By "best" I mean no more than what I have gleaned from subjective judgments, of course. It should go without saying that the list does not represent every roots album that, had it entered my life, would have excited me. These constitute recordings that managed to sneak within hearing range as review copies or as purchased discs. What they have in common, whether loved or merely liked, is that I derived pleasure from them and subjected them to multiple listenings. As always I have eliminated from consideration albums by artists who are personal friends or anyway musicians with whom I am friendly at some level.

Unless otherwise indicated, the albums contain new or heretofore-unreleased music, and each claims a 2020 copyright date.

My all-time favorite this year is Sam Lee's Old Wow, an extraordinarily stirring assembly of impressively imagined modern arrangements of (mostly) English folk songs. I have listened to it more often than to any other record listed below, and it continues to haunt me. I don't expect it to stop doing so any time soon.

The outstanding original composition has to be RB Morris's astounding "Missouri River Hat Blowing Incident," which is unlike any other song I've heard, seemingly at first a trivial anecdote, then at last a moment, surprising and overwhelming, that carries an exhilarated listener into another landscape as much metaphysical as geographical. It has a terrific melody, too. Not for nothing do some rank Morris among America's least-known major songwriters.

Finally, Tyler Childers proves that, an abundance of contrary evidence notwithstanding, country music was alive in 2020.

An asterisk indicates the item was reviewed at Rambles.NET, in which case you can click the title to read the review.

Sam Amidon, Sam Amidon (Nonesuch)
* Rory Block, Prove It On Me (Stony Plain)
* Jake Blount, Spider Tales (Free Dirt)
* Bradley & Adair, Oh Darlin (Pinecastle)
* Gary Brewer & the Kentucky Ramblers, 40th Anniversary Celebration (Stretch Grass)
* Danny Brooks & Lil Miss Debi, Are You Ready? The Mississippi Sessions (HIS House)

Tyler Childers, Country Squire (RCA)
* Cinder Well, No Summer (Free Dirt)
* Andy Cohen, Tryin' to Get Home (Earwig)
Shirley Collins, Heart's Ease (Domino)
Joachim Cooder, Over That Road I'm Bound (Nonesuch)
* Vincent Cross, The Life & Times of James "The Rooster" Corcoran (Rescue Dog)

* JB & Jamie Dailey, Step Back in Time (Pinecastle)
* John Doyle, The Path of Stones (Compass)
* Billy Droze, Renaissance (independent)
Bob Dylan, Rough & Rowdy Ways (Columbia)
* Steve Earle & the Dukes, Ghosts of West Virginia (New West)
* Eden & John's East River String Band, Live at the Brooklyn Folk Festival, Vol. 1 (East River)

* Flashback, Blues Around My Cabin (Pinecastle)
* Steve Forbert, Early Morning Rain (Blue Rose)
Fay Hield, Wrackline (Topic)
* High Fidelity, Banjo Player's Blues (Rebel)
* Steve Howell, Dan Sumner & Jason Weinheimer, Long Ago (Out of the Past)
* Sam Lee, Old Wow (Cooking Vinyl)

* RB Morris, Going Back to the Sky (Singular)
* The Nighthawks, Tryin' to Get to You (EllerSoul)
* Possessed by Paul James, As We Go Wandering (PPJ)
* Duke Robillard & Friends, Blues Bash! (Stony Plain)
* Rock Hearts, Starry Southern Nights (independent)
* Sugar Ray & the Bluetones, Too Far from the Bar (Severn)

* Turning Ground, Crazy House (Pinecastle)
* various artists, New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers, Vol. 1 (Stony Plain)
* Colter Wall, Western Swing & Waltzes & Other Punchy Songs (La Honda/Thirty Tigers)
Nora Jean Wallace, Blues Woman (Severn)
* Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton (Smithsonian Folkways)
Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels (Thirty Tigers)

Reissue of the Year:
various artists, The Harry Smith B-Sides (four discs, Dust to Digital)