Heartless Bastards, 'The Mountain' (Fat Possum)
Erika Wennerstrom has a voice -- deep, throaty, loose -- that could make even the most uninhibited vocalist feel uptight and contained by comparison: Each note she sings feels deeply animated, as if it's got its own heartbeat and fully formed pair of fists.
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Voice of the Year: Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold
Various Artists, 'Awake, My Soul OST/ Help Me to Sing' (Awake Productions)
Awake, My Soul is the first documentary film to explore the centuries-old tradition of shape note (or Sacred Harp) singing, a stunning, four-note gospel practice rooted in the American South.
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The Old Believers, 'Eight Golden Greats' (Fine/Romantic)
This Portland, Oregon duo play the kind of hazy, beguiling alt folk that feels uniquely suited to floating downriver on an inner tube or reclining in a hammock, counting clouds.
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O'Death, 'Broken Hymns, Limbs, and Skin' (Kemado)
Their name might conjure skull rings and stringy hair (it was actually plucked from a traditional Carolina folk song popularized by bluegrass kingpin Ralph Stanley), but O'Death's pitchforks-at-the-campfire frenzy may be even more sinister than their moniker implies.
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Laura Marling, 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' (Astralwerks)
It might seem reductive to declare Laura Marling an old soul, but how many 18-year-old folkies sing earnestly (and convincingly) about death and divine judgment?




