Saving Nation Music’s 2024 Important Albums Checklist

December 30, 2024

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Welcome to Saving Nation Music’s most complete information to music in a given 12 months, The Important Albums Checklist. It begins with the primary 21 albums which might be deemed the “Most Important.” These had been albums proper on the bubble of being named Album of the 12 months nominees. Then there may be an extra checklist of albums that had been reviewed in 2024, and deemed worthy of recognizing.

Just a few floor guidelines:

1. As at all times, ideas of extra albums, lists of your important albums, and opinions about this checklist are inspired, and will be shared within the feedback part under. Simply please no “Hey, this checklist is completely bunk as a result of so and so wasn’t included!” or as a result of “so and so WAS included.”

2. This does NOT embody the Album of the 12 months Nominees since they’ve already had a highlight shined on them via the nomination course of. Within the spirit of highlighting what was missed, they don’t seem to be included right here.

2023 Saving Nation Music Album of the 12 months Nominees:

• Karen Jonas – The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch • Sierra Ferrell – Path of Flowers • Crimson Clay Strays – Made By These Moments • Emily Nenni – Drive & Cry • Shane Smith and the Saints – Norther • Kimmi Bitter – Previous Faculty • Jamey Johnson – Midnight Gasoline • Kaitlin Butts – Roadrunner • Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) – Passage Du Desir • Billy Strings – Freeway Prayers • Silverada – Self-Titled • 49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler

3. There is no such thing as a particular order to the checklist, apart from the primary albums being thought-about the “Most Important,” or albums that simply missed the bubble to be thought-about Album of the 12 months nominees.

4. Extra albums will finally find yourself on the Important Albums Checklist. Extra 2024 albums can be reviewed within the coming days into the primary few weeks of January earlier than 2025 releases begin in earnest. Saving Nation Music reviewed over 120 albums in 2024, so please no whining about was missed. Be grateful this free useful resource to music listeners continues to be supplied yearly.

MOST ESSENTIAL ALBUMS

MOST ESSENTIAL – Jesse Daniel – Countin’ The Miles

Jesse Daniel brings a loaded down Peterbilt’s value of full-tilt twang to this one, and places all worries about “wHaT’s HAppeNeD To TOdAyS COunTRY mUsIc!” to mattress. You need nation music? Hearken to Jesse Daniel. Should you ain’t nation, you may be after giving this factor a spin.

No matter deficit mainstream nation has accrued within the twang division during the last 20 years, Countin’ The Miles darn close to balances it out. Jesse Daniel the producer was patently unafraid to name for extra twang and extra twang till it is likely to be scientifically inconceivable to suit any extra into these tracks. Assume that nation music’s useless? That there hasn’t been something good in 20 years? Effectively then you definitely don’t know Jesse Daniel. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Pat Reedy – Make It Again Residence

It’s the simplicity of Pat Reedy’s songs that’s the genius, not the sophistication. It’s the benefit at which the melody and rhythms seep into your flesh that makes the music so instantly gratifying. And Pat Reedy delivers all of it so confidently and guaranteed as a result of there’s no cosplay concerned, and no insincerity to defend the viewers from. He sings what he lives and he lives what he sings. Reedy is symbiotic along with his music.

Little doubt, the throwback, faraway sound of basic nation is one thing a number of of us are selecting up on today, and a few are discovering nice success with. Nevertheless it comes extra naturally to some performers, whereas others are extra personally accountable for this affect rising from the ashes of what nation music as soon as was. Pat Reedy is a kind of accountable events, and Make It Again Residence is likely to be the most effective specimen of Pat Reedy music but. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – JP Harris – JP Harris is a Trash Hearth

JP Harris Is A Trash Hearth isn’t as a lot of a kiss-off to the recording trade as it’s Harris partaking in surprisingly deep reflection concerning the previous loves of his life. Regardless of all of the bluster and the bathtub of “heavy obligation mayo” on the duvet, the album finds quite a few moments of eloquence, poeticism, and may we even say a rugged model of refinement.

Listeners are left fairly shocked by the turns of phrase discovered within the album’s second track, “To The Doves.” Identical goes for the candy and delicate writing from Harris within the track “Write It All Down.” He throws a clinic right here in the best way to craft a lyrical hook and wrap a refrain round it in a method that feels instantly reverberative and timeless. He is likely to be a “trash hearth,” however his flame of dogged resistance is an inspiration to many, and his new album provides to his diverse and important musical legacy. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Shawna Thompson – Lean On Neon

You actually can’t emphasize sufficient simply how hardcore nation this album is, and throughout each single observe. It’s so staunch and extreme in it’s conviction to nation music, this constitutes its personal type of daring artistic expression. There aren’t any of these foolish nation songs that decision out pop nation music. This album merely places its foot down and declares adamantly, “That is nation.”

