The AllMusic 2022
Year In Review
Acoustic guitars, heartfelt lyrics, soulful harmonies and often a wide-brimmed hat, these are our favorite folk and Americana albums of the year. Take a backroads journey with The Lone Bellow (pictured), Amanda Shires, Nikki Lane and more.
Amanda Shires
Take It Like a Man
The Americana heroine throws away her rule book and delivers a stylistically diverse and remarkably accomplished album.
Brian Harnetty
Words and Silences
The Ohio-based composer delivers a magnum opus, joining mystic Thomas Merton's private personal recordings to exploratory chamber music.
Calexico
El Mirador
The group's tenth studio album is a vibrant celebration of their musical and cultural roots.
Courtney Marie Andrews
Loose Future
Good times and uncertainty are both in the mix from one of the best songwriters in the Americana community.
Early James
Strange Time to Be Alive
With producer Dan Auerbach, Early James creates a colorful, shambling, and poetic spin on Americana.
Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble
II
The second offering from this acoustic Chicago-based ensemble offers more imaginative compositions and deeply focused interaction by the trio.
Erin Rae
Lighten Up
The Nashville singer/songwriter delivers an appealing sophomore set of winsome folk and country with '60s psych-pop leanings.
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Good and Green Again
The North Carolinian turns in another marvelous and deeply charming LP of obscure folk songs and a handful of originals.
Joan Shelley
The Spur
The Kentucky singer and songwriter balances fear and hope in 12 songs that are honest and often beautiful.
Josephine Foster
Godmother
A standout figure in psychedelic folk circles adds a completely new and unexpected dimension to her craft with this album of synth experiments and electronically augmented arrangements.
Levon Helm / Mavis Staples
Carry Me Home
Two friends and mutual admirers lift one another in song in this glorious live recording from June 2011.
Marisa Anderson
Still, Here
The Portland guitarist's latest solo outing is a mediation on resilience and stillness of the mind.
Michaela Anne
Oh to Be That Free
The gifted singer and songwriter looks inward on 11 beautifully crafted songs about hurt and healing.
Modern Studies
We Are There
A richly imagined and confident fourth outing from the U.K. psych-folk outfit.
Nikki Lane
Denim & Diamonds
Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme produces Nikki Lane's collection of searching songs.
Old Crow Medicine Show
Paint This Town
Ketch Secor revamps Old Crow Medicine Show, adding a drummer and emphasizing the band's social consciousness.
Ondara
Spanish Villager No. 3
A transformative, literate concept album from the Kenyan-born, Minneapolis-based songwriter.
Sally Anne Morgan
Cups
A winsome and dreamy instrumental set echoing mountain traditions and triggering the imagination.
Shane Parish
Liverpool
The experimental guitarist/composer captures the vastness of open water with foreboding reworkings of sea shanties and nautical work songs.
Simone Felice
All the Bright Coins
The songwriter and producer wears his heart on his sleeve in a collection of powerful, often beautiful introspection.
The Cactus Blossoms
One Day
The Cactus Blossoms deepen their Everly Brothers homage with elements of 1970s soft rock.
The Lone Bellow
Love Songs for Losers
Producing themselves for the first time, the trio deliver a wide range of musical expressions to match their resonant songwriting and singing.
The Lumineers
Brightside
The Denver duo pare down to their core elements for a refreshingly spontaneous fourth outing.
Watkins Family Hour
Watkins Family Hour, Vol. 2
Another loose, lively, and surprising set from the ever-shifting collective featuring cameos by Fiona Apple, Jackson Browne, Benmont Tench, and Jon Brion.
