More rootsy than power pop...JD McPherson's Signs & Signifiers was the best thing I heard all year, but was originally released in 2010 so I didn't include it in my Top 20.

1. Chuck Prophet - Temple Beautiful
2. Dion - Tank Full of Blues
3. Kelly Hogan - I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
4. Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale - Buddy and Jim
5. World Famous Headliners - s/t
6. Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears
7. Alejandro Escovedo - Big Station
8. Marty Stuart - Nashville, Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down
9. Tommy Womack - Now What!
10. Trapper Schoepp & the Shades - Run, Engine, Run
11. Aimee Mann - Charmer
12. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Leaving Eden
13. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
14. The dB's - Falling Off the Sky
15. The Wandering - Go On Now,You Can't Stay Here
16. Jimmy Cliff - Rebirth
17. Bap Kennedy - The Sailor's Revenge
18. Chris Knight - Little Victories
19. Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Grifter's Hymnal
20. A.C. Newman - Shut Down the Streets

Favorite reissues, re-releases, archival
1. JD McPherson - Signs & Signifiers
2. Dan Penn - The Fame Recordings
3. Paul Kelly - Hot Runnin' Soul: The Singles 1965-71
4. Durocs - s/t
5. Various - Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios


Jim McGuinness