apropos of the best country albums this year: sam outlaw's angeleno is excellent. now, honestly, i'd rather he had stuck with his actual name, 'morgan', which is also a pretty good country thing (oh how about george morgan and his daughter lorrie). 'outlaw' suggests yet another waylon revival act, of which there are so many i couldn't keep up if i wanted to, and which are often kind of...mechanical. plus we still have all of waylon's actual albums.
anyway, sam's music is not like that: the album is kind of low-key, fairly smooth country. the thing is beautifully produced by ry cooder, with calicountry and tex-mex touches and very fine original songs. sam is, in a laid-back way, a really good country singer. it's a pleasant and improving experience letting the thing play as one putters about the house or drives to target.
i might mention that alan jackson has a new album (angels and alcohol), which is really a fundamental traditional jackson album: not a bluegrass experiment or a set of covers, but a clutch of fine original country songs. it makes a good playlist on shuffle with angeleno.