, Buck Owens and His Buckaroos (featuring all-important Owens collaborator Don Rich) took their Bakersfield Sound to the Big Apple and gave the performance of a lifetime, cutting up and tearing through a list of Owens classics so long I can’t even choose one or five to highlight by name. Not to be missed.

Who made the Top Ten? Find out here!

Will Lady Antebellum prove it?
I don’t think they have, but their sophomore album is selling in huge numbers, so who am I to judge? I wonder how long they’ll be able to sustain this sort of momentum with the songs being as unmemorable as they are.

How will Jamey Johnson follow That Lonesome Song?
The double-disc Guitar Song doesn’t come out until September 14, but early comments from those who’ve heard it are promising. “Macon” seems an encouraging sign that Johnson won’t fall into the rut of simply trying to remake That Lonesome Song over and over again. Billboard has more details:

Johnson wrote or co-wrote nearly all of the tracks, collaborating with Bobby Bare, James Otto, Rivers Rutherford, Buddy Cannon Vicky McGehee, Shane Minor, Charlie Midnight and Alabama’s Teddy Gentry, among others. Bill Anderson co-wrote and guests on “The Guitar Song’s” title track, while Randy Houser and Mac McAnally also appear on the set. “The Guitar Song” also includes covers of Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times,” Mel Tillis’ “Mental Revenge,” Vern Gosdin’s “Set ‘em Up Joe” and the Keith Whitley/Don Cook/Chick Raines co-write “Lonely at the Top.”

Ashton Shepherd, Gretchen Wilson, or neither?
“Work Hard, Play Harder” is already Gretchen’s biggest hit since “All Jacked Up,” so we’ll see how much higher it climbs and what happens with that momentum when she starts pushing her next single. Shepherd is still in the studio with Buddy Cannon working on her next album. Wikipedia says a single will be out in July.

Brooks & Dunn solo?
Hold your horses, cowboy. They’ve still got some awkward touring to do together.

What about Strait?
“I Gotta Get to You” climbed as high as #3. Wikipedia says “The Breath You Take” is the next single. Ugh.

Chris Young set for a breakthrough year?
As I predicted back in January, Young has already had a huge 2010, with tons of favorable press and his first ever multi-week #1 in “The Man I Want to Be.” Now they’re rereleasing “Voices,” an underperforming 2008 single that was the subject of derision in one of Country California’s earliest posts. I wish they’d go with “The Shoebox” or “It Takes a Man” or “Rose in Paradise” instead.

Who will rule the summer?
We still don’t know. Now I’m just praying it won’t be Uncle Kracker.

More from Joey + Rory?
The simply-titled Album #2 is due later this year.

What’s next for Taylor Swift?
Swift is already a pop phenomenon based in the country format, and she has already seemingly won everything there is to win. Where’s her next challenge? And as she continues on her path toward world domination, what role (if any) will country music play in her future?
That’s what I wrote in January. While you couldn’t exactly say that Swift’s star is on the decline – she’s still one of the most popular figures in all of music – there have been some signs that some of her glittery magic might be wearing off, including the previously inconceivable Swift shutout at the fan-voted (!!) CMT Music Awards. But Swift-mania should be ramping back up as her new single and album come out in the second half of the year.

Will Lambert release “The House That Built Me” as a single?
Yes, thank goodness. And she’s been rewarded handsomely for doing so.

New music from Ashley Monroe?
One can always hope. Jason Aldean’s cut of “The Truth” (written by Monroe and Brett James) looks to be headed for the top of the charts, which should certainly help the cause.
Please, can we get on this?

Dierks Bentley bluegrass album?
It’s pretty darn good.

Joe Diffie bluegrass album?
It won’t be released until August, but I just got the advance recently and it’s pretty darn good too. Expect to see a review coming up in the next couple months.

Bucky Covington bluegrass album?
Word is that Bucky’s been boning up on his banjo skills.

New music from The Steeldrivers?
Fans who were understandably disappointed by the departure of vocalist Chris Stapleton should be pleased to learn that the band’s upcoming sophomore album – Reckless, due out September 14 – features the original line-up. In the meantime, new lead singer Gary Nichols seems to be doing a pretty fair job out on the road:

Sarah Buxton releases a whole album?
It actually happened! Then the label got shut down.

