I’ll soon be posting a list of my favorite albums of the year. Until I figure out the final placements—it’s hard work, y’know—please make do with a list of my favorite songs of the year. They are in alphabetical order.
- “Addicted” – Quiet Hollers
- “Ain’t We Brothers” – Sam Gleaves (with Tim O’Brien)
- “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” – The Tillers
- “Almost Persuaded” – Lera Lynn and John Paul White
- “Apollo” – St. Paul & the Broken Bones
- “Are You Still Takin’ Them Pills” – Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles
- “Bad Bad News” – Leon Bridges
- “Believe” – Amen Dunes
- “Born in the Right Country” – River Whyless
- “Burning Man” – Dierks Bentley, with Brothers Osborne
- “Butterflies” – Kacey Musgraves
- “Cold Wind a Blowin'” – Ronnie Bowman and Lou Reid
- “Come Back When You Can’t Stay” – Parker Millsap
- “Congratulations and Condolences” – Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom
- “Curtain Maker” – Christian Kjellvander
- “Där vi möts” – Hästpojken
- “Deran Deran Alkheir (Well Wishes)” – Bombino
- “Don’t Let Me Down” – Sabrina Claudio (feat. Khalid)
- “Edge Off” – Super Doppler
- “Estamos Bien” – Bad Bunny
- “Everybody Walkin’ This Land” – Paul Cauthen
- “Faux Guernica” – Christian Kjellvander
- “First Date” – St. Lenox
- “Fucking Crazy” – Robert Ellis
- “Hands on You” – Ashley Monroe
- “He’s Funny that Way” – Bob Dylan
- “Here’s Looking at You Kid” – Brett Dennen
- “Hey Skinny Santa!” – JD McPherson
- “Hurricanes” – St. Paul & the Broken Bones
- “I Just Lived a Country Song” – Robbie Fulks and Linda Gail Lewis
- “If I’m Gonna Be Lonely” – The Price Sisters
- “If the World’s Still Here Tomorrow” – Jim Lauderdale
- “In My View” – Young Fathers
- “In the Clear” – Lindi Ortega
- “Just Fear” – Dan Mangan
- “Kindness of Strangers” – Courtney Marie Andrews
- “A Lamb, A Dove” – H.C. McEntire
- “Lay Low” – Dan Mangan
- “Leave It Alone” – Amanda Shires
- “Let’s Take a Vacation” – Joshua Hedley
- “Liquid Days” – Anthony Roth Costanzo
- “Loneliness” – Darling West
- “Make Me Feel” – Janelle Monáe
- “Malamente” – Rosalía
- “May Your Kindness Remain” – Courtney Marie Andrews
- “Maybe You Should Go” – Clarence Bucaro
- “Mehcinut” – Jeremy Dutcher
- “Mississippi Heavy Water Blues” – The Slocan Ramblers
- “Moon River” – Frank Ocean
- “My Mind I Find in Time” – Mary Halvorson
- “My Queen Is Angela Davis” – Sons of Kemet
- “Neptune City” – Belle Adair
- “No Man’s Land” – Andrew Duhon
- “Nothing Compares 2 U” – Prince
- “Orphan” – Ashley Monroe
- “Other Arrangements” – Parker Millsap
- “Parking Lot Pirouette” – Amanda Shires
- “Pomok naka Poktoinskwes” – Jeremy Dutcher
- “Private Dancer” – Meshell Ndegeocello
- “Purgatory Cove” – Danny Michel
- “Pynk” – Janelle Monáe (feat. Grimes)
- “Ready to Roar” – Willie Nelson
- “rejecter” – nothing,nowhere
- “Revolution” – Red Shahan
- “Run to the Hills” – Tanya Tagaq and Damian Abraham
- “San Luis” – Gregory Alan Isakov
- “Sara” – Teitur
- “She Remembers Everything” – Rosanne Cash
- “Silverlake” – Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore
- “Skriftargangur” – Teitur Magnússon
- “Sky Walker (Spanish version)” – Miguel
- “Something to Get Through” – Willie Nelson
- “Space Cowboy” – Kacey Musgraves
- “Strange Weather” – Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy
- “Summer’s End” – John Prine
- “Thoughts & Prayers” – Will Hoge
- “Three Swallows” – Western Centuries
- “Wasn’t I Paying Attention” – Amanda Shires
- “We All Get Lonely” – Trampled by Turtles
- “Western Movies” – Traveller
- “What Do I Know?” – Greg Laswell
- “When I Quit Drinking” – JP Harris
- “You Ain’t Foolin’ Me” – Lindi Ortega