What an interesting and fun challenge! I feared that I might lean too heavily into favourites from the pre 2000 era, as these artists/albums were my entry drug into the wider shores of americana, but in the event only three predate this cutoff, and several are from the last few years. The broad musical spread–perhaps as one would expect with the breadth of the genre across both sides of the pond–is also a pleasant surprise. And although we’re only five selections into the thread so far, including my own, a couple of my choices make other writer’s top 10’s too.
10. Danni Nicholls Making Moves (2026)
When I reviewed this album a few months back I concluded so “This is the best album of 2026 so far, one which is getting regular repeat plays”‘ and it remains so as the year end approaches. I can do no better than an edit of my recent review, which concluded “Top-class vocals and production complement finely crafted personal lyrics of love, loss and hope from UK-born now Nashville-based artist”.
Nicholls’ voice is rich and smooth, and always perfectly placed in the arrangements of her songs, with top-notch musicianship and vibrant production throughout. Sharing equal top billing with Nicholls’ classy vocals and top production are her melodies and lyrics, which are open and honest on the delights and disappointments she finds in love, at the same time, both personal and relatable.I Want You,a co-write with Robby Hecht, is a soulful ballad with echoes of Sam Cooke, Nicholls singing to an uncertain partner “My arms are waiting for you/ So darling don’t be scared/ No you don’t have to worry/ I’m not going anywhere … Don’t you know by now/ I want you in the early morning/ I want you on my unmade bed/ I want you without warning/ I want you babe oh I want you.”
In the first single release from the album,The Wreckage, co-written with Kyshona Armstrong, Nicholls shares the readiness with which she falls in love“My love is a fire/ It burns without knowing/ That even the wildest flames can be quelled/It’s a virtue it’s a sin/ I can’t resist I want to jump right in/ The fire knows me well”, whileHoney(co-written with Claire Kelly), a mid tempo rocker tells of the aftermath of a relationship where the promises made prove all too false“So I’m having a funeral/ For the plans that we made/ For the life that we could’ve had/ If you’d have been brave/He’s more appealing/He’s the safer choice/ Thanks for using me to find out/ You still prefer boys/ I should’ve seen it coming but I was too busy loving you/ I didn’t believe you… /I didn’t believe you when you showed me who you were/ But I sure believed you when you whispered those words/ You must’ve been lying/ You were lying right next to me/ Pouring honey in my ear… /And fucking up my dreams”.
In ‘Making Moves’, a sensitive ballad with acoustic guitar and piano, and atmospheric pedal steel, Nicholls is returning to the part of town where her ex still lives, with a strong dose of unease, “Cause I’m not your baby anymore /You’re charming someone new in our old haunts/ When I see you it’s a matter of time/ Part of me thinks I’ll smile/ Part of me thinks I’ll die”.
For me, Nicholls’ best album to date, but I note that Fred has her 2019 release This Melted Morning in his top 10, so will be giving this another listen too.
9. Wesley Stace Wesley Stace’s John Wesley Harding (2017)
This album was my introduction to Wesley Stace, his third release after a long career releasing albums under the moniker John Wesley Harding. A trigger to explore his extensive back catalogue, and subsequent releases, this nonetheless remains my favourite of his albums.
Born in Hastings, but for many years resident in the USA, his songs remain quintessentially English, at least my ears, both literate, and witty. Opening trackI Don’t Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll sets the tone – “hanging up my leather jacket/ My backstage passes and my laminates/ Take my name off of the list I’ve seen the show I’ve got the gist…. cause I don’t wanna rock ‘n’ roll no more…”
Stace‘s high register vocal, and clear diction, ensures that his lyrics remain at the forefront of all his songs, Better Tell No One Your Dreams has the memorable hook “Tell them your secrets by all means/ but better tell no one your dreams”, lest they reveal too much!
Taking us back to his hometown, Hastings Pier reflects on the sad night it burnt down, summoning memories of calling bingo numbers, foreign students, amusement arcades and busking (to general disdain, he tells us!).
Production values are high throughout, with full band arrangements, drawing on pop elements as on Let’s Evaporate, with its big riff, insistent piano motif, ooh ooh backing vocals and a hint of psychedelia.
A rewarding listen from first to last.
8. Bonnie Dobson and The Hanging Stars Dreams (2025)
Truly a marriage made in heaven – my favourite americana album of 2025 – paired Canada‘s Bonnie Dobson with our very own The Hanging Stars. Born in Canada, and with an early career as part of the Greenwich village sound, Dobson has been a long time UK resident. Just eight tracks long, the album is Dobson‘s first release since emerging from retirement in 2013, and features six new originals, as well as two from her back catalogue.
In her 80s now, Dobson’s soaring ethereal voice, and passion for life, remain undimmed, shining through on each of the album’s tracks. Baby Got the Blues is as good an opener as one will find – the psychedelia tinged sound of The Hanging Stars matched perfectly to Dobson’s dream like vocal.
