FAME Reviewers' Best of 2008 List

The FAME Reviewers' 2008 Best of List consists of albums that were "new to the reviewers" in 2008. A few of these came out in 2007 and one in 2006. Some of the albums were reviewed by FAME and some were not. I have linked to the FAME review of all of the discs on the list that we reviewed.
Dave Pyles,
FAME Coordinator and web nerd

Frank Gutch

Amy Campbell - Oh Heart, Oh Highway—My pick for album of the year.
Tom Mank & Sera Smolen - Where the Sun Meets the Blue
Maggi, Pierce & EJ - Kahchee Moochee
The Dixie Bee-Liners - Ripe
Keith Morris - Songs From Candyapolis
Sarah White - Sweetheart EP
Danny Schmidt - Little Grey Sheep
Devon Sproule - Keep Your Silver Shined
Hymn For Her - Year of the Golden Pig
Carleigh Nesbit - Flower to the Bee


Mark Tucker

I almost didn't want to participate this year because there were too many great CDs, and it killed me to leave out some. However, here's 10 of the best I reviewed this year in a wide spectrum. I could easily have listed 20, probably 30. Alphabetically, then:

Danny Brooks - No Easy Way Out: This is one smokingly soulful serving of the blues. Brooks has been to Hell and back, living to tell the tale. Instantly classic.
Escape the Floodwater Jug Band - Wrong Doings and Done Wrongs: Way the hell cool jug music from a young hawg-holler sextet in a rollicking CD; definitely my fave jug band.
Leigh Gregory - Rainy Season Never Ends: A new gem in the folk-symphonic-depresso-Goth-prog vein.
Marillion - Happiness is the Road, Vol. 1 & 2: Marillion has finally reconciled both their vaultingly epochal periods in one 2-CD package.
Dave McCullough - Pharr: Long for Gabor Szabo, Earl Klugh, the old George Benson, and that ilk? McCullough's your man.
Bernie Pearl - Old School Blues: ANY Bernie CD is a cause for celebration, end of story.
Dudley Saunders - The Emergency Lane: One of the most deceptive CDs I've ever heard. Warm, melodic, and shocking all at the same time.
Turbine - Reward: Dire Straits meets the jam bands in brilliant driving pop-rock, irresistable and top-notch in every way.
Various Artists - Women of Jazz: Issued by the killer Putumayo label, this is by far the best showcase of female jazz talent I've ever heard, smoky 'n swingin'.
Anything with Margaret Wienks: Cellist Wienks is an upcoming progrock powerhouse presently ignored by proglodyte crits in mag venues. Look to the Language of Stone label and elsewhere for her work.


Bob Gottlieb:

In no order whatsoever:

Los Fabulocos featuring Kid Ramos - Los Fabulocos featuring Kid Ramos - kick ass LA R & B strong Latino influences
Krista Detor - Cover Their Eyes - a strange journey that is very satisfyling
Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal - his return is growing stronger with each new disc
Mike Ferris - Salvation In Lights - roots gospel that shows the heart
Super Chikan - Sum' Mo' Chikan -tied with Otis Taylor - Recapturing The Banjo and Sonny Landreth - From the Reach - truly inventive approachs to blues and guitar or banjo soundscapes

and just have to include
Marcia Ball - Love Peace and BBQ - the familiarity and comfort of New Orleans

Roberta Schwartz:

Catie Curtis - Sweet Life
Denice Franke - Gulf Coast Blue

Mike Jurkovic:

Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: Truly amazing how Dylan's alternates, demos and outtakes are miles ahead and beyond everyone else's work. I can go on and on about how craggy and spooky some of this stuff is, but you know Dylan so you know this already. Sure I hope the wrong-headed hundred dollar deluxe set didn't sell one damn copy, but that's just me needing something to gripe about.
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels: This gave Dylan a run. Who had the right to expect that after all this time, after all those wonderfully lasting melodies and oddball slices of Ameri-arcania, Newman would return with some of his sharpest arrows (A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country) and most cinematic and loveliest melodies (Losing You and Feels Like Home).
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon: This masterful two-disc reissue of Zevon's debut may arguably be considered his strongest effort. Sure, Excitable Boy and Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School still resound and reverberate, but this remains his mission statement. Add the second disc of truly exceptional and inspiring demos, ie: The French Inhaler, Mohammed's Radio, and Frank and Jesse James and you can listen to a great record become a whole lot greater.
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today: Byrne's most Talking Heads-like work since…well, that band's farewell disc Naked some twenty years ago. But that's not to imply that Byrne or Eno are falling back on the familiar. Hardly. This new set is an expansive exploration of the past and present, an "electronic gospel music" as Byrne is fond of describing it. And it is good. And it is odd. And it has songs on it like Home, Strange Overtones, One Fine Day and the haunting assurance of Lighthouse.
Tie:

Is there any better way to get seven into five than with a three way tie? Of course not, so here goes: "She Ain't Me" is the sophomore effort we all hoped it would be. Stronger and ballsier than her distinctive debut, with every song serving as a step forward, bringing new delights with each listen. . .ditto that for Edwards' "Asking For Flowers". I originally wrote that this was one of the greats for '08 and I still feel that way. As for Mr. Ry: with his flourish for musical eclecticism, the Cooder anthology proves gloriously that all music is mutual, the voice of many people dancing as one.

Jim Zimmersheid

Russ Barenburg - When at Last
Steve Kaufman - Mirage
Gretchen Priest and Plaidgrass (no title)
Lauri Lewis and the Right Hands - Live
Joe Smart - Guitarman

Tampa Blue

Otis Taylor - Recapturing The Banjo
Elliott and The Untouchables - Voodoo Stew
Steve Howell - My Mind Gets To Ramblin'
Tomcat Courtney - Downsville Blues
Candye Kane - Guitared & Feathered

Dave Pyles

Tommy Emmanuel - Center Stage (DVD)
Michael Smith - Love Letter on a Fish
Chuck Brodsky - Two Sets
The Angel Band - With Roots & Wings
The Asylum Street Spankers - What?. . .And Give Up Show Biz?