The BEST of 2014 ... according to me anyway. Friends' albums are excluded, and I acknowledge that -- of course -- I haven't heard everything; lots of good stuff got past me. And I'm sure something slipped out of my memory as I compiled the list that follows. These, as best I recall it, are the ones that gave me the most concentrated pleasure, culled from the hundreds of albums that found their way to my door and have a 2014 copyright somewhere in the small print. They are cited in alphabetical order. I reviewed most, though not quite all, during the year at Rambles.NET; many of those not yet featured here are in the queue for a future edition.

- Jerome Clark

The Alt, The Alt (Under the Arch)
Rory Block, Hard Luck Child: A Tribute to Skip James (Stony Plain)
Jon Byrd, Route 41 (Long Leaf Pine)
Cassie & Maggie, Sterling Road (independent)
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, On Down the Line (Compass)
Cruinn, Storas (independent)
Bob Dylan & the Band, Basement Tapes Raw (Columbia Legacy)
Leslie Evers, I Can't Remember My Dreams (Cumulus)
Hog Eyed Man, Hog Eyed Man 1 (Yodel-Ay-Hee)
Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons, Take Yo Time (Tantamount)
Markus James, Head for the Hills (Firenze)
Laurie Lewis & Kathy Kallick, Laurie & Kathy Sing the Songs of Vern & Ray (Spruce & Maple Music)
Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson, For Pops: A Tribute to Muddy Waters (Severn)
Lou Pride, Ain't No More Love in This House (Severn)
Dave Ray, Legacy (Red House)
Thompson Family, Family (Fantasy)
Richard Thompson, Acoustic Classics (Beeswing)
Runa, Current Affairs (independent)
Traynham Family, Merry Mountain Hoedown (Southern Mountain Melodies)
various artists, Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie (Compass)
various artists, When I Reach That Heavenly Shore: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936 (Tompkins Square)
Jesse Winchester, A Reasonable Amount of Trouble (Appleseed)