gifted: my country top ten for 2017. i've been doing this with occasinal gaps since 1982: a few years for the military mag off duty, for one. one thing about country music, i say, is that you can't be a charlatan; you've pretty much got to be able to sit there with a guitar and kill. some demonstrations of that by people in the top ten:
janson comes in at #2.
about as good a pure singer as you will ever hear:
there are a bunch of good songs on her album, which pops in at 5. i like "sway" and "potential," e.g.
a thousand horses deserves more play than they're getting (#7):
and i'm recommending everyone to check out song suffragettes for stuff like this (#10):
some of my music writing this year for #splicetoday:
the golden age of underground hip hop
bluegrass gospel: devotion, virtuosity, and beauty