Look, Tiger is holding The Avett brother's trophy for them...

In year’s past, I haven’t done much a personal “Best-Of” list at year’s end. I have left that up to others, mainly due to the stress level inherent with such a task. This year, I contributed a list to multiple outlets, so I figure I would share my ballot with you here. What you see below is really a big group of my favorite albums, versus an actual list of albums I think are better than other albums. Over the course of the year, I listen to a few hundred records, easily. Rarely a day goes by where I don’t pop in a new disc that may or may not see some “ink” on this blog. From that large number of records, I actually enjoyed well over 100 of them, I imagine.

The sad fact of the matter, for many reasons, there were many records I liked that I never found the time to actually say much about here on The Gobblers Knob or over on Twangville. I said all that to say this. These 25 albums could’ve easily been higher or lower than they are here. On different days, I feel like certain choices were wrong, but this is what I’m going with…for now, at least.

1.  Avett Brothers – I and Love and You: Indie darling’s go big-time with major label and super-producer. The tight melodies and trademark, emotionally charged and poetic writing prove there was nothing to worry about.

2.  Phosphorescent - To Willie: Every tribute/covers album wants to be this one when they grow up. Matthew Houck made Willie’s songs his own while keeping the raw, real vibe intact.

Here are the rest of my favorites for the year (basically 3a – 3x)…

3.  Heartless Bastards – The Mountain
4.  Miranda Lambert – Revolution
5.  Allen Thompson – 26 years
6.  Telegraph Canyon – The Tide & The Current
7.  Deer Tick - Born on Flag Day
8.  Buddy & Julie Miller – Written in Chalk
9.  Ryan Bingham – Roadhouse Sun
10. Gina Villalobos – Days on Their Side
11.  Band of Heathens – One Foot in the Ether
12.  The Takers – Taker Easy
13.  Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
14.  Roman Candle – Oh Tall Tree In the Ear
15.  The O’s – We are The O’s
16.  Sons of Bill – One Town Away
17.  Drive by Truckers – The Fine Print
18.  The Gourds – Haymaker!
19.  Scott Warren – Quick Fix Bandage
20.  Patterson Hood - Murdering Oscar
21.   Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day
22.   Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
23.   Danny Balis - Too Much Living
24.   Chad Price – Smile Sweet Face
25.   Dawes – North Hills

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With several great albums that draw heavily on southern-rock swagger having been released by bands such as Drive By Truckers and Lucero recently, I figured I was fried for a while when it came to these types of sounds. With that said, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself enjoying the new record by North Carolina’s Possum Jenkins (Official / Myspace).

Collection of Bad Habits, their 3rd album, ably displays what the band calls their “Carolinacana” sound. From what I gather, especially from “Reidsville” and “Don’t Tell Me”, that sound leans more heavily on the blues than the aforementioned bands that also crank the amps to 11. As a result, a comparison to the genre-bending Band of Heathens is likely more appropriate in this case. My favorite tracks are the ones that feature a healthy dose of harmonica, organ and banjo within the same track, like “Ramble Still” and “Burn these Leaves”. When trying to succeed at too many things at once, it’s easy for a band to not succeed at anything. Possum Jenkins maintains their focus and delivers to us a hearty gem. 

LISTEN: Possum Jenkins – “Burn These Leaves”

A crappy phone pic of Jason Isbell being awesome and stuff...

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of attending the 4th annual Red Dirt Round-Up hosted by Cross Canadian Ragweed in the Ft. Worth Stockyards (right next to Billy Bob’s). It was a fantastic time, and as usual, it made for some great people watching. Below are some thoughts:

• Sorry, I have tried. I just don’t get Johnny Cooper. In Texas, I am seemingly out-numbered on this. I will say that he’s clearly got some talent and his band seems to have talent as well. That said, between his insistence upon beat-boxing (this happened on at least 2 songs) and his “Hey, I’m trying to sound like a 67 year old black man, even though I just exited the akward pubescent stage of my life” between-song banter, I just couldn’t warm up to him. That makes the second or third time I have seen him live and have felt the same way each time. Oh well.

• Boots are the new sandals. Male, female, new, old, hot or really hot. I was again out-numbered when it came to my footwear. 

