Happy New Year, everyone! We asked our esteemed group of regular reviewers to fire off a list of what they thought the best albums of 2013. As we dash out the door for the year, we’re happy to share a first swipe of their replies with you! Enjoy the evening’s festivities … we look forward to sharing the best of folk music with you in the new year!! Sing out!!

---

THE BAND: Academy of Music 1971 Box Set (Capitol)

Nearly a half century after they first backed Bob Dylan, and a decade and a half since their final show, The Band remains one of popular music’s hottest groups. While two of these CDs feature crystalline remixes of every tune performed over the four nights, another two document the magic of their famed New Year’s Eve show, with soundboard recordings that include between-song patter and the historic four songs set with Dylan. Originally documented by the double-LP, Rock of Ages, in 1972, and expanded with ten additional songs (including the four with Dylan), when reissued on CD, in 2001, the concerts represented The Band at its’ artistic peak. Despite the power of these shows, and the promise of the music, the Academy of Music concerts would put a coda to The Band’s first chapter. They would not share a stage again for a year-and-a-half. By then, a lot had changed. – Craig Harris

 

JOSIENNE CLARK and BEN WALKER: Fire and Fortune (Navigator)

When I first heard Josienne Clarke last August I felt that, after years of hype, the next Sandy Denny had at last arrived. As summer gave way to fall and winter my admiration deepened for Fire & Fortune, a collection of folk standards and originals. There are lots of “pretty” voices out there, but Clarke’s combination of beauty, crystalline clarity, and paint-peeling power is rare. Her pairing with guitarist Ben Walker is perfect; he has the chops to ornament lavishly, but the wisdom to dial it back and let Ms. Clarke soar. Soar she does–and whisper as well. Clarke possesses a diva’s ability to treat scales and register shifts like child’s play, but the traditionalist’s understanding that great singers bask in the song, not vice versa. Some might say she sounds more like Jacqui McShee than Sandy Denny. And your point is…? – Rob Weir

 

BOB DYLAN: Another Self Portrait (Columbia/Legacy)

Self Portrait appeared in the wake of Bob Dylan’s huge commercial success with Nashville Skyline, and it was almost universally reviled as Dylan’s self-immolation. In retrospect it is more an attempt to demythicize and rehumanize the artist. Shortly after this the wonderful New Morning appeared. This latest Dylan Bootleg Series release was one I truly dreaded, but upon hearing it it totally charmed me with songs and outtakes from the Skyline and Self Portrait /New Morning sessions, especially those from a session with David Bromberg and Al Kooper as support. It puts the whole Self Portrait kerfuffle in perspective and unmasks a lot of really excellent performances. An excellent addition to a series of compelling releases. – Michael Tearson

 

OLD BUCK: Old Buck (Old Buck Music)

There is a small but active old-time music community across the US and beyond. Many musicians find themselves playing in a number of ensembles both permanent and temporary. The players in Old Buck are all seasoned instrumentalists. The band is comprised of Emily Schaad on fiddle, a past winner at Clifftop; Debra Clifford on guitar, a member of the Lonesome Sisters; Sabra Guzman on bass has played with Old Sledge and Riley Baugus is well known for his Round Peak prowess on banjo and guitar. All four members sing. Old Buck as a recording is a pure delight. The tunes are mostly old-time standards played exceptionally well. Joe DeJarnette, who has become the go to for superior engineering, has captured an intimacy that can only be caught when the musicians are playing knee to knee and having a real big time. That’s about all one should expect of an old-time recording. – Tom Druckenmiller

 

THE YOUNG TRADITION: Oberlin 1968 (A Wing & A Prayer)

The Young Tradition were one of the most unlikely of sensations in 1968, an English trio of Peter Bellamy, Royston and Heather Wood (no relation) who performed a capella. I saw them at that year’s Philadelphia Folk Festival where by demand they were added to the evening concerts all three nights of the weekend! Watching them I learned how compelling the naked human voice is. Oberlin 1968 captures the trio in full flight at Oberlin College November 17, 1968 in a 25 selection program. Riveting, spellbinding, commanding performance that is essentially a wonderful and unexpected delight. Superb sound. Feels like a miracle this tape has surfaced. – Michael Tearson

 

MELISSA FERRICK: The Truth Is (Mpress)

