Top 10 NMFOF albums of 2016
The end of one year and the beginning of the other is not necessarily something to be celebrated for those of us in the newmusicforoldfolks.com target demographic, but here we are. Prince, David Bowie, Sharon Jones, Leon Russell, Glenn Frey and many others died in the last 12 months. I imagine this will continue to happen for the foreseeable future — 2016 was not a great year to be an aging musician.
All the news, however, was not bad. There was a lot of good music produced in 2016. Much of that music was right in our wheelhouse. Proving that we’re not all only interested in Classic Rock, here’s the Top 10 newmusicforoldfolks.com albums of 2016.
1: American Band, Drive-By Truckers — The Truckers have always been a political band, but in a micro sense. They commented on issues such as AIDS, the war in Iraq and racial politics in the American South by telling personal stories and weaving narratives about individuals, real and imagined. This time DBT took a much more macro approach, and some of the band’s fans weren’t happy. Hailing for Alabama, the band left little room for interpretation in their lyrics this time.
If you say it wasn't racial
When they shot him in his tracks
Well I guess that means that you ain't black
It means that you ain't black
I mean Barack Obama won
And you can choose where to eat
But you don't see too many white kids
Lying bleeding on the street
Songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley just keep churning out great songs and putting them on great albums. American Band might be their best.
2: Miss Sharon Jones! Original Motion Picture Soundtrack — Sharon Jones and her band, The Dap-Kings, were at the forefront of the current revival of Soul music. As you’ll notice as this list progresses, there are a number of bands out right now playing music that Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett would be proud of. Jones died this year when the cancer she’d battled recently returned. Her first battle with the disease was the subject of a documentary Miss Sharon Jones! Jones will be missed, but she showed the power of Soul and many of those when inspired have picked up the ball and are running with it.
3: Let Me Get By, Tedeschi Trucks Band — Before the married couple of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks merged their bands a few years back, each was a formidable artist. But together they've got something special. Derek and Susan have put together a band that tours almost constantly and puts on a live show few outfits can match. (Think Sly & The Family Stone meets the Allman Brothers with a little Mad Dogs & Englishmen thrown in.) The band’s newest studio effort, Let Me Get By, has a fresh batch of songs the band can expand on stage. But the songs are more than just loosely constructed jams written around Derek’s guitar solos. “Don’t Know What It Means” may be my favorite song of the year.
4: The Marcus King Band, The Marcus King Band — The second album for prodigy Marcus King is produced by Warren Haynes, and the 20-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist couldn’t ask for a better mentor. Haynes and Derek Trucks each trade licks with King on one track on the album, but the highlight are the songs themselves. King writes with a maturity beyond his years. There are heartbreaks and feelings you’re sure he hasn’t experienced at 20, but the songs aren’t forced and the emotions seem genuine. It’s already very good and it’s only going to get better.
5: Burn Something Beautiful, Alejandro Escovedo — Escovedo is one of the best-kept secrets in American music. His newest effort, Burn Something Beautiful, like everything he’s done since moving to Austin, Texas, is wonderful. One of the founding members of The Nuns, Escovedo has settled into a groove making thoughtful music with just enough edge that you can see the Bay Area punk shining through.
6: Mudcrutch 2, Mudcrutch — Tom Petty and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell reformed their original band a few years back and this is the second album by Mudcrutch. It’s a little looser than recent TP offerings and bandmates even take turns at lead vocals when they’ve written songs. Give this one a couple of listens; it’ll grow on you. The first effort from Mudcrutch is excellent as well.
7: Promised Land or Bust, Moreland & Arebuckle — Drums, guitar and harmonica, and the sound is huge. It’s Blues with Americana and Soul mixed in and Promised Land or Bust will lift you out of your seat. I saw Moreland & Arbuckle at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas this year and they tore the roof of the joint. They certainly weren’t the only ones that did. But I dare you to sit still through “Mean and Evil.”
8: The Westerner, John Doe — For those that know John Doe as the lead singer for X, you won’t hear “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” here. The Westerner is much mellower and introspective than the in-your-face LA punk band that John Doe fronts. But put this one on Sunday morning and get lost in some beautiful tunes. The last song on the album, “Rising Sun,” sounds almost like Jim Morrison if he’d lived into his 50s. Check this one out.
9: From the Root to the Fruit, Nick Moss Band — Nick Moss & The Flip Tops produced one of the best blues albums of the 2000s with a double album Play it ’til Tomorrow. Moss’s new outfit, the Nick Moss Band, has done it again with From the Root to the Fruit. Michael Ledbetter is a more polished singer than Moss, but it’s still Nick’s guitar that makes this band go. This is as good a Blues guitar player as there going right now. If you have a chance to see the Nick Moss Band live, don’t miss it.
10: The Royal Gospel, Royal Southern Brotherhood — Cyril Neville’s Royal Southern Brotherhood has gone through some personnel changes since it was formed in 2012. Devon Allman and Mike Zito were the original guitar players and they shared singing with Neville. Both have left for other projects and Bart Walker and Tyrone Vaughan are now driving the Southern Rock, Blues, Soul sound. But it’s Cyril Neville that makes this band special. There’s nothing Cyril can’t sing and make funky.
A Dozen More: Save Our Soul 2, Marc Broussard; Foul Play, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds; Sea of Noise, St. Paul & The Broken Bones; Flower Box, Anders Osborne; Blues of Desperation, Joe Bonamossa; A Little Something More From Nathaniel Ratecliffe & The Night Sweats; Rest in Chaos, Hard Working Americans; The Big Sound of Little Ed & The Blues Imperials; Something Real, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real; Going Down in History, Waco Brothers; Time to Roll, Monkey Junk; Matters of the Heart, Eric Lindell.
