2024 in Review // J.M. Hart’s Favorite Albums of the Year

Settled along the fall-line in his home state of Virginia, Jonathan has been writing songs alone and with others for some time.

 

Record Crates United notes that Jonathan walks the line between “country-tinged singer-songwriter fare and cosmic Americana.”

 

He works a day-job by day, hosts The Brokedown Podcast by night, and tries to spend time with his family in between.

I precede this list with a few disclaimers, notes, and prevarications. Firstly, I stopped making best-of lists years ago because the notion of electing best amongst disparate arts is off-putting.

Secondly, this list is a partial catalog of favorites for the year. The list is capped for brevity both as a kindness to you, dear reader, and to spare me the agony of what would be an ongoing effort, stretching into the new year.

Which brings me to the third note which is that I prefer to wait until the year has actually finished to look back and assess but, given that this is not for my own web log, I have caved to the market forces on this particular peculiarity. Please forgive me.

The last caveat, until I recall the remaining dozen, is that this list is unranked. The order is the order because I thought of it that way or it flowed that way or I’m not great at alphabetizing. Choose your poison.

First up is the revelatory self proclaimed “singer-songwriter” album from The Modern Folk, “Serf Punk”. J Moss, who helms the various assemblages of the prolific project (at least half a dozen releases this year so far) sent me this as it neared completion and, after my first listen, I went back and started it again, this time drafting a set of unsolicited liner notes.

Any album that accumulates thoughts onto a page as I listen is a good one. Here, Moss and his various accompanists, spin folk-ish tales of work-a-day drudgery, economic and climatic woes, and put a compelling face on living in today’s world. We may not be mining coal for the man, but we’re moving something and the dust of the day hangs on our heads until washed clean by some good songs and an honest guitar. The Modern Folk provides.

Clinging to the outer reaches of folk musics we find an album presenting the intersection of stalwarts of the out-leaning folk scene. “Shackamaxon Concert” by Elkhorn & Mike Gangloff is, in fact, a concert from 2022 wherein Gangloff with his Hardanger Fiddle whose sympathetic strings take fiddle tunes to new spaces and Elkhorn, the Drew Gardner/Jesse Sheppard guitar duo that tangles melodies and drones together in a way that Doc & Merle never imagined, gave the room, and now us a set to remember.

Appalachian space folk turns to raga in the second of these two side-long cuts presenting a definite diversity after the flip but, within the tracks, the music rises and falls, tempos stride and slacken. The fiddle soars atop the bed of guitars carrying the listener along for the journey. One can imagine that this was a special night there, in the room, in Philly, but, for those of us playing along from home, we are afforded the opportunity to drop a needle and lay back in repose, or to spin this up for a mountain drive, whatever your meditation practice may allow.

While we’re in the zone, follow me to Amelia Courthouse’s latest, “broken things”. It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since “ruby glass”, the 2019 release from Amelia Courthouse (aka Leah Toth). But then, hearing the expansion in sound fields and tones from the previous record, it seems like time well spent.

The addition, as well, of Toth’s half spoken, lullabying, vocals on “Keep Your Arms” should be sufficient reward to all patient fans. I might characterize this as a Sunday morning record, simply for its ability to not shatter the quietude of the day-of-rest while painting the walls with captivating colors.

Toth refers to this as “hymnambient” music which, in my estimation, matches my own previously stated takeaway. Even absent a belief in the mainstream sacred, music is, itself, sacred and this here channels that earnestly, effortlessly, and beautifully. As the frost laden window mornings lay ahead, it would be wise to have this one in your collection to warm the morning hearth and hearts.

Continuing with the lights down low, it’s high time we talk about the latest Myriam Gendron record, “Mayday”. This is her third and, after crafting her recorded sound with 2014’s “Not So Deep As A Well” in which Gendron set music to a collection of Dorothy Parker poems, and 2021’s “Ma délire –Songs of love, lost & found” which comfortably merges traditional folk songs with modern, avant music, she now ventures forth with largely original songs sung in her captivating voice and framed by the likes of Marisa Anderson, Bill Nace, Jim White, and Zoh Amba.

As such, this is decidedly not my mother’s folk music but it ties together threads that are familiar, haunting, and beloved into a set that is as essential as her previous albums and should be looked to by future generations attempting to advance the idea of folk music recording.