However the story this album tells goes a lot deeper than the music. Shawna Thompson says, “Lean On Neon is the album I moved to Nashville to create. It simply took some time.” That is the story of so many mainstream nation music performers. Many by no means get the chance to make the album they moved to Nashville to make. Fortunate for her and the remainder of us, Shawna Thompson did, and made probably the most of it. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Joe Stamm – Allegheny EP

Metal your emotional equilibrium for the curler coaster of stimulus you’ll expertise listening to this four-song gem that mixes the songwriting prowess of Midwest musical superhero Joe Stamm, and the boys that make the magic occur behind Charles Wesley Godwin, identified collectively as The Allegheny Excessive.

EPs are sometimes handled just like the alley canine, the second-class residents, the red-headed stepchildren of album releases, if solely as a result of they so usually go away the viewers unfulfilled. They’re a tease. However there’s a uncommon exception to that rule, and it’s usually when 4 songs comprise such genius, they confer a real sense of completion. Allegheny is definitely a kind of works. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Muscadline Bloodline – The Coastal Plain

Effectively take a look at this little duo from Alabama, blowing up on socials, getting a faucet on the shoulder by Publish Malone to open up on his area tour, and releasing an album that some are saying is the most effective all 12 months.

Should you queue this band up and click on shuffle, you might get a track that feels like full tilt Southern rock, one other that feels like heartfelt singer-songwriter Americana, one other that’s Appalachian people, or one which’s Oklahoma Crimson Filth, and it’s all written and carried out with authority. Equally, Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton discover the Goldilocks zone in between the substance and soul of grassroots nation, and the sensibility of mainstream degree infectiousness. It’s fairly the sinister and efficient recipe they’ve stewed up right here. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Charley Crockett – $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas

Charley Crockett’s profession has been marked by releases of authentic albums, and albums of canopy songs. However as he underscores on Visions of Dallas, he’s maybe at his finest if you get a mixture of each. He’s simply such an incredible interpreter of songs, it looks like sacrilege when he leaves this side of his music on the facet.

Charley Crockett’s work ethic is admirable. He launched two album in 2024. Nevertheless it’s additionally his breadth of information, his talent throughout roots disciplines, and a honest ardour he brings to the music that’s in flip conferred upon the viewers that makes him almost peerless within the nation and roots area, and a marvel of recent music. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Hannah Juanita – Tennessee Songbird

Hannah Juanita’s Tennessee Songbird means that you can fall in love with nation music once more. It’s like a love letter to nation music. Press play, and let the waves of basic nation twang and goodness wash over you in musical bliss. There’s nothing fancy occurring right here. Simply tune up the Telecasters, fiddle, and metal guitar, jot some songs down that seize the timeless sentiments of nation music and the way it makes us all really feel, and let the music do the remainder.

Tennessee Songbird in lots of respects is about Hannah doubling down on her dedication to being a honky tonk singer, songwriter, and performer. Songs that affirm this life choice make up the guts of the album. When she sings, “Whether or not we pay attention or not, the songbird sings,” Hannah’s underscoring how she’s one of many of us who has no alternative however to sing nation music. It was what she was born to do. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – John Moreland – Customer

Music is likely to be marked by the presence of sound, however it’s the music of John Moreland that compels the hushing of every little thing else to permit the quietest and most reflective of moments to prevail. In an period when everyone seems to be speaking over one another, the beeps and pulsations of push notifications pursue us throughout each waking second, and the loudest and most ostentatious are sometimes rewarded with the general public’s undivided consideration, John Moreland is a mandate to be subdued, to unplug, to decelerate, and to pay attention.

You get the sense that If Moreland was allowed, he would have launched pure silence for one of many tracks to underscore his message. As he conveys within the track “The Extra You Say, The Much less It Means,” it’s the economic system of sounds and phrases that lends to extra perception. It’s usually the anomaly of his messaging that offers it such stark affect, permitting every track to be what the beholder needs or wants it to be, versus what Moreland decrees because the writer. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – George Dearborne – Lotta Honky Tonkin’ Left In Me

You’ll instantly acknowledge George Dearborn’s new album Lotta Honky Tonkin’ Left In Me because the sort of conventional nation music that instantly sits proper with you, that reminds you of the greatness that nation music was, and that units you comfy realizing this timeless sound hasn’t been misplaced, however continues to be being deployed towards dangerous livers and damaged hearts.

