The Best Music of 2021, Album of the Year: Joni Mitchell, Blue (Remastered); Plus My Picks for the Top Thirty Starring (in the Top Ten) Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Samara Joy, James McMurtry, Shannon McNally, Willie Nelson, Nobody's Girl, Chrissi Poland, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Tyrell
Joni Mitchell - Jack Robinson / Hulton Archive / Getty Welcome to the best music of 2021. For whatever reason, there was more good music released this year than ever. The most likely scenario is simply that musicians, forced off the road by the pandemic, had plenty of time to do what they do best. In late spring it seemed (for about five minutes) like we had really turned the corner and that, as a result, venues began booking shows and some musicians ventured out upon the road. Japanese Breakfast had no sooner announced a mostly sold out five show run at Philadelphia's Union Transfer than the Delta variant kicked in with a vengeance. Although some vaccinated people got mildly infected, the unvaccinated filled hospitals to the breaking point. Most folks returned to preventive measures to avoid Covid infection. The music industry, like most others, is caught in the middle of trying to open up while the pandemic still rages. Now, as I complete this post, the Omicron variant is thre
