Though I listen to hundreds of albums a year, much goes unheard by me. I am aware that there are worthy recordings that don't find their way to me; thus, I haven't heard, and am in no position to judge, them. What follow are my favorites chosen by the usual subjective criterion: they moved me and stayed with me. I didn't set out to reach any particular number. I just listed them till I ran out. They are ranked only by alphabet.

For obvious reasons I excluded works by personal friends, who include some world-class artists. The discs below are from performers with whom I have had, at maximum, merely passing direct contact, and usually not so much as that. They are also newly issued albums (even if containing older music till now unavailable), not reissues, all copyrighted 2018.

The book of the year has to be Tom Ewing's Bill Monroe: The Life & Music of the Blue Grass Man (University of Illinois Press), so intricately detailed that one doubts it can ever be matched, thus obviating the need for another Monroe biography. When, by the way, are we going to see the life story of Ramblin' Jack Elliott?

Asterisks indicate I reviewed the particular album at Rambles.NET. Click the asterisk to read the review.

Joan Baez, Whistle Down the Wind (Bobolink/Razor & Tie)
* Banjo Nickaru & Western Scooches, Get Us Out of Fearland (independent)
* Eric Bibb, Global Griot (Stony Plain)
* Rory Block, A Woman's Soul (Stony Plain)
* Matt Campbell, The Man with Everything (independent)

Ry Cooder, Prodigal Son (Fantasy)
* Delta Moon, Babylon is Falling (Jumping Jack)
* Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1965-1969 (Free Dirt)
Bob Dylan, More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 (Columbia)
* Ray Edwards, A Golden Anniversary Celebration (Pinecastle)

Dom Flemons, Black Cowboys (Smithsonian Folkways)
* Sue Foley, The Ice Queen (Stony Plain)
* Eliza Gilkyson, Secularia (Red House)
Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite, No Mercy in This Land (Anti-)
* JP Harris, Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing (Free Dirt)

* Rita Hosking, For Real (independent)
* Steve Howell & the Mighty Men, Good As I Been to You (Out of the Past)
* Colin James, Miles To Go (True North/Stony Plain)
* Nathan Kalish, I Want To Believe (independent)
* Kathy Kallick Band, Horrible World (Live Oak)

* Steve Krase Band, Just Waitin' (Connor Ray Music)
* Vivian Leva, Time is Everything (Free Dirt)
* Trudy Lynn, Blues Keep Knockin' (Connor Ray Music)
Mawkin, Down Among the Dead Men (Proper Music)
* Mud Morganfield, They Call Me Mud (Severn)

* Cary Morin, When I Rise (independent)
* Frank Newsome, Gone Away with a Friend (Free Dirt)
John Prine, The Tree of Forgiveness (Oh Boy)
* The Rails, Other People (Thirty Tigers)
* Ranger Doug, Songs of the Frontier (Rural Rhythm)

* Bob Rea, Southbound (Shiny Dime)
* Roe Family Singers, Songs of the Mountains, Songs of the Plains (Pinecastle)
Peter Rowan, Carter Stanley's Eyes (Rebel)
* Tom Rush, Voices (Appleseed)
* Martha Spencer, Martha Spencer (independent)

* Tannahill Weavers, Orach (Compass)
Richard Thompson, 13 Rivers (New West)
* Turning Ground, Old Country Store (Bonfire)
Colter Wall, Songs of the Plains (Young Mary)

Editor's note: You can find a complete list of Jerome's many reviews here.