Elizabeth Cook with Don Was. How great?
I have a review of Welder coming up at The 9513 pretty soon. It’s good, but scattered.
(The review, I mean. Ba dum bum. But seriously…)

What have you enjoyed so far in 2010? What are you most looking forward to in the second half of the year?

Danny Gokey isn’t that kind of singer.

He’s the kind who makes most any song he applies his pipes to sound worse through injudicious application of vocal tics and tricks borrowed from Michael Bolton, the kind who presents himself as the gaping absence of personality at the center of his own album.

On Sunday, I sat down and listened to Gokey’s new album. Twice.

What could possess a person to do such a thing? Only the best of intentions, I assure you. Given that Gokey is being marketed as country, and I write about country, I thought I should know something about him. I didn’t watch American Idol last year, or any year since 2003. And I’m not that interested in plain biographical facts. So, I came to his first album with little baggage and a simple hope: To get to know Danny Gokey through his music.

But after spending 80 minutes with the man’s album, I’m no closer than I was before. All I know is that he’s a glass-half-full optimist whose answer to all of the world’s problems is faith and love – and that doesn’t tell me much, given that half of the other aspiring contemporary country singers adopt the same pose.

Worse, I get the sense that Danny Gokey doesn’t understand, like, or particularly want to sing country music.

While past country Idols (Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin, even Bucky Covington) haven’t exactly been traditional standardbearers, I’ve always felt their engagement with the pop-country field to be sincere. I can sense the underlying appreciation of Martina, Shania, and Garth, if not Hank and Lefty. I understand their personal investment in calling themselves country artists – based on the country music they grew up listening to in the ’90s – even when their music doesn’t bear out that classification to my satisfaction. I get that they want to be here.

By contrast, Gokey’s complete lack of investment in anything resembling country music is readily apparent. He’s a Christian soul singer tapping the conventions of country music from a safe distance, seeing if he might strike gold. The nearest analog is Phil Stacey, who released exactly one ‘country’ (at Disney’s insistence) single and album on Lyric Street before following his heart to a Christian label the next year. I hope Danny Gokey’s country stint will be similarly short, so he can move on and make some music he actually enjoys.

On My Best Days, Gokey is like Bucky Covington minus sincerity, Rascal Flatts minus twang. Clay Aiken could deliver down-home sentiments like “Sunday morning, all dressed for church / Took a muddy road shortcut, showed up all covered in dirt” (“Life on Ya”) more credibly. Anne Murray could rock “Like That’s a Bad Thing” harder, and Gary Allan already did.* On his debut, Gokey makes everything – even that which might be heartfelt, like the mindless optimism that pervades the whole affair – feel like a complete lie. A lot of that has to do with the fact that he is not now, and probably will never be, a country singer. Not even by contemporary standards.

Toward the end of the album, he sings of a man who “did it all to impress someone else / When all he had to do was stop and be himself.” And he’s apparently just obtuse enough not to realize that he may as well be referring to his own country music career. I’m willing to accept that there’s a place for Danny Gokey somewhere in music, because millions of fans have already voted their support. But it’s very clearly not here, and he’d be doing himself, his fans, and country music a huge disservice to prolong this uncomfortable marriage.

* Seriously, why mess with a song previously recorded by Gary Allan? Unless you’re Rodney Hayden, don’t.

After getting the shaft from NBC and Jay Leno (who, in this one-time Leno fan’s opinion, should have retired gracefully when all hell started breaking loose), Conan O’Brien concluded his brief stint as Tonight Show host with class last Friday night, urging his disappointed fans to ward off cynicism:

All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.

For Conan’s young-ish fanbase, members of the post-Simpsons generations raised from an ironic distance, it was an important message. This being the internet, members of the same age group are probably reading this now. In fact, most of the country blogs I read regularly are written by people who were teens or preteens when O’Brien took over Late Night back in 1993. (They’re not that young… anyone under the age of 36 fits the bill.)

Don’t be cynical. It’s good advice, but how?

If you take it at its word, mainstream country music is one of the least cynical things we have left. This is one genre where people are invited to take everything at face value, without any regard for irony – stories of real lives and real people told in an accessible, straightforward manner. Wholesome songs sung by all-American guys and girls, with uplifting messages and redemption (almost) always following close on the heels of sin. It’s earnest as Oprah, and often far more insipid. When mainstream country fans do embrace irony and sarcasm, it’s the Andy Griffith inspired “aw shucks” of Brad Paisley rather than the insurgent irreverence of someone like Robbie Fulks.