Best known as the writer of Morning Dew, famously covered (and commandeered) by the late Tim Hardin, Dobson‘s cover of Get Together simultaneously pays homage to, and breathes new life into, Dino Valenti’s 60s peace and togetherness anthem.
Title track Dreams reflects on Dobson’s Canadian roots, “Last night I dreamt of Canada / I dreamt I was on my way / To see my friends and my family / And this time I was gonna stay/ But Canada is miles away/much further than it seems”….”.
Don’t Look Down has a cinematic feel, with mariachi trumpet, and twang guitar, summoning up a dusty Mexican border town, while On A Morning Like This has a deliciously dreamy feel–maintaining the albums titular theme.
7. Yola Walk Through Fire (2019)
The first of my choices to feature in my predecessors choices, Yola’s release was a “wow” moment for sure. She’d emerged onto the scene at the annual Americana Music Association awards, held way back in 2017 at the (then awaiting makeover) St. John at Hackney Church, and impressed with her powerful vocals and big stage presence, but Walk Through Fire took her to a quite different place, embracing soul and the Muscle Shoals sound with alacrity and grace.
Fred Arnold’s piece has done full justice to her path to this album, and the stellar line up, both production and supporting musicians, so I’ll just add a comment on two of my favourite tracks, in addition to Fred’s choices of Faraway Look (listen out for that perfectly judged harpsichord), Ride Out in the Country and Lonely The Night. Title track Walk Through Fire has Celtic flavours, as well as classic Nashville harmonica from Charlie McCoy, and it’s positive message of facing life’s challenges.
Rock Me Gently would sit comfortably on Dusty Springfield’s Dusty In Memphis album, while Still Gone has an early Motown vibe–but every track is a winner on this album.
6. Graham Parker Howling Wind (1976)
Graham Parker —and his band The Rumour—emerged in the secondhalf of the 1970’s, from the burgeoning pub rock scene of the middle of that decade—indeed, The Rumour were formed from members of Brinsley Schwarz ( Schwarz himself, and Bob Andrews) and Ducks Deluxe ( Martin Belmont). In the same way as these forerunners had strong US influences, Parker himself added in particular soul to his writing, but with a particularly British sensibility.
With an extensive back catalogue to draw on—indeed, Parker is still writing and performing–notable recent releases including Three Chords Good, featuring the reformed Rumour. But for me the choice for my top 10 album lay between this, his debut, and its successor Heat Treatment, and by a short head it’s the former which I’ve chosen.
From opening track White Honey Parker and his band set out their stall, establishing the coolest of grooves, with Parkers’ unmistakeable vocal–both gravelly and smooth–and Bob Andrew’s organ licks and the brass section taking us to the soulful end of the musical spectrum, as on Silly Thing.
Up tempo Back to Schooldays, a longstanding live favourite is a nod to the golden days of rock’n’roll, while Soul Shoes is a glorious amalgam of soul and rock’n’roll. Album closer Don’t Ask Me Questions has a reggae vibe, another live show favourite, and its memorable refrain “Hey Lord, don’t ask me questions”.
An instant classic.
5. Teddy Thompson A Piece Of What You Need (2008)
Thompson comes from americana royalty, the son of Richard and Linda Thompson and he has forged a distinctive path from his self-titled debut in 2000, and including in recent years his charming duo release with Kelly Jones, Little Windows featuring songs co-written with Nashville’s Bill DeMain, and his recent release Never Be The Same.
But the album I keep returning to is this 2008 release, his most commercial album, and the most varied in its voicings. With big production, never more so than on In My Arms, probably his most successful song. Thompson is always open about his not being the easiest person to be with, and this song tells that story, with a big arrangement including a handclap intro, 1 2 3 and kick drum, and a glorious Wurlitzer instrumental. And a post chorus with a soaring falsetto vocalisation, I used to sing this song in a previous band line up ( falsetto included!). “Not an easy place to be/ in my arms/in my arms…”
Thompson tells the story of how Glen Campbell covered the song, but changed it to “Got an easy place to be…got a simple space to feel free..” and sighed. Because misery is never far away in Thompson’s songs, as in Turning the Gun on Myself--the title tells the story!
But the big sell of this album is the vibrant production, as on opening track The Things I Do, Thompson singing “its getting harder and harder to live with myself…one night away from a therapists couch–ouch..” with the up tempo, driving track a potent contrast to its soul searching.
An enduring favourite.
4. Flo Perlin Clay (2024)
When I reviewed this album for AUK I introduced it as “Superb blend of jazz, folk and contemporary singer-songwriter genres reflecting Iraqi and Belarusian heritage from Londoner Perlin”. And it was one of only three albums I’ve scored as a 10/10 in my years of reviewing. Summarising my earlier review,high standards of recording and production are pretty much a given for releases these days, but here they are exceptional, allowing the often complex and layered arrangements of Perlin’s songs to shine through, always enhancing and never overwhelming her deeply personal lyrics.