Ferrick is great at those heart-wrenching self-confessional tunes and sometimes surprises us with happier fare, but lately, it was all starting to sound alike. Something’s changed and it’s made this release one of the best of 2013. Maybe because she’s with a new label, Mpress, or maybe getting her heart shredded propelled her in a better direction. Leaning more toward Americana than earlier efforts, she’s joined by crack shot players like bassist Richard Gates (Patty Larkin), lap guitarist Natalia Zuckerman (Janis Ian), and Grammy winning vocalist Paula Cole. There’s lots of variety, from the delicate three-quarter time of the title cut, about making an old love new, to the faster “Time to Leave,” which clicks along like wheels on a highway. There’s still that biting honesty we loved, like telling an ex, “You’re nothing but a liar” in “Overboard,” and a sweetness in “I Don’t Want You to Change.” If you drifted away from her like I did, run back, and if you don’t know her work, pick up this one first. – Jamie Anderson

 

TOM JONES: Spirit In The Room (Rounder)

Tom Jones has utterly reinvented himself with this and its 2010 predecessor Praise & Blame in partnership with producer Ethan Johns. Tom still has those great pipes, but most of the time he has reined himself in to deliver gentle, intimate performances unlike anything he’s done. And he’s singing live in the studio with the band, again unlike anything he’s done before. Songwriters tapped here include Cohen, Waits, Dylan, Paul Simon, Joe Henry, Odetta and the Low Anthem. Even better the US release has several tracks the Euro version didn’t. Both albums mentioned highly recommended. – Michael Tearson

 

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE: I’m A Stranger Here (New West)

“We are dancing on the graves of the past. The clock is running and the spell is cast,” The Devil Makes Three’s writer/guitarist Pete Bernhard sings in “Dead Body Moving.” Equally grounded in traditional Appalachian folk and punk (not to mention jugband and blues), the acoustic trio serves up apocalyptic dance music laden with Biblical references a bit like Legendary Shack-Shakers’. “Forty Days” borrows from the legend of Noah in describing a flood a few years back in their southern Vermont home region. Bringing in horn players from New Orleans-based Preservation Hall Jazz Band subtly enhances the song’s aura. As for a second coming, cynical “Hallelu” advises us, “If you’re waiting for salvation, you’ll need candles and libations.” The Devil Makes Three can supply a boisterous audio for the event. – Bruce Sylvester

 

TIM O’BRIEN and DARRELL SCOTT: Memories and Moments (Full Skies)

After more than a decade since their last collection of new material, Memories and Moments was recorded in three days with minimal overdubs, it’s just O’Brien’s mandolin and fiddle, Scott’s guitar and piano, and the rough-hewn harmonies that sound as if the pair were born to sing together. The album ranges gracefully from heart-on-sleeve sentimentality to wry humor. Not without its surprises, the album takes a country turn with covers of George Jones’ broken-hearted drinking song “Just One More” and Hank Williams’ classic “Alone and Forsaken.” What lifts this album from good to great, though, is chemistry. As expected, O’Brien and Scott play deftly. The way their voices blend and the unselfish way they swap leads, though, strip away all pretense, leaving nothing but heart. – Bill Synder

 

SARAH JAROSZ: Build Me Up From Bones (Sugar Hill)

Sarah Jarosz has rapidly become one of the most thrilling performers we have. Her work kaleidoscopically mixes different forms into sounds completely her own. And when she interprets she brings often startlingly fresh notions as with Dylan’s “Shelter From The Storm” backed only by pizzicato cello. Each of her three albums has been a quantum leap. Her future is unlimited. – Michael Tearson

 

LEYLA McCALLA: Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes (Dixie Frog)

Langston Hughes was one of the great, under-appreciated black poets. But McCalla brings him to the forefront in this wonderful collection (along with some Creole material from her native Haiti and original material). Loved by Taj Mahal and Carolina Chocolate Drops, her music is deceptively simple. She’s primarily a cellist and singer, but also plays banjo, bringing in very spare accompaniment to frame her voice. And what a voice, more Billie Holiday than anything, flourishing in such bare surroundings and bringing the words, whether joyous or dark, to life. It’s an album that seems to exist out of time, sepia snapshots, although the world it describes really hasn’t moved on too much. As arranger, musician and vocalist she’s a remarkable talent, and this debut is assured and a harbinger of a towering career. – Chris Nickson

 

PETER ROWAN: The Old School (Compass)

Peter Rowan’s latest is a full circle to the pure bluegrass of his early days in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. In a career that careened through progressive rock bands Earth Opera and Seatrain, back to “˜grass for Muleskinner and Old & In The Way plus a distinguished bunch of solo albums in various styles. But his love of bluegrass is never far from the surface. The Old School is one of Rowan’s best of all, a set of extra fine Rowan originals played by a sterling cast. One I am sure will stand the test of time in my house! – Michael Tearson