Best Trad of 2024 - Tracking Trends from Bluegrass to Zydeco
Here's my long-form take on the trends in traditional music in 2024 and where to look for change in 2025.
Well, I can’t say it’s been a surprising year. Certainly the election casts everything in a different light, and I have little patience now for the “standard fare” in traditional music. I’m interested more in artists looking to push back, to make change, or who are running under the radar of the mainstream music press, few of which are looking to trad music in any way (though check out the list at the bottom of this Substack for music journalists with great Best of 2024 lists). With that in mind, rather than ranking everyone in a Top 10 like I used to do for Folk Alley, I’d rather look at larger trends and point out what’s got me excited for 2025 and where you should be looking for new music and new resistance in the coming year.
Best Trad of 2024 Full Playlist
If this post is TL;DR and you want to explore the full range of all the albums I wrote about and listened to and figured were one of the Best Trad Albums of 2024, here’s the FULL Spotify Playlist. Hit shuffle and enjoy!
A Renaissance of Indigenous Music
The big story of 2024 that you won’t hear anywhere else (unfortunately) is that Indigenous artists are absolutely making some of the best folk/roots music anywhere. And specifically that this music is focused on resurrecting severely endangered Native languages in a really beautiful and powerful way. I hesitate to say we’re looking at a renaissance since I’m not sure all these bands are communicating, but I’ve been following Indigenous music for years now and I haven’t seen a boom like this since we lost Canyon Records. I’ve been interviewing a lot of these artists and it’s inspiring to see these languages roaring back to life through song. Shout out to best buddy Kevin Sur at KEXP whose all Indigenous radio show, Sounds of Survivance, is a key way to find new artists and who has awesome taste!
Agalisiga Mackey - Mackey teaches the endangered Cherokee language to kids at an Oklahoma immersion school during the day. After work, he loved singing country songs, and with some pushing his debut album turned into a marvelous collection of original country songs, drawn from his knowledge of and research into Cherokee. Come for the Hank Williams cover, stay for the Cherokee Blue Yodel murder ballads.
Nuxalk Radio - an amazing story, the Nuxalk (Bella Coola) people of British Columbia launched a little radio station to preserve the Nuxalk language (17 native speakers left as of 2014). This turned into a community band that made a remarkably great album of Nuxalk language songs this year. It’s transportative!
Khu.éex - leaders of a new wave of Indigenous-Futurism, and inspired by Seattle’s string Afro-futurist scene, Khu.éex was founded by absolutely visionary Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary and Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic. After Worrell’s death, new addition Sondra Segundo brings her wonderful Alaskan Haida songs and songwriting.
Joel Wood - from the prestigious Wood family that run Northern Cree, one of thebest powwow drums in North America, the new album, Nîkan ᓃᑲᐣ, from First Nations singer Joel Wood shows a slightly softer side to powwow song, including spiritual material. It’s not the round dance songs that I know the Wood family well for, but the songs here are really lovely and compelling. GREAT to have new powwow music after Canyon Records died.
See Also: Hawaiian slack key and songs with George Kuo, more indie focused project Deerlady from Mali Obomsawin, Tsmsy’en garage rock from Saltwater Hank, new Joe Rainey project Bizhiki, Native Cajun band Beau Cheval, finally some new powwow/round dance music with Joel Wood.
Trans and Non-Binary Artists You Can’t Ignore
Wow, so I guess this election really showed just how much a lot of Americans are terrified of trans and non-binary people and want them to go away. That’s horrific and heartbreaking. But also, the bad news for these voters is that trans/non-binary folx are making some of the absolute best trad/roots/country/Americana music right now. Good news for us though!
Adeem the Artist - hands down the best country/roots/Americana album of 2024. Adeem’s a spitfire of a lyricist, able to satirize with a vicious biting edge, but also able to write a swoon-worthy queer love ballad. Get the fuck out the way Jason Isbell, Adeem’s coming for your crown!
Wyatt C. Louis - Kevin from KEXP’s Sounds of Survivance turned me on to Louis quietly sublime roots country album this year. A nêhiyaw Plains Cree singer-songwriter, Louis has a dulcet voice perfect for country singing, but a keen eye for songwriting and arranging which makes their album a cut above the rest.
Creekbed Carter Hogan - Catholic iconography, clever metaphors, sweet sweet pedal steel, Creekbed Carter’s self-titled new album is one of the year’s most intriguing releases. It makes sense that he moonlights as a horror writer, especially writing body horror. The human body in their songs is malleable, transformative, able to become something entirely new. Plus “If I was a loaded gun, you might treat me better” is one of the most ruthless lyrics so far this year.
Malin Lewis - I was utterly entranced by Lewis’ album, Halocline, of Scottish bagpipes (the smaller ones, not the big ones!). They have beautiful original bagpipe tunes and an ear for the vast empty spaces of this music. I also really liked how Lewis talked about the idea of the “halocline”, a term in oceanography and their album title. It’s the liminal space between fresh and saltwater in merging bodies of water and an apt metaphor for Lewis’ trans identity.
