It’s the season of year-end roundups, and Paste Magazine didn’t forget about Arkansas.
Their “30 Best Country, Folk and Americana Albums of 2023” inventory is so Arkansas-inclusive, in fact, that it features records by four musicians either from or operating out of The Natural State: “River” by Bonnie Montgomery (“dazzling as all get out”), “I Saw the Arkansas” by Dylan Earl (“raucous, methodical and beautiful”), “render tender / blunder sunder” by Jude Brothers (“a mark of unique, mystifying singularity”) and “All Bad” by Nick Shoulders (“a deft, intimate and complicated portrait of the South and beyond”). That’s 13.33% of the list!
What’s more is that all four albums were released by Fayetteville-based label Gar Hole Records, making this a thoroughly homegrown accomplishment.
LPs by firmly established artists like Bonnie “Prince” Billie, Buck Meek, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Rhiannon Giddens, Nickel Creek, Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan were also included. Check out the complete list here.