This year once again showed the ultimate test of longevity: great music never stops. It keeps coming like the wind and the waves. So here is this year's list of favorite albums, starting with the first half of 2018 posted in July's Bentley's Bandstand: Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Downey to Lubbock; Niki Bluhm, To Rise You Gotta Fall; David Byrne, American Utopia; Joachim Cooder, Fuchsia Machu Picchu; Ry Cooder, The Prodigal Son; Lamont Dozier, Reimagination; Beth McKee, dreamwood acres; John Prine, The Tree of Forgiveness; Sons of Kemet, Your Queen is a Reptile; Walter Wolfman Washington, My Future is My Past. Reissue: Ella Fitzgerald, Ella at Zardi's. Now on to the second half of this very fine, fine year for music.
Brandi Carlile, By the Way I Forgive You
Erin Costelo, Sweet Marie
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Look Now
Alejandro Escovedo with Don Antonio, The Crossing
Dawn Landes, Meet Me at the River
Jose James, Lean on Me
Greg Laswell, Next Time
Graham Parker, Cloud Symbols
Boz Scaggs, Out of the Blues
Jeff Tweedy, Warm
Box Set of the Year
Reissue of the Year
Song of the Year
Brandi Carlile, By the Way I Forgive You
From out of Nashville
2018's masterpiece
"Whatever You Do"
Erin Costelo, Sweet Marie
Blue-eyed soul chanteuse
From up north Nova Scotia
Down to Memphis grooves
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Look Now
Forty years and still
Covering the waterfront
Always finding more
Alejandro Escovedo with Don Antonio, The Crossing
Wandering wonder
And Italian rock & roll
Alejandro nights
Dawn Landes, Meet Me at the River
Kentucky-Brooklyn
A hybrid waiting to be
A new star arrives
Jose James, Lean on Me
Bill Withers lives on
Inside Jose James smooth groove
Proving great stays great
Greg Laswell, Next Time
Iconoclastic
And ready for take-off now
From out of left field
Graham Parker, Cloud Symbols
Soul shoes on his feet
A terror from London's streets
Lives to tell the tale
Boz Scaggs, Out of the Blues
A voice on its own
A spirit to spark the world
True forever blue
Jeff Tweedy, Warm
Uncle Wilco's man
Opens the door to his heart
And stands for glory
Box Set of the Year
Various Artists, Stax '68: A Memphis Story
Memphis soul central
926 East McLemore
Burning down the house
Reissue of the Year
Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun
Lysergiced neurons
Snapping to new world order
Where Furthur awaits
Song of the Year
Arthur Buck, “Are You Electrified?”
Joseph and Peter
Send a message of new hope
To wake us all up
