Songs She Sang In the Shower
Beyond The Algorithm #03: Snapshots of Folk & Americana in 2013
Last year, I discovered Laura Marling’s 2013 masterpiece, Once I Was An Eagle.
Now, before you all accuse me of being late to the party, I know. I am late to the party. Despite the fact that I’ve been a long-time fan of Marling’s incredible work, I just never happened across this album until it showed up in my Spotify Discover Weekly three months ago.
Since then, I have listened to this album a copious amount of times. While it’s unlikely I would have fully appreciated the full scope of Marling’s genius back in 2013, I am grateful to embrace it now at the ripe old age of twenty-seven. I am particularly entranced by the first half, which constitutes four songs that flow seamlessly into one another, like a folk hero’s three chord symphony. The album’s critical success and reputation as one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the 21st Century (deserved, honestly) got me thinking—2013 really was a stellar year for this genre, as well as folk and Americana more broadly.
Now, here’s the thing. I love folk music. If you grow up in a place like Appalachia, you’re pretty much guaranteed to hear it.
When I was a kid, my dad took it upon himself to provide me with this formative music education. On weekends, he took my brother and me to numerous folk festivals and concerts across the Southeast. (In fact, my hometown is the place where PBS films Song Of The Mountains.) On long road trips, our family spent hours and hours listening to beloved bluegrass groups on the radio, like the Dillards, the Osborne Brothers, and, of course, Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys.
Perhaps most memorably, my dad liked to play the O Brother, Where Art Thou? film soundtrack on the car stereo with the speakers cranked up as as loud as they would go. I would roll my eyes at him from the backseat, mumbling something about how boring it was, before placing my foam headphones back on my ears and pressing “Play” on the Jonas Brothers album in my portable CD player. At the time, I was more interested in early ‘aughts pop and whatever Radio Disney was spinning. Despite my dad’s best efforts to turn me on to all things folk, bluegrass, and Americana, my palette just wasn’t ready for it yet.
As an adult, I’ve developed a keener appreciation. Thanks to this early exposure and many years of personal music discovery, these genres now make up a significant portion of my listener profile. If you looked at my Spotify library, any one of these genres could be found in every corner, crevice, and crawl space. They’re etched deep into my bones, and I just can’t quit ‘em.
So, it was sort of a surprise I hadn’t heard of this Laura Marling record. It inspired me to go back through my entire music library and see if I’d missed anything else. As I scrolled through my playlists and saved albums on Spotify, I realized just how many of my favorite folk albums were released in 2013, including The Ash & Clay (The Milk Carton Kids), Fossils (Aoife O’Donnovan), and Southeastern (Jason Isbell). What was it about the 2010s, a decade dominated by EDM, hip-hop, and teen pop, that fostered such a massive folk and Americana renaissance?
Let’s take a look back at some of the best (& some of my favorite) folk and singer-songwriter albums of 2013.
Southeastern— This fourth studio album for Jason Isbell earned its place on Rolling Stone’s Best 500 Albums of All Time List in 2020, as well as ranked high on NPR’s 10 Greatest Folk and Americana Albums of 2013. With utterly honest songs like “Elephant,” “Traveling Alone,” and “Super 8,” Southeastern features several of Isbell’s best songs to date. It’s no wonder the 10th-anniversary Deluxe released in 2023 was just as beloved as the original. My personal favorite on this record is “Songs She Sang in The Shower,” but every song is simply stunning. Just read what NPR critics Linda Fahey and Kim Ruehl had to say about the album in 2013:
“The songs on this disc are honest and painful, raw and revelatory, cathartic and compassionate, often all at once. The ones that don't shake your soul will rock you hard.”
As a native of the Southeast and unabashed lover of the Drive-By Truckers, for me, this record takes the damn cake.
