I actually wasn’t planning on creating an end of year list this month, but I had been requested to do so several times, so I figured I could at least give it a shot.

This list isn’t saying that these are the end-all-be-all greatest albums of 2020, these are just some personal favorites of mine that really stand out to me right now (and in no particular order). I also tried my best to keep the list narrowed down to only albums and EPs (so no singles) and even then, just releases with brand new material. So I made an attempt to keep off as many reissues and archival releases (sorry, Neil) as possible. With that being said, it’s a little hard to do that seeing how it was impossible for most artists to get into a studio and record new projects over the last eight or nine months, so there are a couple exceptions to that rule.

1. TENGGER – Nomad
2. Rootless – Docile Cobras
3. Mat Eric Hart – Spirts & Reflections 
4. Matt LaJoie – Clear Channel
5. Joseph Allred – Psalms
6. Kahil El’Zabar – Kahil El’Zabar’s America the Beautiful  
7. Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
8. Garcia Peoples – Nightcap at Wits’ End
9. Wendy Eisenberg – Auto
10. One Eleven Heavy – Live at Jam Castle
11. Powers/Rolin Duo – s/t 
12. Nick Mitchell Maiato – Pino Carrasco
13. Luke Stewart – Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet
14. Eli Winter – Unbecoming
15. Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – Chicago Waves
16. Gunn-Truscinski Duo – Soundkeeper
17. Mute Duo – Lapse in Passage
18. Chip Wickham – Blue to Red
19. Horselords – The Common Task
20. Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown
21. Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band) – I Just Wasn’t Made for These Set Times
22. Color Green – s/t
23. Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood – LIVE
24. Tambourinen – Wooden Flower
25. Prana Crafter – MorphoMystic
26. Irreversible Entanglements – Who Sent You 
27. White Manna – ARC
28. Elkhorn – The Acoustic Storm Sessions  
29. Spiral Galaxy – s/t
30. Sunburned Hand of The Man – Headless
31. tino – Bookfair
32. Alison Cotton – Only Darkness Now
33. Waterless Hills – The Great Mountain
34. Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger – Force Majeure
35. David Nance – Staunch Honey
36. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
37. Joseph Allred – Traveler
38. Obnox – Savage Raygun
39. Rose City Band – Summerlong
40. The Du-Rites – A Funky Bad Time
41. Rhyton – Krater’s Call
42. Josh Kimbrough – Slither, Soar & Disappear
43. 75 Dollar Bill – Live at Tubby’s
44. Itta – Enter
45. Library of Babel – Sing to Me Of...
46. Tarotplane – The Feedback Sutras
47. Jesse Sheppard – Unknowing
48. Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble – s/t
49. Dire Wolves – Flow & Heady
50. Ali Shah – At The End of The Day
51. Scott William Urquhart – A Recipe For Reverie
52. Joan Shelley – Live at The Bomhard
53. Brigid Mae Power – Head Above The Water
54. Dark Leaves – Forest Flowing
55. Damu the Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic – Ocean Bridges
56. Jill Tracy – The Dark Day
57. Sun Ra Arkestra – Swirling
58. Shirley Collins – Heart’s Ease
59. Ghost Funk Orchestra – An Ode to Escapism
60. Dronestore Cowboy – Dentists of Horses Dream of God to Study
61. John Jeffrey – Passage
62. The Left Outsides – Are You Sure I Was There?
63. North Americans – Roped In
64. Howlin Rain – Under The Wheels, Vol. 2
65. Gerycz/Powers/Rolin – Beacon
66. William Eaton – Music by William Eaton
67. Barry Walker jr. – Shoulda Zenith
68. Siti Muharam – Siti of Unguja (Romance Revolution On Zanzibar)
69. Chris Forsyth/Dave Harrington/Ryan Jewell/Spencer Zahn – First Flight
70. Jim White & Marisa Anderson – The Quickening
71. Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – To Know Without Knowing
72. Weak Signal – Bianca
73. Buck Curran – No Love is Sorrow
74. Jeffrey Silverstein – You Become The Mountain
75. Sunwatchers – Brave Rats
76. Black Market Brass – Undying Thirst
77. Jennifer Castle – Monarch Season
78. Jerry David DeCicca – The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures
79. Ezra Feinberg & John Kolodij – s/t
80. Son of Buzzi – in nächster Nähe/ in weiter Ferne
81. Mosses – TV Sun
82. Steve Palmer – Useful Histories
83. Magnetic Ghost – Pixels
84. Osmium House – Something Wicked…(Sounds from an Unreleased Film) Vol. 1
85. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders
86. Sairie – Scarlet and Blue EP
87. Aaron Dooley – Dooley Noted
88. Gillian Welch – Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs (Volumes 1-3)
89. Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl – Artlessly Falling
90. John Lee Shannon – In & Of
91. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Sun
92. Josephine Foster – No Harm Done
93. Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Live at Le Guess Who?
94. Rich Ruth – Where There’s Life – Part 6
95. Moor Mother and Olof Melander – ANTHOLOGIA 01
96. William Tyler – New Vanities
97. Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids – Shaman!
98. Chris Forsyth & Garcia Peoples – Peoples Motel Band
99. Starbirthed – Verdant Pastures
100. Bill Fay – Countless Branches

While 2020 was a total garbage year, we thankfully had such a flood of incredible music to help us through it (and there were so many other highlight releases that I could have posted here, but I had to stop at 100, or I’d never finish writing this list). So please consider lending a hand to these and any other artist that you enjoy in the new year by purchasing their albums, merch, digital downloads and anything else that they might offer.

Farewell 2020 and good riddance. Here’s hoping for a better and brighter year in 2021.

-KH

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