AllMusic's Favorite Country Albums of 2010

The AllMusic editors are recapping the year in recordings with well over a dozen posts in which they present their favorites within specific genres and styles. Right now, on the AllMusic Blog, they provide a list of their favorite country releases of 2010.Certainly, country music had its share of pop crossovers in 2010 – some as accomplished as Little Big Town and Keith Urban – but the year was dominated but the rougher, rootsier stuff, particularly Jamey Johnson’s double-disc throwback to the heyday of outlaw country, The Guitar Song. Elizabeth Cook also dug back to the past for her excellent Welder, but so did Zac Brown and Dierks Bentley, who explored his bluegrass roots on the terrific Up On The Ridge, and even Jerrod Neimann flirted with the past on his loose, funny Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury.

Dierks Bentley – Up on the Ridge
Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses – Junky Star
Zac Brown Band – You Get What You Give
Johnny Cash – American VI: Ain’t No Grave
Elizabeth Cook – Welder
Billy Currington – Little Bit of Everything
Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
Jace Everett – Red Revelations
Merle Haggard – I Am What I Am
Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song
Toby Keith – Bullets in the Gun
Little Big Town – The Reason Why
Tift Merritt – See You On the Moon
Whitey Morgan & The 78s – Whitey Morgan & The 78s
Jerrod Niemann – Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury
Darrell Scott – Crooked Road
Turnpike Troubadours – Diamonds and Gasoline
Keith Urban – Get Closer
The Volebeats – The Volebeats
Chely Wright – Lifted Off the Ground