See also: Backwaxsh’s blistering horrorcore rap, Hurray for the Riff Raff’s electric country New Orleans odes, lots of great live contra dance music all over the US from trans/nb artists, the new Grateful Dead drag project BERTHA, the list goes on.
Non Boring Bluegrass
Jesus, bluegrass is a boring genre. I keep trying to love it, but the issues are that 1) mainstream bluegrass is terrified of controversy and politics and basically sounds like pop country with virtuosic acoustic instruments, 2) same with jamgrass but hippies, and 3) basically there’s only like 4 bands making that awesome, gritty old bluegrass that I really like. It’s not just bluegrass, I was pretty bored by a lot of Americana and roots country this year too, but bluegrass is tough because it demands such a high level of musicianship, but also seems to stifle innovation. That said, bluegrass this year did have some fascinating developments! More of this in 2025 please!
Kendl Winter - starting off during the pandemic, Kendl Winter, Olympia WA banjo player and one half of indie roots duo The Lowest Pair, has been experimenting with improvisational and composed instrumental tunes for clawhammer banjo. The album, Banjo Mantras, that came from this is lovely and soothing, coming from her meditations through music. It’s an exercise in focus, and it’s also quite beautiful music.
New Dangerfield - don’t call them a super group! Ok maybe do, since New Dangerfield unites four great Black folk artists who each approach their center of old-time/bluegrass from a different direction. Jake Blount comes out of old-time, and his recent work is post apocalyptic Afro-futurist. Tray Wellington’s bringing jazz and virtuosity to bluegrass banjo (his 2024 album was pretty great too), Kaia Kater comes from a Canadian-Caribbean background and focuses on songwriting (her 2024 album was great too), and Nelson Williams is everyone’s favorite bassist in Louisiana. They’ve only dropped two tracks, but this is a fascinating project so expect more in 2025!
Swamp Dogg - A titan of soul, Swamp Dogg came up in country and bluegrass and has always loved these roots. His new album, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St, is a masterclass in how to transform a genre, even though he misdirects throughout by positioning his songs as a kind of 21st century hokum bluesgrass.
Missy Raines - the new album, Highlander, from bluegrass bass diva Missy Raines is some rock solid straight ahead bluegrass, buoyed by her crack band and some amazing special guests. The songs are what you’d expect, from “Fast Moving Train” to “Listen to the Lonesome Wind”, but there’s a nod to the anti-capitalism of Appalachia with “Who Needs a Mine?” Mostly the fun of the album is just listening to an artist at the top of her game (and her super talented friends).
See also: Jake Xerxes Fussell’s old-time field recording obsessions, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes’ delightful radio-friendly album, Andrew Marlin’s wonderful two albums of music.
Zydeco and Trailride Artists Chugging Along
The tragic passing of beloved Cajun artist Chris Stafford who was a key member of a lot of bands and also had an important recording studio in Louisiana, cast a pall over Cajun music this year. But Zydeco and Trailride music from Louisiana and Texas’s French-speaking Black Creoles had a pretty active year. Young Zydeco artist Rusty Metoyer, in an extreme example, dropped two live albums in 2024 totally 31 tracks! That’s a lot of Zydeco for two-stepping around the house! Lawtell, LA native Leon Chavis’ new album features a guest spot from trailride rap kingpin Baldenna tha King and a big sprinkling of modern RnB. It was a big year for family legacies, one of the underpinnings of Zydeco today. Marcella Simien, daughter of Zydeco legend Terrance Simien, dropped a fascinating album of meditative Creole music. Rockin Dospie Jr dropped an album in tribute to his father, the original Rockin’ Dopsie. Another son, Dwayne Dopsie, put out an album of driving, muscular Zydeco that might be the best of the year. Sean Ardoin from the Ardoin Family, who invented both Cajun and Zydeco, dropped a soul-heavy new album as well. That’s a lot of Zydeco!
Trad Artists Addressing Climate Change
The most pressing issue of our time, climate change, rarely gets much attention from artists, but a few folks this year bucked that trend and made powerful, indelible statements about the coming cataclysms.
Sam Lee - once a student of travellers and oft-forgotten Romani singers in England, Lee’s blossomed into his own as an artist of uncanny vision. This year’s album, songdreaming, was inspired by the time he’s spent in nature, specifically focusing on climate change’s effect on the noble nightingale. Lee takes folks into the back country to sing with these songbirds. I wrote about Lee’s album for Folk Alley.
Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin - I’m a huge fan of both Blount and Obomsawin’s visions for traditional music, especially as they move that vision into a distant future riven by climate change. Their new album, symbiont, their first on Smithsonian Folkways, presents a post-apocalyptic view of Afro-Indigenous-Futurism, inspired by Black folk songs and Wabanaki traditions, but a full-on, spaced-out, old gods kind of music.
