Among the joys of Americana music is the range of artists and labels. Indie labels often break through, leading to dark horses and pleasant surprises.
Yet this year’s Americana Music Association list of the top 100 albums from November 16, 2010 through November 14, 2011, serves as a reminder that the bigger labels still play a major role.
An analysis of both the number of charting albums and their relative position in the charts suggests that five labels are dominant, accounting for the top six releases of the year and more than a quarter of all charting albums:
1.Rounder is the top player in Americana music radio. The label placed a total of nine albums in the top 100, including two in the top 20 and 6 in the top 25, including Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane (4), Gregg Allman’s Low Country Blues (6) the Jayhawks’ Mocking Bird Time (12), Robert Plant’s Band of Joy (17) Abigail Washburn’s City of Refuge (24) and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ Rare Bird Alert (25)
2. New West had six albums on the Americana music charts, with two in the top 10 and three in the top 20. They include Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (3), John Hiatt’s Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns (8), Buddy Miller’s Majestic Silver Strings (13) and the Old 97s’ The Grand Theatre (30.)
3. Lost Highway had four albums on the Americana chart, including the top two slots, Hayes Carll’s KMAG YO-YO and Lucinda Williams’ Blessed. Their other charting albums were Robert Earl Keen’s Ready for Confetti (19) and 19 and Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses’ Junky Star (40.)
4. Nonesuch was the fourth most influential label, with five albums in the top 100, including Emmylou Harris’ Hard Bargain (5) and Wanda Jackson’s Party Ain’t Over (Third Man/ Nonesuch) at 23.
5.Sugar Hill also fared well in the annual chart with five albums, including Sarah Jarosz’s Follow Me Down (20) and Kasey Chamber’s Little Bird (31)