Dare to suggest that something shouldn’t be taken at face value – that the music that serves as the backdrop to so many lives, day in and day out, might be worthy of some critical examination – and you’re accused of overthinking. Dare to arrive at a not-wholly-favorable conclusion about a mainstream favorite or the system that has produced it (because public figures, as distinct from the actual human beings behind them, are as much ‘its’ as they are ‘hes’ and ‘shes’) and you’re called a cynic.

For some of us, though, there’s nothing more cynical than the way the music business itself is run, especially as sales panic leads to ever more desperate ‘save the bottom line’ schemes. Reissues of current albums that add one or two new tracks to inflate sales numbers, label execs and radio programmers who won’t take a chance on anything but a sure bet, country awards shows that give Taylor Swift every other performance slot in lieu of embracing diverse strains of bluegrass, honky tonk, country-folk, Red Dirt, and, yes, pop-country that make up the larger picture. Sometimes the music industry doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of faith in music.

Does Toby Keith, who cut his teeth on Merle and Willie, actually believe Trailer Choir to be the genre’s next great hope? It doesn’t seem likely. A smart businessman, Keith figures there’s more money to be made in gimmickry than artistry. He might be right, but I hope not; he’s betting against the power of good, substantive music. If they weren’t on his label, would Toby be a fan of Trailer Choir?

One of the big stories of 2008 was that Mercury Nashville’s Luke Lewis found a great indie album he believed in, signed the artist, and released the album to a wider public almost ‘as is’ (a couple tracks were swapped in and out). Huh? Shouldn’t that sort of thing happen all the time? Great music should get picked up and spread to a larger audience by major labels. Artists should be signed on the basis of existing musical quality, not movie star looks and the promise of marketable music several dubiously-credited ‘cowrites’ and countless layers of studio trickery later. That Lonesome Song was testament to what can happen when you put the music first.

It’s tempting to fight cynicism with cynicism, to assume nothing good can come of the major label system and stop paying attention to it altogether. There are heaps of country and country-related (alt, roots, Texas, bluegrass) sites that won’t waste a minute on anything mainstream. Even mentions of relatively indie-friendly mainstream acts like Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert are accompanied by apologies and qualifiers, as though reputations are made and broken by proximity to Nashville.

But there’s plenty of good music in Nashville, and there’s even good major label music being made by people not named Jamey or Miranda. As with anything, you just have to keep wading around long enough to find it. So, that’s what I’ll keep doing here. I can’t very easily change my tastes, and I won’t pretend to like stuff I don’t, but I can watch the show and give my own take on what’s interesting about it, in ways both good and bad.

As long as I’m doing that, I think I’m answering Conan’s call. Because the opposite of cynicism isn’t blind, thoughtless optimism: it’s engagement and belief. I keep engaging in these discussions, time and again, because I still believe in country music.

On an individual level, though, how am I to know if my top picks now will hold up years down the road? The relationship to music being a dynamic one, I sometimes disagree with myself from one day to the next. Expecting agreement over longer periods of time would seem to be pushing it a bit.

It was with a mix of curiosity and horror, then, that I discovered an old file on my computer called “bestof2007.” I had no real reason to compile a list in 2007 – this site wasn’t yet in existence, so I didn’t exactly have anywhere to publish one. For some reason, though, I felt compelled to rank. I was reading the CMT Blog and The 9513 by that point, so perhaps the blogging bug had already begun to set in, unbeknownst to me.

In any case, I forgot about the list until last night, and am unearthing it right now. Here are the Best Albums of 2007, as ranked by a totally inexperienced, pre-blogging C.M.

10. Pam Tillis – Rhinestoned

9. Todd Snider – Peace, Love and Anarchy

8. Joe Nichols – Real Things

7. Elizabeth Cook – Balls

6. Chris Knight – The Trailer Tapes

5. Sunny Sweeney – Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame

4. Ray Price, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson – Last of the Breed

3. Dwight Yoakam – Dwight Sings Buck

2. Dale Watson – From the Cradle to the Grave

1. Porter Wagoner – Wagonmaster

How do you think he did?