All this talk about the fringes of folk music makes me want to blow right past the construct entirely and tell you about a record that, despite its instrumentation, is not folk music. Jen Powers and Matthew Rolin are the Powers/Rolin Duo and they play hammered dulcimer and guitars respectively. It would be easy for the uninitiated to see the instrumentation and expect something closer to Trapezoid than Coltrane but this would be a mistake.

Ecstatic jazz from Ohio with Appalachian instruments seems a hard sell, but here we are several duo and trio albums into the world of Rolin/Powers and this seems the most apt descriptor. Their latest, “Clearing”, surges from the speakers, opening with high tension created by the tonic percussion of the dulcimer blending with washes from Rolin’s guitar, establishing a launchpad from which the first of the two side-long improvisations carry one far afield from their sofa.

This is not, however, couch-lock music. Dynamic waves of energy pulse from the hammers and the fingertips through the speakers and into the listener. Sit, recline, or hover to this one today.

Now that we’ve shed genres, let’s talk about another improv heavy release. “Crying in 9” comes from jam session turned band, Vague Plot. Zachary Cale sets aside his songbook and mans his Jazzmaster in the left channel as Uriah Theriault supplies the right channel guitar.

Their complementing lines ride atop the mesmerizing bass and drums of Ben Copperhead and John Studer. Phil Jacob rounds it out with sax and keys and together they mesh an array of sounds into an action-packed six-tracks. Prog-ish grooves punctuated with echoey saxophone, dueling guitars, and a rock solid rhythm section propel this tape from curiosity to critical document.

What’s not to like? This one works for the party and the home alone zones. Make sure you leave some breadcrumbs or you may not find your way back.

Seawind of Battery is a project whose music always suggests to me the sensation of being lost. The music does not wander but the places it inhabits are sort of fantastic landscapes, windswept and stripped of time and clear demarcation. Following up on the debut, “Clockwatching”, Mike Horn’s Seawind of Battery does what any viable project must do, it grows. “East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper” continues to forge the out-of-time moments with vast reverbs and hypnotic riffs but also adds another pair of hands.

Jarrod Annis provides soaring but subtle lap steel to the mix though most of the record. Together, they craft small universes, novel and yet familiar, in which one’s mind may wander. These universes have been among my favorite spaces to escape to this year.

Speaking of space, Jeffrey Alexander & Heavy Lidders have been striving effectively to claim one of the many torches to be carried forth in the name of space rock. 2023’s “Spacious Minds” almost made this list with its 2024 LP reissue but, in keeping honest about release dates, we’ll talk about 2024’s “Planet Lidders”, a slightly more compact yet extraordinarily expansive release.

First issued on vinyl for astute Bandcamp subscribers and later on cassette & digital for the much deserving masses, “Planet Lidders” opens with a 21 minute smoker of a jam featuring bonus Lidder, Jeff Tobias on saxophone. Jeffrey Alexander mans the sole guitar on this track as Drew Gardner steps over to zither, Jesse Sheppard drones away on the bass, and Scott Verastro keeps things moving from the drum kit.

Gardner shifts back to guitar for most of the record (aside from a stint on the vibraphone for the lovely indie-folkish “Mt. Airy Mind”) and the band continues to forge heavy Ragged Glory-esque rock throughout. They cap things off with a ripping take on David Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” that warps with the heat of ten minutes of fuzzed-out guitars until landing with a final, fading, cymbal crash.

And crash we shall into the final entry of this meandering list. Or splash, perhaps. The ninth release from Chris Schlarb’s Psychic Temple, “Doggie Paddlin’ Thru The Cosmic Consciousness”, is a perfect cool down from the frazzled acidic waves of some of the earlier selections.

In fact, this may be the perfect cool down from the frazzled high-wire act of day-to-day in this world. It’s just laid back enough to keep the blood pressure down but upbeat enough to keep you dialed in. The lyrics are engaging and rewarding enough to keep your focus but unassuming in their delivery so that you could just let them be if you aren’t down for a close listen.

There’s a bit on side one where Chris Forsyth charges in and fires things up a bit with some guitar riffage but things settle down on side two for a graceful landing. Rumor has it (per the liner notes) that this might be the last Psychic Lines record. I can’t speak to the veracity of that but I will absolutely look forward to whatever lies ahead if, in fact, as the closing song says, “9 Is The End”.

For this list, nine is definitely the end. No ten for this top ten because ten itself is arbitrary enough that I can see no harm in yielding the floor a bit early. I’ll also remind you that this isn’t really a “top” anything, just a handful of great records (and tapes) that I’ve enjoyed and hope that you may as well. Happy spinning.