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Top 100 - 2016Click here to see Staff Results.1 Honeycutters - On The Ropes2 Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth3 Tedeschi-Trucks Band - Let Me…

Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno have been making sweet old-time fiddle/banjo/guitar music together, both under that name, and in the quartet The Onlies, out in Portland, Oregon the past few years. They’ve now moved to Durham, NC, and have more of an indie/folk/pop sound on this wonderfully recorded album of songs covering a wide array of subject matter. They play Asheville on September 22nd, and Charlotte on the 23rd.

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — one of Latin America's most recognizable political figures — is facing 6 years in prison and a lifetime ban from office after a major corruption conviction upheld.

Black Mountain’s Seth Kauffman has another multi-layered sonic experience in the form of this new album out this month! He’s released a few singles already, and has created some hand-made stencil album covers, too. As he’s known for doing with Floating Action, Seth writes, produces, engineers, and plays all the instruments here. Get to know his sound, and you’ll see why greats like Dan Auerbach, Jim James, and Scott McMicken regularly work with him.

A new Americana singer/songwriter on the scene, Jack McKeon is originally from Chatham, NY, but moved to Nashville in 2021 to pursue his passion. Check out this debut album Talking to Strangers, which showcases his impressive songwriting set to bluegrass and Americana. He’s in our area for an in-the-round show at The Grey Eagle in Asheville this Friday at 5:30pm with Caitlin Cannon and Wyatt Espalin, and will join Martin in the Air Studio here for a live interview Friday morning at 11!

The New Music Friday and Pop Culture Happy Hour host had a hard time narrowing his favorite albums of 2025 down to 10 — the year in music was good enough to fill a list two or three times longer.

Time to kick back, slow down a bit, and bathe in the lush tones and rhythms of the most senior member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Saxophonist Charlie Gabriel’s first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in New Orleans’ Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played with Lionel Hampton, whose band just then also included a young Charles Mingus, later spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer, J.C. Heard. While he’s also fronted a bebop quintet, played and/or toured with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader. The result is a beautiful, eclectic collection, including six jazz standards and two new pieces, and three on which Charlie sings for the first time!

Songs about finding joy and healing, particularly for those who have been marginalized by mainstream society, are what you’ll find on this new release from the Nashville musician, songwriter, and producer. "As I continue to be a musician, the question I keep at the forefront is, 'Is this helping build bridges or is it hurting?' Like, 'Am I becoming a weird corporate shill, or something like that?'" Stylistically, Oladokun brings in West African, soul, country, and hip-hop on this 2nd album of hers. Chris Stapleton, Mt. Joy, the McCrary Sisters, and Manchester Orchestra are among the guest artists.

Welcome to the 18th album from this Weaverville native, Swannanoa resident, nationally recognized sage, and a true survivor. Shortly after his cancer diagnosis last year, Malcolm and Jared Tyler decided to get some new songs of his recorded, just the two of them, not knowing what the future held in store for them. Fortunately, it was a whole album’s worth of more great “Malcolmisms”. The songs here cover a variety of challenges we’re all vulnerable to: cancer, addiction, greed, hatred, inexplicable injustice… Malcolm helps us wrestle with them, as he has done for maybe a few lifetimes now. Bits & Pieces was produced by Jared and by Brian Brinkerhoff, and recorded mostly at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville.

In the height of lockdown in 2020, banjo extraordinaire Tony Trischka received a mysterious package in his mailbox that would significantly change his next few years. Its contents: an USB drive full of rare recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, mostly taken from private gatherings at Earl’s house during the 80s and 90s. Naturally, Trischka began pouring over the more than 200 songs, transcribing the all-new solos, tones, and tricks from the man he’d been studying for over half a century. Now we have this new album, filled with wonderful collaborations from other artists including Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Sierra Ferrell, Molly Tuttle, and the Gibson Brothers.