Also this issue:

The Top 20 rock/pop/hip-hop CDs of 2002
Rounding out the Top 50...
-Sam Adams, A.D. Amorosi, Nate Chinen, Juliet Fletcher, Brian Howard, Maura Johnston, Hamida Kinge, Andrew Parks, Nicole Pensiero, Patrick Rapa and John Vettese

Top 10 Jazz 2002
-Nate Chinen

Top 10 Classical 2002
-Peter Burwasser

DJ Nights
-Sean O'Neal

Beat Box
-Ainè Ardron-Doley

January 2- 8, 2003

music

Best (Underrated) Roots 2002

Ghost Train

by Mary Armstrong

This jaw-dropping western-swing virtuoso trio has moved on from sets full of standards played with astonishing technique. On Ghost Train, the technique is intact, but the tunes are almost all originals in the authentic swing style, dance tunes that listeners enjoy just as much.

The back cover shows Carthy with piercings and gunmetal blue lipstick, but her sound is more familiar to the acoustic roots genre -- especially so to those who know her family's work. The distinctive Waterson timbre she inherited from her mother's side is perfect for this collection, which she declares is her definition of Englishness.

Galicia, on the northwest edge of Spain, is perhaps the least known of the seven Celtic nations. Seivane is a leader of the renaissance that Galician culture has enjoyed since Franco died (and took the Castillian-only prohibitions with him). Her piping is magnificent, but it is only part of the story. She loves the culture so much that she includes one strictly a capella, traditional song in honor of Galician women, the culture's keepers in hard times. She also includes two dances played by her grandfather, who built her pipes and taught her to play them. The music is joyful, old and new, rooted but refined; witness the rumba for bagpipe and small orchestra, Rumba para Susi.

The International Bluegrass Music Association's 2001 Bluegrass Fiddler of the Year sticks to tradition, with force and style. No innovations, simply superb playing and singing on familiar tunes.

McCutcheon is one of the best populist songwriters working today; see the title tune, and his humorous When I Grow Up. He believes in activism, exhorting powerfully, with the wrath of God in his voice when he reminds folks, Not in My Name.

Live recordings from 1962-63, of the man who went on to influence every acoustic guitar picker in the country. At the time, he was making his tentative entry into solo performing of songs he'd grown up with and thought no one wanted to hear anymore. Remarkable sound quality, vital performances and notes from Peter Siegel that define the era, trace the tunes and tell the background tales. Yes, Watson has recorded some of these tunes numerous times, but the Greenbrier Boys' presence makes this a landmark.

Honored this year as a National Heritage Fellow, Mingo Saldivar could only come from Texas. He plays a sincerely conjunto style of accordion, but mixes in his Spanish versions of Johnny Cash songs and other country hits like Blue Moon of Kentucky. San Antonio, Mingo's hometown, is the world conjunto capital, and he is one of its best loved performers.

Can a sampler be a best-of? When it gives a low-priced intro to some outrageous bands, you bet. Label-founders Boiled in Lead offer Celtoid rock from the heartland. John Kirkpatrick Band has the same attitude towards old English tunes; ditto for Oysterband. Our own Sviraj adds a juicy Balkan track. 3 Mustaphas 3, The Ukrainians, and Garmarna (of Sweden) all are part of the label's 10th annual celebration of world music that rocks.

Davis is a perpetual amazement, most notably for his gritty, natural acoustic-bluesman skills. He also has the all the natural polish that comes with being the child of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. His originals range across a variety of country-blues styles, yet are at home in each.

Horan is the fiddling heart of Irish supergroup Solas, some of whom join her for this mostly instrumental CD. The very first reel sets the tone, kicking off with distinctly non-Irish percussion, leading to old-but-new fiddling. Horan composed most of these tunes which bring a world music catholicism to Irish traditional styles, a bit of tango implied here, Africa there, exquisitely played.