No Depression Readers’ 50 Favorite Roots Music Albums of 2019

Back in 2004, we started asking No Depression readers for their favorite roots music albums at the end of each year. After all, who has better taste than you? Every year, you’ve obliged, creating with your votes a kick-ass list of the year’s albums that remind us why we get excited about this music in the first place.

For 2019, more than 5,600 of you took the time to think back on the past year and fill out a ballot to show what really stuck with you. Is this list a definitive measure of “best” (whatever that is) albums? Heck no. That doesn’t exist. But it shows what was important to your fellow No Depression readers, and that’s what’s important to us. So browse the list, get mad if you want to, but know that somewhere within these 50 albums are some gems you probably haven’t discovered yet — and maybe getting crackin’ on that is your new year’s resolution!

Later this month, we’ll share our annual Critics List — compiled by No Depression staff, columnists, and reviewers. If you want to get a heads up about that, and about all the great music coming down the pipeline in 2020, be sure to sign up for our twice-weekly email newsletter.

1. Tyler Childers – Country Squire
   2. The Highwomen – The Highwomen
   3. Sturgill Simpson – Sound & Fury
   4. Bruce Springsteen – Western Stars
   5. Hayes Carll – What It Is
   6. Whiskey Myers – Whiskey Myers
   7. Willie Nelson – Ride Me Back Home
   8. Billy Strings – HOME
   9. Buddy and Julie Miller – Breakdown on 20th Ave. South
   10. Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real – Turn off the News (Build a Garden)
   11. Ian Noe – Between the Country
   12. Steve Earle and the Dukes – Guy
   13. Our Native Daughters – Songs of Our Native Daughters (tie)
2. Gary Clark Jr. – This Land (tie)
3. Son Volt – Union (tie)
4. Yola – Walk Through Fire (tie)
5. Mandolin Orange – Tides of a Teardrop
   18. Rodney Crowell – Texas
   19. Wilco – Ode to Joy (tie)
6. Josh Ritter – Fever Breaks (tie)
7. Neil Young – Colorado
   22. Allison Moorer – Blood
   23. Molly Tuttle – When You’re Ready
   24. Chris Knight – Almost Daylight
   25. The Avett Brothers – Closer Than Together
   26. Tanya Tucker – While I’m Livin’ (tie)
8. Justin Townes Earle – The Saint of Lost Causes (tie)
9. Cody Jinks – After the Fire (tie)
10. Tedeschi Trucks Band – Signs
    30. Cody Jinks – The Wanting
    31. Blackberry Smoke – Homecoming: Live in Atlanta
    32. Delbert McClinton & Self-Made Men – Tall, Dark, & Handsome
    33. Aaron Lee Tasjan – Karma for Cheap: Reincarnated
    34. Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi – there is no Other
    35. Jenny Lewis – On the Line
    36. Mavis Staples – We Get By
    37. Ryan Bingham – American Love Song
    38. Todd Snider – Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3
    39. Patty Griffin – Patty Griffin
    40. Van Morrison – Three Chords and the Truth
    41. The Mavericks – Play the Hits
    42. Hiss Golden Messenger – Terms of Surrender
    43. Kyle Cox – Perhaps One Day
    44. Keb’Mo’ – Oklahoma
    45. Allman Betts Band – Down to the River
    46. Leonard Cohen (and Various Artists) – Thanks for the Dance
    47. Eilen Jewell – Gypsy
    48. Shovels & Rope – By Blood
    49. Brittany Howard – Jaime
    50. Calexico + Iron and Wine – Years to Burn

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To comment on this or any No Depression story (but remember before you flame us that this list was generated by public vote, not our staff), drop us a line at letters@nodepression.com.