2017 is pretty much done and dusted and it’s been another great year for Australian and New Zealand releases under the broad banner of Americana music. Our favourite album (and an EP) list takes in ethereal and eccentric folk music, raw alt-country, covers, spoken word and melancholic power pop – highlighting the range in style, age and gender across the local scenes.

If you recognise local talent, please support them by attending shows, buying music and merchandise and recommending them to friends. That’s how a scene survives and grows.

1. Aldous Harding – Party

2. Jep and Dep – They’veBeenCalled

3. Suicide Swans – Augusta

4. Fallon Cush – Morning

5. The Singing Skies – Head In The Trees, Heart On The Ground

 

6. Lo Carmen – Lovers Dreamers Fighters

 

7. Gretta Ziller – Queen of Boomtown

 

8. Nadia Reid – Preservation

 

9. Brooke Russell & The Mean Reds – The Way You Leave

 

10. Dan Brodie – Lost Not Found 

 

11. The Morrisons – The Morrisons

12. Hana & Jessie-Lee – Southlands

13. Fanny Lumsden – Real Class Act

14. Dusty Ravens – Low Down Jimmy

15. Freya Josephine Hollick – Don’t Mess With The Doyenne EP

16. Adam Gibson & the Ark-Ark Birds – Cities Of Spinifex

17. Jed Rowe – A Foreign Country

18. Justin Bernasconi – Barefoot Wonderland

19. Archer – The Divine Church Of The Open Sky, Volume II

20. Raised By Eagles – I Must Be Somewhere