Year in Review: The 30 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020
Ashley McBryde, Chris Stapleton, and others rise to meet an uncertain year
By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Freeman, Joseph Hudak, Claire Shaffer, December 11, 2020
Below is an excerpt from Rolling Stone featuring Joshua Ray Walker’s “Glad You Made It”:
“#5
Joshua Ray Walker, ‘Glad You Made It’
Joshua Ray Walker had an especially shit year. His father died, his income dried up, home repairs displaced him to a hotel, and he was even audited by the IRS. But the Dallas singer-guitarist persevered to release one of the most vibrant country LPs of this god-awful 2020. Glad You Made It is an affirmation of life — the good, the bad, and the tragic. He ideates about suicide in the ghostly “Voices,” plays pretend cowboy in the steel-guitar rave-up “Bronco’s Billy,” and profiles an objectified showroom model in the character study “Boat Show Girl.” In the euphoric “True Love,” he juxtaposes heartbreaking lyrics about the temporal nature of romance (“True love was meant to fade”) with a breakneck beat. Walker is a complicated figure — lucky us he’s unafraid to publicly work through his issues. —J.H. “
See the full list of Rolling Stone’s “The 30 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020” HERE.
