Three Chords and the Truth UK

The 2016 festival year began and ended in an indoors setting with a major overseas event being the showpiece of the summer. The line up for two days spent at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville Kentucky threw plenty of candidates for this list into the mix and the four eventually chosen represented the cream of this eclectic music event rich with a roots and Americana inclusion. Back on home soil, Maverick and Moseley Folk were their usual stoic efforts, while C2C in March finally delivered a stellar two days from the ever decreasing pool of exceptional artists operating within the country music mainstream. High and Lonesome extended the festival season to the end of November with a commendable line up from both sides of the Atlantic. Finally a quick mention for the Jinney Ring Folk Festival which provided two fine candidates for this list in sets by Lucy Ward and Sam Carter. As usual this personal choice is entirely subjective and each artist contributed something significantly memo...

Although I had a fairly extensive gig year, the first acknowledgement is to those dedicated folks on the circuit who far exceed the number I manage to attend and their commitment to live music is utterly admirable. 2016 proved to be an exceptional year with the fortunate experience of being able to see many personal favourites. The year was bolstered by an mid summer US road trip and in some format all but two of my gigs and festival days had some coverage on the blog. For the second successive year, the ninety mark was hit aided by an exceptional full band in-store set by Elizabeth Cook in Nashville. Live music continues to be the utopia of the blogging experience and even when circumstances test the endeavour, the ultimate satisfaction of recording the memory in the written format wins the day. Of course the twenty five chosen performances to form the favourite list is a purely personal entity, but hopefully sharing it will resonate with some folks out there. Happy reading and here...

Is there room for another end of year album list? I hope so because here comes an humble collection of my favourite releases in 2016. One thing about this list is the term best is nowhere to be found as it treats music listening as a subjective beast, with the only important outcome being to what extent it connects. Each year Otis Gibbs puts critics lists in perspective by implying that few dispute their anointing tendencies from a relative small listening sample in relation to the number of albums hitting the market. In defence of such lists, there is a finite listening capacity and there will no doubt be many albums released this year that will eventually find their way to me in good time. However it is good fun to reflect on the last twelve months at an opportune moment and one absolute certainty is the pride that emanates from being able to connect with these thirty albums. Debating the strength of 2016 is left for another time as these personal favourites get the crowning moment...