Tom Clarke’s 20 Favorite Roots and Blues Albums of 2025
Tom Clarke’s 20 Favorite Roots and Blues Albums of 2025
Little FeatHot Tomato Productions / MRI
Strike Up the Band was a clarion call for the reinvigorated Little Feat to produce hearty, cleverly written songs coated in pungent mixes of all kinds of American roots music. In other words, Little Feat music. The Feats have never failed us, and this album is among the best in their 57 year-long list of them by every single song on it.
Shelby MeansShelby Means Bluegrass
With a standup bass, pin-up beauty, and a strong sugar and spice voice, this veteran of Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway and Della Mae delivers a debut album filled with outstanding songs that crackle with Americana charisma. She’s joined by friends that happen to be some of bluegrass music’s finest players. Shelby Means is going places.
Mike FarrisFAME / Malaco Music Group
Mike Farris and a steamy band in Muscle Shoals come off as a match made in 1970s southern rhythm and blues music heaven, but with the sonic punch of today. Farris ranks among the finest singers ever to walk this walk. These songs and performances are among the most striking ones he’s ever cut. Puzzling why Farris isn’t a huge star.
James McMurtry The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
New West Records
James McMurtry has honed to flawless the sharp-eyed songwriting that runs in his blood. Sardonic and truthful, this batch of his simile-rich tales, delivered in a loamy drawl and with crisp Texas roots rock music, hit like subtle little sledgehammers. Their impacts deepen significantly over time. That only happens with the best.
Robert FinleyHallelujah! Don’t Let the Devil Fool Ya
Easy Eye Sounds
Finley again ups his amazing game of on-the-spot improvised lyrics and ground-in-the-soil delivery, leading a group of producer Dan Auerbach’s skintight players through his sacred songs. Finley takes gospel music to places it’s never been, and the devil doesn’t stand a chance in heaven or hell against his barrages of genuine soul.
Greensky BluegrassThirty Tigers
Celebrating 25 years, Greensky offers a spectacular, wide-ranging collection ideally capturing its singular ways with bluegrass and well beyond. XXV features meticulous songcraft and house on fire jamming, its songs spiced up by guests such as pianist Holly Bowling, mandolinist Sam Bush, singer Lindsay Lou, and Billy on the Strings.
The Marcus King BandAmerican Recordings / Republic Records
Marcus King and band take another sharp turn on Darling Blue, but their wheels never leave the country road. Yes, country, with pop roots and loads of soul. King focuses on songcraft and his awe-inspiring singing, leaving searing guitar in the back seat in favor of only a little deft picking to compliment seductive melodies.
Larkin PoeTricki-Woo Records
Bloom was an early in the year master class in the tough pop-rock riding on blues frameworks that the Lovell sisters’ band keeps taking steps up in. Summer brought An Acoustic Companion, on which they stripped five Bloom songs to their bloomers, the band’s laid-back grooves and the ladies’ harmony singing exposing their cores.
Charlie MusselwhiteForty Below Records
The truly legendary Charlie Musselwhite at 81 leads a young band through an album full of his remarkable, largely rocking new songs as if their age. Musselwhite possesses one of the most distinctive voices and harp styles in post-war blues music history. Look Out Highway radiates both, not only undiminished, but enhanced.
Family-Owned Records
Set up in their home in front of the fireplace, the Big Damn Band—blistering singer and guitarist Rev., his washboard wielding wife Washboard Breezy, and the bucket of spare metal parts percussionist Jacob Powell—play a set of original, clamoring blues songs that are never anything but weighty and mesmerizing and cool as shit.
The Texas Headhunters: Johnny Moeller, Jesse Dayton, Ian Moore
Hardcharger / Blue Elan Records
It was marketing genius to merge the flairs of these Lone Star songwriters, singers, and guitar slingers. But they click as if predestined to. Texas Headhunters illuminates terrific songs set to some of the most deliciously dirty stuff to tear through the air all year. A welcome new lesson in old-school, guitar-fired, blues rocking pleasure.
Hayes CarllHighway 87 Records / Thirty Tigers
Carll writes, sings, and plays at the level of his heroes and mentors such as Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard here. The openness Carll displays is enhanced by his and his accompanists’ easy breezy and detailed delivery of them. A Texas troubadour with expressiveness all his own in tip-top alluring form.
Strolling Bones / New West
The final album from a critical figure in 1970s southern rock via his band Cowboy. Stars Chuck Leavell and Randall Bramblett are among the lifelong friends that assist the late guitar stylist, singer, and songwriter on seven of his most earnest songs that leave lasting impressions. A sublime swan song for a life led through art, and heart.
Galactic and Irma ThomasTchuop-Zilla Records
The long-acknowledged Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas sings at 84 in a swelling, creamy register with all the vivacity and tenderness she possessed at the start. Experience shot through with passion lifts these new songs to among her recorded best. The great Galactic’s prime soul grooves are as much the attraction.
Hard Times Records
Tough as railroad spikes, dripping with soul, and with a rock and roll fire under its ass, the music that Piper & The Hard Times lays out here is tailor-made for any company. The big-as-life singer Al “Piper” Green was diagnosed with cancer upon the release of this album. A kick in in the ass much harder than his music is to ours.
Larry McCrayKeeping the Blues Alive Records
Based on this album, this should be bluesman Larry McCray’s time. Heartbreak City never lets up. McCray and a handpicked band lay down one hook-filled, soul infused, guitar-triggered blues rocker after another, with spirit to spare. Joe Bonamassa got behind his fellow guitarist, and their second album together is simply fantastic.
Chris Vincent & the Raw DealsChris Vincent Music
Vincent picks this stuff up sitting and marveling at what glides past his New Orleans porch. Writing prose from it, he developed this delightfully banged up set of songs with blues magic about them. Through throaty voice and by fervently scraping at his guitar, Chris Vincent made Good Crook resonate way above the average blues bear.
Sean McDonaldLittle Village
Another in the thankfully snowballing line of young Black men who embrace blues without altering its heritage. Sean McDonald lights his own fire under a sharp set of originals as fine as the neat covers he chose to play. Thrilling in voice and on guitar, McDonald exudes naturalness whether at a simmer or a jumping, roiling boil.
Geoff AchisonJupiter 2 Records
An especially accomplished guitarist, Achison wrote and recorded these twelve raw but exquisite songs in the American acoustic folk-blues style at his Australian home. In an easygoing, craggy voice, he belies the advice given to him as a child. This album proves that music is a great calling, and the blues has no borders whatsoever.
Red Camel CollectivePinecastle Records
Remember this name—Heather Berry Mabe. The proverbial phrase “voice like an angel” applies. Red Camel Collective, a band of traditional, impeccable bluegrass pickers, makes a big impression on this debut with songs of devotion and magnitude. Mabe’s “Daughter of the Stars” should be required listening for all new parents.
Tom Clarke for Making A Scene
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