TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Tim McGraw Southern Voices

I was worried that this wasn't very good, but i have had it in the rotation for a pretty constant 3 months. Poltical and moderate, a kind of post-Obama opus about what exactly it means to be from the South, American, a man and weirdly, in it's moral comprimises and socially constructed smooth negotiating power, a democrat. All of that said, his voice is strong, his band is the tightest it has been in a decade, and the lyrics maintain a sophistication, and slightly dark twinge that we expect.

2. Lyle Lovett Natural Forces

There is something so lovely, so exacting, and so emotionally wrought about his work. Filled with a swing that is only sometimes melancholy which sets the place with an exactitude that is effortless. It is also one of the most charmingly filthy albums of the year--including a cover of the Doughboys epic food=fucking opus Pantry, and perhaps the catchiest song about masturbation ever (Choke My Chicken). That he does this while covering Van Zandt's heartbreaking Loretta, or Bayou Song, the harshest text about Louisanna since Randy Newman.

3. Corb Lund Losin' Lately Gambler

Not as epic as the last one, a set of domestic settlings. Moving from home because of money, or losing lovers to the lure of the east, or gambling in suburban malls instead of Vegas. Post-recession, for a group of people that never made that much money in the first place.

4. Roseanne Cash The List

Maybe this riding her daddy's coat tales has more to it then I anticipated. A freudian nightmare of loss and erotic attachment to the absent, it provides a liturgical counterpoint to the popularizing hagiography of Cash. (I am reminded of what Dorthy Day said about being made a saint: "“Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily")

5. Steve Earle Townes

Speaking of acts of Hagiography. Earle seems more comfortable in New York then he ever did in Nashville, and some of the best work about home is done by those in exile. Sung by a survivor of vice, the rough burr of hard living is never made smooth, but it is also not used as an excuse for poor musicianship or lacklustre performances. An act of brotherly devotion that works as a musical text as well.

6. Alaisdair Roberts Spoils

Outsider folk singer from Edinburgh. Holy, multivalent, ancient and post-modern, it's competing signals isolate any attempts at singular meaning. It is a morally severe attempt to find out what it means to be holy, and to not be religious, and is filled with both a terror of the divine and a love of Her as a parent. It also featured the hurdy-gurdy, which is awesome.

7. Bob Dylan Christmas in the Heart

It must be a joke, some inscrutable camp construction that is not intended to be understood--and so one wonders if the last jewish mystic is playing around on us or making some sort of real statement. That he keeps throwing curve balls, and we keep swinging must mean something.

8. Luke Bryan Doin' My Thing

Young, handsome, and reatively new to the scene, he knows how to write.

9. Brad Paisley American SAturday Night

Better contained, and excluding his more sentimental instincts, here for this voice, and his refusal to play to the worst instincts of his own cornpone schitck.

10. Miranda Lambert Revolution

Not the masterpeice of the last album, but enough of a new direction, with the same kind of pop instincts grafted onto a desire for Opry led legitimacy. Makes me want to know what she does next.

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2009:

1. Adam Lambert Ring of Fire

The song really is about destruction, it is not cute or sweet or loving--it is about the destruction of both self and other. Sarah Vowell once wrote about the fire being hellfire--a pentecostal fear of damnation. This queering of the original text takes the discourse about original sourcing, about love, and about the desire for queer acceptance and moves it to centre stage. More destabilzing then the faux-outrage blowjob at the AMA awards, and also prettier then most other covers.

2. Dierks Bentley Sideways

The sing-along chorus of the summer, pure pleasure.

3. John Mayer Who Says I Can't

Remember when Laurel Canyon folk used to be as country as Bakersfield or Alabama or Omaha, makes we want to hear an entire album from him.

4. John Rich Shuttin' Detroit Down

Rich turned crazy this year, with the cocaine, the legal messes, whatever he was doing to Glenn Beck, and the general irrascibility, all of which hid the album, which might have been a mixed blessing, because there was only one or two great songs on it. This was one of them, a sequel to What Made Milwauke Famous, it was a huge stone on the chest, equal parts first person reportage and call to economic war.

5. Brad Paisley – “Welcome to The Future”

A little optimism never hurt anyone; the guitar is super tight, and the eight byte sound effects make the song both about then and now. A correction to his cult of nostalgia.

6. Heartland Mustache

I laughed. I still laugh.

7. Carrie Underwood Cowboy Casanova

I love when erotic langour goes all sideways and bitter.

8. White Horse--Taylor Swift

She could do with a bit more self awareness, but there is something tender that seems real--i mean i know the problems with authenticity and pop, but there is something so lovely, so intensely broken about how she realises what she was told was a lie.

9. Miranda Lambert White Liar

You do not want to get Miranda Lambert angry, you would not like her when she is angry. (she is a bit self loathing, and sad, here too, but it is mostly about the vengeful)

10. Roseanne Cash Sea of Heartbreak

I love her voice.

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2009:

1. In the Pines Tar Heel Folk Songs and Fiddle Tunes Old Time Music of North Carolina
2. Fire in my Bones Raw and Rare and Other Worldly African American Gospel
3. Joan Baez How Sweet the Sound
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COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Brad Paisley
2. Corb Lund
3. Steve Earle

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Carrie Underwood
3. Roseanne CAsh

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2009:

1. Corb Lund
2. Ian Tyson
3. Kenny Chesney

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2009:

1. Luke Laird
2. Natahlie Hemby
3. Corb Lund

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2009:

1. Tim McGraw's Backup Band
2. Lyle Lovett's Small Band
3. Sugarland

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2009:

1. Heartland
2. Zac Brown
3.

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2009:

1. Tim McGraw
2. Miranda Lambert
3.Brad Paisley