Maya De Vitry and Charlie Worsham enter the AOTY conversation.
Hannah Juanita
Magnolia Sessions [EP]
Acoustic set recorded live– the birdsong is a nice flourish to have left in the mix– captures her warm singing and exceptional taste in influences. Picking “Wild and Blue” as the one song she wishes she’d written? Iconic. Bring on a new full album.
Bronwyn
Rattlin’ Bones
A refinement from her quite good debut, this set highlights her continued growth as a songwriter and the pickin’ is, of course, unassailable. Still not 100% convinced she has the vocal presence on record to act as a bandleader, but there’s some growth there, too.
Casey Barnes
Made for This
In the sense that he sounds comfortable in and committed to such a middling, generic sound without anything hinting at a distinct POV? Yeah, I guess maybe he is. Comforting, somehow, to know the US doesn’t monopolize having a wildly uneven country scene.
Bryan Ruby
Playing With Fire [EP]
He still knows his way around a catchy as all hell pop-country hook, and the construction of these six songs is airtight. But he makes some odd, unpleasant choices with his vocal tone on this set that he didn’t make on prior efforts, and it’s a massive distraction.
Charlie Worsham
Once Upon a Second Time Around
Perfectly timed to coincide with his Grand Ole Opry membership announcement, one of most innately gifted acts in Nashville finally has an album that, start to
finish, realizes his full potential.
His songwriting is clever, empathetic, and wise to genre forms. His singing is versatile, as capable of delivering a pensive ode to his grandfather as throwing in the occasional well-timed growl. And his musicianship is simply beyond reproach. This album is throwing elbows with recent efforts by Carter Faith, Ashley McBryde, and Braxton Keith as the very best of what contemporary Music Row country can actually sound like.
Sure, there’s a better timeline wherein he, Kip Moore, Frankie Ballard, and Dee White became the genre’s A-list men instead of the likes of Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, and the rest of the Bro Country hacks. That what-might’ve-been shouldn’t overshadow how great the music he’s making right now actually is. Worsham is having a bit of a moment, and this terrific album fully meets it.
Maya De Vitry
All My Faith
I tend to associate her with more staid Americana sounds– not a pejorative in the case of her work to date– so it’s a most pleasant surprise to hear her lean into a bit of twang and a bit of rock on her latest. Aesthetically, it makes for her most accessible album yet, which she accomplishes without sacrificing any of the incisive wordplays or interior work that have made her such a captivating writer. Here, she drills into notions of why different forms of faith– in herself and her fellow humans, first and foremost– is so essential.
What makes De Vitry such a vital artist is that she never strays from the fundamental empathy in her POV, and, so far, she manages to exceed her own ceiling with each new album. Another contender here for the year’s very best records.
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