I’d probably change the positions around a bit, but I’m relieved to say that I still like all of the albums – even the couple I’ve not heard in a while. I should revisit Last of the Breed on my own recommendation.

I wonder what my 2009 list will look like in a couple years. Or, for that matter, a couple decades.

Will Lady Antebellum prove it?
“Need You Now” went some way toward establishing them critically, but the hype is still ahead of the horse for this trio. Will their next album prove the early accolades well-deserved or leave them still one step behind their press?

How will Jamey Johnson follow That Lonesome Song?
As with Lady Antebellum, hype ends up being both a blessing and a curse. Johnson lept to the top of the heap with That Lonesome Song, an album born of hard-luck circumstances, but the follow-up will have been created under dramatically different conditions. Although he has wisely signaled that he doesn’t want to remake his opus, the question remains as to whether he’ll be able to escape the shadow of one of the most adored albums of the decade.

Ashton Shepherd, Gretchen Wilson, or neither?
Wilson is angling for a comeback on her own Redneck Records, while Shepherd is set to begin work with Buddy Cannon on her sophomore album. Is it time for another revolution by and for redneck women?

Brooks & Dunn solo?
Dunn solo probably won’t be much different than Brooks & Dunn, given that the lanky Oklahoman has been the voice of the duo for the past decade. So, the real wild card is Brooks, whose B&D album tracks have hinted at possibilities as a country-folk troubadour in the Jerry Jeff Walker mold. If Dunn manages a commercially successful solo turn – and why shouldn’t he? – he’ll be up there with George Strait as one of the oldest guy singers still regularly charting singles. In any case, we’ll have to wait to find out: The Last Rodeo tour begins in April and continues well into the second half of the year.

What about Strait?
Speaking of which, Strait showed a new willingness to shake things up on 2009′s Twang: cowriting songs, singing in Spanish, and going all retro with “Arkansas Dave.” If his next album continues down the same path, the future of Strait could be interesting indeed. But will he revert back to the same old routine instead?

Chris Young set for a breakthrough year?
“Gettin’ You Home” was the hit he needed, and I count at least four more on his current album, so 2010 could prove to be a big year for the former Nashville Star winner.

Who will rule the summer?
With Kenny Chesney taking the year off of his usual summer extravaganza, it’s game on for everyone else.

More from Joey + Rory?
The duo has said that Rory (the guy) will take a more prominent role on their sophomore album, which should introduce a new dynamic to a sound that was at times almost too sweet on 2008′s The Life of a Song.

What’s next for Taylor Swift?
Swift is already a pop phenomenon based in the country format, and she has already seemingly won everything there is to win. Where’s her next challenge? And as she continues on her path toward world domination, what role (if any) will country music play in her future?

Will Lambert release “The House That Built Me” as a single?
She should. It’s the best Revolution has to offer, and almost inevitable Song of the Year material.

New music from Ashley Monroe?
One can always hope. Jason Aldean’s cut of “The Truth” (written by Monroe and Brett James) looks to be headed for the top of the charts, which should certainly help the cause.

Dierks Bentley bluegrass album?
The bluegrass tracks have long been the highlights of his regular albums, but how will he fare on the full-length bluegrass album rumored for 2010 release? Probably just fine, as long as he brings along well-chosen friends like The Grascals and The Del McCoury Band, as he has on past one-off bluegrass efforts.

Joe Diffie bluegrass album?
The ’90s mullet king (also, one of the most versatile pure singers out there) is returning to his roots with a bluegrass album. As long as it doesn’t include a banjo-fried version of “This Is Your Brain,” it should be good. Actually, come to think of it, some of Diffie’s novelty songs would make interesting bluegrass scorchers.

Bucky Covington bluegrass album?
I’m starting this rumor right now.

New music from The Steeldrivers?
I can’t wait to hear what else this blues-grass supergroup has in store for us. Between the soulful lead of Chris Stapleton, the harmony support of Tammy Rogers, fine picking all around, and the collective songwriting chops of the group’s members, it’s hard to imagine it being anything but excellent.

Sarah Buxton releases a whole album?
I’ll believe it when I see it.

Elizabeth Cook with Don Was. How great?
One of my favorite honky tonk women, Elizabeth Cook, is working with producer Don Was (The Excitement Plan, Closer to the Bone) on her next album, a pairing that has me very excited indeed. I heard some of the possible tracks at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass last October.

