Time (The Revelator): 10 Years of No Depression Reader Polls

As we gathered votes for our 2019 Year-End Readers Poll (sorry, voting is now closed), we thought it would be illuminating to look back at the results from the past 10 years of YERP, as we call it. Some of the albums that made the top 10 each year are considered classics now, favorites that we still spin and whose songs still pack a punch today. Others? Well, they may have fallen out of heavy rotation, but these lists might just inspire you to give them a fresh listen.

Most years, we published the top 50 roots music albums our readers picked, so click on the year if you want to read the full list.

2018

1. John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness
2. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – Live from the Ryman
3. Brandi Carlile – By the Way, I Forgive You
4. Amanda Shires – To the Sunset
5. Alejandro Escovedo – The Crossing
6. Bob Dylan – More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14
7. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
8. Willie Nelson – Last Man Standing
9. Jeff Tweedy – WARM
10. Rosanne Cash – She Remembers Everything

2017

1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit –The Nashville Sound
2. Margo Price – All American Made
3. Chris Stapleton – From a Room: Vol. 1
4. Ryan Adams – Prisoner
5. David Rawlings – Poor David’s Almanack
6. Gregg Allman – Southern Blood
7. Ray Wylie Hubbard – Tell the Devil I’m Gettin’ There as Fast as I Can
8. Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway
9. John Moreland – Big Bad Luv
10. Steve Earle – So You Wanna Be an Outlaw 

2016

1. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
2. Drive-by Truckers – American Band
3. Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts of Highway 20
4. Margo Price – Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
5. John Prine – For Better, Or Worse
6. Alejandro Escovedo – Burn Something Beautiful
7. Hayes Carll – Lovers and Leavers
8. Wilco – Schmilco
9. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
10. Amanda Shires – My Piece of Land

2015

1. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
2. Chris Stapleton – Traveller
3. James McMurtry – Complicated Game
4. Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
5. John Moreland – High on Tulsa Heat
6. (tie) The Mavericks – Mono
6. (tie) Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell – The Traveling Kind
6. (tie) Rhiannon Giddens – Tomorrow Is My Turn
9. Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin – Lost Time
10. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color

2014

1. Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
2. Lucinda Williams – Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
3. Rosanne Cash – The River and the Thread
4. Lydia Loveless – Somewhere Else
5. Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams
6. Drive-By Truckers – English Oceans
7. Hurray for the Riff Raff – Small Town Heroes
8. Old 97’s – Most Messed Up
9. Chuck Prophet – Night Surfer
10. John Fullbright – Songs

2013

1. Jason Isbell – Southeastern
2. Patty Griffin – American Kid
3. Holly Williams – The Highway
4. Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison – Cheater’s Game
5. Richard Thompson – Electric
6.  Son Volt – Honky Tonk
7.  Willie Sugarcapps – Willie Sugarcapps
8. Robbie Fulks – Gone Away Backward
9. Steve Earle – The Low Highway
10. The Mavericks – In Time

2012

1. Iris Dement – Sing the Delta
2. The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter
3. Justin Townes Earle – Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now
4. Bob Dylan – Tempest
5. Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
6. Shovels and Rope – O’ Be Joyful
7. Chuck Prophet – Temple Beautiful
8. Mumford & Sons – Babel
9. Old Crow Medicine Show – Carry Me Back
10. John Fullbright – From the Ground Up

2011

1. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest
2. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead
3. Wilco – The Whole Love
4. Lucinda Williams – Blessed
5. Steve Cropper – Dedicated
6. Tom Waits – Bad as Me
7. Dave Alvin – Eleven Eleven
8. Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers – Starlight Hotel
9. Jason Isbell – Here We Rest
10. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

2010

1. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues
2. Alejandro Escovedo – Street Songs of Love
3. Peter Wolf – Midnight Souvenirs
4. Drive-by Truckers – The Big To Do
5. John Mellencamp –  No Better Than This
6. Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone
7. Robert Plant – Band of Joy
8. Black Keys – Brothers
9. Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig
10. Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song

2009

1. Buddy & Julie Miller – Written in Chalk
2. Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
3. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
4. Tom Russell – Blood and Candle Smoke
5. Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women – Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
6. Wilco – Wilco (the Album)
7. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
8. Chuck Prophet – Let Freedom Ring
9. Steve Earle – Townes
10. Guy Clark – Somedays the Song Writes You

Albums of the (Last) Decade: 2000-2009

And finally, we found this gem posted in 2009 — a reader-curated poll of the 20 best albums of the previous decade. Let this take you back — and help you look forward to what some of these artists, who never missed a beat, may have in store for the decade to come!

1. Gillian Welch- Time (The Revelator)
2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South 
4. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
5. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising 
6. Mary Gauthier – Mercy Now 
7. Alejandro Escovedo – A Man Under the Influence
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Soundtrack)
9. Radiohead – Hail To The Thief
10. Broken Family Band – Welcome Home Loser
11. Patty Griffin – 1000 Kisses 
12. Bob Dylan – Love & Theft 
13. Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk 
14. Buddy Miller – Universal United House of Prayer 
15. Laura Veirs – Triumphs and Travails Of Orphan Mae 
16. Ray Wylie Hubbard – Growl
17. Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away 
18. Thad Cockrell & Caitlin Cary – Begonias
19. Wilco – A Ghost Is Born 
20. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky