The Best Albums of 2021-2022: Finalists and Winners!
The Finalists in each of 11 categories were selected from the multitudes of CDs that were considered.**Winners are bounded by stars**
For those of you who submitted recordings for the awards, thank you for your excellent work. It is our hope that these awards will help all indie artists by generating increased awareness of independently produced music from around the world.Artist | Title | Label | |
---|---|---|---|
Album of the Year | |||
![]() | Rosier | Légèrement | Steeplejack |
AAA (Adult Album Alternative) | |||
![]() | HuDost **Rosier** Molly Tuttle | Anthems of Home Légèrement But I’d Rather Be With You | Self-Produced Steeplejack Music Compass |
Americana | |||
![]() | Tony Furtado Her Silo **James McMurtry** | Decembering Don’t Forget The Heart That’s Beating Horses and Hounds | Self-Produced Self-Produced New West |
Best Lyrics (tie) | |||
![]() ![]() | **Charlie Dore** **The Nields** Suzanne Santo | Like Animals November Yardsale | Black Ink Self-Produced Self-Produced |
EP | |||
![]() | **My Sister, My Brother** Danny Schmidt Sarah Walk | My Sister, My Brother The 2020 Singles Simply | Soundly Self-Produced One Little Independant |
Jazz | |||
![]() | **Miguel Espinoza** Alvaro Rojas Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita | Veneta Gran Kasa Suba | Mountain River Self-Produced bendigedig |
Modern Roots/Revival | |||
![]() | **Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno** The McDades Bella White | Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno The Empress Just Like Leaving | Free Dirt Self-Produced Self-Produced |
Multi-Genre Fusion | |||
![]() | **Flairck** Kendall Street Company Ley Line | Back Alive Stories We Write for Ourselves We Saw Blue | Homerecords Self-Produced Self-Produced |
Progressive Edge | |||
![]() | Augustus Band **Klo Pelgag** They Might Be Giants | Color TV & Tall Tales Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Book | Self-Produced Secret City Self-Produced |
Rock | |||
![]() | Big Little Lions K.C. Jones **Billie Marten** | Are We There Yet Queen of the In Between Flora Fauna | Self-Produced Self-Produced Imperial/Fiction |
Singer-Songwriter | |||
![]() | Emily Barker Jesse Terry **Beth Whitney** | A Dark Murmuration of Words When We Wander Into the Ground | Thirty Tigers Self-Produced Self-Produced |
World Music | |||
![]() | **Ara Dinkjian** Kateřina Göttlichová Yellow Sisters | Live at Princeton University Zimnice Zvěřinec 3 | Krikor Indies Scope Indies Scope |
Songs of Note (Other Great Songs from 2020-21)
Artist | Song | Album | Label |
---|---|---|---|
Danny Burns | Golden | Hurricane | Bonfire |
Calima | Vente Conmigo | CAution LIve aniMAls | Ventilador |
Pepino D’Agostino | High Plains Guitarra | Connexion | Self-Produced |
Deer Fellow | Let It Breathe | Words Unsaid | Self-Produced |
Dobet Gnahore | Leve Toi | Couleur | Cumbancha |
Sunny Jain | Wild Wild East | Wild Wild East | Smithsonian |
Lauren Mann | Dear Forever | Memory & Desire | Self-Produced |
Justin Moses | Walking to Lebanon | Fall Like Rain | Mountain Fever |
Israel Nash | Canyonheart | Topaz | Self-Produced |
Nell and Jim | By Stars & Sunrise | Western Sun | Self-Produced |
Laurel Premo | Calloway | Golden Loam | Self-Produced |
Pressing Strings | The Work | Settle In | Self-Produced |
Sangit | Ma Mamuso | Librar | Cumbancha |
Star Harbor | Little Gunpowder Falls | The Sun, the Moon & the Open Road | Self-Produced |
David Starr | Laura | Beauty and Ruin | Self-Produced |