Just Goddamn Good Songwriting
Look, sometimes I just want to listen to a great song. Something written with a fine pen, with a careful ear for the subtleties that make life great. Here’s a few I found.
JP Harris - been a fan of ol’ JP for years, both for his incisive, instinctual country songwriting (dude’s a real blue collar hero unlike most of country royalty who live in mansions), and for his knowledge of old-time stringband music as well. His new album, JP Harris Is A Trash Fire, might be his best yet, just pitch perfect country without peer.
Adrianne Lenker - easily one of the best if not THE best songwriters of her generation, Lenker’s no stranger to anyone into great music really, either for her solo work or her work with Big Thief. To be honest, I didn’t listen a lot to her new album, Bright Future, this year in full, but that’s only because every time I was in the car with my teenager, she would play the same songs from it over and over and over. And I never got tired of them and never will!
Jerron Paxton - Possibly one of the most brilliant, virtuosic musicians of his generation, Paxton loves to troll too, plumbing the depths of Black American folk music to shine a light on the uncomfortable truths behind folk music today. He’s from deep in the tradition, but his new album, Things Done Changed, on Smithsonian Folkways is all original and he’s got surprising depth as a songwriter too. What can’t he do?
Sierra Ferrell - though she’s ably helped by Nashville’s secret songwriting weapon, Melody Walker, Ferrell’s new album, Trail of Flowers, is absolutely her best yet. Just chock full of great songs to sing along with and with a voice that can’t be topped. The song “American Dreaming” in particular is a masterpiece. She exploded this year and hopefully can sustain this wild momentum! Score one for the train hopping folk punks!
Way Out of Left Field
And now for something completely different… These albums came out of left field for me, or I think they might be out of left field for you. Something new and surprising!
Lassi Logrén - big thanks to buddy Jake Blount for posting about this beguiling and hypnotic album, Jouhikko, from Finnish jouhikko player Lassi Logrén. The instrument is a bowed lyre, and seems simple in construction but Logrén has an uncanny depth of focus to his playing that will seduce you.
Yann Falquet - a member of acclaimed Québécois trad trio Genticorum, Yann Falquet’s guitar work and lovely singing is known well in the French-Canadian music scene. But for his solo album, Les secrets du ciel, he leans hard into the nearly lost repertoire of Acadian songs in NE New Brunswick. The result is a sublime take on rare and beautiful Acadian complaintes, long form ballads.
Willie Nelson - look, I really just like folk music, I’m not like an expert on country music and I don’t listen to much Willie Nelson. But damn, his new album, Last Leaf on the Tree, is SO GOOD and took me completely by surprise. Recorded in Venice Beach with Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios (who also recorded Sunny War and Cinder Well), it’s a great collection of covers tempered by age and wisdom. And he covers Sunny War which is incredible.
Andy S - I stumbled on to this wild EP, Il était une fois Pepita, from Cote d’Ivoirien rapper Andy S in my talks with Canadian-Haitian DJ San Farafina of Moonshine Collective. Andy S is one of the best Ivoirien rappers and absolutely breathes fire on this release, but her moments with Montréal Congolese artist Pierre Kwenders brings a soukous kind of feel to her flow and it’s just glorious.
Best of 2024 Best of 2024 Lists
Meta, I know! Here are the Best Best of 2024 Lists that touched on roots or traditional music this year. I’m a giant nerd for Best of lists, but these ones stood out for sure.
Ted Gioia for his Substack - sorry every other music journalist, Ted Gioia is the absolute GOAT at writing Best of Year-End lists. He listens to EVERY genre of music. Now I know everyone claims they listen to everything, but he’s one of only two people I’ve ever found who actually do listen to EVERYTHING. His Substack is also incredible.
James Gui at Bandcamp - James Gui is WAY better than I am at writing about folk and traditional music for Bandcamp. I’m jealous of his finds, his knowledge, and his writing all the time. He’s tracked down the most incredible music buried deep deep in Bandcamp and this year end list ranges the whole globe.
Ann Powers at NPR - great to see a really eclectic listening list from Ann Powers at NPR. She’s one of the best music journalists and she’s saying with this list that she’s listing more underground choices than usual for NPR Best of Lists (though to be fair those NPR lists can be pretty eclectic too). Love it!
Jude Rogers at the Guardian - Jude’s the folk music journalist for The Guardian and always has great pics. Her list this year leans hard into the tranced-out trad coming out of Ireland, the UK, and parts of America and she knows this world well.
Melanie Curran’s Melify Wrapped - Melanie Curran is a really interesting songwriter and traditional artist who’s been doing a lot of traveling to Ireland and Brittany and putting together really interesting zines, newsletters, and thoughts on trad. Her end of year list of inspirations is super fascinating and well written.
Wow, its going to take some time to digest this but hats off Mr. Lèger for so much to ear.brain.soul chew...... thank you for digging deep and being straightforward.