Willi Carlisle and Kaitlin Butts deliver two late entries into the Album of the Year conversation.
Raul Malo
Bella Ciao: Live in Nashville
A testament to how his peerless and all-time great vocal talent remained fully intact right to the end, this set of perfectly recorded (this record’s an engineering triumph, too) covers and deep cuts makes for an essential addition to his catalogue. Just beautiful stuff.
Willi Carlisle
The Universal Bubba
On which our hero enlists no less than Tyler Childers (and his band) to translate his of-the-people folk music via what Childers once referred to as his “universal sound.” And, for as great as Carlisle’s more traditional folk albums have been, this Bubba can dance.
The reason it works is that Childers is attuned– better than anyone in the modern country space, really– to balancing an aesthetic that is still broadly accessible with a whole universe of disparate sonic influences. Who better to give Carlisle a bit of studio polish without losing any of the singular and essential perspective of his writing?
This album retains his powerful way of championing the underclass and disenfranchised via narratives that are empathetic and often very deeply, authentically weird. It couldn’t be better timed for the November 2026 vibe, in other words.
Kaitlin Butts
Hello, Honky Tonk
She set an impossibly high bar with ROADRUNNER!, and if she doesn’t quite match that one here, she’s still dropped her second straight Album of the Year contender. For her vocal prowess, genre know-how, and ribald humor, she’s as gifted as anyone in proximity of the mainstream.
Various Artists
Felice County Fair: A Celebration of the Felice Brothers
Something about this year’s crop of tribute albums has left me grumpy; great choices of subjects with even more scattershot than usual execution. This set plays less like the celebration its title promises than a museum exhibit enlivened by a few animatronics.
Todd Snider
My Second Rodeo
Not a patch on his finest records, this does still play as more of a piece with his catalogue than did his underwhelming final “proper” studio record from last year, with the specificity of the humor in these songs reminding what a titanic loss he is.
LoCash
Chris ⚡️ Preston
This finds them bemoaning being prisoners of Music Row while also shamelessly attempting every single trend– Bro, Boyfriend, Wallen, Pledge Week, 90s revivalist– Music Row has cycled through in the decade they’ve been C-listers. But, hey, now we know their names?
Elvie Shane
With the Wind
He took some massive swings on his last album (24’s Damascus), and his reward was getting dropped from a major label. This set skews far more conventional, especially in structure and production, but enough of his fundamental weirdness still shines through in the songs.
Lydia Loveless
Accolades [EP]
She may say she needs things other than acclaim, which is a fair point, sure, but… here we are. She remains an artist whose bite has an immediately arresting venom, and this EP makes for a concentrated dose. Even lower-fi than usual recording suits her well, too.
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