The Ash & Clay— This album is a personal favorite of mine, even beyond all talk of prestige and genre. It was the soundtrack to my early twenties and features heavily on all of my playlists. The Milk Carton Kids are truly an underrated singer-songwriter duo and should be held in the same regard as Simon & Garfunkel (seriously). I saw them live at Baby’s All Right in 2023 and can safely say it was the most therapeutic concert experience ever. (Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan are a comedic duo in their own right.)
While only their second studio album under the moniker, The Milk Carton Kids, The Ash & Clay features several of the group’s most iconic songs, including “Snake Eyes” and “Memphis.” This album earned many of the same accolades as several others on this list, including a coveted place on the NPR 2013 Folk & Americana Top 10 List. It speaks to the duo’s singular cut across the Folk and Americana landscape in the 2010s and why they continue to endure today.
“With harmonies so dangerously close they almost sound like one voice harmonizing with itself, The Milk Carton Kids released this bittersweet collection of social commentary and love songs.”
Stand-out Tracks: My personal favorite song on this record is “Years Gone By.” Its haunting lyrics and flawless harmonies, both characteristic of the duo and their entire discography, speak to me in a way few other love songs do. I cry every single time I listen to it. Warning: you probably will too.
Let’s Be Still— I would be remiss not to mention The Head and The Heart in an essay about folk music in the early 2010s. While I’m still partial to their self-titled debut album from 2011, Let’s Be Still has its own unique charm. Does it possess every single “cringe” element of that 2010s “Genericana” genre? Yup. Is it a bit derivative when you consider the earlier success of their contemporaries (Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, Fleet Foxes, The Avett Brothers, etc.)? Eh, a little.
Yet, I can’t hate it! When I listen to this album, I am immediately thrown back in time to a distinct moment in my life. I was a teenager on the edge of young adulthood, staring out over the canyon before me: terrified, ecstatic, and well—a little shaky. In fact, I so strongly associate my adolescence with this genre that I find myself unable to cut ties with it completely. I fear that, in pursuit of whatever constitutes my mid-life crisis, I will be blasting these artists from whatever music listening technology we have by then, screaming about how good we had it in *checks notes* 2013. Anyway, Will Hermes only gave this album 3 stars out of 5, so, if not one of the best albums of 2013, it’s certainly a favorite of mine.
Stand-out Tracks: “Shake” & “Gone”
Build Me Up From Bones— I’ve only followed Sarah Jarosz since 2016, so this album was a recent discovery for me during a particularly late night deep dive into her early discography. Not only was Build Me Up From Bones nominated for Best Folk Album of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammys (Guy Clark’s My Favorite Picture of You, another great album on this list, actually won), it was also included on NPR’s 10 Ten Folk & Americana Albums List. Are you sensing a pattern, here? ;)
Build Me Up From Bones is a masterclass in musicianship and storytelling. It keeps its roots in traditional bluegrass but doesn’t lose a shred of its originality or freshness. It also perfectly showcases those carefully curated partnerships between Sarah Jarosz and her long-time collaborators, including producer and audio engineer, Gary Paczosa, bandmates Alex Hargreaves and Nathaniel Smith, and fellow bluegrass musician and performer, Aoife O'Donovan. Could you ask for a better portrait of emerging bluegrass music in the 2010s? I think not.
Stand-out Tracks: “Fuel The Fire” is a furious, harmonious tune characteristic of traditional bluegrass. Her rendition of “Simple Twist of Fate” is also one of the better, stripped down covers I’ve come across of this Bob Dylan classic.
Fare Thee Well!
There are too many amazing albums from this era to cover here, but 2013 really was a great year for folk music and all things singer-songwriter & Americana. For more recommendations, please check out the rest of my playlist here (Still using Spotify to share stuff, sorry):
Thanks for reading, and if you have any recommendations, thoughts, or queries, send ‘em my way! I’d love to hear from you!
‘Till next time!
As a final little treat, here are The Milk Carton Kids and Sarah Jarosz singing “Years Gone By” together at Austin City Limits back in November of 2013. The harmonies are literally out of this world.