BE afraid. Be very afraid. There are only twenty shopping days until Christmas. I’m sure that Santa has already checked his list to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice – these things take time.

If you’re one of those, like me, who still loves to buy physical music rather than just stream everything, you’ll be looking forward to all the inevitable album of the year lists that crop up all over the place as we get closer.

I’m getting in early today, while there’s still time to shop, with my rundown of favourite albums – an annual task I’ve ticked off every year since I started out in journalism, almost half a century ago, in January 1974. 

Yes, that’s me back in 1974.

This year, many of my choices are rooted in country, although none of them are conventional country music releases. I first flirted with the genre as a kid, loving Creedence Clearwater Revival, and its influence lingers on.  

So, without further ado …

1. LUCINDA WILLIAMS Stories From A Rock ’n’ Roll Heart

After surviving heartbreak and a stroke which left her fearing she might never perform again, Louisiana Lucinda has finally found her joy again with her most rock and roll album since Essence. The likes of Let’s Get The Band Back Together, New York Comeback and Rock ’n’ Roll Heart, the latter two with guest turns from Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, are uplifting assertions of life with the regular band in fine form, while there’s more subtle and heartfelt reflection for those lost along the way in Hum’s Liquor and Stolen Moments. Don’t miss her long-awaited UK tour dates in the New Year.

2. JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT  Weathervanes

His last album Reunions was his best yet, and now Jason Isbell has surpassed himself with a set that somehow sounds musically feelgood while lyrically addressing all manner of bruising issues ranging from school shootings to Covid, and from addiction to family dysfunction. Standouts are gun law protest Save The World, dark tale King of Oklahoma, the poignant White Beretta – which addresses abortion, a subject he previously visited with wife Amanda Shires on The Promise – and the Tom Petty-style rock and roll of When We Were Close. How on earth does he better this next time?

3. CHRIS STAPLETON  Higher

Chris Stapleton’s Traveller was my album of the year in 2015 and, although a further three albums were perfectly fine, it’s taken until now for him to fully hit those heights again. There’s love and heartache aplenty here, right from opener What Am I Gonna Do?, a duet with wife Morgane, to the reflective Mountains Of My Mind a dozen tracks later. He combines country with southern rock on the likes of White Horse and South Dakota, but the show-stealer is the title track, a song he’s had in his locker for 20 years before finally letting the world in on the secret. Catch him live in the UK next year.

4. AMOS LEE  Honeysuckle Switches

Loved soulful singer-songwriter Amos Lee ever since I heard Careless from his Supply And Demand album back in 2006 – it’s on my all-time keepers playlist – and, as regular readers know, I’m nuts about Lucinda Williams. So when a Lee album comprised entirely of Williams covers suddenly popped up in my feed last month, it was if all my Christmases had come at once. This is, quite simply, gorgeous, particularly sublime versions of Greenville, Fruits Of My Labor and the heartbreaking Little Angel Little Brother, on which Lee duetted with Lu live some years back, which you can find on Youtube.

5. THE DUST CODA  Loco Paradise

Every end-of-year list needs some driving rock and roll, and the Londoners follow up their two excellent previous albums with more of the same, albeit with added panache. In Australian-born John Drake, they have a frontman to be reckoned with, and they’ll have won new fans from their support slot on the Guns N’Roses BST supershow in hometown Hyde Park this year. Opener Road To Hell sounds exactly like you’d like it to sound, a classic rock riff built for the highway, while Free All The Dancers chugs along like Foo Fighters on steroids. They do subtle, too, with Led Zeppelin-like Love Sick a delight.

6. THE CADILLAC THREE  The Years Go Fast

Loved Jaren Johnston and the good ol’ boys when they started out, and 2016’s Bury Me In My Boots remains one of my all-time keepers, but the Caddy seemed in need of a tune-up at the repair shop on a subsequent string of albums. Happily, The Years Go Fast is a robust return to form and the title track an earworm that’ll prove difficult to dislodge. Highlights include the atmospheric This Town Is A Ghost Town, the freeway rock and roll of Coming Down From You and rootsy Hillbilly. They’re going to be touring with Brothers Osborne in the States soon – let’s hope that package makes it over here.

7. DOLLY PARTON  Rockstar

The guilty pleasure. When Dolly was told she was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she initially declined because she’d never made a rock album. Organisers insisted, so she stole the show then set about recording 30 tracks, most of them classic rock covers, with a stellar guest list including Elton John, Steven Tyler, Sting and Rob Halford. Best are the gospel-set Creedence cover Long As I Can See The Light with John Fogerty, Let It Be with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, a rollicking Heartbreaker with Pat Benatar and a frenetic Free Bird with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Rockstar indeed.

8. MARGO PRICE  Strays / Strays II

She refuses to be defined by her country roots, and now Margo Price serves up an eclectic set veering from poetic electric rock and roll to finger-picked country-folk, and ranging from autobiographical reflection to thought-provoking imagination. Heartbreaker Mike Campbell brings jangly rock riffs to Light It Up, Sharon Van Etten adds seamless harmonies to appropriately radio-friendly single Radio, and Time Machine is fuelled by unashamed retro pop. Released at the beginning of the year, Price revisited it at year’s end, adding nine songs (bizarrely including the title track) to the re-titled Strays II.   

9. ROLLING STONES  Hackney Diamonds

Strange that I’ve never really loved the Stones. When I was a kid, my sixties soundtrack was supplied more by The Kinks and The Who. But Exile On Main Street, released while I was a teenaged journalism student in digs, sparked my interest and I’ve since listened in from time to time. Hackney Diamonds, however – their first studio album of original material since 2005’s Some Girls  – has echoes of past glories condensed into a barnstorming 45-minute set with guest turns from Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga, the latter on the climactic Sweet Sounds Of Heaven. An unexpected gem.

10. BROTHERS OSBORNE  Brothers Osborne

It’s as if the Maryland country-rockers have been born anew on their fourth album, perhaps explaining the decision now to make it an eponymous release. After a cathartic couple of years, during which frontman TJ came out as gay and guitarist brother John revealed his struggles with depression and anxiety, it’s a set that opens with the question Who Says You Can’t Have Everything? before serving up the band’s trademark heartfelt country rock, expanded by the funk of show stealing Little Feat-like Sun Ain’t Even Gone Down Yet and the disco dance floor Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That.