Recommendations | Country California

Prime Cuts: February 2011

March 8, 2011 by C.M. Wilcox 3 Comments

We're back with some of the best tracks of February, all but one of which appeared on new albums released within the month. Ya Ain't Crazy Henny Penny dates back to last year, but it's Canadian, so taking into account the exchange rate... Here are the best songs of February 2011. Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle - "Unwed Fathers" from We Still Love Our Country Everyone from Dry Branch Fire Squad to Tammy Wynette has covered it, but I think Ben Kyle's sensitive reading (with Rodriguez's … [Read more...]

Prime Cuts: January 2011

February 1, 2011 by C.M. Wilcox 6 Comments

This is the debut of a new series designed to spotlight some of the best tracks released in a given calendar month. The focus will generally be non-singles on new albums released within the month, but I reserve the right to include singles or any newish indie stuff that I discovered within the month and think you might not have heard about yet. I'm giving myself a little extra leeway with the indie albums because they don't get the same promotional push on release day, so they're harder to … [Read more...]

Underloved Albums of 2010

January 4, 2011 by C.M. Wilcox 8 Comments

You'll have to forgive me one last bit of 2010 wrap-up. As I compiled my year-end lists for The 9513 and the Nashville Scene, I promised myself I'd do a separate 'underloved' list to sweep up some of the ones that got left behind - albums I couldn't honestly rank in my Top 10 because of the stiff competition, but that I felt tempted to include anyway to make a point about their unjustly overlooked quality. I think this deal struck with myself resulted in a more honest overall list, free of … [Read more...]

Don’t Forget the Soundtracks

November 9, 2010 by C.M. Wilcox 4 Comments

As you look back on the year in country music these next couple months, don't overlook soundtracks. By my count, there have been three worthy country-centric soundtracks released this year, spanning outlaw, bluegrass, and pop-country styles. Here's a bit about each, including essential tracks if you want to cherry-pick: Crazy Heart (January 19) If you know about only one of these soundtracks, this is the one. Jeff Bridges' turn as Bad Blake won him his first Academy Award for Best Actor, … [Read more...]

Best Country Albums of 2010: Still in Progress

October 13, 2010 by C.M. Wilcox 4 Comments

Back at the beginning of July, I posted a rough halfway list of the Best Country Albums of 2010, featuring my favorite 20 albums at that point. Plenty has changed since then, so here's an unranked list of albums not on the first list that I've been listening to quite a bit over the past few months. Some from the first half of the year that I overlooked the first time around, some released since then... all with a good or decent shot of slipping into the Top 20. Some will be there for sure. … [Read more...]

Ronnie Fauss Is Back with Mulligan

September 1, 2010 by C.M. Wilcox 1 Comment

Dallas singer-songwriter Ronnie Fauss, who was nice enough to grace us with a list of some of his favorite albums last November, recently released a six-song EP titled Mulligan that's a nice evolution of the sound on last year's New Songs for the Old Frontier. Tracks like "To Ease My Mind" and "Just Another Tuesday" find Fauss adding a little heartland rock kick to his literate lyrics, a marriage that leaves him sounding somewhat like Oregon artist Kasey Anderson. Not a bad thing. In more … [Read more...]

Best Country Albums of 2010: Progress Report

July 1, 2010 by C.M. Wilcox 8 Comments

Trailer posted his halfway list at Farce the Music, so I figured I might as well start doing some of the groundwork for my own. The dirty secret of year-end lists is that they're never done; at some point, you just get sick enough of shuffling things around that you say "good enough" and move on. That said, here's my current working list of the Top 20 Country Albums of 2010. It's roughly organized from top to bottom, but I intentionally left off numerical rankings because the individual … [Read more...]