As George Dearborne and Lotta Honky Tonkin’ Left In Me illustrate, making nice nation music isn’t rocket science. Get some nice nation songs, put the appropriate pickers on them, and the magic ensues. In reality it’s most likely a bit tougher than that, however George Dearborne certain makes it sound simple, and as a rustic fan, Lotta Honky Tonkin’ Left In Me is straightforward to like. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – J.R. Carroll – Darkish Cloud

Although Darkish Cloud is formally J.R. Carroll’s first LP, he’s been releasing songs and EPs since 2020, helped alongside by being that man behind the keyboard with a pony tail on the Zach Bryan tour. Although his songcraft has at all times been stout, who precisely J.R. Carroll the solo artist was appeared to be up within the air. Was he Oklahoma nation? Extra of an Americana singer/songwriter? Or was he one thing else completely?

Darkish Cloud concludes that in lots of respects, J.R. Carroll is all of these items, and generally one proper after the opposite. And although initially this will problem your music mind to shift on the fly, what affected person and open-minded listening reveals is that Carroll is much less of a musical jack of all trades, and extra a grasp of most, in the end composing a compelling assortment of songs that finally mix collectively into fairly an fulfilling expertise. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Melissa Carper – Borned In Ya

On Borned In Ya, Melissa Carper leans into her strengths much more by worrying much less about style, and extra about period, emphasizing what’s quietly sensible about her strategy to songwriting, and putting her songs within the caring palms of producers Andrija Tokic and Dennis Crouch, together with musicians like Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, Jeff Taylor, and Rory Hoffman. All of it comes along with enviable outcomes.

That is the music you’ll anticipate to return floating out of the horn of an outdated Victrola rolling alongside the grooves of a 78rpm, ingratiating itself to a room furnished in crushed velvet. Borned In Ya instantly transports you again to a interval the place the roots of American music hadn’t precisely shaped separate genres simply but, and the corrosive contact of know-how was a long time away from interfering with the pureness of human expressions. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Jesse Welles – Hells Welles

In a single track after one other, and in a single verse after one other, Jesse Welles stuns along with his slicing criticism interwoven with sarcasm addressing right this moment’s present occasions. From the Battle in Gaza, to the fentanyl disaster, to the weight problems epidemic, Xanax, trendy slavery, much more latest occasions just like the Boeing whistleblowers and the revelations about Nickeloden, Welles hundreds up and unleashes, all served via his cracked and raspy voice that might not be the sweetest sound you’ve ever heard, however makes the phrases really feel that extra impactful and foreboding.

The best artwork at all times displays the period during which it’s expressed. And proper now, no person is expressing the concern, anger, alarm, and frustration all of us really feel higher than Jesse Welles. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Wyatt Flores – Welcome To The Plains

The perfect songwriters of a given time are sometimes those predisposed to emotional vulnerability. Their empathy shouldn’t be performative, and their expressions don’t merely relaxation on the floor. They really feel issues on a deeper degree. They’re emotional conduits which have the potential of speaking what all of us really feel higher than we do to ourselves. Wyatt Flores is unquestionably blessed and cursed with this high quality.

Welcome To The Plains is a songwriter album first, however finds very wise nation instrumentation all through, with rock prospers indicative of the Crimson Filth influences serving to to paint Wyatt’s music. This isn’t a straight nation file, however is extra nation than it’s the rest, with fiddle and metal guitar distinguished within the combine. It will be ingratiating to reward Welcome To The Plains as Wyatt’s huge breakout second. However in reality that’s already occurred. It’s extra about establishing this younger songwriter as no fleeting commodity. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Pony Bradshaw – Thus Spoke The Idiot

Shirking the stereotype that each one nation and roots music is cornpone and pithy—and that the American South typically is a culturally-bereft refuse pile of uncultured slack jawed yokels—North Georgia-native Pony Bradshaw has made it his private conquest to reconstruct the romantic notions of the Southern vernacular, and use it to grace music whose viewers will spill effectively past the area’s borders.

On this pursuit, Pony Bradshaw points his newest album, and the third in a trilogy impressed by his dwelling in north Georgia. Pony employs vocabulary that’s vaguely acquainted like a fading reminiscence to assemble tales, characters, and maybe an underlying narrative that connects all of them. The end result compels the viewers and rises nostalgia within the blood much like different types of nation and roots music, however not via the standard modes that make the most of shortcuts and gimmicks to attain this aim. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Lance Roark – Tenkiller

Lance Roark steps out of the shadows of being a Turnpike Troubadours beneficiary and asserts himself as a solo artist and frontman. He additionally breaks out of the singer/songwriter shell to show in a full-tilt Crimson Filth rock expertise that if nothing else earns your consideration and repeated listens from energetic performances and powerful melodic prowess.