What are you looking forward to in 2010?

10. Dailey & Vincent – Brothers from Different Mothers

There’s harmony and then there’s harmony. As the title of their sophomore set suggests, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent have voices seemingly made to fit together, and the arrival of another great album so soon after their 2008 debut suggests that they’ve only just begun to reveal the full extent of their gifts to us.

9. Miranda Lambert – Revolution

There’s something about Miranda. It was evident on her debut album, and has only become more so with each succeeding release: She’s an artist. Not just a singer, not just a songwriter, certainly not just a star. An artist, hearkening back to the days when that implied a self-driven, self-aware pursuit of artistry, not just an album for sale on iTunes. What’s exciting isn’t that she’s getting better, which she is: it’s that she seems to be getting better for herself, and inviting us along for the ride almost as an afterthought. Revolution is her best set so far, held back only by an overbearing production style that dulls rather than sharpens Lambert’s edge.

8. Guy Clark – Somedays the Song Writes You

To be frank, a Clark album featuring “Hemingway’s Whiskey,” “The Guitar,” “Maybe I Can Paint Over That,” and “Somedays the Song Writes You” would probably end up in my Top 10 even if the rest of the tracks were dramatic readings of Jimmy Wayne lyrics. That’s how much I like those four songs. Thankfully, the rest of the album is pretty sturdy too, even as a number of subdued songs cause it to sag a bit through the middle.

7. John Fogerty – The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again

Don’t call it crossover. John Fogerty has a better intuitive grasp of country music than most of its stars, and his performances of classics like “Fallin’ Fallin’ Fallin’” and “I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)” radiate love and appreciation for country music that was hinted at (and sometimes made quite explicit) in his impressive body of work with Credence. Unlike his first Blue Ridge Rangers album from 1973, on which he played and sang every part, this one benefits from the live energy provided by a crack backing band.

6. Gene Watson – A Taste of the Truth

Nobody sings a hurting song better than Gene Watson, and Watson hasn’t found a set of hurting songs this good for quite some time. The cover image finds him apparently miscast as Underwear Boy in Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” video, but the songs are the antithesis of Swift’s rosy portrayal, with Watson positively miserable throughout. It’s for the best, as marital discord, self-deception, and heartbreak have seldom sounded this sweet.

5. Alecia Nugent – Hillbilly Goddess

Where bluegrass and acoustic country meet, there’s a good chance you’ll find a little slice of heaven. There’s also a good chance you’ll find Carl Jackson – the producer behind The Life of a Song (Joey + Rory), Highway of Dreams (Bradley Walker), the Louvin Brothers tribute album, and all three of Nugent’s albums to date, including this one. Three albums in, Jackson and Nugent have worked out all the kinks: she’s singing better than ever, the songs are of consistently high quality, the production frames everything perfectly. At its best – a stunning cover of the Buddy and Julie Miller gem “Don’t Tell Me” – it’s darn near unbeatable.

4. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies

Such is Justin Townes Earle’s gift that it seems like these songs have been stuck in my head for much longer than a year – in fact, it seems like they’ve been there all along. This guy is scary good, leaving me practically inarticulate in his wake. For the second year in a row. (The Good Life came in 5th in last year’s ranking, and I couldn’t do a very good job of explaining why back then, either.)

3. Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel – Willie and the Wheel

Somewhere along the way, popular music became less, well, musical – less like good bands, more like creative keystrokes. This western swing album from Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel is as long overdue as it is simply, joyously musical. No record released this year better encapsulates sheer musical celebration.

2. Gretchen Peters & Tom Russell – One to the Heart, One to the Head

Peters and Russell, two of the best country/folk singer-songwriters around, channel their energies into the related field of song-choosing, piecing together uniformly excellent songs from disparate sources so seamlessly that the resulting Southwestern theme album drops nary a hint of its scattered origins. It feels entirely whole, entirely new. As singers, the two artists play off of each other brilliantly, with Peters in particular delivering some of her most stirring vocals to date. This one didn’t attract anywhere near the critical or popular attention it deserved.

