Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.
Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the albu
Folk music certainly seems to be on the upswing again with folks like Bon Iver and the Fleet Foxes enjoying tons of press and popularity (at least as much as an indie act can get). Proof positive is The Avett Brothers' rapid rise during the last couple years. Seth and Scott Avett have been playing together in their current band for about nine years, releasing CDs and touring modestly until their first appearance on the Conan O'Brien Show in 2007. After that appearance, they've been asked to open
