#90 The Be Good Tanyas – Blue Horse

I fell in love with this album when I first heard it on its UK release in 2002, and played it incessantly, loving the vocal harmonies, pure and earthy like a breath of fresh country air, and the jaunty folky melodic arrangements with banjo and mandolin. It arrived at a time of peak Americana (or …

#970 Dolly Parton – Greatest Hits

Oh this is a breath of fresh air right now! Gotta love a bit of Dolly. Not my usual listening fare of course (prog rock, Krautrock, weirdy electronic noise), but you can’t fault her as a consummate performer and professional. Not to mention philanthropist. One of the true musical legends we have left. This compilation …

#1118 Josh Ritter – Hello Starling

I don’t know much about Josh Ritter, this is the only album of his that I own. And I don’t recall what prompted me to buy it. It could be from a CD compilation that a friend of mine put together which he called ‘Americana’. I don’t know what’s happened to that CD, I probably …

#1188 Slim Dusty – Australiana

I bought this cassette whilst living, working and travelling in Australia for 12 months from 2001-02. I can’t recall where I picked it up, but by the look of it, it lived most of its life in the glovebox compartment of the campervan my girlfriend and I owned in order to circumnavigate the fair continent …

#620 Lee Hazlewood – The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides (1968-71)

This record was a present from a good friend, the same friend who bought me the Jacco Gardner LP that turned up early on the randometer, and Barbarella. How fortunate I am to have generous friends with such an excellent taste in music. This is a truly wonderful record. I’ve not listened to it for …

#340 Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

Ah, the Creedies – as no one calls them ever. The quintessential American rock band. A Bayou blend of blues, rockabilly, country and slightly swampy rock. White men play the blues, and when they do, they sound like this. This 2003 CD comp is a 22-track ‘best of’ of songs released between 1968 and 1976, …

#1539 Neil Young – Harvest

Often appearing in those lists of ‘100 best albums’, ‘best albums of the 70s’ and the like, Neil Young’s 4th album was also named the #1 Canadian Album of All Time - vying for the top spot with Joni Mitchell’s Blue. This 1972 album was a huge commercial hit for Young and is arguably still …

#288 Johnny Cash – American IV : The Man Comes Around

This ‘American Recordings’ series of albums, masterminded by producer Rick Rubin, explores a wide range of covers and classics during Johnny Cash’s autumnal years, and was hugely successful, both critically and commercially. I was a bit late to the party and bought this one on its release solely on the strengths of his incredible and …

#854 Morning Bride – Lea Valley Delta Blues

I can’t remember how I came across these guys, but they’re local and it’s always good to support local bands (even when you live in London). Plus, seeing as I how I live in the Lea Valley Myself I thought I should check this out, their debut from 2007. The album title is a perfect …

#896 Olivia Newton-John – Greatest Hits

Oh my goodness. This album on cassette was one of the first albums jointly owned by my brother and I in our pre-teen years. I have no idea where we got it from; its possible, but unlikely that our parents owned it, or more likely acquired it, but it was the ONLY music, other than …