1. Todd Snider – The Excitement Plan

A controversial pick for top album of the year? Only to those who mistake Snider’s loosey-goosey style for incompetence and underestimate the difficulty of putting together an album as simultaneously snarky, profound, wry, and heartfelt as this. It’s a delicate balance that few (hero Prine among them) have truly mastered. Every time Snider puts out an album, I think he’s at the peak of his powers. Then he outdoes himself again. The Excitement Plan is one of his sharpest, most dynamic sets yet, and one I’ll be listening to for years to come.

20. George Strait – Twang

Not the best Strait album (not even the best recent Strait album), but a special one in his catalog for the twists introduced – he does some writing, sings in Spanish, and sings an old “El Paso” style story song written by his son – and the new life they bring to what is by now a very old and familiar formula. Read my review here.

19. Newfound Road – Same Old Place

He may be fronting a crack bluegrass band, but baritone Tim Shelton can very obviously wrap his pipes around any sort of material you throw at him. His accomplished performances here – which sometimes suggest Monroe and Haggard in equal measure – are a pleasure to behold, elevating an otherwise solid contemporary bluegrass outing into the company of the very best 2009 had to offer.

18. Holly Williams – Here With Me

Sometimes AC, sometimes country, always smart and believable. It’s like a character study of a tough-minded woman navigating complications of love and legacy. Songs like “Mama” and “Three Days in Bed” rank among the best of 2009 in any genre, and make up for occasional weak spots elsewhere.

17. Eric Church – Carolina

If you can get past Church’s tough guy shtick, you’ll discover some real talent. As much as I like pointing out the irony of poseur Church questioning other people’s cred on “Lotta Boot Left to Fill,” there’s little question that the guy can write and deliver a fine country song when he gets out of his own way. This is one of the records I’ve come back to the most over the course of the year, ever since I reviewed it for The 9513 back in March.

16. Jason Eady – When the Money’s All Gone

The last discovery to make it into my Top 20, it leapfrogged some of the more established competition with an addictive, tuneful country-gospel-blues fusion and Eady’s hypnotic manner of storytelling. This one’s still growing on me, so I suspect it might have ranked even higher if I had picked up on it earlier.

15. J.B. Beverley & the Wayward Drifters – Watch America Roll By

Songs about getting the blues from no-good women, hitting the road (or hopping a freight), and successfully outrunning everything but your own damn pride have seldom sounded as good – or as alive – as they do in the capable hands of Virginia-based honky tonk outfit J.B. Beverley and the Wayward Drifters. Who says you can’t have new fun with old subject matter? Read my The 9513 review here.

14. Sara Watkins – Sara Watkins

Like her earlier work with Nickel Creek, Sara Watkins’ solo debut is a smartly hybrid affair, only with more classic country influence and less experimental noodling than you might expect. The musicianship is great and the songs cover an intriguing range, from Tom Waits’ “Pony” to Jimmie Rodgers’ “Any Old Time,” but the real star is that voice, tough and soft and gritty and ethereal in all the right ways.

13. Devil Makes Three – Do Wrong Right

This old-time acoustic party band is unstoppable when the tempo is up, still pretty darn good when the tempo is down. After a couple studio efforts that lacked the spark of their live shows, this feels like their breakthrough album. It didn’t get the attention it deserved, but I’m still listening. I raved about it in this post.

12. Patty Loveless – Mountain Soul II

A delightful album that never quite manages to overcome its ‘sequel stank’ and come into its own as a crowning moment in Loveless’ storied catalog. A completely worthwhile but ultimately non-essential continuation of her groundbreaking 2001 album, I wanted to rate it higher but couldn’t justify the move. Sorry, Patty.

11. Kris Kristofferson – Closer to the Bone

Like Cash before him, Kristofferson is the voice of age and wisdom, working on his own late career resurgence with a worthy successor to 2006′s This Old Road. He may not sing pretty, but he sings true, imbuing these songs with every ounce of his humanity. If you want to know what beats in the heart of Kristofferson, this is it. He’s writing and singing so intimately as to obliterate the barrier between man and music – closer to the bone, indeed.

There were certainly some surprising twists and turns along the way in this head-to-head countdown extravaganza. Now that the data is all in, we can compare and contrast a bit more systematically.

First, a chart of the 39 albums that appeared on both lists. They’re ranked by straight addition (CU rank + 9513 rank), may the lowest sum win. Remember that we’re going on each site’s overall list (i.e. the published version). Calculating from the personal rankings by all contributors involved would give a different result, since The 9513′s overall rank was created from twice as many personal lists.

