Knock and Knowall's Top Ten Albums of 2021

Compiled by Eric Sandberg with invaluable input from Mike Berman

2021 on the whole, has been a vast improvement over 2020. A real President, a vaccine, live concerts and sports fans back in the seats. There has also been a ton of great music. It's hard to pick ten, so we cheated a little.

#10: Bob Collum & The Welfare Mothers — This Heart Will Self-Destruct (Fretsore)

Tulsa, OK native now squires in Essex, UK with his merry band o' Brits, playing their brand of power pop with a country twang. Rock along with fun time tunes like "Spare Me," the funky "Parachute" with Peter Holsapple laying down some tasty organ, and raise your glass of Fullers to the gorgeous ballad "From Birmingham." A good time to be had by all.

#9: I See Hawks In L.A. — On Our Way (self-release)

Another band delivering an updated country sound tinged with wry humor and a bit of psychedelia (their bassist Paul Marshall was in The Strawberry Alarm Clock, for goodness sake). Rob Waller's voice commands your attention while Paul Lacques holds it with his great googly gitter pickin' on songs like the title track, "Might've Been Me," "Kentucky Jesus" and "Geronimo," while drummer Victoria Jacobs contribute her own dreamy "Kensington Market." They're actually more popular where Bob Collum lives than the US which is a shame.

#8: Tie — Dolph Chaney — This Is Dolph Chaney  (Big Stir)
                  Anton Barbeau — Oh Joys We Live For  (Big Stir)

So what is a Dolph Chaney? for me, Dolph is the heir apparent to the late great indie power pop maven Tommy Keene. Chaney's thrilling, anthemic, melodies and introspective lyrics hit the sweet spot for me. Try not to leap out of your chair and play air guitar to "I Wanted You." You'll be pointing at your cat and mouthing the words, trust me.

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One of the joys I live for is a new Anton Barbeau album and I'm especially Joyful when one of Anton's albums gets the Big Stir CD treatment. As wizards go, Anton is more Radagast than Gandalf, but a true wizard he is, with a gift for melody, off kilter lyricism,  access to a limitless palette of sounds and a flawless instinct for where and how to use them. One of a kind.

#7: Tie — Richard Thompson — Bloody Noses/Serpents Tears  (self-release)
                 Kate McDonell — Ballad of A Bad Girl  (Dog Eared Discs)

Thompson weathered the 2020 lockdown by performing on the internet from his front parlor with his now wife Zara Phillips. Thompson also managed to write and record two lovely EPs that were released digitally. Well aware that he has many fans who like to hold things, he issued these EPs together on a CD earlier this year. Largely acoustic, they show that his mastery of the guitar and the song remains undiminished, while Phillip's harmony vocals only add to the loveliness.

We've put Kate together with RT because Kate is an excellent acoustic player and storyteller [with songwriting partner Anne Lindley] in his tradition and appears to be as well traveled per her lovely odes to "Berlin," "Malibu" and "Sweet Virginia." Ballad of a Bad Girl features nine compelling originals as well as lovely readings of CCR's "Long As I Can See The Light" and Thompson's "Dimming of the Day."

#6: Spygenius — Blow Their Covers  (Big Stir)

I don't know much about Spygenius other than they're British and their leader Peter Watts writes for UNCUT magazine. Suffice it to say, Blow Their Covers blew our minds. Versions of unlikely songs by The Monkees, Traffic, Squeeze, Madness, The Soft Boys and a song from their past, "Murrumbidgee Whalers" that sounds like a completely different band. The singing, playing, arrangements and production values are all top shelf.

#5:  When Rivers Meet — Saving Grace  (self release)

Do you  love the bluesier side of Led Zeppelin but wish Percy had been an extremely attractive woman with even better pipes? You need Saving Grace and last year's We Fly Free in your life...right now. 'nuff said!

#4: Big Stir Records/Spyderpop Records — 2021 Retrospective (Big Stir)

Not only does Big Stir Records have an amazing stable of artists that should [and will] be more famous, they do not cut corners when it comes to quality. They may single-handedly save the CD with the elaborate packaging many of their releases receive. This compilation features twenty-four pop/rock gems from Lannie Flowers, Chris Church, Wilkerson, Irene Pena, Bill Lloyd, The Stan Laurels and many, many more. We could probably do a Top Ten list of Big Stir artists alone!

#3: Kimberley Rew & Lee Cave-Berry — Purple Kittens  (self release)

Former Wave [as in Katrina & The] and Soft Boy Kimberley Rew has had a long career as a steamhammer of a guitarist and as one of the UK's best songwriters. Wife, Lee, is a bassist who Robyn Hitchcock calls "Cambridge's secret weapon..." and has been known to write a song or two herself [her "I Can Be Any Woman" hit number one on one British chart and is currently ascending others]. This album delivers shimmering, clean guitar tones that erupt into creamy, delicious overdrive when Kim wants to make a point, while Lee's creative bass lines lock in with Liam Gray's pocket drumming. Very satisfying and fun.

#2: Guy Davis — Be Ready When I Call You  (M.C. Records)

Bluesman, actor and raconteur Guy Davis's latest is his best yet and has garnered his second straight Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album [this year he's up against Blues Traveler instead of The Rolling Stones — fingers crossed]. After climbing on the "Badonkadonk Train" Davis laments the past with "God's Gonna Make Things Over," about the 1921 Tulsa massacre, and the present with "Flint River Blues." This record stands as Guy's most earnest and heartfelt recording to date and his gravel quarry voice has never delivered his message more urgently. Be ready.

#1: Jackson Browne — Downhill From Everywhere  (Inside Recordings)

Browne's first album of new music in seven years hearkens back to his earliest records. Working with a bevy of top notch musicians like David Hidalgo, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher [from The Imposters], guitarists Val McCallum and Greg Leisz, who provides Browne's signature pedal steel flourishes that were originated by David Lindley. Jackson is older and wiser now — his voice, though slightly coarsened with age and five decades of live performance, is still easily recognizeable as he acknowledges his past mistakes before examining our current world as only he can.

"I'm way out over my due date, but I'm still lookin' for something, Jackson sings in the opening track. Nine sublime songs later, we'd say he found it.