Here’s a long list of the songs that, well, got me through the year.
- “Ain’t No Grave (Sparse),” Crooked Still & Aoife O’Donovan
- “All Around You” (bluegrass version), Sturgill Simpson
- “AM Gold,” Nicole Atkins
- “Am I the One for You,” Jeb Loy Nichols
- “American Childhood II: Bad Kiss,” Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
- “Another Holiday,” The Westerlies & Theo Bleckmann
- “Anywayz,” Austra
- “Armageddon’s Back in Town,” Drive-By Truckers
- “Arthur McBride,” Mipso
- “Back to Work,” BC Camplight
- “Bag of Pills,” Arlo McKinley
- “Be Afraid,” Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
- “Beat Science,” Makaya McCraven
- “Billy and Beau,” Brennen Leigh
- “Blackbird,” Bettye LaVette
- “Bones,” Paul Cauthen
- “Bonny Light Horseman,” Bonny Light Horseman
- “The Boys of Summer,” Bell X1
- “Burlap String,” Courtney Marie Andrews
- “Cemetery Lifestyle,” BC Camplight
- “The Choir,” Caroline Spence
- “Couldn’t Break Your Heart,” Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
- “Cowpoke,” Colter Wall
- “The Cure,” Watkins Family Hour
- “Cuando Me Enamoro,” The Mavericks
- “Dark Blue,” Throwing Muses
- “Dead Confederate,” Jerry Joseph
- “Death of the Last Stripper,” Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
- “Delusional,” Shamir
- “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,” Steve Earle & The Dukes
- “Domino,” Nicole Atkins
- “Don’t You Know I’m from Here,” Brennen Leigh
- “Dreamsicle,” Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
- “Drinking,” Zsela
- “Drive to the Ocean,” Michael Stipe
- “The Dropouts,” Old 97’s
- “Even the River Runs Out of This Town,” Will Hoge
- “Everybody Cool,” Makaya McCraven
- “Fade Into You,” Whitehorse
- “Flowers of Neptune 6,” The Flaming Lips
- “Fuck Me Up,” Pokey LaFarge
- “Fyrretræ,” Bisse
- “Going Down to Sing in Texas,” Iris Dement
- “Good Heart,” Sin Fang
- “Graceland,” The Tallest Man on Earth
- “Gudernes Vilje,” Myrkur
- “Heads You Win,” Charley Crockett
- “Hell on Wheels,” The Lemon Twigs
- “Hesitating Nation,” Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- “Hey There,” Darling West
- “Hey Underdog,” Angus Gill & Seasons of Change
- “Holding to the Edge of Night,” Samantha Crain
- “How Long,” Iris Dement
- “Hourglass,” Mipso
- “I Am Not Waiting,” Austra
- “I Don’t Mind,” Sturgill Simpson
- “I Love You Too,” Gill Landry
- “I Only Drink When I’m Drunk,” BC Camplight
- “I Was Gonna Fight Fascism,” Soccer96 (feat. Alabaster DePlume)
- “I Wonder,” Shamir
- “I’m Learning How to Tell Myself the Truth,” John Moreland
- “Irgendwo,” KitschKrieg, Nena & Trettmann
- “It Must Be Someone Else’s Fault,” Courtney Marie Andrews
- “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” ANOHNI
- “It’s Time I Played a Love Song,” Le Ren
- “Johnny,” Sarah Jarosz
- “Kendimden Kaçmaktan – Ipek Ipekçioglu Remix,” Gaye Su Akyol & Ipek Ipekçioglu
- “Lightning Fields,” The Killers (feat. k.d. Lang)
- “Little Oblivions,” Julien Baker
- “Love Is Not Enough,” Lydia Loveless
- “Maggie,” Sarah Jarosz
- “Material Life,” Lightning Dust
- “Metal Guru,” Nena
- “The Middle,” Caroline Spence
- “Mr. Roscoe (Consider the Simultaneous),” Ambrose Akinmusire
- “My America Is Not Your America,” Mexican Institute of Sound
- “Napoleon – Fragments,” Bear’s Den + Paul Frith
- “No Glory in the West,” Orville Peck
- “No Time for Love Songs,” The Mastersons
- “November Air,” Zach Bryan
- “Oklahoma City,” Zach Bryan
- “Oklahomans!,” Corb Lund
- “Old Flowers,” Courtney Marie Andrews
- “Old Men,” Corb Lund
- “One Town’s Trash,” Aubrie Sellers
- “Options Open,” Kathleen Edwards
- “Pièce à vivre,” Rufus Wainwright
- “A Place for a Fool,” Stephen Mougin (feat. Gibson Brothers)
- “A Prism in Reverse,” Arbouretum
- “Process of Pyoneers,” Christian Kjellvander
- “Rabbit Hole,” Bastien Keb
- “Rager teenager!,” Troye Sivan
- “Revolution,” Heartless Bastards
- “Risk It,” Austra
- “Rodeo Clown,” Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen
- “Rona Pollona,” Ghost of Vroom, Mike Doughty & Andrew Livingston
- “Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun,” Drive-By Truckers
- “Sandy Band-Aids,” Jesse Woods
- “Santa Ana Winds,” Waylon Payne
- “Season of Decline,” Jeb Loy Nichols
- “Segðu já,” Hjálmar
- “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye,” The Del McCoury Band
- “Skid Row,” Victoria Bailey
- “Smalltown Boy – Spotify Singles,” Orville Peck
- “Someone Else’s Problem,” Jeremy Ivey
- “Spár eða spakmál,” Sigur Rós
- “Spinning My Wheels,” My Morning Jacket
- “Suicidal Saturday Night,” Arlo McKinley
- “Summertime,” Eilen Jewell
- “Summertime, The Gershwin Version,” Lana Del Rey
- “Ten Grand Goldie,” Einstürzende Neubauten
- “Texas Sun,” Khruangbin & Leon Bridges
- “This Morning It Was Too Late,” Eleven Hundred Springs
- “Thoughts and Prayers,” Drive-By Truckers
- “‘Til I Get It Right,” H.C. McEntire
- “Two Breaking Into One,” Mary Coughlan
- “Union, God and Country,” Steve Earle & The Dukes
- “United Phases,” Hillström & Billy (feat. Christian Kjellvander)
- “Visible Means of Support (No Justice, No Peace Remix),” Cha Wa
- “Wakin’ Up,” Lucinda Williams
- “Waste of a Whiskey Drink,” Gary Allan
- “What Are We Standing For,” Bad Religion
- “Welcome to Hard Times,” Charley Crockett
- “What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas,” Mayer Hawthorne
- “Whatever Happened to Christmas,” Andrew Belle
- “When You Found Me,” Lucero
- “Where Is the Heart of My Country,” Caitlin Canty
- “Which Side Are You On?,” Kronos Quartet & Lee Knight
- “Wichita Lineman,” Grégoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell
- “Wondrous Love,” Shirley Collins
- “Wound You,” Hawksley Workman & Sarah Slean
- “You’ll Be Mine,” The Psychedelic Furs
- “Your Body,” Mipso
- “zombie girl,” Adrianne Lenker