Top 10 Top Picks - Kathy Coleman"s Top 10 Albums for 2005
Each year, country music puts out some outstanding albums. AboutCountry staff writer Jolene Downs gives us her choices for the Top 10 Albums for 2005.
1. Robbie Fulks - Georgia Hard
It's hard to come up with words to describe a guy that uses them so damned well as Robbie Fulks does. Not only his lyrics, but his satirical essays and random thoughts and general approach to the world makes me feel, as an author, thoroughly inadequate to come up with a way to brilliantly impart the idea that this guy's music is breathtakingly good. So I guess I'll keep it simple. Buy this disc. It's really good.More »2. Dave Insley - Call Me Lonesome
Arizona country music isn't as wide and well-known as Texas country, but we might see that change as people start to learn Dave Insley's name. With this, his first solo album, folks can get a taste of Dave's warm, homey baritone, his slick, tongue-in-cheek lyric writing, and his haunting, purely Western melodies and they may, like me, come away hungry for more.More »3. Various Artists - A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver - Live
Back in August of '04 I got some newsletters announcing this concert in Austin, and I thought about how much I'd like to go, but figured at the time I just couldn't afford it. Now that I've heard the CD, I realize I should have mortgaged the house. Just this brief sampling demonstrates that this must have been one of the best concerts of all time. You got some of the greatest names in Americana singing Billy Joe Shaver songs and songs he inspired. You just can't get much better than that.More »4. Merle Haggard - Chicago Wind
Merle Haggard's triumphant return to his old label, Capitol Records, continues with a staggeringly good brand-new disc, proving that Mighty Merle continues to stand as the one and only Living Legend of Country Music, the King of the Honky-Tonk, and the straight-speaking, uncompromising, plain-speaking man of the people he's always been.More »5. Billy Joe Shaver - The Real Deal
Billy Joe Shaver is the Grand Poet Laureate of country music, with some of the finest and most poignant songs ever penned to his credit. He does not fail to deliver again, with sixteen tracks and a bonus recording of "Feliz Navidad" (with Flaco Jimenez). Shaver's voice wavers a little, but he's back on his feet again and always ready, as he says, to "Try and Try Again."More »6. Marty Stuart - Badlands
In this era of sound-byte hit songs and bottom-line corporate demands for same, it's rare that an artist can present a full album on a single, solid theme where all the songs fit together in perfect harmony. Marty Stuart has done it once before, with the extraordinary 1999 release, "The Pilgrim." Now he does it again, with the rich, poignant "Badlands," a breathtaking tribute to the American Indian, specifically the plains Indians of the Dakota Badlands.More »7. Rodney Crowell - The Outsider
Rodney Crowell is probably one of the finest singer/songwriters in Americana and country music. He's related by marriage into the greatest country music dynasty of all time (he was married to Rosanne Cash), and he's written songs for everyone from Waylon Jennings to Tim McGraw, but above all else, his songs have to them an ethereal, otherworld quality that makes them transcend mere genre boundaries and reach into the very depth of the soul.More »8. Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted
I'm just about willing to grant Brad Paisley the crown as today's king of feel-good real country music. His songs are chipper, cheerful, fun to listen to, and always so very true to the heart of country music you cannot argue there's any lack of grit. This stuff is so country it's out in the field chewing on a straw. Not to say he can't and doesn't touch the heart. Brad's new disc is just as warm and wonderful as his first ones were: fun, sweet, and real.More »9. Cross Canadian Ragweed - Garage
"Garage" feels like Cross Canadian Ragweed has reached and in some ways even surpassed the amazing potential they've displayed since their independent label days.More »10. Curt Kirkwood - Snow
Every once in a great while an album comes along that has the potential to be truly significant to the musical landscape. "Snow," I believe, could be one of them. Richly drawn modern Americana with as much power as a "Blood on the Tracks" and as much skill as a "Wanted: The Outlaws," Kirkwood's exquisitely elegant songs touch the mind, the heart, and the spiritMore »
Source...