No Depression’s Top 20 and Top 50

Like a monk pointing to the moon, No Depression’s recent listing of the top 20 albums of the decade reads like an Americana fan’s Honey Moon dream (thanks, to Rennie and Brett Sparks for this album and analogy) or way-gone fantasy music festival. With the likes of Gillian Welch, Wilco x’s 3, Alejandro Escovedo, Laura Veirs, Slaid Cleaves, Julie and Buddy Miller, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Broken Family Band, it’s all good. What’s more, the top 50 of 2009 is even more stunning, with only the best-of-the-best making the cut: Joe Henry, DBT (if Patterson Hood used emoticons, it wouldn’t be pretty), Handsome Family, Guy Clark, yes–Gurf Morlix, Wayne the Train, Deer Tick, Todd Snider, Monsters of Folk, and the list goes on and on. Without question, this really puts discussions around “the best music and albums” into a world of much needed crystal-clear focus and relevant currency… Wow, it’s like starring into a lonely Texas plains campfire or an early morning amber, chilly, and fore-lone fall Vermont landscape… http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2342817:BlogPost:101127&commentId=2342817:Comment:116466&xg_source=activity

1. Gillian Welch- Time (the Revelator) (buy)
2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (buy)
3. Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South (buy)
4. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (buy)
5. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising (buy)
6. Mary Gauthier – Mercy Now (buy)
7. Alejandro Escovedo – A Man Under The Influence (buy)
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Soundtrack) (buy)
9. Radiohead – Hail To The Thief (buy)
10. Broken Family Band – Welcome Home Loser (buy)
11. Patty Griffin – 1000 Kisses (buy)
12. Bob Dylan – Love & Theft (buy)
13. Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk (buy)
14. Buddy Miller – Universal United House of Prayer (buy)
15. Laura Veirs – Triumphs and Travails Of Orphan Mae (buy)
16. Ray Wylie Hubbard – Growl (buy)
17. Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away (buy)
18. Thad Cockrell & Caitlin Cary – Begonias (buy)
19. Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (buy)
20. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky (buy)