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
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