Melding diverse genres is one of the many positive characteristics of the world of americana, and here jazz, folk and contemporary singer-songwriter meet in a distinctive style, with rhythm always at its heart. Opening track Feels Like Yesterday kicks off with a Latin percussive groove, drums so clearly recorded you feel you’re there in the room with the musicians, and an arrangement with strings, sax and bass clarinet perfectly expressing the nostalgic lyric, reflecting on revisiting a special place from Perlin’s childhood, as she sings “We drove out through the hills that we’d known / Where nothing had changed, our faces were all that had grown/ We drove out through the hills where we’d lay/ Where nothing has changed, it only feels like yesterday “.
Perlin is a Londoner with Iraqi and Belarusian heritage, and this cultural background is also evident in the arrangements, and in Mother Tongue, the search for identity “Well I tried to speak but I said none/ I tried find my mother tongue/ The house I knew was filled with doubt/ The clothes I wore were inside out/ Sometimes I ask, is it here where I’m from / Sometimes I ask what it means to belong”. Several songs, this included, summon up the feel of Nick Drake’s classic album Bryter Layter, with its rhythmic acoustic guitar and strings.
Title track Clay is a reflection on living with and accepting mistakes, as part of a personal journey of growth, with Perlin’s acoustic guitar and subtle strings“Swallowed my tears, I liked the taste/ All the things I could have faced / Smile at the sky when it turns to grey/ Like you’re the only one that’s ever felt this way.”
A contemporary jazz feel is to the fore on closing track, about“how a great love stays with us”, with Perlin joined by Kaidi Akinnibi on sax, who shares vocals on the chorus“Part of me goes insane, when you go, when you’re gone, part of me/ Part of me fades when you go, when you’re gone, part of me”.
I concluded “a complex and compelling delight from first to last, and a personal favourite release of the year so far.” And so it remains.
3. Nick Drake Bryter Layter (1971)
There was a brief discussion s to whether Nick Drake is/was an americana artist, but a look through the number of artists name checking him as a major influence says yes—so I’m able to include one of my personal top 10 all genres favourites. Bryter Layter was released in 1971, Drake’s second album, in a career cut short all too early at the age of 26.
Produced by Joe Boyd, and with featured musicians including Richard Thompson and John Cale, the album sparkles from the instrumental opening track Introduction.
Drake’s vocal is soft and vulnerable, drawing the listener to his thoughtful and at times mysterious lyrics. In contrast to its predecessor, Five Leaves Left, which was first and foremost an acoustic album, Bryter Layter features swirling string arrangements, courtesy of Robert Kirby with more than a hint of jazz in the songs, all Drake originals.
Boyd’s production maintains a dreamy feel throughout, never more so than on Northern Sky, “Never felt magic as crazy as this /never saw moons, saw the meaning of the sea’.
Drake’s skills on guitar were legendary, with frequent experimentation with alternative tunings, but these were an added handicap playing live to a writer and performer happiest, and at his best, in the studio.
It is only in later years that the quality and influential nature of his recordings has been evident, and it is for both the recording and its influence that I rate it so highly in the pantheon of UK americana artists.
2.Robert Plant and Alison KraussRaising Sand(2007)
An instant hit with me— and the wider listening audience—this album has already been chosen by two of my predecessors in this series. I had the pleasure of seeing the album performed on its release tour, and remember being struck by the chemistry on stage between the duo, and spellbound by Krauss’s vocals, especially her technique of dancing around the microphone to achieve the ethereal feel, which I had falsely assumed to be post production addition of studio magic.
The way their arrangements of their selected songs breaths new life is exceptional, and to add to the songs highlighted by Jonathan and Fred I’d highlight Killing The Blues, with its aching steel guitar, and gorgeous harmonies, over a gentle shuffle beat, and that beautiful refrain , “Somebody said they saw me / Swinging the world by the tail / Bouncing over a white cloud/ Killing the blues”, and that twang guitar instrumental.
1. Nick Lowe The Impossible Bird (1994)
Nick Lowe has an impressive americana pedigree, going right back to Brinsley Schwarz, and indeed its predecessor Kippington Lodge, those early incarnations showing the influence of The Band, and the broad range of roots and popular music–in the widest sense–which has informed his writing and recording ever since. And he is still writing new material, to the highest level, and treading the boards.
But to pick a favourite album, The Impossible Bird from 1994 still has a special place for me. The first of what subsequently became known as the Brentford Trilogy, Lowe brings his A team of recording musicians, including Geraint Watkins and Bill Kirchen. Every track is a winner, with Lowe adding three covers to ten Lowe originals. The Beast In Me is a laid back guitar and vocal track, with just subtle keys added, the song famously written for Johnny Cash, and recorded by him.
True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is a classic Lowe cover, drawing out the emotion of the lyrics with his full band arrangement, while Shelley My Love is a delightfully restrained arangement, with Lowe’s vocals at their most vulnerable, the song subseqently covered by Rod Stewart. I Live On The Battlefield, a co-write with Paul Carrack has an uptempo arrangement (much preferred by Lowe to the cover by Diana Ross!), while 12 Step Program (To Quit You Babe) is a fine addition to Lowe’s rocker catalogue. But every track is a gem, and so my number one choice.