Tenkiller finds a favorably cohesive sound to current its six songs in, however there may be additionally loads of latitude in between the tracks. “Large Unhealthy Coronary heart” is a superb mid-tempo nation track with the fiddle doing a lot of the instrumental work. By the point you get to the ending track “American Heartbreak,” you’re in full fledged rock territory. This was an album written and recorded to make a powerful impression if you see Lance Roark reside, and after seeing him within the flesh, it’s secure to say that goal is fulfilled. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Jonathan Peyton – Nothing Right here’s The Identical

The place different songwriters combine in some sunny moments with the weighty ones, Jonathan Peyton stays underwater for the whole lot of the 12 tracks of Nothing Right here’s The Identical. The album is an instance of utilizing artwork to course of via grief and trauma in methods that may be efficient for the artist, and the viewers. Peyton faucets into the darkish recesses of our repressed reminiscences in a method that will really feel uncomfortable for some, however in the end is unburdening for a lot of.

For some, this album is likely to be a little bit too heavy to be loved cowl to cowl. However Peyton firmly locations himself locally of nation and Americana’s robust up to date songwriters creating a substitute for the mainstream, writing songs that don’t simply distract from our demons and inside dilemmas, however deal with them. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Ty Smith & The Minor Offenses – Self-Titled

Overlook being forward of his time at 16. On his debut album, Ty Smith laps dudes twice or thrice his age in maturity and perception with the songs he presents. He then delivers all of it with a voice that may not be whiskey soaked and put away moist, however it’s a lot well-seasoned and excellent for this type of nation music. In the meantime, the musical accompaniment and association is precisely what you need. It’s just a bit moody and darkish with some Crimson Filth rock tones. However general, it’s unapologetically nation.

From Sand Springs, Oklahoma simply outdoors of Tulsa, Ty Smith has already performed opening slots for greater artists, and notable venues like The Mercury Lounge. It feels prefer it’s solely a matter of time earlier than the world wakes as much as him, and the way forward for Crimson Filth and conventional nation finds its subsequent star. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – The Droptines – Self-Titled

For these on the lookout for one thing a little bit extra offbeat in nature, rely your self fortunate if the debut album from The Droptines lands in your lap. It is a real alt-country work, that means that it’s an amalgamation of nation, rock, blues, and people influences. It’s extra indicative of the late 90s or early 2000s when alt-country was hitting its stride earlier than it bought folded into “Americana,” and the music misplaced a lot of its guts.

This self-titled album is an exploration into impulse management and the going through of ethical conundrums, and infrequently failing to fall on the appropriate facet of those selections. Intercourse, medication, and booze are recurrently referenced in these songs because the protagonist pinballs between free relationships, lapses from sobriety, and common bouts of self-loathing. The watery impact on the vocals provides to the murky vibe this music emotes. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Ben Vallee – Introducing…

Should you’re a fan of real throwback basic nation music, you’ll discover little or no to fuss about, and much to favor within the songs of metal guitar participant turned frontman Ben Vallee’s debut album aptly titled Introducing… Because it says on the again cowl, it’s “One thing so outdated it sounds new.”

You’d anticipate the metal guitar all through Introducing… to be stellar since that’s Ben Vallee’s main self-discipline, and you’ll be proper. It’s the extent of songwriting that leaves you downright shocked. You’ll be able to inform time and research went into composing these tracks to be each conscious of the traditions of basic nation, whereas additionally presenting one thing related to present-day ears. Then as a metal guitarist, Vallee can leverage his personal extra private understanding of the melody and lyrics to take advantage of preferrred musical accompaniment. (learn overview)

MOST ESSENTIAL – Zach High – Chilly Beer & Nation Music

There’s maybe no higher signal of this nation resurgence than the surging recognition of 25-year-old Zach High. It’s not that conventional throwback ’90s-sounding artists haven’t been round for years. Lots of the authentic artists from the ’90s are nonetheless going robust and releasing good music too. However with Zach, his music has caught hearth like he’s the subsequent new factor, despite the fact that his sound is older than he’s.

Maybe principally importantly although, Chilly Beer & Nation Music is simply the beginning, for each Zach High, and the place nation music is headed general amid a conventional resurgence. We’ve seen traditionalists pop up through the years. However few have captured the sound of conventional nation so purely, together with the eye of the general public so keenly as Zach High. With the best way issues are headed, it looks like solely a matter of time earlier than Zach and conventional nation each find yourself on High in nation music. (learn overview)