• Stephanie Briggs, the songstress from Oklahoma, tore it up in the mid-afternoon sun. With a shock of blue hair, Briggs didn’t let the fact that Cody Canada was playing lead guitar for her keep her from commanding the stage. Many of her songs were piano driven rock with a certain punk attitude. Her early, stellar performance set the pace for what would be a few more high-caliber performance on the festival’s “second stage”.

• The Band of Heathens showed why they are considered “emerging” by the AMA. Their effortless, expert mix of gospel, folk, rock and blues enraptured the crowd as they showcased a couple of new songs while mainly focusing on material from their self-titled debut. The show closer, “Don’t Call on Me” practically brought down the stage as a jam erupted where Ed Jurdi went nuts on the harmonica and Gordy Quist jumped on the drum kit to bang on the cymbals with his hand. Awesome.

• 100 degree heat + Beer +  random country boy without his shirt + no sense of pacing = medical cart followed quickly by police cart. Unlike other events in the past, I am not talking about myself here, for once.

• Charlie Robison. Great. As. Usual. Almost everyone on that bill likely wants to be Robison when they grow up.

• Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit was tremendous as his band mixed tracks from both of his post-DBT albums with a few of his trademark Drive By Truckers tunes. When they closed the set with “Never Gonna Change”, I had a hard time determining if I was glad that Isbell is on his own now and doing his own thing or if I was bummed that his contributions to one of my favorite bands will not be a part of their mix any longer.

• To the D.J. that introduced Isbell to the crowd, it’s I-S-B-E-L-L, not Is-A-Bell…geesh. What does this guy have to do to have his name pronounced correctly? Same goes to the D.J. that introduced Charlie Robison. There isn’t an “n” in his last name…wow.

• Lucero was pretty good. They played a song or two from their upcoming major label release. “Hey Darlin’, Do You Gamble” was particularly interesting and well-done. Sound issues hampered the experience during their set, but nothing could deny the energy of  their live rendition of “Joining The Army”. I spoke to Ben Nichols before their set, and he was pretty blown away by the size of the festival. Lucero is hitting the road with Ragweed soon, and Nichols was eager to get to know the guys better. 

I ended up skipping out after Lucero, I’ll admit. I missed Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers Band and the friggin’ Wallflowers, not to mention the headliners. Missing those sets could’ve been really painful had I not caught such great performances earlier in the day. Being introduced to a talent like Briggs, catching my first Isbell show and being reminded why I dig Band of Heathens, Charlie Robison and Lucero so much makes for a great day of music, regardless of who might have played later that night.

New album from The Black Crowes is much more than just an album...

Here’s another load of goodies from the E-Mail bag of love. Each of these items are things that popped into my inbox and I just new I had to get them to you without waiting for some greater, grander “post” to come to mind. In the spirit of the 40th anny of Woodstock over the weekend, here’s to peace, love and free & legal MP3′s…

• A band that is still putting out solid and catchy 90′s flavored rock, Sister Hazel, has a new album coming out soon. Here’s a stream for “Take a Bow”, from their upcoming release, Release.

• A band that is putting out solid, groovy 70′s flavored rock,The Black Crowes, have a new double album (sort of) coming soon. Chris Robinson found inspiration in the bosom of Woodstock and is letting us get a taste with an MP3 of “I Aint Hiding”. This is but one song of the lengthy collection that is Before the Frost… and …Until The Freeze. Head to their site for details on how you can get the both collections.

• Indie Rockers, Port O’Brien are also of a love0-all, serve-all mindset as they let us dig on an MP3 of “My Will Is Good” from their upcoming album, Threadbare.

• Allow me to point yourself into the direction of a higher consciousness in the form a new song from The superb Band of Heathens. “L.A. County Blues” will be on their upcoming album, One Foot in the Ether. Go to their website and clcik on the track in their music-player on the right hand of the screen for the sneak-preview love.

• Ft. Worth TX’s Telegraph Canyon is a pleasing and quirky mix of folk, indie and all around goodness. Go here to stream their album, The Tide and The Current. For fans of Band of Horses, you’ll dig this, especially if you have ever wished that B.o.H sounded a bit more raw.

• Lastly, my inbox was beyond happy to host the video below, sent to me by Those Darlins.