Best CD I've heard so far 2011.........

On heavy rotation at the moment is Dave Alvin's Eleven Eleven and John Doe's Keeper. Both are nice blasts of guitar-driven Americana. I really have loved the last five releases by Dave Alvin. Caught he and his brother Phil in 1980 when they were the Blasters. Dave's solo work kind of grows on me each and passing year. Always has an intimate soundstage, nice nuances of guitar playing (blues to country) and robust vocals.

Another from the fringes:

Shackleton & Pinch (ST)

UK bass super-union. Sam Shackleton, whose Skull Disco label, may it rest in peace, is to me the most interesting segment of that whole scene (always in heavy rotation here) while Rob Ellis aka Pinch has a near equally impressive resume as founder of Tectonic and his own list of Pinch releases.

This record is full of murky deep mountains of bass, tribal rhythms and sparse dubby grooves. To me, Shackleton sets himself apart from all the other UK bass artists with his use of percussion. Plenty of shakers, bells, cymbal crashes and hand drums weave in and out with eerie precision. As you can tell, I love this record. Shackleton has become a favorite of mine in general so I was pleasantly surprised that this album appeared a month before it's scheduled release.

Highly recommended.

Thank you Richard. I always love your suggestions, be they left or central of the dial.

Bongofury, I have followed up a few nice leads on music from your posts in the past including 'carried to dust' and 'may 1992'. I am enjoying americana lately. Which is your pick of all the Dave Alvin CDs? (music first, but also clean sounding)

Thanks Bongo, appreciate the encouragement. It's always been a joy to share music ideas with like minds, I enjoy your suggestions as well. I say it all the time here but this era is a special one for music. There is way more incredible stuff out there than I'll ever have the time to hear and even with the stuff I do, I post a pretty small segment of my faves. It's hard to gauge how far guys around here are willing to move off the mainstream. Heck, there are a bunch of great new rap albums I've been into lately but I don't think I have ever seen any rap recommended on this site. When it is brought up, sadly it's bashed and guys start to sound exactly like my Mom circa 1975!

Anyways...keep your recommendations coming and if you enjoy that Shackelton/Pinch record check out Shackelton's Fabric mix (I think it's Fabric 55 but not certain), his album titled 3EP's or the harder to find Soundboy Get's His Nut's Ground Up Proper EP (Skull Disco 3)...a personal fave. Another cool artist just a step beyond that is Senking, his album Pong being a good starting point (on Raster-Noton, a very interesting label). Senking gets much play in my home. If you do give them a go, let me know what you think.