The top 10 roots releases of 2014
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
They bring the mud, greed, drink, lust, high times and misery of that epoch to life.
1 Eric Brace & Karl Staub
Hangtown Dancehall | (Red Beet)
With all the drama of a black and white West-ern, Hangtown Dancehall is a California Gold Rush story built on the folk song “Sweet Betsy from Pike.” The collaborating musicians are an Americana A-list, among them Kelly Willis, Jason Ringenberg, Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien. They bring the mud, greed, drink, lust, high times and misery of that epoch to life.
2 Keb’ Mo’
Blues Americana | (Kind of Blue)
“The dog took a shit on the floor/ Lord have mercy, even the bedbugs up and run/ You know, I got a bad, bad feeling/ that the worst is yet to come.” How can you not love a plain speaker with a sweet voice for contrast? Keb’ Mo’ makes country blues that stayed home but grew up all the same.
3 Billy Boy Arnold
The Blues Soul of Billy Boy Arnold | (Stony Plain)
Born in Chicago during the era when blues was evolving from country acoustic to raucous uptown electric, Arnold and his harmonica came along for the ride. Arnold narrates the journey with originals and settings that can sound like Ray Charles’ band reunited.
4 Amanda Martinez
Mañana | (CEN)
Martinez sings America, the entire continent, from Latin America to Canada. She chooses Spanish, English and French lyrics, arranges them artfully and imaginatively to showcase her voice — equal parts delicacy and strength. The songs celebrate life and resilience, immigration and home.
5 Various Artists
This Ain’t No Mouse Music! | (Arhoolie)
Nothing new in this collection and that’s what’s good about it. These two CDs are the sound-track to 50 years of Arhoolie Records and its founder, Chris Strachwitz. His boyhood fascination with all things American roots — from cowboy (Maddox Brothers) to Cajun (Doucet Brothers) to conjunto (both Flaco and Santiago Jiménez) and blues (Hopkins, Lipscombe, Thornton) — became his life’s work. This folk panorama, with no studio sweetening, is a pleasure for mavens and the uninitiated alike.
6 Hot Rize
When I’m Free | (Ten in Hand)
These bluegrass legends spent a quarter century out of the studio and it did them good. The sound is fresh but familiar; Dr. Banjo’s picking and Tim O’Brien’s soulful singing are still youthful and compelling.
7 Flaco & Max
Legends & Legacies | (Smithsonian Folkways)
Hear why Flaco Jiménez is a National Heritage fellow. Touring the world playing folk-fusion with Ry Cooder and others only watered his south Tex-as roots. Now in his mid-’70s, Jiménez is as spritely an accordionist as on any of his early record-ings. Meanwhile, Max Baca on bajo sexto has no fear of fusing tradition with a world of sounds.
8 Lee Ann Womack
The Way I’m Livin’ | (Sugar Hill)
The title song starts off lulling us with voice and acoustic guitar, then suddenly the hell she’s singing about comes swelling up behind her in a White Album nightmare downward spiral. Plenty of struggle here, with a masterful voice to convey all its subtle variations.
9 Mark O’Connor
MOC4 | (Omac)
From “Take Five” to “The Beaumont Rag,” “San Antonio Rose” to “La Bamba,” all these tunes are familiar. O’Connor’s subtle genius in arranging for fiddle makes it a pleasure to hear them again.
10 Cocek! Brass Band
Here Comes Shlomo | (Sam Dechenne)
Cocek! is a brass quintet headed by Sam Dech-enne, a trumpeter who fell in love with Balkan as kid and never got over it. He did, however, add to it mightily, composing party music on a Balkan base and welcoming ideas from all over.