(Note: Don’t be shy about correcting any transcription errors you see. This post was a bear to type up, so it’s quite possible that I messed up a couple times along the way. Extra sets of eyes are helpful.)

There were 61 albums on each list that didn’t appear on the other, making for a grand total of 161 albums covered between both lists. Here are the 20 highest-ranked unique albums from each site:

Top Unique Country Universe Albums
6. Old Crow Medicine Show – Old Crow Medicine Show
7. Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man
11. Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?
13. Shania Twain – Up!
14. Dwight Yoakam – Blame the Vain
15. The Be Good Tanyas – Blue Horse
17. Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell – Begonias
18. Bill Chambers – Sleeping With the Blues
20. Nickel Creek – This Side
21. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends – Furnace Room Lullaby
22. Keith Urban – Be Here
23. Sugarland – Love on the Inside
24. Randy Travis – Worship and Faith
27. Peter Cooper – Mission Door
28. Patty Loveless – Dreamin’ My Dreams
31. Keith Urban – Golden Road
32. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
36. Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott – Real Time
37. Carrie Underwood – Some Hearts
40. Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying

Top Unique The 9513 Albums
13. Johnny Cash – American V: A Hundred Highways
15. Dailey & Vincent – Dailey & Vincent
20. Willie Nelson – You Don’t Know Me: Songs of Cindy Walker
22. Porter Wagoner – Wagonmaster
23. Brad Paisley – Mud on the Tires
24. Alan Jackson – Drive
25. Hayes Carll – Trouble in Mind
28. Alan Jackson – Precious Memories
29. Billy Joe Shaver – Everybody’s Brother
30. Miranda Lambert – Revolution
31. Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard – Last of the Breed
32. Justin Townes Earle – The Good Life
33. Joey + Rory – The Life of a Song
36. Randy Travis – Around the Bend
38. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day
39. Gene Watson – A Taste of the Truth
40. Gary Allan – Alright Guy
41. Patty Loveless – On Your Way Home
44. Zac Brown Band – The Foundation
45. The Steeldrivers – The Steeldrivers

The agreement on where particular albums should fall within the Top 100 was sometimes surprising – even when there wasn’t much consensus on what other albums should surround them.

Consensus (Cases In Which Rankings Were <6 Apart)
Dixie Chicks – Home (4-1)
Gary Allan – Tough All Over (7-3)
Kathy Mattea – Coal (9-5)
Patty Loveless – Mountain Soul (6-10)
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant – Raising Sand (27-26)
Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk (35-34)
Ashley Monroe – Satisfied (42-39)
Bruce Robison – Country Sunshine (65-60)
Ralph Stanley II – This One Is Two (81-84)
Dwight Yoakam – Population Me (95-91)

At other times, there was agreement that a particular album should be in the Top 100, but widely divergent ideas about where it should fall within that range. Here are some of the most extreme cases.

Disagreement (Cases In Which Rankings Were >40 Apart)
Jamey Johnson – That Lonesome Song (1-48)
Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around (3-49)
Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel – Willie and the Wheel (10-57)
Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way (58-12)
Lee Ann Womack – Call Me Crazy (14-66)
Various Artists – Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers (18-83)
Miranda Lambert – Kerosene (47-90)
Faith Hill – Fireflies (99-47)
Dolly Parton – Halos and Horns (54-97)

It’s hard enough to land one album in the Top 100 of the Decade. When you manage multiple entries on two separate lists, you’re clearly doing something right.

Artists With Multiple Entries on Both Lists
Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley, Dixie Chicks, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Lee Ann Womack, Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill (incl. Notorious Cherry Bombs)

Arguably, the place where the two lists most differentiate themselves is in the artists with multiple entries on one list and none on the other. You might call these site favorites.

Artists With Multiple Entries on Country Universe, None on The 9513
Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Keith Urban, Nickel Creek

Artists With Multiple Entries on The 9513, None on Country Universe
Billy Joe Shaver, Dale Watson, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Taylor Swift

Finally, I couldn’t help but notice…

Artists With No Entries on Either List
Chuck Wicks, Jimmy Wayne, Richie McDonald

Thanks to The 9513 and Country Universe for two excellent lists.