I love this time of year when the best of lists start coming out, and I catch albums that I might have missed. Anyway, I thought this was a cool list which had a few albums on it that I hadn't seen elsewhere. From the Bitter Southerner (which is a great site, if you don't follow them already).

LINK

The List:
#25: Shakey Graves: And the War Came
#24: Curtis Harding: Soul Power
#23: Fire Mountain: All Dies Down
#22: Amy Ray: Goodnight Tender
#21: St. Paul and the Broken Bones: Half the City
#20: Caleb Caudle: Pain Another Layer on my Heart
#19: Hundred Waters: The Moon Rang Like a Bell
#18: Rich Gang: Tha Tour Part 1
#17: Benjamin Booker: Benjamin Booker
#16: Kelsey Waldon: The Gold Mine
#15: Justin Townes Earle: Single Mothers
#14: Jessica Lea Mayfield: Make my Head Sing
#13: Hurray for the Riff Raff: Small Town Heroes
#12: Lucinda Williams: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
#11: Big K.R.I.T.: Cadilactica
#10: Bass Drum of Death: Rip This
#09: Spoon: They Want My Soul
#08: Old 97's: Most Messed Up
#07: Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness of Dancers
#06: Centro-matic: Take Pride in your Long Odds
#05: Drive-By Truckers: English Oceans
#04: Wara from the NBHD: Kidnapped
#03: Parchman Farm: Photographs & Field Recordings, 1947-1959
#02: Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires: Dereconstructed
#01: Tie between: Sturgill Simpson and Run the Jewels

One glaring omission, imo, is the Pallbearer album... but they clearly don't listen to metal.. so it's fogiveable.

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Posted by CaptainPanic

18.44311,-64.764021

Member since Sep 2011

25582 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 11:51 am to hogfly

quote:
Shakey Graves

really liked this guy at M+W and Hangout. Puts on a really good show. The M+W show was the most packed out I had ever seen the venue. We ended up hanging out with him for a bit during the TonTons at Hangout and he was a pretty cool dude.

quote:
St. Paul & The Broken Bones

these guys are a really fun show to see as well

quote:
Big K.R.I.T.: Cadilactica

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Posted by hogfly

Fayetteville, AR

Member since May 2014

4640 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 11:54 am to CaptainPanic

Evidently Shakey has been playing Austin festivals and stuff for years, like in the parking lots and campgrounds. He's truly "grass roots" in that he just came up by playing around people's campsites, then started getting asked to actually play on stage, and now he's making it big. So that doesn't surprise me that he's down to earth and cool.

I've been listening to that Big KRIT album at the gym a LOT lately. Also love that Wara from the NBHD album, though it's not really a banger.. more on the smart jazz side of hip hop.

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Posted by hogfly

Fayetteville, AR

Member since May 2014

4640 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 12:00 pm to CaptainPanic

I also just realized I had solid opportunities to see 9 bands on this list this year.

I only saw three:

St. Paul, Lucinda, and Hurray for the RiffRaff.

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Posted by monsterballads

Make LSU Great Again

Member since Jun 2013

29266 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 12:14 pm to hogfly

quote:
#15: Justin Townes Earle: Single Mothers
#13: Hurray for the Riff Raff: Small Town Heroes
#08: Old 97's: Most Messed Up
#05: Drive-By Truckers: English Oceans

I didn't care for any of these albums, and I was really looking forward to the old 97's one.
the justin townes earle record is bland and boring

one glaring omission is the cory branan "no hit wonder" album

the only you
LINK

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Posted by wilceaux

Austin, TX

Member since Apr 2004

12405 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 4:45 pm to hogfly

I have a hard time calling any Spoon record a "southern album", despite them being from Texas. This is a really good list though.

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Posted by monsterballads

Make LSU Great Again

Member since Jun 2013

29266 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 5:11 pm to wilceaux

lee bains album RIPS

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Posted by massiveattack

CharLIT/Chapel Chill

Member since Oct 2010

11554 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 6:19 pm to hogfly

Saw him on this recent tour with a drummer and another guitar player and it was awesome

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Posted by hogfly

Fayetteville, AR

Member since May 2014

4640 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 6:30 pm to monsterballads

quote:
I didn't care for any of these albums, and I was really looking forward to the old 97's one.
the justin townes earle record is bland and boring

I totally agree. I felt like those inclusions were a sort of, "This semi famous person who is associated with Southern music released an album, so we have to include them on the list."

Hurray for the Riff Raff is interesting. I really feel like they became critic darlings as much because of their image/story as anything. The flipping the murder ballad on its head with "The Body Electric" was a huge hit with critics. Also, if you've ever seen them live, the lead singer looks like a really cute New Orleans street kid who started a band, and they have a bunch of androgynous musicians as well. I can see how, as they toured up through the East Coast, they'd become critical darlings just on their band image. "Oh look. Crazy southerners with lesbians in the band!"

They were good live, but they didn't blow me away. I wanted to love the album, but it hasn't ever made it into heavy rotation for me.

This post was edited on 12/13/14 at 6:31 pm

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Posted by monsterballads

Make LSU Great Again

Member since Jun 2013

29266 posts

Posted on 12/13/14 at 8:26 pm to hogfly

Saw them open for shovels and rope. Only watched like 20 minutes of their set. Just didn't interest me at all. Wish I could get into them but I just can't.

And yeah I totally agree with the whole "put them on the list so it looks cool" thing. I don't think these critics actually listen to some of these records the whole way through.

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Posted by Pettifogger