Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.
Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the albu
If Nashville songstress Tristen was proud to ready the stage for an outfit as cultivated as Bowerbirds at the Exit/In last night, by the time the night was through the North Carolina trio were likely glad to have such a worthy opener. Both acts carry in their respective sounds a heavy dose of bright-eyed youthfulness that's both a reflection of the music they make--one a sweet-natured offshoot of girl-punk meets pop country, the other dealing in lush autumnal acoustics--and the relatively
If you're one of the few people who actually paid for records in 2009, then you likely paid for them at Grimey's New & Preloved Music--Nashville's favorite record shop. If there's one group of geeks in this town who trump us with their music knowledge, then it's easily the staff at this beloved local establishment. Hell, Doyle Davis probably knows more about Guided by Voices than Mr. Miyagi knows about karate--Bee Thousand is the crane kick of indie-rock, BTW. This morning, Grimey's "indi
