10 best albums of 2021: Kingfish, Carlile and Bela Fleck

A stunning tribute recording from a father to his late son, the expert return-to-form by one of Kentucky’s top rock ‘n’ roll exports and an Olympian-level bluegrass session.

All of that and more make up the year’s finest contemporary music recordings.

In a year that slowly – often, very slowly – brought us out of the COVID cocoon, these works represented music that was in many ways heroic, whether it was through senses of instrumental daring, stylistic innovation or simple narrative attitude. At times, some of these albums managed to touch on all three.

As with all “best of” lists, this one is purely subjective. It merely represents the music that moved me the most (and most often) during a year that began – though hardly finished – our march back to safe and healed world.

Here are the sounds that excited me most in 2021. They aren’t ranked. All are equally exquisite.

Bela Fleck: “My Bluegrass Heart”

Billed as a return to banjo maestro Fleck’s bluegrass roots, “My Bluegrass Heart” is hardly a traditional bluegrass record. Its instrumental make-up is all acoustic and there are echoes, certainly, of the music’s forefathers. But Fleck’s compositions possess enormous stylistic reach with often monstrous rhythmic turns. Bluegrass by definition, perhaps, but not by convention, “My Bluegrass Heart” sounds less like Bill Monroe and more like Fleck’s late compatriot Chick Corea.

My Morning Jacket: “My Morning Jacket”

The veteran Kentucky band’s new self-titled album doesn’t so much as surprise as it reiterates everything that has made Jim James and pals so intriguing in the first place. We still get warm oozes of pop/soul lyricism, vocals that run from reverb soaked mysticism to whispery, conversational intimacy and an overall feel of woozy affirmation. Besides, after a five-year absence, a refresher course was in order

James McMurtry: “The Horses and the Hounds”

A James McMurtry album has long been akin to a road map. “The Horses and the Hounds” is no different. Its songs chronicle locations far from the main roads. Some are welcoming in their very human detail. Others don’t take so kindly to tourists for the same reason. McMurtry wraps them in vivid literary narratives, a very natural sense of storytelling and touches of folk and backroads rock ‘n’ roll.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: “Raise the Roof”

The reteaming of Led Zeppelin vocalist Plant and bluegrass empress Krauss seems less imposing this time, perhaps because it worked so well on their debut album, “Raising Sand,” over 14 years ago. The formula for “Raise the Roof” is identical and just as arresting with a mix of rock standards, spooky rural blues and ghostly country meditations that sound like nothing and no one else.

Yasmin Williams: “Urban Driftwood”

One of the most original instrumental talents of her generation, Williams plays a guitar either like piano with both hands tapping out notes or as a hammer dulcimer, which offers more specific intonation. From there, she accompanies herself (simultaneously) on kalimba. On the striking “Urban Driftwood,” Williams enlists West African percussion. The music she comes up with is rich, restorative and altogether righteous.

Steve Earle and the Dukes: “J.T.”

The most unlikely and, sadly, unforeseen of tribute albums, “J.T.” is a collection of sterling but often wayward Americana songs by the late Justin Townes Earle, who died just over a year ago of a drug overdose, cut by his father, the great renegade song stylist Steve Earle. The resulting music is a mix of musical jubilation and lyrical turbulence which father Earle pumps up mightily on the revivalistic “Harlem River Blues.”

The Weather Station: “Ignorance”

The Weather Station is the artistic nom de plume of Canadian songstress Tamara Lindeman. Not surprisingly, the often-unsettling reflection of her lyrics and vocals have earned comparisons to Joni Mitchell. That’s justified to a degree, but David Bowie’s swansong album “Blackstar” also comes to mind on the climate change-themed “Ignorance” with its hushed, uneasy beats and eerie, jazzy calm.

Brandi Carlile: “In These Silent Days”

Written during the height of the pandemic (hence the title), the songs making up “In These Silent Days” wear their reflection and rebirth openly. Often brightly colored with a folk-pop current that recalls the early records of idol Joni Mitchell, “Silent Days” also turn sparser, darker and more wickedly electric at times. Topping it all is that voice, which sings as sweetly or savagely as the moods these expert songs call for.

John R. Miller: “Depreciated”

In a perfect world, country music would be defined by songwriters like Miller who sing with the same waning desire of an old car as he does an old flame instead of the B-grade pop fare shelled out by contemporary Nashville. Miller’s sense of country strips the Music City veneer down to songs of homey faith, be it the quiet cosmic campfire music of “Fire Dancer” or the ghostly isolation of “Faustina.”

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram: “662”

On first listen the sophomore album by one of the most heralded bluesmen of his generation doesn’t sound like blues at all. What you hear is an altogether rockish sound tempered ever so slightly by the R&B temperament of Ingram’s singing. The blues are there, though. They live deep in the Southern creases of the album’s title tune, the twilight sway of “Another Life Goes By” and the motherly love of “Rock & Roll.”

JD McPherson at The Burl

Bonus Christmas Concert Pick of the Weekend: Oklahoma rocker JD McPherson has been a favorite of Lexington audiences ever since winning over the outdoor masses at the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Festival at Courthouse Plaza with a mix of vintage roots-rock smarts and modern performance immediacy. In 2018, McPherson upped the ante by wrapping such cross-generational fun up in a riotous holiday album called “Socks” (named after one of the least desired Christmas presents in all of kid-dom.)

It took three years, but McPherson is finally bringing his live “Socks” show to town with a Dec. 18 stop at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. (8 p.m., $20.) What could prove a finer holiday treat than getting to hear one of the coolest Christmas records of recent years done up live by one of the hottest bands anywhere on the Saturday before St. Nick arrives? For tickets, go to theburlky.com.