As review CDs go, it was a good year for quality, if not so much for quantity. I insist on reviewing something I can hold in my hand, and hard copy (as it's usually called these days) is becoming ever rarer. I stand stubbornly, no doubt foolishly, on the issue. That, not to mention budget-tightening labels and fewer artists who fully appeal to my taste, has served to reduce the numbers of reviewable discs I cull from my mail, to my mounting frustration. Still, I remain committed to a diet of music that sounds as if it comes from somewhere.

I think that if you confined your listening to what's on the list below (not that I recommend it, understand), you'd be generally pleased, though perhaps you would wish for an album or two from the traditional side of the British Isles. Sadly, none is here because no label or artist sent me one in the past 12 months. So, not through choice, these roots are all American. I reviewed nearly all of them on Rambles.NET (so noted with an asterisk). If you want to read more, I encourage you to look them up.

In previous end-of-the-year lists I've taken note of a recording that I thought could plausibly be cited as the finest of the lot. I confess I never felt at ease about that. Obviously, even among the roots releases that interest me the most, I was and am hearing only a fraction of what's out there. Also, I have come to deem it pointless to place songs and artists in competition, especially when they reach the level of excellence that gets them here.

Anyway, for what it's worth:

Bluegrass:
* The Burnett Sisters Band, Easy Come, Easy Go (Pinecastle)
* Alison Krauss & Union Station, Arcadia (Down the Road)
* Danny Paisley, Bluegrass State of Mind (Pinecastle)
* Junior Sisk, It's All Fun & Games (Turnberry)
Skin & Bones, Tidalwave Road (Pinecastle)

Blues:
* Dave Keyes, Two Trains (MoMojo)
* Mud Morganfield, Deep Mud (Nola Blues)
* Johnny Rawls, Make Them Dance (Catfood)

Reissue/retrospective/tribute:
* Jack Elliott & Derroll Adams, Riding in Folkland (Pure Country)
* Johnnie Johnson, I'm Just Johnnie (Missouri Morning)
* Suzy Thompson, Suzy Sings Siebel: Vol 1 (independent)

Roots-rock:
* Marina Rocks, S.O.S. Texas (independent)

Singer-songwriter (country):
* Brennen Leigh, Don't You Ever Give Up on Love (Signature Sounds)

Singer-songwriter (folk):
* C. Daniel Boling, featuring Tom Paxton, It Matters (Bernalin)
* Vincent Cross, A Place Where Songs Come to Live (Rescue Dog)
* Ernie Palmer, A Teacher, A Preacher, & A Bad Farmer (independent)
Mike Reid & Joe Henry, Life & Time (Work Song)

Traditional folk:
* Hog-Eyed Man, Across the Sea (Old-Time Tiki Parlour)
* Steve Howell & Fats Kaplin, Know You from Old (Out of the Past)